Chapter 9
Violet ignored the trembling in her knees as she peered into the dimly lit bar, not sure if she wanted Creek to be there or if she wanted to postpone this conversation. But she fought her cowardly inclinations, needing to understand what was going on. The previous week had seemed so perfect, so wonderful and filled with laughter and love. Then, five days ago, he’d just stopped calling. She was so hurt and trying to pretend like she wasn’t, but it was no use. She didn’t understand why he’d stopped calling her or even what she’d done to hurt his feelings to the point that he would end what they’d had together so abruptly.
All the other men she’d dated in the past, and granted, there weren’t that many of them, had at least talked to her before dumping her. Or she’d known that it wasn’t working out and she had agreed with them, even remaining friends with most of them.
This was unprecedented, but she suspected that it was all part of the dating world. Obviously a life experience that she didn’t completely grasp since she was standing in an empty bar, looking for a man who apparently didn’t want to speak to her.
As she stood there in the doorway, she considered just walking back out and going home. She had a business to run, she had things to do and responsibilities to people in her life. She didn’t need this kind of complication. She didn’t need a man who didn’t want her. She could get along quite nicely without him.
And that was a total lie.
For the past week, she’d worked, but she hadn’t really been living. She hadn’t wanted to laugh or eat, had trouble sleeping because she’d gotten used to Creek’s heartbeat under her ear, and his strong arms wrapped around her, making her feel loved and safe.
Without any word, he’d ripped that away from her. She needed to understand. She needed to hear from Creek why she’d fallen out of favor with him. Had another woman entered his life? Was she more beautiful? Maybe it was a past lover? Maybe he had…
Violet stopped her mind in mid-question, not wanting to try and figure out what she’d done so horribly wrong. She needed to just talk to him. Five minutes, and she’d be out of his life.
“Can I help you?” a deep voice said from the bar.
Violet glanced over and her heart stopped for a moment, thinking that Creek was there. But as she moved into the light, she realized that it was only the man’s height and his broad shoulders, both extreme like Creek, but it wasn’t the same man. This one was handsome, but not like her man, not like Creek with his teasing eyes and his subtly quirking lips.
“Um…I’m looking for Creek Jones. Is he working tonight?” She saw the strange look come into the man’s eyes when she asked that question, as if it were almost funny, but she had no idea why it would be an amusing question.
“Creek’s not here. But I can give him a message if you’d like.”
Violet stuffed her hands into her pockets. “Do you know what time his shift starts? I’d really like to talk to him personally, if that wouldn’t be too rude.”
The man’s hands stilled from shifting bottles around behind the bar and braced themselves wide on the top of the bar, looking at her as if he could see into her mind. She blushed at the man’s perceptive gaze, grateful for the dim lighting that hid her reaction. Realizing that she was almost cowering, she straightened her shoulders and pulled herself upright. She was a businesswoman with a good head on her shoulders. She didn’t cower for anyone, she told herself silently.
“You’re Violet, aren’t you?”
Violet jumped when he said her name, shocked that he would know of her. “How do you know my name?” she asked, worried now. Had Creek bragged to his friends about his conquest? Had they sat in this bar after closing time and laughed at how easy she was to get into bed?
No! Creek wouldn’t do that! He wasn’t that kind of a man.
Of course, she’d also thought that they’d shared something special, something that was stronger than just a fling. She’d thought that it meant something when he made love to her. Five days ago, she would have sworn that he wouldn’t just dump her out of his life without a word or an explanation.
She’d been wrong about him already. Perhaps she was wrong about him again.
“That depends,” she replied, her chin jutting out with increasing anger. “What did Creek say about Violet?”
Tucker grinned, enjoying her spurt of anger. “Actually, he wouldn’t tell us anything about you,” he said, understanding that she was the woman who had been getting under his friend’s skin lately. “He let it slip that he was seeing a woman named Violet one night, and we didn’t see him for a while. Since you’re her and he’s a damn grouch, then I’m guessing that something happened between the two of you.”
Violet’s blue eyes shuttered with those words. Because she was wondering the same thing. Had something happened between the two of them? Had she hurt his feelings in some way? Offended him perhaps? Everything had seemed so wonderful. She couldn’t remember a time in her life when she’d been happier.
So why had Creek broken off all communication with her? Why had he simply stopped calling her? Stopped coming over?
Violet realized that the man was waiting to hear details, but she shook her head. “My relationship with your friend is personal,” she told him, irritated that he wasn’t giving her the information that she needed. “Look, is he here or not?”
“Not,” Tucker said and set a glass down on the countertop. “But I’m guessing he’ll be here soon. How about a drink while you wait?” He didn’t slow down, but started mixing up various liquids in a shaker.
Violet looked back at the door, wishing that Creek would step into the bar right now so she could find out what she’d done wrong or if…well, whatever had happened!
She shook her head and sighed, wondering if she’d ever figure Creek out. “I don’t have time for a drink,” she told him, but the dratted man just continued mixing things, adding ice then shaking the metal container over his shoulder. He then pulled a chilled martini glass out of some place and poured the liquid in.
Violet didn’t want the drink, but she didn’t want to be rude either. So she took a sip of the liquid just to be polite.
“Not too bad,” she said, and pushed the drink back an inch, not intending to drink anymore.
“So why do you want to see Creek? What’s he done? Are you pregnant?”
She gasped and leaned back, horrified that the man would even make that kind of assumption. “No! Why would you ask something like that? Do women often come in here trying to get child support from him?” That hurt! The idea that Creek had done this to other women should be comforting, but it wasn’t. A deep, stabbing pain hit her in the vicinity of her chest and she ached with sadness. Yes, she would love to have a baby with Creek. And yes, her mind had been thinking along the lines of flowers and candles, of long, white dresses, and years with a man that made her body shiver with excitement and made her heart warm with laughter.
So it hurt more than she thought possible when this tall, handsome man suggested the idea so easily, because it indicated that she wasn’t the first woman to come stalking Creek in this place.
She took another sip of the green liquid, scowling now. “Is the man such a hound dog that women have to hunt him down?”
Tucker leaned over the counter, finding the woman cute in a cuddly sort of way. “Never happened before. But I was suspecting you were the exception.”
Another sip and she glared up at the man. “Why would I be the exception?”
One of those huge shoulders moved up and down. “You’ve pretty much been the exception to everything else in the man’s life. Why stop now?”
She wasn’t sure if that comment was positive or negative. And there was no way to tell from the man’s eyes. He was good at keeping his thoughts secret. “How do you do that?” she asked, sipping the martini again. “And what is this? It’s delicious.”
“An appletini and what did I do?”
She was feeling warm and comfy right at the moment, and more than willing to sit here until Creek arrived so that she could demand answers. And then she was going to….stomp on his foot and walk out the door!
“Your face. It doesn’t move. How do you do that? Because I’d really like to learn that trick. I’d like to face off with Creek, demand answers, and not show any emotion at all.”
“What kind of answers do you need from Creek?”
She scowled down at her drink, then up at the man, wondering why she’d even said something like that.
“It’s none of your damn business,” Creek’s voice said from the doorway. “Don’t you have some stupid stocks to sell?” he snapped, taking Violet’s arm in a strong grip.
Violet had to almost jump off of the stool in order to follow Creek but she pulled back, grabbing the martini glass and whatever delicious concoction was in it. Appletini, she thought as she took another sip while following behind Creek to a corner table. She was definitely going to have to learn how to make these. Maybe she’d make a whole pitcher of them tonight so she couldn’t really think about whatever Creek was going to tell her now. Or not tell her. Or maybe he’d tell her something but she wouldn’t want to remember it.
Yeah, that was probably what she’d need, she thought as she sat down in the chair and took another long sip.
“Slow down, Violet,” Creek grumbled. “Those are a bit more potent than you might realize.”
She ignored him, and glared over the rim of her glass as she took one more sip. “You haven’t spoken to me in a week, no calls, no texts, nothing. So I’m guessing that’s your way of breaking up with me. If that’s the case, well, then you’re an absolute jerk and I hate you, but that also means that you don’t have the right to order me around in any way. So I’m gonna drink whatever I like, at whatever speed I want to drink it. And if you have any objections to that, well, then, good! Because if you’ve broken up with me, then you don’t have the right to tell me what to drink or what to do!”
“And I did before?” he asked, interested despite his resolution that he couldn’t have anything more to do with Violet. His moral code just couldn’t sustain a relationship based on cold, hard cash.
She shrugged, and sipped more of the delicious drink. “You might have had some rights.” She set the liquid courage down on the table, and leaned forward on her elbows. She tried to be tough and strong, she wanted to look like a woman in charge. But as soon as she looked across the table at him, really looked at all of him, at the man she loved so deeply, and all of the places on his body that she’d touched and caressed…the pain was too strong. Not even the sweet drink could ease the pain of that loss. “Okay, so tell me what I did wrong? Was I bad in bed? Was I too annoying? Did I snore?”
He almost laughed at all of those questions. They were so ridiculous, he couldn’t believe she was even asking him. “None of the above,” he replied, leaning back in the chair. His eyes were devouring her even though he knew he could no longer do that with anything other than his eyes.
“So you’re just a jerk? You decided I wasn’t worth your time anymore?” She took another long sip of the drink, almost emptying the glass this time. “Forget I asked,” she told him and stood up. “Obviously, I’m not even worthy of an explanation in your eyes. I don’t know why I came here today. Please forgive me for invading your workplace. And if your boss is around, I’ll explain.” She grabbed her purse and her keys as she made to walk away.
Unfortunately, while drinking that concoction, she’d felt all warm and fuzzy, brave and confident, but as soon as she stood up, she realized how strong the drink really was because she could barely see straight. Probably wasn’t a good idea to arrive at a bar in a confrontational mood when she hadn’t eaten anything all day. The alcohol had hit her system faster than she’d thought possible!
“I can’t drive,” she sighed and dropped her keys back into her purse and started heading for the door. “I’ll walk.”
Creek cursed as he shoved his chair back. He was doing his best to not touch her, to not feel the softness of her body, but when she started to sway on her feet, he jumped up to stop her from tipping over.
And what the hell did she mean? Appleton was a thirty minute drive from here and it was raining outside. She’d be drenched within five minutes. Nor was she wearing shoes that were appropriate for a long walk. Hell, he wouldn’t let her walk that long stretch of lonely, isolated highway alone anyway. Not even during the daytime! “You can’t walk home, Violet,” he grumbled and stood up behind her. “I’ll drive you home.”
“No. Thank you very much. As far as we’re concerned, we’re strangers who passed in the night. Thank you for a wonderful introduction into the world of sex and…” her voice broke on that word but she shook her head, forcing herself to continue, “of sex and rejection. It is a lesson I won’t forget. You’re an excellent teacher. In all things.” And with that, she walked towards the door, thankful that the bar was mostly empty right now. There was only the bartender, Creek and another woman who was working on a laptop in the corner, not paying any attention to the other occupants.
“Violet, wait! It is too cold for you to walk home. Just let me…”
She waved her hand in the air, dismissing him.
He wasn’t taking that. He was still furious with her for being the kind of woman who would take money in exchange for sex. Amazing sex! Incredible sex! Better sex than he’d ever had in his life!
“Aw, hell,” he mumbled and grabbed her arm, spinning her around. “I won’t pay for it any longer, Violet. I just can’t.”
She looked up at him, confused. The green liquor swirling in her system wasn’t helping any longer. His words were going round and round in her head and she didn’t like the answer that came to her mind. Surely she’d misunderstood him because, he was implying that…
“You paid for what?” she asked, trying to clarify his words. Why was everything looking so fuzzy right now? She really hated being drunk, and she really needed some food.
Creek sighed and looked around, thinking he should have had this conversation with her earlier, in private. But here she was, and she’d chosen her career, she might as well be open about it. If she was going to…he couldn’t even think the word when she was standing in front of him like this. She just looked too sweet, too perfect and was the most tempting woman he’d ever encountered.
And despite everything he knew about her, he still wanted her. He wanted to lift her up into his arms and take her to his home, show her that she didn’t need to….
Aw hell!
Running a hand over his face, he shook his head. “I won’t pay for our time together any longer, Violet. I can’t. It doesn’t feel right.” He sighed and ran a hand over the scruff on his jaw, realizing for the first time that he hadn’t shaved again today.
It suddenly occurred to him that he could help her out. He could….
Violet put a hand to the side of her head, trying to focus on his words. But they didn’t make any sense! He couldn’t “pay for it” any longer? Pay for what? Pay for…? “Excuse me, but are you saying you think that I’m a prostitute, and you’ve been paying to have sex with me?” she asked, disgusted and horrified in ways she hadn’t even considered possible before this moment.
Creek looked down at her, hearing the anger in her voice, but not understanding why she would be upset about him confronting her and explaining why he couldn’t see her any longer.
“You’re beautiful, Violet. But I just can’t…”
The slap across his face was harder than he would have thought her slender arms were capable of delivering. The hit jerked his face sideways and he absorbed the anger for a long moment while he came to the realization that she’d just hit him. When he slowly turned his head back to look down at her, he was furious.
But he didn’t have a chance to release his fury. She was poking him in the chest with her finger, her blue eyes on fire with the anger that was emanating out of her like a dragon breathes fire.
Violet was shaking with the realization of what he thought of her, what he thought she was capable of. She was somewhat horrified at the fact that she’d just slapped a person, but the hurt over his words, words that he seemed to believe, were overriding all of her guilt over physical violence.
“Don’t you ever say anything like that to me again! Ever! And don’t you go around spreading lies like that.” She was shaking so hard, she thought she might just fall down. And then the tears started, and she couldn’t believe that he not only thought those vile things about her, but that she was going to show weakness in front of him. “I thought what we’d shared together was special,” she told him, her voice rising with her fury. “I thought our time together meant something. And now I’m finding out that you thought that I’m a…that you think other men…” she couldn’t finish for a moment while she swallowed down the bile that threatened. “I’ve never been with another man in my life besides you! And I’ve never asked any man to pay to have sex with me, including you! Who told you that I’m a prostitute?” She wiped angrily at the tears on her cheeks. “I want the names of the men that said they have paid for me! I will confront every damned one of them and make sure that you’re aware that they never had sex with me, either paid or free, and then I never want to see you again!”
Creek stared down at her, not understanding why she was so angry. “Look Violet, I can understand if you were trying to keep this below the radar. It isn’t exactly legal.”
She poked his chest again. “Names!” she practically yelled.
He threw his hands up into the air. “Fine! Me for one! I’ve paid! And won’t do it again!”
She gasped when he said those words, the pain jabbing down deeper. “I’ve never asked you for money! Never! The only cash that has ever been transferred in my presence was that first night when you paid for the pizza! And I didn’t get any of that money!”
He was disgusted now and he wasn’t going to take her anger. With his hands fisted on his hips, he glared down at her. “Are you seriously going to stand there and pretend that your stepfather hasn’t been pimping you out? He showed up at my house last Friday and demanded payment for the previous nights! I only paid for that first night, and was disgusted with myself. But by the following morning, I thought I’d misunderstood. I thought there was no way you could be doing something like that,” he grated out, so furious now that he couldn’t hide his anger. “But who showed up on my doorstep five days ago, but your pathetic pimp, George, breathing whiskey fumes and telling me that you needed payment for the all the nights we were together.” Creek shook his head. “No way, Violet. I’m not paying. I thought...” he stopped and snapped his mouth shut as he glared at her. He loomed down into her face. “I’m finished paying Violet! I can’t stomach it any longer!”
Violet heard the words but couldn’t believe them. Everything he was saying, each new revelation was like a knife piercing her heart. Anger wasn’t really what she was feeling at the moment, although she wasn’t exactly sure what emotion was choking her at the moment. Everything he was saying, his words and the possibilities…they couldn’t be true! “My stepfather was pimping me out?” she whispered, trying not to show how hurt she was, how much pain was lashing at her at this moment. “You paid him for…” she stumbled as their conversation started to make sense, “you paid him for my services?”
“Yes! He showed up, I wrote the check and he walked away, even giving me directions to your damn house, like he’d done this several times for other men who had shown up. He even cautioned me to treat each night like a real date. Explained this was your specialty and if I wanted something raunchy from another woman, he’d get that for me. But I needed to respect your specialty.”
Violet pulled back as if she might be sick, more hurt than she’d thought possible. “You paid for me,” she repeated. “You bought me. All those nights that I thought were special and amazing,” she said in a small voice, still not sure she could handle the reality of what he was saying, “they were just nights you owned me.” She lifted her blue eyes up to his, unaware of the hurt emanating from her eyes. “How much did you pay him?” she asked.
Creek sighed, running his hand over his face again. He was starting to doubt everything he thought he knew about this woman. From the look in her eyes, he was starting to suspect that he’d messed up. Royally!
“Five thousand,” he told her, needing to see the expression in her eyes, to detect the truth. What he saw made him feel almost sick to his stomach. The hurt and pain reflected in her eyes was unbearable. He wanted to fold her into his arms, tell her that it was okay, that he’d take care of her. But how could he? She probably financed her business with her nighttime efforts.
And then the solution occurred to him. Moving closer, he took her arms, ignoring her efforts to get away from him. “Violet, if you gave up spending your nights with other men, I could help you with your business. You wouldn’t have to sell yourself any longer.” He watched as a tear slipped over her long, dark lashes.
“You paid five thousand dollars to my stepfather for five nights with me,” she whispered, standing stiffly in the warmth of his embrace and not sure what to do, how to react.
Creek hesitated, thinking she should already know the answer. And he was irritated that she was pretending that she didn’t know. “Five thousand per night,” he snapped.
He heard a groan from behind him, as well as from the corner and looked around. Tucker was still changing out the bottles behind the bar, and Tyla was working intently on her computer. But he knew both of them were listening.
“Violet, let’s go somewhere private to discuss this.”
Violet pulled her arm out of his grip and stepped back. “You paid my stepfather twenty-five thousand dollars?” she hissed, still stuck on the money. “To have sex with me?” Her head was spinning. The pain was now gone, replaced by the horror of what he was telling her. He’d paid money to have sex with her? It seemed too crazy for words. “I think I should be flattered.”
“No, I only paid the first time. George came by demanding the other money but I told him to…” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I refused to pay, Violet. I couldn’t do it. I want you. You’re beautiful and special, but…”
There was a snort from behind her, but Violet ignored the sound, still too stunned by these revelations. “Twenty-five thousand dollars.” Her fingers pushed her hair back from her forehead, still reeling. “George demanded twenty-five thousand dollars?”
“Stop saying that!” Creek demanded.
She looked up at him, still trying to understand everything. “But you paid him five thousand! In cash?”
“By check,” he replied. “Look, the money isn’t the issue.” He reached out, trying to touch her again, needing that contact despite all he knew about her.
Violet pulled back, refusing to let him touch her. She couldn’t let him! He’d…he’d paid for her! He thought that she was a prostitute! Everything they’d shared together, it was all sullied, dirty!
“Oh yes it is!” she said, stepping back once again, refusing to let him touch her. “You’re a bartender! You don’t have that kind of money!” Another snort, this time from the bar. Her eyes hardened as she sneered up at him. “Did you even try to negotiate with George? Did you haggle a bit to get the price down?”
“No!”
“You should have! Maybe you could have gotten a better deal for half the night. Or an hour! Maybe an hour would have saved your bank account. I mean, we did sleep during part of the night. Not very long, but there was sleep. You should have calculated the hours that we slept and demanded a refund.”
“Stop it, Violet!” he snapped.
Her blue eyes flared up at him and she backed away another step. “No! You stop it! Stop talking to me! Just go away with all of your offers to save me and help my business.” She leaned in and poked her finger into his chest again. “My business is going extremely well! And I don’t…!” she was about to say that she didn’t need to prostitute herself, but the words simply wouldn’t come out.
She turned towards the door, furious and hurt, and not sure about all the other emotions that were going round in her head at the moment.
He glared at her back, furious that she was leaving and starting to panic at the idea of her being alone on the isolated streets. Not only were there drivers that could hurt her, but the wildlife wasn’t something to be ignored either. “Violet, you can’t drive. I’ll take you home.”
“I’m walking!” she snapped, and let the door close behind her, too angry to care about the cold, or the melting snow that would freeze over tonight, or the man who had hurt her so badly she could barely see straight.
“I’ve got this,” Tyla said and slapped her laptop closed, heading out the door to follow Violet. But she stopped in front of Creek. “You paid for her? For that woman?” She shook her head. “Men! They’re all idiots!” she snapped and walked out, not bothering to glance behind the bar where Tucker was now glaring at her as she left.
“Violet, wait up!” Tyla called out. But the woman just kept walking, hunching into her waterproof, down jacket that might be warm enough for the early evenings here in Alaska, but it wouldn’t help her after nightfall when the temperatures dropped even further.
Tyla jumped into her Jeep and revved up the engine, turning on the heater to full blast. She suspected the woman walking out of the parking lot would need the heat after that conversation. Cold didn’t even start to describe what those two had been discussing. Creek was in deep – deep in trouble and deep in love. Any fool could see that. The man was a cynic when it came to women, almost worse than the other three, one of whom she didn’t ever mention, even in her head. For Creek to have offered to help Violet…that was love.
Rolling down her window, she drove alongside the woman walking with her arms crossed over her chest, trying to keep warm despite the rain and valiantly trying not to cry.
Tyla could understand what the woman was going through, what was flashing through her mind. But that wasn’t a good enough reason to die. “He’s not worth freezing over, Violet,” she said to the woman wearing jeans and high-heeled boots in the icy rain. “He’s a total jerk and a complete idiot. But I’m not one of them. Why not get in and we can talk about it?”
Violet lifted her head to look at the woman, recognizing her vaguely as the one who had been sitting in the corner of The Rotten Apple. “Do I know you?” she asked.
Tyla shook her head. “Not at all. But I know what you’re going through. Tucker, Saeger, Knox, and Creek are friends and so similar that it is annoying. And…” Tyla paused.
“You’re in love with one of them,” she said, guessing the truth even though the woman probably wasn’t going to admit it.
“No way,” Tyla replied with a gamin smile. “I’m not joining that wounded-hearts club. But I know what you’re feeling.”
Violet watched the woman’s face carefully. In the end, she couldn’t easily walk back to her house, and would be a fool to even try. “My place is a thirty minute drive from here. I wasn’t really going to walk all the way home. I’m not that drunk.” She sighed, and pushed her hair behind her ears. “I was just going to find a hotel.”
“Well, there are rooms above the bar for people who need a place to crash. But I’m guessing you don’t want to go back there. And I don’t mind driving you home. I’ll even be an objective ear if you’d like to talk.”
Violet wiped another tear that started to roll down her cheek, angry that she would let that man’s words hurt her so deeply. “I don’t know you.”
Tyla gave Violet a half-smile. “I know. And maybe that’s better. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. And we’ll probably never run into each other again after tonight, so anything you tell me will be completely confidential. Trust me,” she said when Violet opened her mouth to argue. Tyla stopped Violet’s next argument by saying, “Creek will never hear a word from me about anything you say tonight.”
Violet sighed and looked around. The sun had already started to lower in the sky even though the days were getting longer. She knew it was dangerous to be out in the cold at night. There were too many dangers although at this point, she wasn’t sure she cared.
But she was being ridiculous and needed to think properly. Looking at the other woman who smiled kindly, Violet accepted that she should exhibit a bit of common sense. “A ride would be hugely appreciated.”
Tyla smiled brightly and Violet was struck by the woman’s beauty. Her sandy blonde hair was piled on top of her head in a messy bun, but there was no denying the lovely features, the high cheekbones, and the full lips that stretched into one of the most welcoming smiles Violet had ever experienced.
“Hop in. The heat is already making me warm and cozy.”
“Thank you,” Violet finally said with a sigh. “This is very generous of you.” Violet walked around to the other side of the Jeep and climbed in, stretching her hands out to the warmth blasting out of the heaters.
Tyla put the Jeep in gear and shot down the road. “I know what you’re going through. Those men are just...” she didn’t finish the sentence but Violet understood.
“Jerks,” Violet filled in for the pretty woman.
“Exactly,” Tyla said as she carefully drove down the dark streets. “And idiots when it comes to women,” she added on.
The rest of the drive, the two women came up with names for men, some of them so ridiculous it caused both women to laugh hard.
When they reached the small town of Appleton, Violet directed Tyla through the streets until they reached her shop and apartment. When they pulled up, Tyla smiled excitedly. “Hey! I’ve ordered things from this place!” Tyla exclaimed. “You have the neatest stuff!”
Violet smiled, but it wasn’t filled with pleasure like it normally would be. “Thank you. Would you like to come up for some coffee or tea?” she asked, trying to be polite. The woman had driven her far out of the way and it would be a long drive back to Winthrop. A cup of something warm was the least she could do.
Tyla considered the woman’s offer. “I’d love some tea,” she finally said. “Besides, I really don’t think you should be alone right now. That was a huge blow. You need to vent a bit.”
Violet laughed a little, but that only caused a tear to fall down again. “Thanks. Maybe that would be nice.”
Violet led the way up the wooden stairs and unlocked her door. The room was filled with warmth and she moved to the stove to turn on the burner, heating up the water in the teapot.
“This is really nice,” Tyla commented as she looked around Violet’s small but cozy living area. “Very cozy.”
Violet smiled again, but leaned back against the countertop, closing her eyes to try and stem the tears.
“You’re not a prostitute,” Tyla said. “I can’t imagine what Creek was thinking when he wrote the check.”
Violet shook her head, looking down and trying to hide the incredible pain she was feeling. “I don’t know whether to be angrier with my stepfather, or Creek who would pay someone so that he could have sex with me.”
Tyla opened and closed the cabinets until she found the cups, then located the tea, making the brew for both of them. Tyla understood that the other woman was going into shock after all of the revelations over the past hour.
“Here,” she said, handing the cup to Violet. “Let’s sit down and you can start from the beginning.”
Violet perched on the edge of the sofa, not exactly sure where to begin. “I met him a few weeks ago. He was tending bar at The Rotten Apple when my friends and I came in for a bachelorette party. He was sweet and handsome and…” she sighed. “I really liked him.” Her hands shook as she lifted the cup to take a sip. “I thought he really liked me too. He showed up here,” she looked around, “well, downstairs, a couple of days later and asked me out to dinner. We went out to dinner three nights in a row, and he made me laugh, he was so kind and charming.”
Tyla blinked. “We’re still talking about Creek, right?” she asked. Violet couldn’t be describing the hard-driving, brilliant, mostly-reclusive man that hung out with Tucker, Knox and Saeger at The Rotten Apple.
“Of course,” Violet confirmed. “He was incredibly charming and amazingly sweet. He even brought me flowers that first night.”
Tyla almost choked on the sip of tea she’d just taken. Looking askance, her mouth fell open. “Your first date?” Tyla was stunned. “Flowers?”
Violet nodded her head, not explaining that he’d brought her flowers the night they’d first had sex, and not exactly their first date. “Yes. I think he was a bit self-conscious of it because…well…” She couldn’t really describe how awkward Creek had looked as he’d offered her the flowers. The man just didn’t seem like he could ‘do’ awkward. He was normally so filled with confidence, and had that sexy aura of authority that made her smile.
Tyla still shook her head in amazement. “Creek was self-conscious?”
Violet nodded, smiling nostalgically for that night, wishing she’d…did she really wish that she’d never met him?
“And he brought you flowers?”
“And a check for five thousand dollars?”
Violet jerked upright at that question, closing her eyes against the pain in her chest. “No,” she replied, shaking her head. “I didn’t see any check. I had no idea he was paying George.” She couldn’t call that man her stepfather any longer. “My mother died about five years ago. She’d been married to George for about six or seven years. He wasn’t around the whole time though. He’d go off, saying he had a construction job, then show up months later, wanting to be with my mom again. She’d started to divorce him a few times when he’d just disappeared, but he’d come back and was all sweet and wonderful. She’d give him another chance. Then she died. Pneumonia,” Violet sniffed, remembering the sweet, kind, gentle woman who had raised her after her father’s death when she was younger. “My mom was really great.”
“She sounds like it,” Tyla smiled gently.
Violet nodded. “She loved George. Or maybe she just thought George needed help. Which was definitely true. The man had a lot of trouble holding down a job. He never had enough money.” Violet sniffed as the memories assaulted her. Even after all this time, she still missed her mother. And right now, Violet really needed her mother’s hugs. “Even before she’d died, before all the sickness and the…” she waved her hand, trying to dismiss that period in her life, “George even sold his wedding ring. He tried to sell my mother’s too, but she laid down the law that time. Told him if he sold her ring, she’d divorce him and never speak to him again. She wouldn’t give him any money either. She said if he wanted money, he needed to go out and earn it like a real man, but that she’d be home for him at the end of the day with a warm meal.”
Tyla was starting to get the picture. George was an ass! And possibly a con man, if Tyla’s suspicions were true. Not a good con man, but an opportunist who had hurt two very kind, very sweet people. Well, Creek wasn’t very kind, not to many people. But Tyla suspected that all of those gruff, stubborn men were real sweethearts underneath all their grouchiness.
“What happened after your mother died? With George?”
Violet leaned back on the sofa and curled her legs up underneath her. “George sort of drifted off. He’d come back every once in a while asking for money, but I remember how my mother would deal with him. I told him that if he wanted to help out in the store, I would pay him an hourly rate. But I wouldn’t give him money.”
“And did he? Work in the store?”
Violet’s hands tightened around her mug. “He would sit on a stool and grumble to the customers. I usually just let him work there over the winter when I had to run errands or to pick up merchandise.” She sighed. “I think he was stealing from me too. I know he stole my lunches. I had to hide my sandwiches most days.”
Tyla’s blood was boiling at how horrible this kind woman’s stepfather was. How disgusting he was inside, and how he’d hurt her in so many ways. “Any idea how he…” Tyla wasn’t sure how to finish that question.
Violet knew what the woman was asking. “How he sold me?” she offered, then shook her head. “No idea. I suspect that Creek probably came by to talk to me and George just figured out what was going on.” She looked up at the ceiling, startled by so many questions. “I can’t understand the amount though! That’s a lot of money.”
Tyla’s lips compressed. “Violet, how much do you know about Creek?” she asked gently.
“I know he’s an only child, just like me. And he’s tough and strong. He works at The Rotten Apple and,” she paused, thinking back to all the nights she’d shared with the man she’d thought she’d been in love with. But she couldn’t be in love with Creek! She couldn’t have fallen so hard for a man who could think that she…that…
She shook her head and pushed the memories away. “We had a lot of fun, just talking and laughing about politics and life and just whatever popped into our minds.” She sniffed. “I know that he most likely can’t afford five thousand dollars a night for a prostitute. At least not for more than five nights.” She dropped her head into her hand. “What was he thinking? The man tends bar! That must have been his life savings!” She shook her head. “I’m not worth that much, and he never should have thought I would be for sale anyway! Nothing in our conversations indicated I would be for sale! Why would he think that?”
Tyla leaned forward. “Well, first of all, you need to know something about Creek. He’s not a bartender. He and three other guys own The Rotten Apple.”
Violet’s mouth fell open after hearing that. Owner? Or a part owner? Shaking her head, she sighed. Even if that were true, having a partial stake in a bar here in Alaska, where the populations weren’t very dense, didn’t seem to be a big money maker. “Still, that’s not a huge profit center.”
Tyla suppressed her amusement. “It’s their hobby. The Rotten Apple is only a place for them to hang out when they want to be around humanity. They all have houses up on the mountains.” She let those words sink in, watching Violet’s features carefully. “Their own mountains,” she explained further. “And their houses, well, I haven’t been inside any of them, but they’re not small. They are huge actually. And the technology that is rumored to be inside of those houses is crazy. They don’t need electricity to their houses because each of the homes generates their own power. And Creek isn’t poor. The last estimate on his net worth was around the forty billion dollar range. That’s billion with a B.”
Violet’s mouth fell open for a long moment as that news sunk in. She wasn’t really sure that she believed it, but…actually, Creek being wealthy would explain a lot of things about his personality. “Well, I guess he could afford five thousand dollars a night,” she whispered. And her face crumpled into tears. All the anger and pain that she’d been trying to hold back just tumbled out of her now.
Tyla moved to the kitchen and grabbed the bottle of vodka she’d seen in one of the cabinets, then came back and poured some into Violet’s tea. Sitting down beside the woman, she put her arms around her and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “I just thought you should know the whole truth about the man you thought you knew.”
Violet nodded against the woman’s arms. “Yes. Thank you for telling me. I just…” she paused as the information muddled her mind. “I feel like such a fool!”
Tyla shook her head. “No. You’re not a fool. You just fell in love with a guy.” She sighed, thinking about her own heartache problems. “It happens to the best of us.”
They sat there for a long time, Violet’s tears flowing freely now as the full reality of her foolishness hit her. For a long time, she simply let the tears flow, accepting the comfort of this stranger because…well, the pain slashing at her heart wouldn’t allow anything else. She just let the tears fall but nothing seemed to diminish the pain and humiliation she was feeling.
When the tide finally started to abate, she leaned back, her head resting on the cushions as she stared up at the ceiling. “What a night,” she said out loud. She sniffed and plucked a tissue from the table beside the sofa.
She looked around, still astonished by all that she’d learned tonight. “I’d gone over to talk to him, to find out why he’d just stopped calling me. I thought I’d done something to insult him or maybe that I was bad in bed. It never occurred to me that he just didn’t want to pay for my services any longer,” she said, and hiccupped a laugh.
Tyla handed Violet the cup that had been abandoned during the crying spree, suspecting that another wave of sadness was still coming. “Here. This will help. At least for tonight,” she promised.
Violet took a sip and felt the warmth seep into her bones. She had no idea if it was from the tea or because of the alcohol, and at this point, she didn’t care. She was exhausted and hurt. And angry!
“He bought me,” she said on a hysterical laugh. “He actually bought me!”
“Yep!” Tyla said and they clinked glasses.
Violet took a long sip of the powerful tea and shook her head. Details were starting to filter through her muddled mind and she was…shocked. Angry. Shocked. Hurt. Oh yeah, and shocked! “Five thousand dollars!” She shook her head. That was such a huge number, she was having trouble wrapping her mind around it!
Tyla chuckled as she took another sip of her own coffee. “You must be doing some pretty amazing tricks in that bedroom for him to have come back for the next four nights!” she teased.
Violet’s laugh was horrified. “Stop!” she gasped on a burst of appalled laughter. “I can’t even imagine what a sexual trick is!”
Tyla shrugged then. “He was duped. Maybe George promised him some acrobatics.”
Violet leaned back and laughed, holding her stomach as the hilarity of the possibilities hit her hard.
Tyla kept going, trying to ease her new friend’s pain and laughter seemed to be getting her through it. “Hey, don’t knock it. If a pole arrives in the mail, or even better, a trapeze, then you’ll know that George was promising something that just was delayed in the mail!”
Violet was laughing so hard she was gasping for air. Shaking her head, she wiped her tears again. “A trapeze? I can picture what to do with a pole, but what would someone do with a trapeze?”
Tyla shrugged, and took another sip of her vodka-laced tea. “I have no idea. You’re the one earning five grand for a night in the bedroom. I’m just trying to get tips.”
That comment started off another burst of laughter in both ladies, and they were almost on the floor when the humor finally subsided. Violet walked over to the counter and got the teapot, making another cup for both of them. “Goodness, what a sucker,” she said, but the idea still hurt. So she poured an extra dose of vodka into her tea this time. “Or maybe I’m the sucker. I’d sure like to know what George did with all of that money. I don’t think even he could spend that kind of money so quickly.”
Tyla sipped her tea, shaking her head. “Boy, I know what I would do with five thousand dollars.” She tilted her head with a suspicious grin. “I wonder if a man really would pay five thousand dollars for sex!”
That caused Violet to sigh. “Apparently, Creek did. With me!”
“It sounds awful, that he would think that of you, but turn it around and look on the bright side.”
Violet’s head fell back against the sofa cushions. “There’s a bright side to someone thinking I’m a prostitute?”
“Sure!” Tyla laughed. “He must have really wanted to have sex with you.”
Violet thought about that for a long moment. “Yeah. I guess that’s pretty nice to know. But five thousand dollars? That’s crazy!”
Tyla shook her head. “No, that’s not crazy. Not with how much those guys are worth. They do crazy things, like surf the bore tide or ski down mountains that are inaccessible except by helicopter, zip line across mountains, and climb seemingly smooth cliffs that a sane person would stay away from. But when it comes to money, five thousand dollars isn’t really all that much to them.”
Violet couldn’t imagine that kind of a lifestyle. “Sounds dangerous,” she commented and then took a long sip of her vodka-laced tea, feeling the warmth all the way to her toes now.
Tyla shrugged. “Like I said, they do crazy things, but this really is the stupidest.” She snorted slightly. “So far,” she finished off.
Violet had to agree with that.
Tyla tilted her head as a thought occurred to her. “Of course, that’s really odd. Those guys are all brilliant when it comes to business.”
Violet looked over at the lovely woman and something struck her. “But not too swift when it comes to understanding women, right?” she offered up.
Tyla closed her eyes briefly against the pain. “It shows, eh?”
Violet sighed, covering the other woman’s hand. “Only to someone who has been hit hard by one of the idiots.”
Tyla smiled but it was a bit wobbly. “I’m sorry that you got caught in their web of charm and…”
“Muscles,” Violet finished for her. “Goodness, Creek is built!” and she leaned back against the sofa again, just thinking about how well built the man was. “You’re interested in which one?”
“No,” Tyla replied with a firm tone that actually spoke volumes. “I don’t feel anything for any of them.”
Violet watched her new friend for a long moment, not sure what to say. Since she’d only met the woman a couple of hours ago, she had no reason to doubt the lovely woman, but there was just something about the way she said those words that…
“Saeger,” Tyla sighed. “I’m in love with Saeger. And the stupid fool barely even realizes that I’m a female.” Shaking her head, she looked over at Violet. “At least you had a few nights in Creek’s arms, you know what it feels like when he looks at you with desire.” She shrugged and sighed again, more despondently this time. “I will forever be the little sister to one of Saeger’s good friends. Nothing more. I doubt that the man even realizes that I have boobs.”
Violet had to laugh at that because the lovely Tyla was definitely full up top. More than full, she thought. The woman was stacked!
“I would bet that all the men in that bar know that you have boobs, Tyla,” Violet replied with a tone that indicated her amusement at the woman’s claims.
Tyla looked down at her chest, then snickered. “Okay, so yeah, I have them, and he probably knows about them. But he probably doesn’t acknowledge that they are attached to my body.”
Violet took another long swallow of her tea. “Well, then we’re both a mess. You’re a neutered yet buxom female, and I’m a…” she hiccupped out a laugh, “a prostitute worth five thousand dollars a night!” and both women dissolved into laughter again.
A few hours later, both women were curled up on the floor, the vodka bottle ignored on the countertop, and half a plate of brownies, a bag of potato chips, Cheetos and chocolate ice cream on the floor between them as they sniffled their way through “An Officer and a Gentleman”. Boos and hisses were called out when Richard Gere ignored his love for Debra Winger, and then sobs when he realized that he can’t live without her and storms through the factory for her, carrying her out of that hard life and into something better.
When the credits rolled, both women were silent.
“She probably gets pregnant and lives happily ever after,” Violet sighed.
Tyla rolled onto her side, propped up by the pillows from the couch. “Nah. I bet she gets pregnant, lives on a naval base, and he cheats on her with every female naval officer that walks by him.”
Violet laughed at Tyla’s cynical attitude towards love and romance, but she didn’t argue.
Their voices faded out as exhaustion and the vodka lured them into sleep.