for the price of a couple eggs, I’ll clean anything. As she starts to eat, I purse my lips and think for a moment. I crack an egg and let it drop into the pan, waiting a few more seconds before breaching the subject.
“So who was on the phone last night?”
I hear her stop chewing, but I don’t turn around. I don’t want to engage her too much, it’s easier to seem kind of aloof about it. I don’t even know why I care who she’s talking to, but maybe it’s a bit of a jealousy thing. Why is she the one always drowning in men? Why not me? I guess they're not real men, but a little attention doesn't hurt. God, am I seriously wishing for an average dude? After all my whining yesterday? Maybe I just need to get laid.
She sets her fork down with a tiny clink. “I don’t want to tell you. You’ll get mad.”
“What!” I finally turn and face her, still holding the spatula in my hand. I notice it looks kind of threatening. “Why would I get mad?”
“You always tell me I do this... but it was Mark.”
“Didn’t you just break up with him?” I mutter. I turn back to the eggs and realize one is broken. “Because he was being too clingy?”
She sighs a little. “Well... now he’s not.”
I laugh and realize she’s right. I do always get on her case about this. “Oh yeah?”
“He’s doing stuff now! He said he joined a karate class.”
“Ooh, karate,” I say. I slash the spatula through the air like a sword, complete with swishing sounds. “Right? Now you’re talking to him again, and...”
“He says he’ll change for me. He’ll do anything I want if I take him back” Sara says. She’s starting to grow defensive, but it only encourages me more. She sounds a bit cheery though.
“That’s wild, he’ll do anything? What have you made him do?”
“Nothing much yet... I dared him to get a tattoo.”
I drop the spatula and nearly dunk it into the only non-violated egg left. “A tattoo!”
“Yeah! He says he’ll get one of me, right on his shoulder.”
It sounds like a horrible idea to me, but I keep it to myself. I’m already surprised she told me this much. I finish cooking my pitiful eggs and dish them onto a plate. I join her at the counter, and we eat together, joking a bit and letting some tension melt off our shoulders. I kind of needed the laugh after the strange past couple of days.
Thinking about Mark going to look at tattoos makes me kinda queasy, but why? That biker dude had tattoos... I guess it's because Mark is an IT support guru, not a brash-looking biker. A biker with mean eyes that could swallow you up.
She finishes her breakfast and tosses her plate into the sink. I watch her move across the kitchen and back into her room, before she dances off into the bathroom.
The shower streams on, and I realize rent is due. While she's tucked away in the bathroom, I sneak into my bedroom and lift the mattress a couple of inches, revealing a nicely laid out stash of cash. I groan as I shuttle it out of the hiding space and onto the floor. Ever since I was little, I liked the idea of keeping money under my bed. Now it's become almost a necessity. After being unable to handle a debit card and several credit cards, I found the only method that worked was keeping it right under me. I felt foolish having it hidden there, like I was some kind of drug lord.
I stack a couple of twenties together and throw the mattress back down. I set the cash down on the countertop gingerly, and groan a little.
Looking at the clock, I notice I’m way early today. Might as well go in and make up for being late. Pay Becky back for letting me go home early yesterday, too.
I grab my keys and dart out the door. As I climb into my car, I realize the answer to the tattoo question. It’s okay for Mr. Biker to have tattoos because he didn’t get them for a woman. He got them because he’s an outlaw.
. . .
Driving through the intersections to get to the highway usually takes a couple of minutes at best,