Out of The Box Awakening (24 page)

“Oh, Tommy, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, but I tore that son of a bitch a new ass! He won’t be bothering Emily again.”

“Well, Tommy, y’all go to bed and sleep good. Geez! This is crazy!”

“Yeah, pretty crazy! He’s a real nut case!”

“Hey, can I talk to my dad again?”

I give the phone to Ash.

“Okay, son, Dominic will call me tomorrow. Just keep the doors locked. You know where the gun is, right? Bullets are in the safe. You should probably get it loaded and keep it by the bed just in case. I let the guard downstairs know and security is tight. This kid hopefully won’t get bailed out, and Dominic will let us know if anything changes. Ok. Love you, too, son. Take care of Emily and call me tomorrow.”

The next few days are a blur. We are super-busy at work. Tommy has been driving Emily to work and picking her up every day, since he doesn’t want her driving her car. He tells me they are still staying at the condo, and that he’s trying to get her to stay for a while longer and not go back to her apartment.

On Wednesday, the guys come in to take Emily and me to lunch. A young college-aged girl who is in the shop with her mom screams when she sees Tommy with his arm around Emily.

“Oh, my God! You’re Tommy, the guy from Avenue, aren’t you?”

“Yep, that would be me!”

“Is that your girlfriend?”

Emily, embarrassed starts to answer, “He’s a good—”  She’s immediately cut off by Tommy.

“Yeah, she’s my girlfriend. Pretty, isn’t she?” Tommy tells the girl in a friendly way.

Emily rolls her eyes and Tommy plants a big kiss on her. I can sense that Emily is pretty embarrassed at Tommy’s PDA, especially since she’s at work. The young girl is stunned and staring at Tommy like he’s a rock star. Todd is leaning on the counter shaking his head.

“Geez! Enough already, Tommy. Can’t you keep your lips off of her?”

I ask Todd what’s going on with Tommy and Emily. He tells me that they are pretty much inseparable. She goes to practice with him, and they stay together every night at the condo.

“Don’t know how much longer they’ll stay there. I think Mr. H. wants her to stay until they know exactly what’s gonna happen to the guinea. Has he said anything to you about it? Oh, and I definitely think they’ve done it by now, don’t you? Still not sure about the blow job though…“

“Todd, you are too much!” I whisper in his ear. “Do you really think they have?”

“Yeah, I do. She looks totally satisfied. Remember how I told you that I could tell you look sexually satisfied?”

Okay, that made me blush. My face feels blood red.

“Don’t go gettin’ all embarrassed. You remember when I told you that don’t you? Well, she’s definitely got ‘the look’!”

As much as I don’t want to listen to Todd, I have to admit that I do think Tommy and Emily have had sex, and I agree about ‘the look.’ It’s a look and a feeling that I have, too. It’s the best feeling in the world. They both seem so comfortable together, and without over-thinking things, as I am prone to do, I have to say honestly that I think they have ‘done it.’ Not that that’s a bad thing, I think it’s good. I just hope these two can keep a good thing going.

“So, Todd, what do you guys think about Emily?”

“We all agree that she’s good for Tommy. Basically, we love her, Olivia. She just kinda fits into our family, and it’s hard to explain. There aren’t many girls we let into our family, but Emily’s different. I got a good feeling about them. I gotta tell you, though, we don’t like her ex. He’s pretty much a scumbag. Hopefully, he won’t bail out, ‘cause I’d hate to see what would happen to him if he showed up around her again. Tommy pretty much let him know that would be a mistake. Anyways, we’d probably all get thrown in the can. Did you know Tommy was a black belt?”

“ I had no idea! Does Ash have a black belt too? Because I’d kind of like to know... we haven’t talked about it.”

“Yeah, they all do. They are a kickass family! You have nothing to worry about. Your man can take care of you!”

I think to myself, Oh, yes, he can and does take care of me! Okay, Olivia, get your head out of the gutter.

That afternoon, before we leave work, I get the courage to ask Emily about her relationship with Tony.

“Ok, Emily, time to spill the beans. I want to know all about Tony.”

“Okay, I guess I do owe you that. So here goes… I met Tony at an art gallery in the city. I was by myself at a showing for a local artist I follow. Tony is an artist, too, and was also there by himself. We met at the wine table and I was just taken by his looks, and he was so nice to me. He swept me away. He was so attentive and complimentary. He loves art, as I do, so that was a definite
attraction for me. He took me for coffee after the showing and we talked for hours. For the first few months, we were together literally every single day.

“Being insecure by nature, I couldn’t believe someone that good-looking was actually interested in me. I was flattered, and happy, and I guess I overlooked the fact that he began to get controlling. He’d show up at school every day, and was outside the door when I got out of class. Not in a romantic way. It got to where I felt like he was checking up on me, that he didn’t trust me for some reason, more like stalking me. It really creeped me out, but I kept telling myself that it was just because he cared for me and was just looking out for me.

“Then, there were his mood swings…they were horrible and only got worse! Sometimes the littlest things I would say totally set him off and he became angry. I just figured it was me. No one had ever cared for me as intensely as this, so I thought it was because he loved me.”

“Did he ever physically hurt you?”

“No, not really…not physically, anyway. Emotionally, though, he took everything out of me. He talked mean to me sometimes, and I just thought it was me or something I said. He was always criticizing me and putting me down. Anyway, after a year or so I literally couldn’t go anywhere without him either going with me, or following me and yelling at me for one reason or another.

“The last straw came one day after class, when I went to his apartment to surprise him with lunch. I brought sushi, his favorite. When I knocked on the door it opened, and three really sketchy black guys were in his apartment. Once he saw it was me, he got really mad that I had stopped by without calling first. He yelled at me like I was a piece of garbage and told me to go to my car and wait for him. As I left the apartment, I saw little baggies with white powder on the coffee table. I put two and two together and finally realized that Tony was on drugs. That was the reason for his mood swings.

“I was mad at myself for not seeing it sooner. How did I miss it? For my safety and sanity, I just had to get out of there. I had worked too hard to get where I was, and I didn’t want any part of drugs. I never even so much as drank or smoked in high school or college, and definitely never even thought about doing drugs! So, I got into my car and left. I drove around for hours, just trying to decide what to do.

“He came to my apartment that night and I wouldn’t answer the door. He just stood outside and hollered such mean and ugly things to me. My neighbor finally ran him off. I had a good friend
who fortunately let me stay at her house outside of the city for a while so I could get my head in the right place. She had never met Tony and he didn’t know about her, so I felt safe staying there. But, I couldn’t stay there forever. When I finally did go back to my apartment, he had used his key to get in and had stolen some things from me, I guess to get money for drugs. My TV, laptop, camera, and some jewelry I had from my grandmother were gone.”

“Did you ever report it to the police?”

“No. I couldn’t prove anything—it was his word against mine. Since he did have a key, it technically wasn’t a break-in. I did have the locks changed after that. I didn’t have insurance, of course, so it took me awhile to get another laptop. My friend gave me her old TV. I could never replace the jewelry he took, but I can’t think about it. There’s nothing I can do now.

“Anyway, when that all blew over, I finally convinced Tony that we needed to stop seeing each other and that the relationship had to end. I told him that my education had to take priority and that he should just move on. He followed me around for a while, but eventually he came around less and less, until eventually I never saw him again.

“I swear, I hadn’t heard from him in over six months when he called me that night at Todd’s. I thought to change the locks, but never thought about changing my cell phone number. Anyway, when I answered the call and heard his voice, I just wanted to die. All the bad memories of my past had suddenly resurfaced, and it really scared me. I’ve finally met someone who is a good person and here this misfit finds me again. Part of me says I should probably just tell Tommy that I’m damaged goods and that he shouldn’t get involved with me. I don’t want any harm to come to him, Olivia. He’s too good a guy to waste his time on me. But the other part of me says don’t do that.”

“Emily, first off, you need to realize that you weren’t the problem in that relationship. The sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be. I do think you need to be honest with Tommy, though. Talk to him about this. He deserves to know, and I’m confident he’ll understand. Obviously, he cares for you, or he wouldn’t have beaten the crap out of Tony! And I hope you realize that I’m talking to you like a mother. I’m giving you the same advice that I would give to my own daughter.”

“I know that, and thanks, Olivia, I feel really close to you and you are so easy to talk to. I trust what you’re saying, and I haven’t had someone like you to talk to in ages. I tend to keep everything inside me and try to work things out on my own. I haven’t told anyone about the crap I went through with Tony, and it sure feels good to get it off my chest. Do you think I should end it with Tommy though before it goes any further? He honestly doesn’t deserve this, he’s too good a guy to get involved with someone like me.”

“Emily, look, I can’t tell you what to do, but I think in your heart you really care for Tommy, and I think he cares for you. Don’t let your past spoil your future. Believe me, I’m living proof of that.”

I tell her briefly what has gone on in my life over the past four months, how Alan moved me here with the intent to start over, how he had found someone else, and how Ash and I were thrown together.

“Life takes unexpected turns, Emily. Curve balls are thrown your way. I can tell you that having the right man in your life makes all the difference in the world. I would never in a million years have thought I would meet or deserve a man like Ash, but I have. He loves me in spite of all the baggage I carry, and is the best thing that’s come into my life, with the exception of my kids. The reality is, relationships take a lot of work on both ends and everyone has their own set of problems. Just give it time, take it one day at a time and let it happen.”

“Olivia thanks for your friendship. It means so much! I feel so much better after our talk.”

About that time Tommy calls and tells her he’s on his way to pick her up.

“See?” I put my arm around her. “Someone sure cares about you! Embrace it, my love!” I give her a motherly kiss on the cheek.

In a few minutes, Tommy pulls up and she gets in the car. I watch as he kisses her hand and I just know that this is where she needs to be.

“Dinner sometime this week, Olivia?” he asks.

“Would love to, Tommy! Y’all have fun!” I blow them both a kiss and head home to my own Harper man.

I tell Ash about my little talk with Emily and how she thinks she should end their relationship because of her past.

“She thinks she’s damaged goods and doesn’t want Tommy involved in a potentially dangerous situation. I feel so bad for her. She’s convinced that because of her past, she doesn’t deserve Tommy. She’s such a good kid, Ash, and I think Tommy really likes her, don’t you?”

“Actually, he does. We had a father son discussion the other day and he ‘fessed up that he really cares for her and that she makes him happy. I honestly haven’t seen him this wild about a young lady since…well, since high school, actually. In high school he dated a girl, and they were pretty serious, but once she went off to college it fizzled out. They tried the long distance thing, but she found someone at school, and the long distance relationship took its toll. It took him a long time to come back around. He was really hurt and was also going through the stress of Anne’s sickness. To tell you the truth, it broke my heart to see him so hurt, but I was going through heartache myself, seeing Anne so sick. I just wish I could have been there to support him, but unfortunately, had my own cross to bear. But, Olivia, you’ve got to let Tommy and Emily work through this on their own—together. If this relationship is meant to be, they’ll get through this, believe me. Unfortunately, we can’t interfere. You’ve introduced them and that’s all you can do. They’ll patch things up.”

“I just wish she wouldn’t think this is all her fault. It’s not her fault that she got involved with someone like Tony. Speaking of Tony, do you think he’ll stay in jail long? Surely no one will bail him out?”

“Well, Dominic said he’d let me know if that happens. Since he doesn’t have a prior record, I honestly don’t know. The fact that he tested positive for drugs and broke into her apartment doesn’t sit well for him, but you just never know. It really all depends on the judge and we can only hope the judge won’t be lenient.”