Star Bright (18 page)

Maria looked at him
keenly, the anger was back in his voice and face. She was sure Amy
was proving to be difficult, she was the only one capable of making
him angry so fast.

She smiled at herself,
glad she didn’t get the itchy feeling, instead she felt warm and
comfortable. She felt his tight grip on her shoulder and as much as
it made her uncomfortable she was relieved it wasn’t meant to hurt
her, no longer a sign of a beating to come. She shook her head and
pressed her face in his chest for a moment, she needed to get her
mind out of the past and focus on her future, not everyone wanted
to hurt her.

Dave looked down at her,
worried, she had never done that before. He had gotten used to a
quick touch on his arm, handshakes and quick pecks on the cheek and
only when she felt comfortable enough to do all those.

He put his thumb under
her chin and pushed her head up. She looked up at him with a smile
then turned to the kids’ direction. He kept his eyes on her, half
listening to the blabbering of Amy’s lawyer. Like a hundred times
before, he felt the urge to kiss her forehead, then her long neck,
but he fought it, he didn’t want to scare her away, especially now
that he knew what she went through with Ricky. If he wasn’t already
dead, he would kill him himself.

“
And...” he
answered quietly in the receiver. He pushed her jet black hair back
and over her other shoulder exposing more of her neck. It looked so
tempting to him, but that little desire was cut short when he saw
other scars on her hair line and behind her ear. There was one that
was partialy exposed by the gap her flannel, button down, white
shirt made at the back. It was further down her shoulder and it had
a crescent shape to it.

He felt his rage build
inside him, he was sure she had more scars and wondered how long
she had tactfully hidden them. He now understood why she dressed in
what can be considered conservative for her generation and why she
had her hair styled in certain ways, she was hiding the
scars.

Maria noticed how quiet
and stiff Dave had gotten. She looked up at him and met his sad
blue eyes. She wondered what ludicrous demands Amy was making, all
she hoped for was that it didn’t involve Izzy. She put a hand
around his waist and ran her thumb along his chin worried that it
was about Izzy.

Dave saw that as an open
invitation to get a little cuddly, he was going to get very little
opportunities to be loving with her and he was going to make the
most of each time. He held her closer to him, then leaned down and
kissed her forehead, then turned his attention back to the phone,
“That’s never going to happen, she doesn’t even know the meaning of
the word mother. Which law school did you go to that taught you
divorces can be appealed and renegotiated?”

Maria laughed,
remembering the argument she had with Amy. Proud of how long she
had calmly been in his embrace, she pulled away and went to the
table to lay out their lunch. She placed the two kids at the table
and waited for Dave to get off the phone.

“
You are
wasting both our time. Tell her to take the car to the usual
garage.” He hung up and dialed again, “Carol, get Amy’s car fixed
and the Prado, then call the dealer and ask him to bring the car
today.” He hung up and walked to the table with a wide grin, “Sorry
about that.” He apologized, taking the seat opposite
Maria.

Playing with her food, “I
think I should be the one apologizing, you had to take care of my
mess.”

“
She just
wanted to annoy me. So are you going to tell me about it?” Taking a
bite of his food.

“
She parked
right behind me and I almost ran her over. When I got out to see
what she wanted, she called me your new toy.”

“
What?” Dave
said laughing.

“
She said you
gave me your old toy to play with so I must have been your new
toy.”

“
Is that why
you wanted to run her over?”

“
No. She
wanted Izzy and I wouldn’t let her go near her, then she moved her
car to completely block me in.”

“
That’s when
mama hit her car.” Michael added with his mouth full, “It was
awesome!”

“
I bet it
was.” Dave said with a chuckle, “Don’t worry about it, the car will
be fixed by the end of the day. So what do you think of
her?”

“
You were on
the mark with her. She managed to annoy me, and tried to put me
down a couple of times.” she giggled, “It was nice standing up to
someone for once.”

Dave looked at her,
imagining how much she must have cowered away with Ricky, “You
should always do that, no matter what. It draws a line that people
will think twice about crossing.”

“
I’ll keep
that in mind.” She knew no one dared to cross his line, all she
could hope for is that she could be as strong as he was, “So you
are getting a new car?” She thought he was joking when he was on
the phone with Amy’s lawyer, but he had just asked Carol to call
the dealer.

“
Yes.” he said
eating some more, “I don’t want to keep taking a cab and under no
circumstances do I want Todd to know where we live and when Miguel
starts school you’ll need it more.”

“
I’ll pay for
the damages on your old toy.”

“
No you won’t,
there is a reason I have insurance.”

“
But...”

“
We’ll take
Miguel to school tomorrow morning together.” he said cutting her
off. He didn’t want to have another fight over money, he knew why
she did that, she wanted to make sure she didn’t owe him just in
case she had to run again or he wants to collect. Dave was doing
this for her because he wanted to and now, he felt selfish enough
to tie her to him as much as he could. He wanted her to stop
running, to live her life fear free with him.

“
Yes!” Michael
shouted.

“
Why? Don’t
you have work?” Maria asked, annoyed at how he had cut her off and
changed the subject.

He looked at Michael glad
to see his wide saucy smile, “I do, but I want to speak to the
principal and make sure he settles in alright.”

“
Talk to him
about what?” Maria asked worriedly. She still didn’t know how Dave
had enrolled Michael without her identification papers, he must
have used his own.

“
Don’t worry,
I just want to make sure they’ll take proper care of him.” Dave
looked up to meet her worried face, “You need to quit worrying so
much, let me do that.”

“
You can’t
keep taking care of us, we aren’t you’re family.” Maria said with a
hushed voice.

“
Yes you are.
Families live together, and they do stuff together like we do.”
Michael said authoritatively. The grin was gone and his face
creased sternly, “Mama, we finally have a family, the only ones
missing is our grandmas and grandpas.”

Maria looked at him, the
guilt riding her hard. She realized one other thing she had denied
him for years, now he had a taste of it and it would be hard for
him to let go when the time came.

“
Your mama
knows that, she’s just making sure of it.” Dave reassured Michael.
He looked at Maria and saw the tears in her eyes as she stared at
her son. He turned back to Michael, “Someone’s turning five soon,
how about a party?”

“
What?” Maria
asked stunned, blinking away the tears.

“
Yes! I can
invite the new friends I make at school.” Michael cheered, bouncing
in his chair.

“
And your
grandparents.” he kept his focus on Michael, ignoring the lethal
eyes he was sure Maria was giving him. It was time for them to stop
hiding and this was the first step, “And we’ll have a double
birthday party because Izzy is turning two the same
month.”

“
Yeah!”
Michael yelled excitedly, giving Dave a high five, “I’ll go call
grandma now!” He jumped off the chair and ran for Dave’s
desk.

“
Dave...”
Maria hissed out, standing up. She might have been a sitting duck
in jail, but a birthday party was like a huge arrow pointing to
where they were. What made her mad was how he had taken control of
her and Michael’s life.

Dave stood up, he looked
at her amused, it was the second time he was seeing her angry and
she looked beautiful, “Buddy, why don’t you make that call at
Carol’s desk, take Izzy with you and call her grandparents
too.”

“
Okay.”
Michael ran back to the table and helped Izzy down, then he took
her hand and led her out the office. The second the door closed
Maria blew up.

“
What the hell
do you think you are doing?” Dave crossed his arms over his chest
and gave her an amused stare, “Would you stop looking at me like
that and answer me?” She moved and stood in front of
him.

Dave moved to his desk
and sat on it, “He’s turning five, it’s a big number for a
kid.”

“
He isn’t a
kid and I don’t want it!”

“
I noticed
that, it’s the reason he’s having a party. And you do want it,
you’re just scared.” He said seriously.

Maria ignored his last
comment. Statements like those made her think he knew more about
her than she thought, “Why do you do that? Cut me off when we argue
and make decisions for my child!”

“
Because we
argue about money and you make decisions for my kid, why shouldn’t
I get a turn?”

“
Get a turn?
He isn’t a toy we each get a turn to play with.”

“
Really? It
feels like we’re playing ping pong, but I always win.” He
spoke
coolly
, his lips curved
up.

“
I’m done with
people telling me what to do, I’m not going back to that Dave. It’s
my kid, my life, my decision!” Maria yelled, she could feel her
body shake with emotion. She’d never yelled like that at anyone,
especially for something as small as this, it had been years since
she’d even raised her voice and it felt relieving to
her.

Dave watched her without
saying a word, he didn’t want to step on her toes or make her feel
forced to be submissive, she’d spent years doing that and he didn’t
want that for her anymore, “Okay, what do you want to
do?”

Maria gave him a slit
look, “Don’t patronize me.”

“
I’m not. What
do you want?”

She looked at him and
tried to come up with something, but it was useless. She didn’t
have anything to complain about, she just felt good being the one
yelling and not being yelled at for a change. She moved and sat
next to him on the desk, “When’s Izzy’s birthday?”

Dave chuckled, “The
twenty-first of October.”

“
We can have
it on the nineteenth, it’s in the middle of the two.”

“
Anything you
say.” Dave said biting his lips together to keep from
laughing.

Maria looked at him and
couldn’t help but smile. She punched him lightly on his shoulder
and looped her arm with his, “Who knew fighting could be so much
fun.”

“
Actually, you
did the yelling and I just watched your green eyes spark and your
face light up, but I’m glad you had fun.”

“
It’s
different from what I’m used to...so...” Maria spoke, trying to
find the right words that were the complete opposite of scary,
painful, sadistic and antagonistic.

“
Relieving.”
He didn’t want to think of how her fights with Ricky ended. He
pulled her closer and kissed her forehead, “Miguel will be glad you
have approved our little family unit.”

“
Michael.” she
whispered, her voice shaky. It was time he knew the truth, well
some of it, “His middle name is Miguel, but his first name is
Michael.” she swallowed the lump in her throat then lifted her head
to meet Dave’s gaze, “His name is Michael Miguel Martinez.” She was
glad when her hair fell over her face covering it, partially hiding
her, but what she really wanted was to hide in his
closet.

Dave looked at her, he
saw how difficult it was for her to tell him that, but it meant she
trusted him. He kept quiet, trying not to give the indication that
he already knew the truth, her whole background right up to her
grandparents.

Maria waited for him to
say something, to rebuke her or accuse her, but he just looked at
her with his smiley warm face that made her feel so secure and safe
when she knew she wasn’t. She could feel hot tears run down her
cheeks. He reached up and wiped them away with his finger then
pushed her hair back behind her ear, “My mother named him Miguel,
which I didn’t want at first, but I let her. I named him Michael
because I loved the name.”

“
It’s a very
cool name.” Dave added.

“
My high
school crush was named Michael.” she laughed nervously, “but that
was before I met Ricky.” She felt her throat dry out when she said
his name. The fear of him coming after her was still there,
haunting her every second of the day.

Dave pulled her off the
desk and led her to the couch. He didn’t want to talk about Ricky,
that part of her life was dead and gone, what he wanted, was to
talk about the part of her life that didn’t scare her. “Who’s
Miguel?”