Chase Me (14 page)

I explained the whole thing to him and he agreed to pay, if I started working for him tomorrow. I agreed with no smart ass comment. No quirky quip.

The verdict was in and I was found: Broken beyond repair.

I knew I was going to have to face Eddie and explain the damages to the car. So I picked up my phone and sent him a text. Then I dialed Mike, he was going to be disappointed, but he wouldn’t be any harder on me than I was on myself.

I found myself waiting for Eddie at an old park that sat down by the river. I sat in the swing and closed my eyes. Nothing says you love New York City like breathing in the toxins from the freighters down by the port, and I loved every bit of it.

“Hi,” Eddie called out from behind me. I turned and saw he was like twenty feet away. “I didn’t want to sneak up on you while you are getting high on tanker diesel,” he joked, but I just stared at this man who I knew I wanted, but couldn’t have.

“Hi, Eddie,” I called back and pulled the swing beside me to give to him. “Want to swing with me?”

“How about I push you?” He responded. He was acting like I was fragile and it made me ask myself, was I?

“I broke your car,” I blurted out as he pulled my swing back, and then he slowly let me forward then he sat in the swing beside me. He turned and slowly put his hands on my knees to turn me. “Fuck Eddie, I won’t break,” I replied as I watched him move in slow motion.

“I wouldn’t know. I thought we were on a path to be friends or something and then when something bad happens to you and I want to be there for you, you cut me out of your life.”

I pushed his hands away, stood up, and paced in the sand.

“We were moving too far or too fast. I can’t explain it, but staying away from me is the best thing you can do. When I run -,” Eddie cut me off as he stood up and grabbed my head in his hands and kissed me hard and fast.

His tongue licked my lip and I opened to let him in. The one man I needed and wouldn’t let myself to have. I wanted to climb on him and drive his stick. I pulled away breathlessly resting my forehead on his chest.

“When you run, Kate, I’m going to chase you .”

“Chase me?” I asked as I looked back up. “Am I a game of cat and mouse? Something that has a finish line?” I knew I was blowing things out of proportion, but he had crossed my invisible safety zone area into my feelings. I didn’t want to like him. I didn’t want to miss him, but I did.

“No, Kate, that is not what I meant,” Eddie tried to defend himself, but I wasn’t going to let him.

“What did you mean?”

“Kate, don’t be difficult -,” he spoke softly as I got louder.

“Now I’m fucking difficult?”

“What is your problem?” Eddie asked and without a filter my words came tumbling out.

“With Kurt I could defend myself because it was all physical, but with you I can’t. I like you and I hate that I like you. I came to depend on you, but you weren’t there when I needed you the most.”

Eddie took a step back and ran his fingers through his brown hair. He took a deep breath and talked calmly towards me.

“You wouldn’t let me be there. I wanted to be, but you put up your orange traffic cones that said all roads to you were blocked. I like you Kate, and I thought maybe we could be really good friends, or if you dropped the no dating rule we could go out and have fun, but no one is ever going to make you happy when you push everyone away like this.”

“I’m sorry,” I mouthed silently as I saw Eddie’s frustrations shine through.

“Stop being sorry, Kate, just let me in or let me hate you.”

“Let me take you to the car, and then you can decide if you hate me.”

Chapter 12

My driver drove out to the garage to see the lights out and chains on the outer bay doors. Then a giant sign said closed.

“
You okay?” Eddie asked as we slowed down to a crawl as the car crept up the gravel drive.

“
Yea. Just wondering where my dad is,” I lied as my lip quivered on Eddie.

The giant orange letters that spelled closed, punched me in the gut and stole the air in my lungs. I didn’t understand why you can have every thought in your head, and you are unaffected, but when you read them in a book, on paper, or on a giant sign they become real. I knew what Henry was going to do, but I somehow denied it until now.

“
I can’t believe my dad closed it up now that I am supposed to work for him. It wasn’t supposed to happen this fast,” I mumbled out loud to myself.

“
Why would your dad close up his own shop when you are supposed to work with him,” Eddie stated his confusion.

“
Mike is not my real dad. Henry Huntington was the man who splewged in my mom. Although there is still some debate as to whether or not I am actually his in my opinion. I am more inclined to believe the star dust theory.”

“
What star dust theory?” Eddie asked and I put the divider up between us and my driver who also moonlighted as a snitch to Henry.

“
There is this theory that I was once a bright star. Like the north star, you know the ones you can’t help but see because they don’t give you a choice,” I explained and Eddie smiled. “The theory says that when I filled up with wishes I shot across the atmosphere as my gas escaped and landed in the ocean, but I never fully burnt out. A amoeba found me and carried me near the shore giving me time to recharge my energy. When I got to shore I adapted and crawled out of the ocean taking on the first thing I saw, a baby girl, and then my mom found me and kept me.”

“
So, your theory is you were a shiny ball of gas who farted and morphed into a baby?” Eddie asked with both humor and disbelief all over his face while he fought back the laughter.

“
Something like that, although it is more romantic when I tell it. Truth be told any theory is better than him being my mom’s easy bake oven’s batter.”

As I looked at the chains on the bay doors and no trespassing signs that are all over the garage. I got out of the car and walked around the building. I noticed one of the upper windows was still cranked out.

I went back and told my driver I was about to give a blow job and asked him to go get me Jolly Ranchers or peppermints. He looked at me like I was a weirdo, but went anyway. I made a mental note to find if he was gay.

I turned back to Eddie on the side of the garage.

“
Eddie can you give me a boost?” I asked and his face fell.

“
The name is Mr. Wellington, Edward, or Sir.”

“
Sure Eddie whatever you say,” I responded waving my hand to tell him to boost me. “You and I both know I will never call you anything, but Eddie.”

“
I should spank you every time you get my name wrong. I hate that,” he stated and I had to smile that the one thing we had in common was people getting our names right. “I have known you all of a couple months and you already want me to commit a crime with you.” Eddie tried to talk with a straight face, but he failed to hide the laughter as his smile shined through. “What is in it for me?”

“
I have Skittles,” I called out and he chuckled. “I will give you all the nasty green apple ones.”

“
I want the red ones, not the green. Everyone knows they should have stayed with lime and not apple,” Eddie negotiated right back to me.

“
Half of the red, and I will give you five of each of the others,” I countered.

“
How about half the red, and dinner,” Eddie challenged.

“
The kind we go out for or the kind where I cook and we go to the emergency room with food poisoning?”

“
Out, definitely the kind we go out for,” Eddie laughed out his words. “I pick when and you pick where,” Eddie added and I smiled. It would be a first for me if I got to pick where I went to dinner with a man.

“
Not a date,” I spoke up and Eddie smirked.

“
Not a date, more like a get to know you therapy session with food. I don’t think you will get to know me or vice versa while we are breaking the law, do you?”

“
You are seriously the best ever,” I chuckled as he put his back up against the garage and folded his hands. I took off my shoes and climbed into his waiting hands.

Eddie lifted me up to the window and I slid inside the opening. I stepped down on my tip toes onto a bookcase of tools and slid down onto boxes before hitting the concrete floor. The lights were off and the room was ominous. There were still five cars inside waiting to be fixed. All the tools were still out as if Mike had just taken the afternoon off.

“
You okay?” Eddie shouted and I went to the alarm and turned it off before it called the police from the motion detector. The bay doors were chained from the inside and the outside. It was a bit overkill, but there was a lot of money sitting in here.

“
Hang on,” I shouted back and started trying each door. They were all locked up tight. I pushed a giant black tool case and unlocked a hinge on the bottom of the garage and lifted the rectangle shaped piece of metal. “You have to crawl in this way.”

Eddie slid on his belly to get inside, and I helped him stand back up as he gave me the look that said he had a million questions.

“
When I was a teenager and needed to get away I would come down here. One month when my mom couldn’t pay the rent because she had gotten pneumonia and taken a couple days off work I came down here and stole some stuff to sell. The next weekend I came back to return some of the stuff, but Mike’s mean partner came in after me and worked through the night. I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get caught and put that stress on my mom, so I stayed all night in the trunk of a 1949 Plymouth. When I woke up there was an alarm, and all the doors were bolted.

“
I used the welding tools to cut a person sized doggy door and even added the hinges so it was not noticeable and just swung as I came in and out. Mike figured it out and busted me for it. My punishment was to come and work with him on the cars. I loved being down here working on them, and being with Mike. He is the dad I wish I had. The added plus was it helped my mom pay rent because Mike would pay me to help him.”