The Interview (20 page)

I started to move away from the table then remembered that we hadn't
received our check yet. “We have to pay the bill. Why don't you
go to the bathroom while I settle it. I'll meet you back there.”

She bit her lip and nodded. I watched her walk away. The skirt fit
her really good. Focus. I spotted Sarah and flagged her down. When
she came over I handed her my card. “We're ready.”

“Be right back.”

My helmet was on the ground. Damn, that kiss had totally spun me. The
three drinks weren't much help either. I grabbed my helmet then
sauntered calmly over to the area where the waitress was finalizing
the check. I glanced casually around the room. My eyes passed over
Ben and was pretty sure I could see steam coming out of his ears.
This should be fun.

“Here you go.”

I gave her 30%, signed, and walked back to the bathrooms. Kim came
out, saw me, walked over and kissed me again. It was slow and gentle,
but I could feel both of us wanting to turn it into more. I pulled
away and smiled at her. “Ready?”

“Nope. But let's do it anyway.”

“Right.”

We walked out hand in hand. I was careful, without looking like that
was what I was doing, to keep as much room as possible between Ben
and I as we passed him. I could feel him staring through my head and
I started to have serious doubts about my plan. Kim wanted to walk
fast. I wanted to walk slow. We settled on somewhere in the middle
until we reached her car. I set my helmet on the roof next to her
purse, then put my hands on her hips and pushed her slowly back until
her body was pressed against the car. Her arms came up around my
neck. I glanced at the Accord. It may have been ten years old, but it
was immaculate.

She had a view of the door. “Is he coming?”

“He's checking an ID”

My hands were moving in slow circles on her hips. They wanted to
slide upward, but I bit down and kept them where they were. Kim
gently pulled me to her. Our bodies met. I closed my eyes and gave
into whatever was happening between us. I forgot why this kissing
thing had started. I forgot about Frankie. I forgot about Batman and
Tristan and Kristin's broken arm.

The kiss broke and Kim said, “He's coming. Be careful.”

“Right.” I kissed her lightly once more then turned and
prepared myself to be beaten unconscious.

“What are you doing man?”

I put on my best “who me?” face and replied, “Little
of this. Little of that.”

“That's my girl, right there.”

I glanced at Kim. She was still in la la land. It was a compliment
but I kind of needed her to call the ambulance when this was done.

“Kim? She's your girl? Don't think so.”

“Kim, what are you doing with this guy?”

Kim shrugged.

“I thought we were good,” he said. He sounded genuinely
perplexed. OK, he was big but stupid. Nature's way of keeping things
in balance.

“Hey, man, you should chill out.”

“You should stay the fuck out of this.”

I watched his entire body ripple beneath his shirt. Christ, the guy
was massive.

“Is that why you tossed the other guy through the window? Did
he not stay the fuck out?”

Ben shook his head. “Dude, you've got it all wrong. Kim, I told
you that was not my fault. The guy rushed me. I stepped aside, he
missed and went through the window.”

“You said it was an accident, Ben.” She was very calm. I
liked that.

“It was. I didn't touch him.”

“Why were you there in the first place?” I asked. Kim had
been correct to almost believe him. I did. I don't think he was smart
enough to pull off the indignant thing he had rolling.

“Who the fuck are you, Grandpa? And why is this your
business?”

“She's my friend. You scare her. That's why.”

“Why are you scared of me, Kim? I'd never hurt you. I just
went over there to scare the guy. He freaked. Not my fault.”

“Is that why you came over just now? To scare me?”

“Yeah, but you're not scared.”

“No, I'm not.”

He just stared at me while his mind tried to fit this information
into a limited number of possible slots in his brain. I felt like I
was watching a toddler trying to stuff the shape of a star into a
square hole. Over and over again.

“Why aren't you scared?”

Reasonable question. “Just not. That's all. Nothing personal.”

“You should be scared.”

Broken record with a serious groove in it. His brain was stuck.

“Ben, focus. You can't try and intimidate people just because
they’re with Kim. Did Kim ever tell you that she was your
girlfriend?”

“No.”

“Did she ever tell you that you guys were exclusive?”

“No.”

“So what you did was wrong. Accident or no. You shouldn't have
been there in the first place.”

Am I good or what? See, I can solve problems without violence.

“I don't scare you.” I missed the fact that it wasn't a
question.

“No.”

“I can hurt you, though.”

I patted my own back. I didn't pay attention. I saw Ben shift his
weight but it didn't register until too late. His arm shifted back
and he brought it forward before I knew what was happening. Kim saw
it, and she probably saved my life. To Ben's credit he saw her step
in front of me and he tried to pull the punch before it landed. It
still would have knocked me for a loop but Kim's face got in the way.
Her body slammed into me. I tried to catch her but I was knocked
off-balance. She hit the ground and didn't move.

“Kim!” Ben cried. He started to bend down, but by then I
had regained my balance. I caught him in the nose with my knee. He
grunted, so I repeated myself. The third time I hit him, he went
down. A black film descended over me. I kicked him again and again
and again. I would have kept on all night if somebody hadn't touched
me on the shoulder.

“You need to stop, man. You're going to kill him.”

I stopped. The film lifted. The kid stepped back quickly.

“Thank you. Tell the cops I'll be at Hoag.” I walked to
the car, found Kim's keys in her purse, and unlocked her car. I
opened the back door, then picked Kim up and slid her gently onto the
backseat.

“You need to stash your bike,” the kid said.

I grabbed my helmet, dug the key out of my pocket, and handed both to
the kid. “You got a cell?”

“Yeah.”

I gave him Annette's phone number and watched him punch it in and
save it. “Call the number tomorrow and let me know where the
bike's at. Or not. Either way, thanks for stopping me.”

“It's cool. I'll call you in the morning.”

I drove to Hoag. The interesting turn my life had taken earlier in
the week had just led me into a brick wall.

Fuck!

KIM REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS WHILE I was trying to find a spot to park.

“Where are we?”

“Hoag. I'm taking you to the ER”

“What happened?”

“You stepped in front of a punch. Stupid.”

“My head's ringing.”

“Getting knocked out will do that. Why'd you do that?”

Kim sat up slowly in the backseat. I stopped the car and turned
around so I could see her. I held up two fingers. “How many?”

“Two. I don't need a doctor. I need some Advil.”

“You might have a concussion.”

“I'm not nauseous. My vision's not blurry. I don't have a
concussion. I don't need a doctor. Where's your motorcycle?”

“I gave it to a kid. He said he would call me in the morning,
let me know where it is.”

“Now that's stupid. What happened to Ben?”

I remained silent.

“OK. Kelly, really, I'm fine. I don't need a doctor.”

“Your eye is swollen shut.”

“I didn't lose any teeth did I?” She smiled really big.

“Nope. You're good.”

“See. I'm fine. Can we just find a hotel and crash?”

“You should see a doctor.”

“I should lay down in bed and let you hold me is what I should
do.”

I thought about it. It was a bad idea for a lot of reasons. Course,
bad ideas seemed to be another theme for the week.

“OK.”

“Cool.”

“Hey, can we kiss again?”

“You do need to see a doctor.”

A hotel had as much appeal as a return to Rudy's. I drove out of the
parking lot and headed north on Newport Blvd. Kim climbed up front
and flipped the visor down. A lighted mirror dropped down so she
could see the damage.

“My eye is swelling.”

“You're going to have a nasty bruise.”

“I'm not going to work tomorrow.”

“Neither am I.”

“Your eye isn't swelling. What's your excuse?” Kim
sounded OK.

“Suspended.”

“That‘s right. I forgot.”

“Understandable.” I glanced over. Her left eye was
indeed swollen. “I'm going to take you back to my place.”

“Really?”

“Don't get too excited. My roommate is an eighty-year-old
great-grandmother.”

“Really?” Less excitement in her voice this time.

“Yep. You couch hop. I rent a room.”

“I house sit, too.”

“How's that?”

“It's fun. I have five places I do regular. Extra cash. Gets me
off the couch for a month or so. It works. The places are sweet. All
of them are down on the Balboa Peninsula. They're real millionaires.”

“A millionaire is a millionaire in my book.”

“Yeah, but I'm strictly money. They've got the toys and houses
to prove it.”

“Sounds like you do, too. You just don't pay for 'em.”

She laughed. “I know. It's so cool.” She did this thing
with her nose that I really liked. Kind of a combination of a scrunch
and a twitch like the one on
Bewitched
.
Very
cute.

“What's her name?”

“Annette. She's cool. I teach her how to make chick drinks and
she teaches me how to lose gracefully at Rummy 500.”

“Is she going to be OK with this?”

“Yeah, she'll be fine. She'll probably be crashed by the time
we get there. If not, she will take it in stride. The eye will help.
Hard to kick somebody out of your house when they look like you.”

She punched me, then asked, “Is Ben going to be OK?”

“Probably not.”

“He was a mistake.”

“Yeah, I would have to agree with you on that one. He won't be
bothering anybody for a while.”

“You really hurt him that bad?”

“A lot more than I wanted to, I think. I wasn't planning on
that.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

She turned the radio on, found some Katy Perry and turned it up. I
drove along the 55 and thought about the film that descended upon me
when I started in on Ben. It wasn't anger. It was something else.
Like I said before, I'm not a violent person, but I am cold and
calculating when it comes to violence. Tonight marked the fourth time
in four days that I had used violence to resolve a situation. This
time was different in that I didn't stop at incapacitating the guy. I
would have killed him. I knew it. That didn't mean the knowledge
bothered me. Violence begets violence, and for some reason I had
become a lightning rod for violent men in the last week. That's what
I was curious about. Why now? Tonight wasn't a Tristan ripple. Or
was it?

Katy was done singing about California girls. I liked the one about
kissing a girl better. I turned the radio down.

“Would you have asked me to dinner tonight if Ben hadn't shown
up at that guy's place?”

“I've been thinking about doing it for a while, like I told
you. That situation just kind of forced me to get off the fence about
it. I told you. You're this really important person in my life and I
needed to share my secret with someone. Was I wrong to do that?”

I didn't hesitate with my answer. “No. Not at all. I'm glad you
did. I don't care about that guy. He had it coming, either way. I
would have done the same thing regardless of whether you told me all
the other stuff or not.”

“So why do you ask?”

“I'm having a bizarre week, I guess. I'm trying to decide how
this fits in with the rest of it. How's your head?”

“It's fine. My eye hurts, but my head feels fine. No brain
damage as far as I can tell.”

“Good. Brain damage is a drag.”

“Totally. So what are we going to do when we get home?”

“Watch a movie.”

“Really?” She didn't sound excited about the prospect.

“Yeah, really.”

“Is it cool if I take a shower there?”

“Yeah. Do you want to stop and pick up anything at the store?
You can use my stuff if you want.”

“I'm a couch hopper, dork. I have everything in my trunk.”

“Right, right. So yeah, you can take a shower.”

“Sweet! If we're watching a movie I'm going to have to take
care of something first. Won't be as good as you, but it's going to
have to do.”

Kim was definitely growing on me.

ANNETTE WAS ASLEEP WHEN WE got home. Kim hopped in the shower, and I
grabbed a wine cooler. I checked my email, deleted a bunch of spam,
and then stared at the one remaining email in my inbox. I don't do
much on the Internet. Social networking isn't my thing. I pay bills
the old-fashioned way, with an envelope and a stamp. However, email
makes running softball teams easier and Netflix is the coolest thing
in the world. But at the moment, I had this email staring at me and I
couldn't decide what to do.

It was from me. Which was weird, because I didn't send myself an
email. The teaser line was, “DC vs. Marvel.” Now I
seemed to recall having a discussion about that topic just last night
with one Mr. Spider. It was logical to think that this email was from
Mr. Spider. But it was from me, Kelly Jenks. I checked the little box
next to the email, then slid the arrow over to the word “Delete.”

My old nemesis, Curiosity, got the best of me. I slid down to the
teaser line and clicked it. The email was blank. Nothing there. There
was an attachment. I opened it. Nothing happened. I clicked the
details link. The screen expanded and Gmail told me that I had sent
myself the blank email an hour ago. This was, of course, impossible
because an hour ago I was at Rudy's.