Stan

I got a bad feeling when I got off the phone with Eve. I had hoped that she would be ready to come back. I knew that I shouldn’t worry about it. I had done my part after all, but I wanted to see her again. It was a professional call that I had just made. No, I wasn’t checking on a client. I was checking on her and the difference was not wasted on me.

She was stubborn though, just like Carl said she was. I wanted to call him now, right now and make him go back and get her. She’d told me that he had left that evening, so she was there alone again. I hated how badly that made me feel. Eve shouldn’t be alone there or anywhere. I had a feeling that she could take care of herself, but that wasn’t enough.

Work was going as it always did and the rush of going back there after only a few days off was astounding. I didn’t realize how much I hated my job until now. It was the last thing that I wanted to do and the more I tried to ignore the new dissatisfaction that I was feeling with it, the worse it got.

I hadn’t even been back a day and I was already wanting an excuse to leave again. Was it that I hated my job suddenly after all this time or was it that I just wanted to see Eve, whatever the reason was?

Since I had never felt this way about a woman before, it was hard to imagine that it was the cause. I knew that I was going to have to get it together though. She was Carl’s sister and it appeared that she had no intention on making it easy for us to see each other. Eve wasn’t worried about me as much as I was worried about her it appeared.

I pushed the damn woman out of my mind and tried to get back to work. It was all cases that bored me to tears and I took an early lunch. I wasn’t going anywhere in particular, but I somehow found myself at an old haunt that I used to go to. I wasn’t there for the beer or the burgers though. They were good, but not what I was craving. I was craving a way to forget about Eve and I thought I would find that in the arms of an old lover.

Debbie had always been generous and open to doing what I wanted mostly any time. She was just the girl that I was looking for because she was a little aggressive about it like Eve was. I wanted to forget about her, but it didn’t seem possible. Now I just wanted a substitute so that I could get this raging need out of me that never seemed to lessen.

***

Carl was on the phone and the assistant was telling me what line, so I could pick it up.

It had been a week since I’d been back, and things were about as close to normal as they were going to get. I was still thinking about Eve too much, but Tasha had taken care of the immediate needs that I had. It was impossible for me to get the full satisfaction that I had before, but it was enough for now, until Eve was back in the same country as me.

“What’s up Carl?”

“Hey man, what’s going on?”

Like before I knew that he was calling for a reason and I asked him again what it was that was going on. I hoped that it wasn’t about Eve, but it was. How could it not be? She was most likely still there, and she had most likely been arrested again.

“It’s Eve. I was wondering if you have heard from her at all. She’s been calling me everyday and now I haven’t heard from her in almost three. She said that she had talked to you a couple of times and that you were giving her advice.”

“No, I talked to her once a week ago and I tried to tell her to come back. They refused to lengthen her stay and give her a short-term Visa. They wanted her out.”

“She told me otherwise when I asked about it. Eve said that she had everything taken control of.”

“Yeah, I bet. She’s most likely trying to get you to leave her alone and stop asking her to come home. I’ve never met such a stubborn woman in all of my life.”

He chuckled even though he was worried about her. “Eve is one of a kind. So, you haven’t heard anything from her in a week?”

I told him that I hadn’t. I was busy, but this was someone that I wanted to talk to. I wanted to know what was going on with her. I didn’t tell Carl that I’d tried to call her a couple of times and she hadn’t answered. I’d figured that she didn’t want to hear my comments of her staying around against the government’s wishes. I didn’t think it was a good idea and I was very vocal about that.

“I’ll check into it and get back to you, okay?”

He agreed, but I could tell that he wasn’t very happy about it. He’d hoped that I knew what was going on. Eve was becoming a thorn in my side and now I knew that I should have pushed more for the other one. I could have possibly gotten them both out of it, but when they offered for Eve to leave, I jumped on it. I was trying to get it done. I didn’t want to chance them changing their mind and suddenly they would both get locked up again.

When I got off the phone with Carl, I felt bad that it had worked out this way. I knew who I had to call and hoped while I was wrong, even when I knew that I wasn’t.

The Cambodian lawyer Sal that I’d used before picked up after the first ring. I wished I had the translator because though he spoke English, it was still hard to understand him. Gestures and facial expressions helped in the past.

“Are you calling about the Americans?”

He said it plurally and I hoped that it meant from before, not that Eve was back in jail.

“I’m looking for Eve, the little brunette. Her brother called worried because no one has been able to get ahold of her. Have you heard anything about her leaving or getting arrested?”

I knew the answer, so I tried to brace myself for the inevitable, but it didn’t help the feeling when he told me that he hadn’t heard a thing. I asked him to check on it or me and Sal said that he would get back to me. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew that I was going to have to find myself back down there soon. I told her that I would help her, so I had to wonder why Eve didn’t call me.

I waited for Sal and he told me that he checked with the local jail where Callie was and that there was no new Americans there. He didn’t hear of anything else and when I tried to get more information, I was hitting a road block. It was almost impossible to get anything done here. I know that I was supposed to be working, but my mind was back on Eve.

I called Carl back and told him that I hadn’t heard much, just that she wasn’t in jail.

“Well that’s a good thing, right?”

It was a good thing in one way, but bad in another. If she wasn’t locked back up, I had to wonder where she was then. A million bad things could have happened to her and no one would really know about it because of how far away she was. I was kicking myself again for not staying a little longer and seeing it all through. I’d wanted to, but my duty here had pulled me back too soon.

“So, what should I do? Should I go back to Cambodia and try to find her? My damn sister is a pain in my ass. Why couldn’t she just come home?”

I was thinking the same thing, but we both knew why so it was really a rhetorical question. I knew that we wouldn’t have been able to change her mind. Even Carl had realized that from the get go, so it was safe to say that not much could have been done. I didn’t know if anything could be done now.

“No, I don’t think that’s going to help. I should have gotten Callie out at the same time. They offered to let Eve go and I just went with. She was my priority.”

“You did what I asked of you. I can’t thank you enough Stan. This isn’t your fault. You know how women are.”

I had to agree, and I was waiting for him to ask me to go and save her again. I didn’t want to offer because he didn’t need to know how much she meant to me or what had happened between us.

“I just wish I would have done more. Its not a safe place for a woman like her to be all alone. I know that she thinks she can take care of herself, but it’s dangerous.”

“What do you mean, like her?”

Alarm bells were going off, but the answer was out before I could really filter it.

“You know that your sister is beautiful Carl. It’s not like its not noticeable. Everywhere we went there, people couldn’t stop looking at her and that was with me and Callie with her. I don’t know what will happen when she is by herself.”

“I didn’t know that. Do you really think she is pretty?”

He was clueless to what his sister looked like and how people reacted to her because it was his sister. But I didn’t have that kind of hold back. I saw what was clearly right in front of me. I knew what men saw when they looked at her because it was the same thing that I saw as well. I was not immune to her in any sense of the word.

“Yes Carl, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but your sister is hot.”

Carl didn’t want to hear it and he told me so. I knew that I wouldn’t want to if I had a sister. Thank God that I didn’t.

“So, what should I do Stan?”

“You need to get her to get her ass back to the states.”

“I don’t know if I can go back there right now. I didn’t sleep for days after that plane ride.”

He was hinting around and that was enough for me to offer to go.

“I couldn’t ask that of you Stan. You’ve done too much as it is. Aren’t you busy as hell there?”

I was busy. I was always busy, but that was a problem for me. If I knew that Eve was MIA, I wasn’t going to be able to focus on what I needed to. Hell, just thinking about her in general made it hard to pay attention. Before I was the one that caught all the small details that would change a case. I was good at that, but now all I could think about Eve. She’d done something to my damn head. Debbie couldn’t even wipe it clean. She’d just became strange substitute that never really scratched the itch like I wanted.

“It’s no big deal Carl. I like to travel anyways, so it just gives me an excuse to get out of here for a while. It gets old, the same thing all the time.”

He thanked me and again I told him that it was no problem. I was looking forward to the trip for more than one reason. I got to see Eve again. The worry was out of my head because I knew that soon I would get to see her and have her in my arms once more.