Blooming (7 page)

Whoever they
were they weren’t giving up, the message machine kept cutting in and they put
down and just rang again.

She pulled
herself out of bed and to her feet; she knew only a choice of two people who
would be willing to annoy her this much.

“Good morning
Jennifer, are you ok?”

Of course it
was Todd, “No, I’m emotionally shattered and the crazy man responsible is
calling me at 7am,” she barked.

“I’m sorry
honey, I have to go out and look at some real estate an hour away and I wanted
to talk to you before I left.”

“Why?”

He laughed,
“Because I like talking to you, and I wasn’t sure you were ok after I left last
night.”

“You heard me
stomping about?”

“Jen
everybody heard that, don’t look now but your invisible ninja powers are not
working anymore.”

There was
quiet on the other end of the phone, so he changed tactic, “there was another
reason for me to call. Lily asked me to tell you she’s meeting this guy at
“Beans” around two, does that suit you?”

“Yeah it’s
fine.”

“Please tell
me what’s bothering you Jen,” he asked softly, giving her a long pause to
respond.

“It’s
complicated - what happened last night I mean. You kissing me, that was nice,
but it’s not as straightforward as that, there’s more I need to tell you, that
I don’t really want to tell you, and I still don’t want you assuming I’m going
to let this thing between us go anywhere.”

He grumbled
back at her, “Well its good news you liked me kissing you so let’s not stress
about the rest just yet, instead I think you should tell me why you find me so
attractive?”

“What?”

“Come on all
this time so far we’ve been talking about you, now a few days ago you confessed
that you find me attractive. I think you need to tell me exactly what you like
about me.”

“You have got
to be kidding, the last thing your ego needs is boosting,” she laughed nervously.

“Honey,
everybody’s ego needs boosting from time to time. Come on, tell me and I’ll let
you get on with your day. “

He could hear
the cogs whirring in her brain, “Come on kiddo you’re using up all my free
minutes here,” he joked.

Her breath
came back soft, lifting the hairs on the back of his neck, “I think you’re the
most beautiful man I’ve ever seen. You are the best combination of David
Duchovny, Hugh Jackman and Bruce Willis while he still had hair and ran around
barefoot in a vest. You’re the man every girl should dream of and would be
lucky to get – You’re what the books mean when they say tall, dark and handsome
and I don’t have a clue why you’re wasting any of your time on me.”

She breathed
in deeply, she’d said her piece all in one breath, as if that was the only way
she could get it out.

Todd gulped, “wow”,
and he tried in vain to recover his swagger. “God when you decide to give a
compliment, you really go for it don’t you? You need to scratch that last part,
I need you to never ever say anything like that about yourself again because I
just won’t tolerate it,” he bit out.

“You have a
good day Jennifer. I look forward to seeing you again soon.”

She pressed
the end button and clutched the phone to her chest, did she really just say
that? Talk about sending mixed signals - she had to get a grip on herself.

Todd bumped
into Lily coming out of her room, “Don’t you look smug mister?” she laughed.
“What can I say? A hot woman thinks I’m God’s gift, what more does a man need
in life?”

He grabbed his
keys and went out whistling, Lily rolled her eyes.

****

Jen looked up
from her magazine, and frowned again at the guy Lily was talking to a couple of
booths in front.

She’d got to
the coffee shop early and settled in, and this jerk had turned up shortly
after.

Lily seemed
to be doing her best to make polite conversation but it didn’t seem to be going
well, added to that every so often Ben kept going over to offer them free
refills, which she was pretty sure “Beans” didn’t offer.

Jen looked at
her magazine in disgust. Were women even interested in this kind of crap
anyway? Who was dating who, whose ass looked fat in this picture and on and on,
she kept looking at her watch wishing Lily would wrap it up so she could get
away.

Jen looked up
as the guy laughed at a joke Lily made, god he sounded like Homer Simpson when
he made that noise. She couldn’t possibly want to see him again after this
surely?

There it was
again that noise, come on Lily kick him to the kerb already. She looked across
at Ben who was trying to make himself look busy while keeping a close eye on
the couple. He felt her looking at him and when their eyes met he put his hand
behind his head and mimed being lynched. Then he stuck his tongue out and
crossed his eyes, she choked out a laugh and hid it behind her magazine.

A second
later Ben didn’t look so amused. The creep had his hand on Lily’s wrist and was
trying to pull her towards him.

Lily made a
joke of it and shook free of him and Ben visibly relaxed. He came over towards
Jen on the pretext of filling her cup, “Christ what is she doing, the guy is
totally lame right?”

“I know,” Jen
agreed. “I guess he’s attractive though in that kind of blond preppy way. I
don’t know Lily well enough to know what she likes in a date. I think she’s
supposed to know some of the same friends as him.”

“Really - he
looks a little bit older than her, don’t you think?”

“Jen looked
again, I don’t know I’m no good at guessing people’s age, how old do you think
he is?”

“He’s around
thirty to thirty two if he’s a day, how old is she?”

“Twenty three
I think, that doesn’t mean she can’t have friends the same age as him though.”

“I don’t
think Todd would be too happy if he walked in and caught his little sister with
an old dude.”

“Excuse me,
if this guy’s 30, he’s younger than Todd according to Lily, and I’m 27. How old
are you?”

“Nearly
twenty three – but I’m mature for my age.”

Jen laughed,
“Yeah I can really see that right now.”

Ben grinned,
“Well after this guy crashes and burns you might have to put in a good word for
me with Lily, I’ve already got her brother on side.”

“You’re moving
on, huh?”

“I was the
minute I saw her,” he said simply, and Jen was shot with envy at the simplicity
of his statement and the ease with which he obviously meant it.

“Are you ok
today?” he asked, noting the shift in her mood.

“Just a bit
envious of you,” she sighed. “Things weren’t that cut and dried for me when I
was your age or even now come to think of it.”

“God now
who’s talking like their old, why don’t you just say, “it wasn’t like that back
in the day,” Ben teased.

Jen
stiffened. Looking over Ben’s shoulder, she saw Lily get to her feet and heard
her voice raised, “Do you even know Pete Cross?” she was demanding.

“Of course I
do babe,” her date replied, his hand was back on her wrist and he was trying to
force her back down to the table.” Lily looked like she was grimacing.

“Let go of
me,” she seethed. Jen jumped to her feet but Ben beat her to it,” You look like
you need another refill Sir,” he said, before knocking the creep’s cup into his
lap.

“Fuck! You
stupid bastard you’re lucky that wasn’t hot, I’d fucking sue you.”

Ben grabbed
the guy by his tie and even though the guy had him by a couple of inches, he
yanked him up and out of the booth and had him at the door before the girls’
could blink. “Good day to you sir, we don’t allow our customers to be mauled,”
and gave him a boot out of the door for good measure.

He turned
round and came back to them; Jen had her arm around Lily and was comforting the
taller girl who was trembling in shock.

“I don’t
think he knew my friends at all,” she whispered, rubbing her wrist which was
red raw where he’d gripped her.

“Come here
and sit down while I clean this mess up, then Floyd can cover for me while I
walk you girls’ home. I want to make sure that asshole isn’t around to follow
you.”

Jen didn’t
like the look on Lily’s face. It struck her for the first time they had
something in common, she was innocent for her age too and she rubbed her arm
trying to transfer some reassurance.

“Lily you
don’t need me to tell you that scum like him pull stuff like that over the
internet all the time, they’re very good at it. You did exactly the right thing
- you had somebody here to look out for you. Don’t blame yourself for this, ok?”

Ben stood up
from mopping the table and joined in, “You’re too pretty to be hooking up with
jerks over the internet anyway.”

“I’m so
stupid, I was just trying to make new friends here and...” she started sobbing.

Ben coaxed
Lily into his arms as Jen stood watching them. They were a good match together.
Both blond, although Ben was kind of a dirty blond, he was a nice size - about
5 ten maybe she thought, looking at him again. Lily in her flat shoes tucked
neatly into his neck and looked like she belonged there. Jen felt a mix of envy
and excitement for them, they looked right together. She and Todd must look
like David and Goliath she thought, shaking her head.

“Come on
girls, let’s go.” Ben broke away and threw his apron to the guy behind the
counter.

During the
walk back to the apartment block the tension eased a little and the three
started to have a little joke between them at the creep’s shortcomings. Ben was
easygoing and friendly and pushed between the two of them, looped his arms
about their waists and squeezed.

“Aargh, don’t
do that,” Jen squawked. I can’t stand anybody grabbing me round the middle I’m
ticklish,” which sent Ben off tickling the pair of them and chasing them up the
pavement, until they were all breathless.

Jen was
almost home and turned to look back for a second, giggling madly, when she
stumbled into a solid wall of resistance. Before she even looked up she knew
who was there, and strong arms came about her swinging her up and around.

“It’s so
lovely to see you laughing, maybe one day you’ll drop your guard enough to let
me make you laugh like that.” His deep voice hummed in her ear.

“Hi,” she
couldn’t say much more because she was afraid of how nice it felt to be held by
Todd, and the residual envy she’d felt in the coffee shop drained away and the
first stirrings of something else trickled in - a little pleasant flutter in
her stomach.

“Hi yourself,”
he replied and set her down. His arms came up to cup her face and then he
stroked her hair back with his large hands, flattening it against her skull so
he could look at her face clearly, drinking her in while she looked happy.

Lily and Ben
caught up to them and broke the spell, “God Jen you can run fast for a short
chick,” Ben gasped, putting his hands on his knees to get his breath back.

Todd looked
quizzically between Ben and Lily as his hand lowered to rest on Jen’s hip.
“How’d the date go?” he asked.

When the mood
immediately shifted and nobody said a word his face became thunderous, “Ok Lily
inside, I want to hear all about it.” He shook Ben’s hand, “thanks for walking
them home,” effectively dismissing him.

Jen waved at
Ben as he turned to walk away and then tackled Todd, “did you have to be so
rude, he got us out of a tight spot earlier.”

“Tight spot,”
he fumed his voice growling louder. “You, inside,” he said pointing to Lily who
looked mutinous. Then he bent to Jen’s ear sending her pulse through the roof
when he said, “You and me - upstairs, 7pm, and bring your tongue.”

“Shit,” she
squeaked and shot away.

“Shit, shit,
shit,” she said running upstairs and hearing Todd and Lily slam the door behind
them.

Jen bounced
into her room, threw herself on the bed and thrashed her arms and legs about in
a panic, “Oh God, oh god, oh god, oh god.”

She sat back up
her hair stood on end, and started pacing the floor. She looked at the clock -
she had three and a half hours to go, until what?

“Shit!” Well
she’d better at least make herself look decent.

Downstairs
Todd was pacing too, only he was balling his hands into fists at the same time.

“I’m not
blaming you Lily, but don’t ever arrange to meet somebody like this again.”

“I’m sorry
Todd but you don’t need to yell at me I feel stupid enough as it is. He said
all the right things over the net, he’d obviously done a bit of homework. He
knew where I lived, where mom and dad lived, things about some of my school
friends from back home.”

“Christ Lily
what have I told you about putting too much crap on the internet. We’re going
to the cops tomorrow and filing a report, there’ll be fuck all they can do
about it, because no doubt he gave you a fake name but we’re doing it anyway. And
don’t think of going anywhere without me for a while.”

“What! I
can’t do that I have to go to college and I’ll climb the walls if I have to stay
in the house all the time.”

“I’ll take
you to school and pick you up. Fuck Lily you’ve just said this bastard knows
where you live, and don’t think I haven’t noticed that hand print on your
wrist.”

She looked
down at her arm and the tears she’d bitten back earlier started to flow. In a
trice Todd had his arms round her.

“Lily
sweetheart I’ve been worrying about you since I left this morning, while you’re
staying with me I’m responsible for you - in fact forget that, I’m always going
to be responsible for you. It would kill me if anything happened to you, I love
you honey.”

“I know; I
know you do.”

****

At 7pm Todd
stood outside Jen’s door, he wasn’t sure this was a good idea anymore, his head
was all over the place, and he was having trouble keeping a lid on his temper.