Reece's Faith (99 page)

"Don't sweat it, Pops, I like you a little... enough to take you to a ball game."

"Oh, wow. Thank you, Reece. I never would have expected it."
She's really something.

"It's nothing."
My ass. I'm, doing a father-son thing here... god help me.

Quinn smiled broadly behind Reece. This, he never imagined. He never took Faith to a ball game and here he was, going with Reece. She was going to take Faith to her first ball game. Suddenly Quinn felt sad. He waited until the next light to express himself. "Reece, I'm sorry we ruined your day. I'm sure Faith would have been mighty excited to see her first baseball game with you today."

"Her first? She's never been?" Reece felt disappointed to be spending the day with Quinn now.

"Well, I was always too busy," he floundered.

"Faith adored you. Did you know that?" She turned halfway around in her seat to see the sad face of her girlfriend's father.

"Yes, I know. I don't know what happened between us, she was my little girl. Now I feel like shit."

And he looks like it, too.
Reece sighed, "Look, what's past is past, we can't change that. Trust me on that one."

"Sometimes, though..."

"Forget it, it doesn't work. You're stuck with the mistakes for the rest of your life." Quinn looked miserable and Reece pulled the bike over to the curb. "I tell you what, we don't have to go to the game today... I'll give you the season tickets and you can tell Faith that they're yours.

"Why would you do that? You don't owe me anything... I don't understand."

"No, I don't owe you a thing... but you owe Faith."

"You'd really do that for me?" Quinn was shocked.

"I'd do it for Faith. I'd do anything for Faith. Anything," Reece stated.

"I believe you." He studied Reece with new eyes. She was still very imposing... and she still scared him, but he respected her and he trusted her... with Faith's life.

Reece began to sweat under the scrutiny and she fingered her jacket uncomfortably. "What are you looking at?"

Quinn chuckled, "You know, I am afraid of you, you don't have to give me that look."

"You were staring at me and I hate that."

"Can we go to the game now?" he asked with a smile.

"Sure, I guess so. Nothing else to do," she said feiging boredom.

"With the girls out shopping, we have to whole afternoon together."

The club owner winced, thinking about spending the entire afternoon with Quinn. "Whatever. Let's go." Reece was highly uncomfortable with the new relationship. She knew it was the right thing to do, but it was new and very unusual for her. Acting civil wasn't going to be hard, but it was going to be new. Reece hated
new.

"Thank you for all of this," Quinn said sincerely.

Reece nodded and pointed the bike in the direction of Coney Island.

 
*  *  *

The girls were settling into a booth for a late lunch when Faith's phone rang. After climbing over the many bags beside her, the actress finally found the phone and smiled broadly upon hearing the voice.

"Hiya, babe."

Faith strained to here Reece over the background noise, "Where are you?"

"You'd never believe me if I told you."

"Try me."

"Me and Pops are at a baseball game."

Faith didn't know what was more shocking, Reece calling her father 'Pops' or where they were. "A what?" She covered the mouthpiece and told Cori and her mom. Marsha almost choked on her tea and Cori's eyebrow piercing threatened to tangle in her hair.

Reece looked over at Quinn who was having the time of his life. "A baseball game. Your dad is having too much fun. Maybe I should scare him or something."

"Stop that," she paused, letting it all soak in. "You're really with my father? Together? At a baseball game?"

"Yeah. Here..." There was a rustling noise and Quinn's voice came over the phone loud and clear. "Hi, honey! Are you having a good day?"

"Yes, Daddy, a great day a little shocking, but great. Are you having a good time? Is Reece behaving herself? Where'd you get tickets to a baseball game?"

Quinn laughed at his daughter's many questions, "Yes, I'm having a fantastic time. Reece has been, well, Reece and the tickets..." There was more rustling and Reece came back on the line. "The tickets are the old man's. He was going to surprise you with them today, but, well, shit happens." She glared at Quinn who closed his mouth. "We gotta go now, see ya at home later."

Faith stared at the phone for a moment before putting it away. Catching the expectant stares from her tablemates, she shook her head and relayed the odd phone call.

"He had tickets to a baseball game?" Marsha's brows drew together.

"That's what she said. I'm telling you, this is creepy. I don't know what's going on with them."

"Hey, don't knock it, Faith. Your dad is getting along with Reece. It's a miracle."

"I'm sure there's more behind it. It's too good."

"He didn't have tickets to a baseball game," Marsha pouted.

"Maybe he did?" Cori wondered.

"Well, we didn't give anyone a chance to talk this morning. It's possible that it's true," Faith thought out loud.

"I can't believe they're at a game together. I tell ya, it's eerie." Cori said.

Faith mock shivered.

 
*  *  *

After a mighty fine day of shopping, the three women piled into a cab with their purchases. With all the bags, one person had to sit in the front and Faith volunteered. The actress winced when she looked at the driver. The hack was ugly -- he had a huge scar across his cheek, his eye socket looked like it had been crushed, his nose was most definitely broken and his cheekbone was deformed, like someone had smashed into it with a bat.
I bet he got robbed or something
, she thought. However, after being on the receiving end of some pretty rude stares from the cabbie, she figured, whatever happened to him, he must have deserved it. Finally, the actress had enough of his sideways glances and turned to glare at him. He gave her a somewhat disgusted look.

"Excuse me, but what is your problem?" she asked with annoyance.

"You're that actress," he said with a frown.

Cori tensed up, not liking the tone of his voice. "Hey, you got a problem, buddy?"

Marsha leaned forward to hear what was going on and the dancer fought with her for space in the little opening of the bulletproof partition.

The driver looked in his rear view and grimaced, "Great, dykes and freaks. What's your gig, old lady?"

"I beg your pardon?" Marsha shouted.

"Funny though, you don't look like a lesbo," he once again looked Faith up and down making the actress very nervous. "You look normal to me."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean? What's a lesbian supposed to look like," Faith countered, more angry than scared, "and what constitutes normal?"

"You just don't look like a real lezzy, is all."

"You fucking asshole..." the dancer began.

Cori's fit faded into the background. Faith's head was pounding. She'd never been confronted with something like this before and she didn't know how to react. Sure, she was angry. Who was he to tell her what she should look like? And who was he to tell her she wasn't a real lesbian? She was certainly
was
a lesbian; Reece was definitely a woman and she loved Reece fiercely.
Wait just a minute... Just because he thinks I don't look like a lesbian, does that mean other people think the same thing? Are they trying to invalidate Reece's and my relationship based on what they think she or I should look like?
Faith mulled over that while her mother's voice pierced through her thoughts.

"...and who are
you
to judge what people should look like? How do you know I'm not a lesbian? Just because I don't wear a shirt that says 'I'm a big, old lesbian' doesn't mean I'm not..."

The actress stewed some more until she was enraged with the idea of this man making her feel like she was.
Fuck him. Fuck him and anyone that thinks like him. Reece and me are real. I don't need to prove that to the likes of him. Asshole.

"...and another thing, mister..."

"Mom, drop it. Pull over, we're getting out."

"My pleasure," he snickered.

"Let me just tell you one thing, you narrow-minded shit-for-brains, you are so incredibly lucky that my
girlfriend
, who also looks nothing like your version of a
lesbo
isn't anywhere near the vicinity of this conversation. I can guarantee you this, you pig, she, who is every single inch a breathtakingly beautiful woman, would hand feed you your nuts in an heartbeat if she even
thought
you may have insinuated that we are not a valid couple, based on your twisted idea of what we should look like."

Marsha and Cori got out of the cab and Cori was holding Faith's door open, trying to coax the highly irate actress out of the car.

"Don't even
think
about getting paid, I have your name, you moron, and that's all
she
needs to know in order to hunt you down and kill you. They call her The Animal..." Faith noted the change in the hack's expression when she said that, "...and do you know why they call her that? She enjoys tearing the throat out of her prey before she rips it apart and eats it." The actress stormed out of the cab.

Cori had peered in the door and watched the man pale. She glanced at the driver's identification and laughed loudly. This guy knew The Animal, all right. She'd kicked his ass... hard. "And don't ever call me a freak again," she slammed the door so violently, the man's teeth rattled.

"Hey, Faith! Wait up! Wait 'til I tell you who that was!"

Faith stopped in her tracks. She was so mad; she was positively fuming. "Who was it?" she bit out through her teeth.

"Joey. He used to have a club in Times Square, but Frankie found out through the grapevine that he was pimping teenagers."

Marsha looked horrified.

Faith swallowed. "Frankie sent Reece after him, didn't he?" She looked sick. "Reece did that to him..." her sentence trailed off as she leaned heavily against a wall.

"Dear god! Theresa mangled him?" Marsha leaned next to her daughter.

"Yeah, she fucked him up real bad. She brought the kids to the church that she was at when she was a kid. After spending some time with them, she became enraged at what they went through and went back and beat him again while he was in the hospital."

"God, Cori. I can't say he didn't deserve what he got, but shit," Faith buried her face in her hands and gathered her thoughts.

"It alarms me, Faith. Is Theresa capable of that kind of brutality now?" Marsha asked with genuine fear.

"The answer would be yes, mother. Reece is still Reece. She was trained and conditioned to fight and sometimes kill. She's capable, but I can guarantee she will never, ever, harm a hair on my head."

"She'd sooner jump in front of a subway," Cori agreed.