I find myself relating more to Jane. She smiles through her pain and carries on as best she can because you cannot change what is and complaining will get you nowhere. I am deep in the story when the knock on the door has me whipping my head up. Helen comes in with a take-out brown bag marked Karl’s on it. Oh… my cheeseburger with double bacon and fries! Yum.
She comes over to the bed as I snap my book shut and set it off to the side.
“Well, young lady, it seems you got yourself a tail tonight.” She opens the bag and passes me my tinfoil-wrapped burger and takes out the grease cover take out box of fries. We always share them. She pops the lid and lifts a fry to her mouth. She unwraps her burger and takes a big bite, moaning as she chews.
“Karl can be a pain in my ass sometimes, but the man can cook. Thank god he’s only across the street.” She chuckles while chewing.
“Tail? Someone followed me?” I unwrap my burger and take a bite. The sweet smokey taste of crispy bacon hits my mouth and its waters. So good!
“Yep. Shortly after you went in here, a tall woman in a fancy black get-up came in asking if we saw a pretty girl with long black hair and beautiful green eyes come into the store.”
She smiles and pops another fry in her mouth.
“I told her nope, haven’t seen a pretty lady like that. She didn’t seem to believe me, so she took a seat at the reading bar. I gave her a cup of coffee, but she kept a close eye on the door. I had to change up my plans a bit.” She winks and takes another bite of her burger.
I feel sick. I was starving and now they know I’m here just like I tried to hide last time they found me only sooner this time. I put my burger down and hold my stomach. Helen reaches over and pats my hand.
“Oh sweetie, no worries. I got you covered. Karl and I put on a good show.” She winks.
“I asked her if she could watch the store while I ran across the street to get myself some supper. She agreed, and I hopped over to Karl and told him I had a guest tonight, needed two burgers and fries and to head on over to the store once he could. Wemade a big show at the desk saying I needed to eat and I told him I had stock to do.” She waves her hand in the air, then pops another fry in her mouth.
“She was watching us go back and forth, till I agreed to eat my dinner while I did stock. Karl sat at the desk, opened up his take-out box, and offered her a chicken finger.”
She leaned over and pats my thigh, laughing.
“Well, you know how Karl likes his chicken fingers. You should have seen her face. It was so funny. Then she got a call and whoever she was talking to was yelling so loud, I heard him halfway down the aisle. She said something about following you. You came in here and the signal dropped and she lost sight of you.”
This was such a dumb idea. I should never have left. I’ve only made things worse now. Alexander is going to freak out for sure now and Anna, well? I’m not sure what she’s going to say, but it won’t be nice, that’s for sure.
“Eat love.” She points to my burger on my lap. “Starving yourself won’t change a thing. No sense letting your burger go cold.”
So I do. We eat in silence for a while. I’m almost done when Helen balls up her wrapper and tosses it in the bag.
“Mind if I ask you who is chasing ya this time? Is it your daddy again?”
I sigh and look up at the ceiling, “No, it’s my fiancé, well, not really.” I squint my eyes. “It’s a contracted marriage, and he hates me, but I have no choice. We fight. a lot.”
I look down at her and she’s just looking at me, waiting to hear more. Helen never judges a person, she just listens. So I open up and tell her. I tell her everything, every embarrassing detail, from the moment my father told me I had to marry Alexander to the argument between Anna and Alex at the lab.
“Wow. And here I thought you were just runnin' from yourdaddy. This man sounds like he is serious about marrying you. And you sound like you have some affection for him, just a tiny bit.” She pinches her finger together; I laugh and smack her hand down.
“I do, I will admit. But it’s always at a cost, Helen. I fall for the good looks and the fake smiles, and then he flips on a dime and yells, grabs me, and threatens me. I don’t know how to handle all this.” I wave my hand in the air. I sniffle back a tear.
“I’m not an aggressive person and you know my past. I avoid people like him my whole life. Now I have to marry one and pretend for god knows how long, till he finally puts me out.”
Helen leans back against the footboard, clasping her hand on her thighs. She puffs out a breath.
“Well? I think he is one of those boys’ that hate the idea that he might like a girl. Like one of those bullies on a playground that pulls the girl’s hair cause, he doesn’t know how to tell her she’s cute. Sounds to me like he is fighting his own battle with the arrangement. Don’t mean he’s right in pushing you around like that. However, he’s not like your daddy, where he’s hurting you and leaving bruises.”
Helen stands up and grasps my chin. “Sweetheart, I can’t tell you what to do, but whatever you decide, I’ll be here.”
She tucks a piece of my hair behind my ear. “You take tonight and rest. Gather yourself. You will come up with a strategy. You are a smart girl. You just need a bit of time to yourself to think.”
I rest my cheek on her palm. “Thank you, Helen. I promise I won’t stay away for so long. Maybe if I had come in sooner, you could have given me some advice to avoid my current situation.” I smile at her.
“Honey, anytime you need me, I’ll be here. But I have a suggestion.”
“What’s that?”
