Healing Inc. (13 page)

Evy was dreaming.  She felt slightly rough hands and warm lips caressing her delicate skin.  A finger lightly stroked her lips and she mindlessly took it into her mouth and began sucking on it.  Soft caresses started at the bottom of her thighs and slowly began migrating toward her hot spot.  Extreme pleasure quickly jolted her from sleep.  She woke to find Tyler’s head between her thighs, his tongue performing tricks with her vaginal area.  She sucked harder on his finger as the sensation of what he was doing to her spread throughout her body.  Evy fought to keep her sanity as he licked and sucked between her folds but the feeling was too powerful.

 For the second time in her life she found herself screaming at the top of her lungs as she succumbed to her orgasm.  She couldn’t help yelling his name as he continued licking and lapping up her juices.  It wasn’t until she was able to twist away from him that he relented. 

He crawled back up next to her, taking her in his arms once again, continuing to relish the taste she left in his mouth.  As sleep claimed her once again she was thankful that the apartments in her building were secluded from one another.   Otherwise, she was certain her tenants would be raising hell with her right about now. 

The last Sunday in October brought light rain to Oklahoma City.  Evy had risen before Tyler as she did on most mornings.  She had already run her four miles, practiced her martial arts and meditated for the day.  They had spent the last couple of weekends together with him coming to her place to study, doing charitable deeds during the day on Saturday and then staying at her apartment at night.  During the week they only saw one another in class due to their busy schedules but they phoned each other often which would come in handy when Tyler left for Europe in a couple of days.  She still wasn’t looking forward to the separation.

She couldn’t help but marvel at his self-control.  True to his word, he had not pushed her for more than she was willing to give him.  She still wasn’t ready to let him make love to her but she could feel her resolve slipping each time he came near her.  She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t give herself to him completely and it bothered her.  She had tried to reciprocate his affection by going down on him but each time she started to he would stop her.  Perhaps he was afraid of losing control.

As she made breakfast, she couldn’t help but compare her relationship with him to the one she had with David.  Outside of music she and David had never shared the same interest.  He thought she was strange for wanting to finish high school and just about had a fit when she decided to go on to college.  Lucky for her she earned an academic scholarship to the state university; otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to afford it.  David didn’t pay her much, just enough to keep clothes on her back. 

Within six months of their meeting David had lost interest in having sex with just her.  Once she found out that he was sticking it to anything with a hole between its legs she removed herself from the equation.  At first he tried to force her but when he realized doing her physical harm could impede her performance he was compelled to leave her alone.  However, he wouldn’t let anyone else have her either.  She didn’t mind.  

Sex with David had seemed more like a chore than anything else so she didn’t feel as though she were missing anything by being celibate.   It always started with a few kisses then David would push her head down to his cock so that she could suck on it for a while.  If he didn’t climax from that he would mount her, usually from behind, until he came.  Her needs were never considered.

With him being her first and only she wasn’t sure if this was normal until she had confided in Nita about it.  “What!  He’s doing a quick draw fuck on you, mama!  That bastard!  He’s supposed to see to your needs too...pendejo!”  Nita’s outburst left Evy no doubt she was being used by David.  For the next couple of years they continued living their separate lives with her concentrating on school during the day and performing at night, and him doing whatever he felt like.

All of a sudden he started to change.  He was irritable all the time and started resenting her going to school.  She entered her room, which was separate from his, after performing one night to find that he had set her textbooks on fire.  She started doing all of her homework on campus, leaving her school supplies with Enrique who was attending the same school.  He had always done drugs but this was the first sign that they had begun to take over.  Her thoughts drifted back to the first time she tried to leave him.

***

Chicago Sixteen Years Earlier…      

Once again, Evy’s sleep was disrupted by moans, groans and the banging of the headboard against her wall. 
At least he’s able to please someone
she thought.  Unable to sleep, she turned on the lights and moved to a chair on the opposite side of the room.  She decided to escape her predicament by reading a mystery novel.  She failed to realize that the noise had stopped until her bedroom door suddenly flew open startling her to a scream.  David came into the room with some woman under one arm and holding a forty ounce in his opposite hand.  The two of them were naked and so wasted they could barely hold each other up.  The woman took the joint from between her lips and put it to his so he could drag on it.

“David, it’s late.  Why don’t you go back to your own room?”  She tried to reason with him, knowing it would do her no good when he was like this.

“
Thi
s is my room,” he slurred.  “Perhaps you forgot I own the whole fucking building, bitch!  You watch what you go around calling yours, ya hear!”

“No problem.  I guess I’ll just go down stairs since you seem to like this one all of a sudden!”  Closing her book she started to rise from the chair.

“No, no, no, no, no, no!  Your ass is gonna stay right here!  Ya see me and Nicky here wanna fuck.  She said that something in that room’s messing with her concentration!” he shouted.

“David, what does that have to do with me?”  She failed to keep the irritation out of her voice.

“She figure if you watch for a bit you might decide to join us.  Get this,” he snickered. “She says she does better with an audience.” 

Evy’s heart sank.  Fear and disgust washed over her.  She sat there watching them sway; no doubt the result of alcohol, weed and god knows what other drugs.  She wasn’t sure how but she knew she needed to get out of there. 

“That sounds like fun,” she lied.  “Just let me run to the bathroom right quick.  Don’t want to pee on anybody,” she managed to get out sounding enthusiastic despite her inner turmoil.

For some reason, their current condition allowed them to find her statement extremely funny.  They started laughing uncontrollably while she slipped out of the room.  Their laughter followed her as she made her way down the hall. Within moments the mirth was replaced by moaning and groaning, cluing her in that they were starting without her. 

Without hesitation she was out the front door, running down the street in her bare feet and pajamas.  She darted past the cat calls, barely avoiding the touch of the few men bold enough to try to grope her as she flew by them.  Her heart was hammering so hard she thought she’d faint from the force of it.  

After sprinting the eight blocks she finally reached her destination.  Lucky for her Miguel was working the front door of the club that employed him instead of his promoted position as bartender.  There was no line present due to the late hour.  As she approached his back the man he was facing saw her. 

“Holy shit!” he cried, unable to fully believe what he was witnessing.

Miguel turned, his eyes following his friend’s gaze to Evy.  It was the middle of winter and she wore only her knee length night shirt.  Her hair was all over her head and her feet were bleeding from the multiple rocks and glass they had encountered during her flight.  Tears were streaming down her face and she was on the verge of collapsing.  Miguel wasted no time scooping her up and carrying her through the back door of the club.  His first words came as he sat cleaning and bandaging her wounds.      

“What the fuck did he do this time?” he asked, trying to control his urge to go hurt David.  Miguel didn’t need to guess who was behind this.

“He tried to make me watch him have sex with another woman…told me he hoped I’d be tempted to join in.”  Her demeanor was exceptionally calm.

“Sounds like I need to pay him a visit.”

“No, Miguel!  It would only make things worse.  I plan on leaving anyway as soon as I finish school.”

“Why not now?” he queried.

“Because, I have nowhere else to go,” she reasoned.  “He doesn’t pay me all that well but he does pay me.  Besides, I happen to like the stage.”

“Evy…”

“Mindy.  My name is Mindy now,” she corrected, going by the name David had given her opposed to her family nickname.

“Evy,” he continued, ignoring her correction, “that obsession you have with the stage is going to get you killed!  Do you know what kind of people he’s been messing with?  You are smart, beautiful and talented.  If your mother was here…”

“But she’s not!  She’s not coming back Miguel.”  She immediately felt bad for what she had just said.  “I’m sorry… I know you loved her.”

Miguel let out an audible sigh.  It had been two years since Katrina Stoneland’s passing but for him the pain was still fresh.  He hadn’t cared that she was eight years older than him or that she had Evy at eighteen.  Nor did he mind that she wouldn’t tell anyone about the man who had impregnated her, although he had his suspicions.  It was her business to share when and if she decided to do so. 

All he knew was that he had been in love with that woman every since they had met when he was in grade school.  He was so happy that Evy looked like her.  It made him feel like he hadn’t lost her completely.

“Look, Evy, I have to do right by your mother whether she’s here or not.  You’re not going back there.  I’m taking you to my parent’s house.  He’d be a fool to bother you there.”

As soon as his shift was over, Miguel dropped Evy off at his parents.  They were glad to see her and thrilled that she would be spending some time with them.  She found tranquility there while catching up with old friends and cooking Spanish dishes with Nita’s mom.  Miguel had gone by the apartment she shared with David and picked up some clothing for her.  She thought she was in the clear and had accepted this new arrangement until a week later when Miguel went out of town.  She had gone to the grocery store to pick up a few things when she ran into David.

“So, you are alive!”

He came up behind her putting one of his large hands over hers on the shopping cart.  She froze as he stood beside her, his hot breath felt caustic on her cheek.  Sheer terror gripped her when he opened his jacket just enough to expose the gun he was carrying.  She stared straight ahead trembling, not daring to turn her head toward him or look him in the eye.

“This is what’s going to happen,” he continued.  You’re gonna leave this damn cart where it is and bring your uppity ass home with me, right now!  If you dare try to go back to spic-ville I swear for God…” he pulled open the jacket revealing the gun again for emphasis, “and you too.  Don’t test me Mindy.  I mean it!”

She had no choice but let him lead her from the store.  She kicked herself for underestimating him.  She was his bread and butter; there was no way he would have let her go so easily. 

The beating had started as soon as the apartment door closed behind her.  She took it, knowing that fighting back would only prolong the aggravation.  She was so bruised and battered she couldn’t perform that night and missed three days from school.  For the first time in years they had sex, only because she didn’t have the energy to stop him.  After he finished, he left her there to clean herself up and to care for the wounds he had inflicted.