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Chapter Twenty Four
May Twenty Fourth
Roxtyn
“Hey!” Her eyes fluttered open to see Ben encroaching on her space. They sat in his car parked in the apartment parking garage. A sticker stuck to the driver window claiming that it hadn’t moved since April and it was dated to be towed by the end of the month.
She shuffled up in her seat, “What?”
“Where the hell have you been? Where have I been?” He looked around the car for clues and discovered his phone and wallet in the back seat. Roxy shrugged, “I don’t know, I wouldn’t believe we have been gone since April.”
Ben slowly opened his car door and stopped, “No. I’ve been gone before April.” His brow pressed together. “You were gone longer, I remember that and I remember you left. Where the hell did you go?”
Her eyes flickered between his and focused on his brow instead, “I don’t know Ben.”
Ben stood outside his car, “Great,” he sighed irritated, “let’s go upstairs and sort this out.”
Roxtyn followed his lead and questioned to herself why she had a jacket on in eighty degree weather but cut her thoughts off when she passed a man squatting on the stairs with a bag. He seemed familiar but didn’t recognize him, then assumed it was a new neighbor and continued to pass him.
May Twenty Sixth
Roxy sat at Ben’s kitchen table alone, absorbing the quiet and staring out the window over Capitol Park. She couldn’t believe she was gone for five months with no recollection of where she had been. Ben started questioning if they had gotten abducted by aliens or some drug lords and then questioned why she had been gone longer, as if that was something to be jealous about.
Ben had told her how he remembered her apartment being rented to someone else and to not even bother going over there. All she had was her phone, cracked from an argument, a few outfits and toiletries she had left at his place. She always enjoyed being in his apartment when he was gone, the last thing he bitched about was the split eviction notice on their front door as he left. She had scoured his bathroom for tampons, finding her old box with a handful left.
A keyring scratched the front door, the metallic sound of a key entering and exiting the hole, ground against the lock and he walked in. “Hey.” He set a pile of mail on the counter and pulled out a single envelope from under his arm.
“Hello.” Roxy turned to him and faked a smile.
“I went to my job, it looks like I don’t work there anymore. They gave me my last paycheck, it’s dated back to March. That will cover the three months rent and get the management off my back.” He dropped it on top of the pile.
“I’m sorry.” She stood and walked to him. “Do you have the money to go buy me tampons?”
“Uh,” He looked up momentarily from his pile, “I can give you money, but I’m not going out to just buy you tampons. You can do that yourself.”
“Okay.” Her eyes dropped and her cramps dragged at her as she held back tears with the thought of leaving.
“Tomorrow I will go out and job hunt, I suggest you do the same.” He shuffled through the mail, tossing most of it in the trash without opening it.
“Okay, can you leave me with some cash tomorrow, so I can buy tampons when I am out?”
“Yes,” He cleared the counter and walked to her for a hug. Roxy froze, unrealizing her action and then remembered she needed to reciprocate the affection or she wouldn’t hear the end of it. He pulled back and kissed her, she wanted to reject him but was afraid to. His lips on her made her skin crawl along with his hands gripping her. “You really don’t remember a thing about the first half of this year?”
She stepped back and trailed to the kitchen sink, “I really don’t, I wouldn’t keep that from you.” Roxy softly smiled as she filled a glass. “What about you?”
“No and it feels like the more I think about it, the more I forget what happened before I left. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that I can’t remember three months and you can’t rememberfive months.”
She didn’t look up, “I know.” Trying to remember was like staring into a black hole and she did question different possibilities of where she was, including aliens but she thought the government was more of a possibility. Roxy remembered the McLellan airport and thought about going up there to see if anything would click into place but didn’t have the funds for a bus ticket. She didn’t want to ask Ben for the money or to tell him why. Roxy felt healed, loved and knew wherever she was, she had to go back. But to where?
Ben dropped the subject and followed her body around the counter island, “after dinner we should go down to the gym" he cupped her hips, "you've put on some weight around here." He squeezed her hips and stepped back, "I ordered take out from across the street.”
She clenched her jaw momentarily and placed her cup on the counter, “That sounds good.” Roxy hated that restaurant.
“Well,” he turned to her sternly, “You know I don’t like you here full time, so you should probably be looking for a place too. I’ll give you a few weeks.”
Her stomach dropped, she had been missing for the last five months and he was giving her a few weeks to get her life together? A job, apartment and all the small things like furnishings and transportation? She knew she couldn’t say this out loud and just responded, “I’ll make it happen.” The front door echoed with a knock.
She sat through dinner with nothing to say and replied what she knew she should. She thought during their quiet meal and remembered a man, blonde with tan skin, approaching her outside of her work. Roxtyn played it over and over in her mind, not sharing any of it with Ben.
