"She is," Emily answered.
They fell into a comfortable silence where they stared expectantly at the door. Tabitha ended it with, "Does it bother you that your boyfriend called you, 'my woman'?"
Emily smirked. "I'll admit that it was a bit barbaric, but… I kind of liked it."
Tabitha rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue.
Emily pulled back. "What?"
"You kind of liked it? Yeah right. You," she poked Emily's arm, "loved it. Go ahead and admit it. You loved it."
Emily laughed. "So what if I did? What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing's wrong with it. I kind of like the possessive type myself." Tabitha nodded towards the door. "What's his name?"
"Jake."
"He's hot."
"That's putting it mildly," Emily muttered.
"How long have you two been together? A long time?"
"No. Technically, this is our second date."
"
Get out of here
. Second date and he calls you his woman? Man, he's got to have it bad for you."
"Why do you say that?"
Tabitha stretched her legs out in front of her and leaned back on her hands. "Because he was scared to leave you alone with me. With me? Oh, puhleeze. I'm so drunk I can barely hold my dress up to piss and he thinks that I can take you? Give me a break. You're skinny and all, but there's no way I'd be able to take you in a fight." She shrugged. "That and the threat he made. I have never had a boyfriend—even Sammy who I went with for two years—say anything like that. I'll tell you the truth, Emily. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that he meant every word of it. He would kill me if I so much as harmed a hair on your head. But on the bright side, he did call me pretty. Or rather, he said my little head was pretty." Tabitha wiggled her eyebrows. "I'll take the compliments in any way, shape, or form they come in."
Emily laughed. "As soon as we call Marilyn, I'm gonna repair the damage from your tears, then see if we can't sweet talk Nick into fixing you something to eat. Oh and you have to save room for his ice cream. It is absolutely divine. And try it with strawberries. You have to. I had it this afternoon and it was incredible. And don't worry about finding clothes. Between Marilyn and I we can get you whatever you need. We've got the connections, ya see."
Tears gathered in Tabitha's eyes as she stared at Emily. "I just don't get it. You don't even know me and you're being so nice. You're going to give me a place to stay, food, and not call the cops. This is like a dream."
Emily's own eyes grew moist and she chucked Tabitha under the chin. "It's not a dream, baby doll. It's a legacy. See, we females—and this is how Marilyn explained it to me when she found me—have to stick together. Especially, us ones who have seen hard times and danced cheek to cheek with them. Just as Penelope took Marilyn in off the streets, Marilyn took me in, and now I'm taking you in. Penelope became Marilyn's mentor so to speak. She helped her get the drugs out of her system and, generally speaking, clean up her act. She helped her get a job and keep it. She taught her the basics of saving money, how to sniff out a sale ten minutes before the store realizes they're gonna have one, and other things like how to tell the difference between a ripe and an over-ripe tomato.
"The last one, Marilyn still has trouble with. But, Penelope did teach her how to boil water. Marilyn makes a mean cup of tea as long as you stand over her shoulder and tell her the precise moment to remove the tea bag. So now it's up to Marilyn and I to get you up to par. Then when you're ready to go out on your own and you come across an eighteen year old girl down on her luck, you'll take her under your wing and play mentor. You'll see. From this moment on, life is going to get better for you. You'll be like Cinderella."
"With you and this Marilyn as my fairy godmothers? You know I don't have any money to help pay for things. That's why I took the wallets."
"Don't worry about money. Between Marilyn and I, we've got enough to get you put back to rights."
The door swung open without warning and Jake filled the doorway. His jaw was set and it looked like he was grinding his teeth. His eyes flickered back and forth between Emily and Tabitha.
"The wallets have been returned and my mother has been informed." Jake closed the door and handed Emily the phone. "My mother is standing by to deliver a lengthy and motherly lecture. One which I assure will set your teeth on edge and drive you to drinking. I know, because I just had to endure it. Emily, tell me everything is all right so I can tell my mother that you are all right."
"Everything is all right. Jake, this is Tabitha. She would like to apologize for causing you any undue trouble."
"That would be appreciated," he ground out.
Tabitha got to her feet and held out her hand. "I'm sorry, Jake. I didn't mean any harm. I was just trying to get some money so I could find a place to stay and grab something to eat. I'm real sorry."
"You won't do this again?"
"No, sir. Never again."
Jake hesitated a second, then shook her hand. "All right. But you're going to listen to my mother while you get something to eat. By God, someone else is going to have to share the pain of that lecture with me and it might as well be you." He turned to Emily and his expression was even fiercer. "Scare me like that again and I'll spank the living daylights out of you. Those are my mother's exact words. My exact words are, do anything like that again and I will spank the living daylights out of you." He nodded at the phone in her hand. "Call Marilyn. I'll get Nick to fix her a burger and fries. He'll bitch about it, because it's not cuisine but damned if I care." Still muttering, Jake walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
Tabitha and Emily stared at the closed door.
"I think he loves you."
"No way. It's our second date."
"I didn't say he knows it. I just said he loves you. Men are slow when it comes to stuff like this. He's probably still falling in love with you. Love's like that. You know, it kind of sneaks up and smacks you on the butt. You can't control who you love. I mean, like, I still love my mom, even though she shat on me. Can't help it. She's my mom." Tabitha turned to her. "You love him, too. You got that funny look on your face when he came in."
"What funny look?"
"You know, your eyes got all sparkly and your face lit up. You practically glowed. It's written all over your face. Yep. You love him."
"I do not love him. I am not falling in love with him. And I will not fall in love with him."
Tabitha grinned. "If you say it one more time I might believe you."
Emily punched the number on her phone for Marilyn. "Great. Just what I needed. Another Marilyn to point out the deficiencies in my love life."
Tabitha laughed. "Honey, with a man like that—"
Marilyn answered the phone as Emily blurted out, "With a man like that I'll have great, mind blowing sex. There will be no wedding. No babies. And no love. Just sex, sex, sex. Understand?"
"Oh, you don't have to convince me," Tabitha drawled. "I understand perfectly. I like to occassionally wallow in denial myself."
Emily's jaw ached with tension and her fingers twitched, gripping the phone tighter. "Marilyn, can you come down to The Brigade? There's someone you really need to meet."
"Who," Marilyn asked.
"Your long lost sister."
"My what?"
Tabitha laughed. "Oh, goodie. I always wanted a sister."
Emily sighed. "Marilyn, do me a favor and just drive on down here. I'll explain everything once you get here."
"Are you still mad at me?"
"I wasn't mad."
"You sure looked and sounded mad." Emily swung her legs in the air and couldn't help but feel like a kid being punished. After Marilyn and Booker had taken Tabitha back to Marilyn's place, Jake had practically dragged her through the bar, then dropped her on the high chair behind the bar with the words, 'Do not even think about moving.'
Jake finished restocking the cooler underneath the bar and picked up a towel to start drying glasses. "I wasn't mad."
"You still sound mad."
"I am not mad."
Emily stopped swinging her legs, folded her arms across her chest, and glared at his back. "Then why are you acting like you're mad? You haven't said more than six words to me since Tabitha left. I've been sitting here like a good little girl just waiting and wondering when you're going to stop grinding your teeth and yell at me like I know you want to."
A customer asked him for a beer and he moved down the bar to the tap. Jake dealt with the customer, then turned on her. When he spoke, his voice was lethally quiet.
"I am not mad. I am pissed as hell."
"Why? I told you I could—"
"You said," he interrupted smoothly. "That you had done that before. Yet, Booker told me you hadn't. Booker chewed my ass out for letting you do it. My mother chewed me out. My father, however, patted me on the back and said given time I'll be able to deal with you. My sister enjoyed the hell out of the whole thing and wishes that you had brought her in on it before dragging Tabitha out of the bathroom. So, Miss Emily, I am pissed as hell at you. I am even more pissed at myself for letting you do such a damned stupid, irresponsible, idiotic—"
"You can stop right there, Jake." Emily pushed him out of the way and hopped down off the chair. "I understand perfectly." She snatched up her purse and, ignoring the burning in her eyes his words caused, marched with false confidence to the bar's trapdoor.
She took two steps before his arm snaked around her waist.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Jake dropped her back onto the chair. "I told you not to move."
"No. You told me not to think about moving. Well, I thought about it and decided to do it. Now, get the hell out of my way." Emily shoved at his chest and might as well been pushing an eighteen wheeler up a San Francisco street. He didn't budge. "Move."
"No. You're staying in that chair if I have to tie you to it."
"I'll just get out of it. That's the convenience of being double jointed. So go ahead, tie me up."
Jake clearly didn't expect her to taunt him back. But she wasn't lying.
Emily cursed as stupid, juvenile, weak tears trailed down her cheeks. The foolish, miserable, annoying things wouldn't stop falling and she cursed more. Why did this man have to affect her like this? Why did she have to go and fall in love with—
No! She was not in love with Jake. She wanted his body and nothing else. Just his body. Nothing else.
Liar
, her heart and conscience shouted back.
"Now why did you have to go and start crying?" Jake gathered her into his arms and pressed her head to his chest. "I was doing just fine being pissed as hell at you."
"Stay pissed at me, dammit. I don't care," Emily muttered. "I hate this. My eyes are going to get all puffy and everyone will know I've been crying. Then they'll feel obligated to ask me why and I'll have give them some inane dribble about… oh, I was just feeling sorry for myself and then they'll be obliged to ask why and then… why did you have to go and get all mad at me because I told you I had done the routine with Tabitha as many times as I'd had sex?" She pounded a fist on his chest and fought the stupid, weak tears. "But you didn't know that—"