Backdraft…

She slept like an angel and it gave me a funny feeling, watching her do it in my bed. I loved that she was here. I loved that she hadn’t judged when she’d walked into the disaster that was my place. I’d gotten it dirt cheap as a foreclosure; I'd envisioned Torrid and I refurbishing and building it to our liking, but boy, had I misjudged that one. She’d been pissed. Too diva to even consider getting her hands dirty. I sighed, a heavy thing, and thought to myself, But you thought you loooved her! I hadn’t known the meaning of the word until my eyes had met Lil’s stormy ones.

I’d gotten her laundry out of the dryer, had folded it neatly, and put it on the dented metal folding chair I’d brought up from downstairs. She’d slept like the dead. So tired, mentally and emotionally, and who the fuck could blame her? People had gone fucking crazy over Torrid’s bullshit and I couldn’t say I was surprised. The bitch was first-class at one thing and one thing only: crazy-making.

I stared at Lil, sleeping peacefully, the weak sunlight from the overcast day filtering through the water-spotted bedroom window and falling across her face in neat lines from the blinds. I’d promised her last night that I was going to fix this shit and I meant it. She’d rejected the notion, sure, trying to keep me safe and take all the hits, but, fuck that. What kind of man would that make me, hiding behind my woman? I shook my head and bowed it, gripping the back of my neck and trying to rub out the tension in it.

The short answer to the question was Not much of one and I wasn’t about to go down that road. I left a folded note on the vacant pillow and took myself quietly back downstairs and out the front door. The paparazzi motherfuckers were across the street, shouting their questions at me. I gave them the finger and got on my bike, sticking the key in the ignition and giving it a twist, thumbing the ignition switch.

She started up like a dream and I smiled, flashing back to last night and the same thumb on Lil’s clit as she rode me in my bed and how it’d elicited the very same reaction. Which did I like better? The curves of her body or the curves on my bike? It was a tough call, which told me this was true love. The fact I would even have a hard time between the two told me that what was up with Lil was the real fuckin’ deal. I laughed at myself and carefully pulled out onto the street.

I took myself across the city to a different station house than mine and parked off to the side, out front. I would only be a few minutes. When I went inside, I was met at the door by some of the guys, one of them saying, “Look, man, we all know you got a beef, and with good reason, but not in the house, okay?”

I put up my hands in surrender and smiled a crooked ‘suck my dick’ sort of grin and said, “I’m here to make peace, not war, guys. Ackley on shift?”

“No, you just missed him. It’s his day off.”

“Could you call him up for me? It’s important.”

They exchanged a look and one of them shrugged, asking, “Where you want to have him meet ya?”

Good question. I thought about it a second and said, “Neutral ground, the 10-13?”

“Not sure that’d be classified as ‘neutral’, bro.”

“Fine, fine,” I grumbled. Fair enough, though. “How about the coffee house across from the courthouse?”

“We’ll tell him. When?”

“Now,” I said. “I’m headed that way.”

The guys nodded and one asked, “What’s the deal?”

I laid it out for them and they exchanged a look and nodded, indicating they’d let him off the hook if he went through with it. That’s what I wanted. He and I would probably never be good, but this would definitely make things better.

I went to the coffee place Aly worked at and found a table. She looked up from behind the counter and I remembered, it was Friday, so of course, she’d be here. I sighed when her shoulders dropped and empathy flickered across her face. She knew Torrid, and she knew it was all a load of bullshit. She came around and gave me a hug, leaning back to look me over.

“How is she?” she asked and I smiled.

“Sleeping.”

She raised her eyebrows and jerked her head over to a free table by the window. I sat and she sat across from me.

“So what are you doing here, instead of there?” she asked gently.

“Tryin’ to fix this shit, once and for all.”

“How?” she asked, her brow wrinkling.

“We’ll see. He’s should be coming any minute,” I said, eyeing the text that’d just come through from the guys in his house.

“Two coffees?” she asked.

“Yes, please.”

“I’m glad she’s got you,” Aly said. “If you’ve ever read her books or any of her blog posts, you’d know she’s led a pretty lonely life.”

“I actually have read a couple of her books, but thanks for the pro-tip about her blogs and that. Of course, I think we’re in a place now that I could just ask.” I gave Aly a wink, and she blushed to the roots of her dyed blonde hair.

“We can’t all be so lucky,” she muttered and I laughed.

“Better get used to her being around, number-one-fangirl,” I called after her she rolled her eyes.

“Please, I’m number-two-fangirl. Over half of what I know about her I learned from Dawnie. She has cyber-fangirl-stalking down to an art form.”

I laughed and looked at my hands which I had folded on the tiny round table top. I actually wished I’d had one of her books to read right now while I waited. It was like I could hear her when I read her words and it’d been a nice way of having Lil with me even when I couldn’t be with her.

Aly set down two coffees in front of me just as the door popped open against the bell dangling above it and Ackley stepped through. He kind of froze up at the icy look of contempt on my face, but I had to give the man props. He didn’t tuck tail and run. Instead, he pulled out the chair across from me and sat down.

“So what’s the deal?” he asked, without preamble.

Oh yeah, he’d give just about anything to get back in the department’s good graces.

“You go on TV with me and tell the fuckin’ truth.”

He stopped, his eyes gone wide and said, “You’re shitting me, right?”

“Either that, or you can always be watching your back by your damn self.”

“Fuck me,” he muttered and bowed his head and shook it. He thought about it and looked back up at me, skeptical-like.

“You’re serious?”

“As a heart attack.”

“I never in a million years thought that bitch was that crazy, man.”

“Well, you know what they say,” I said, with a blasé shrug that I totally didn’t feel.

“Don’t stick your dick in crazy?” he asked, squirming in his seat.

“Or, you know, one of your bro’s women, but yeah. That would be the one.”

“What’s your excuse, then?” he asked, trying to lighten the mood. I gave him a flat, cold look and he put up his hands in surrender.

“Okay, okay… How long is the offer good for?”

“Ten more seconds,” I said, giving no quarter.

“And if I do this, we’re good?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘good’,” I said. “But yeah, we’re as close to it as we’re gonna be, which is a hell of a lot better than where we’re at right now.”

He nodded slowly in that way that said he was still half-thinking and yet was halfway on the hook. I jerked on the pole and started reeling.

“Two more seconds.”

“All right, all right, I’m in. When and where?”

“Gimme your number, and you better not call her or screw me on this.”

“Call her? Hell, motherfucking no! She’s batshit fucking crazy with this shit.”

“Who you tellin’? Gimme your number.”

He gave it to me and looked down at the cup of coffee asking, “Is this for me?” I gave a curt nod and he sighed. “This new girl of yours, the author, she doing okay?”

“That’s really none of your business,” I said and he nodded, picking up his cup and sipping. My anger was quickly cooling, but he didn’t need to know that.

“What Torrid did, that wasn’t right,” he said. “Is any of the rest of it true, though? About her and that other guy?”

I told him and his eyebrows went up. He shook his head in disbelief. “Shit,” he said and sighed. “Sounds like Tori and this Mark guy are cut from the same cloth and totally made for each other.”

I barked a bitter laugh and said, “Wouldn’t that be some fuckin’ Karma?”

Ackley smiled and nodded, “Yeah, it sure would.”

We finished our coffee in silence, but the peace accord had been made. He still needed to follow through, though, before I put the word out over the wire to the rest of the guys. I wasn’t born last night and I didn’t trust him or anyone attached to Torrid as far as I could throw them.

Phase one complete. I thought. Now for phase two.