At Peace (21 page)

“Where do you live?” he asked her.

“Wha’?” she asked, back to confused.

“Bonnie, I’m callin’ a taxi to take you home.
Where do you live?”

She stared at him, swaying a bit then she
said, “Doan wanna go home.”

“You’re goin’ home.”

She blinked then slid along the counter to
him, stopping when he took another step back.

“Joe.”

“Where do you live?”

“Baby.”

“Fuck, woman, tell me where you live.”

He watched as her face worked. She was
struggling, she knew the finale already. It was the same every
fucking time. Why she played out this scene, he had no clue and he
detested it. But he knew she’d go for it, even knowing how it would
play out. He knew what was coming.

“Bonnie –”

“
Twen’y for a blowjob.”

There it was.

Cal closed his eyes.

“Come on, da’lin’,” she whispered and he
opened his eyes to see she was sliding along the counter again, her
chin low, looking at him from under her lashes, a total fucking
farce.

“You need to get home.”

“You can do me up the ass for two
hun’red.”

His lip curled and he wondered how many times
she said that to how many guys, strangers, anyone who was willing
to pay to get off with her. Looking at her he doubted she did good
business.

Then he felt it and looked to his left to see
Violet standing in the hall, wearing his t-shirt, her dark hair a
tumbled mess around her face and shoulders. His tee fell long on
her, over her hips but he could see most of her long legs. The
whole of her, even in the middle of the night, looked vital, alive
and sexy as all hell, polar opposite to the sad case in his
kitchen.

But she was leaned against the doorway into
the living room, her eyes on Bonnie, her face pale.

She’d heard.

Cal clenched his teeth and looked back at his
ex-wife.

“You got a choice, you can let me put you in
a taxi, I’ll pay, or I’m takin’ you to Indy and droppin’ you off at
the first place I can stop.”

“Got a car, Joe.”

“You aren’t drivin’ in your state.”

“Doan wanna go home.”

“That’s not one of your choices.”

Her body jerked and she looked to her right,
belatedly feeling Vi’s presence.

“
Hey,” Bonnie called, smiling drunkenly at
Violet, “we ‘avin’ a pardee?”

“Can I help, Joe?” Vi asked softly, walking
into the living room and Cal looked at her.

It was useless, she was there, she’d heard,
he could no longer shield her from this scene but still he tried as
he spoke softly back to her. “No, buddy, go back to bed.”

“You wanna drink?” Bonnie asked Vi.

“No, thanks,” Vi replied, not going back to
bed, moving into the kitchen, her eyes glued to Bonnie as she
moved.

Bonnie jerked a thumb to herself. “I’m
Bonnie.”

“Violet,” Vi whispered, her tone
uncertain.

Bonnie looked to Cal. “Shiz preddie,
Joe.”

Cal wondered what Violet would do but he
didn’t have to wonder long.

Though if he’d have guessed he wouldn’t in a
million years have guessed she would do what she did.

She walked to his side and shoved into it
with her shoulder pushing back his arm then she plastered her front
to his side, sliding her hands along his body, one at his stomach,
one across his back and she wrapped him tight. He didn’t know what
she was saying with her action, whether it was a claiming, telling
Bonnie her thoughts on the state of play with Cal, a show of
support for Cal or both. At that moment either way worked for him
but both was better.

Other than pushing her away, he had no choice
but to drape his arm around her shoulders which was what he
did.

Bonnie’s upper body swayed back as she took
them in.

Then her eyes drifted up to Cal’s and her
face was disbelieving when she asked, “She yours?”

Bonnie’s tone was now not only drunken but
surprised, her face twisted with hurt and uncertainty. Even after
all these years, this was a blow to her. Cal saw to his pissed off
amazement that somewhere in that fucked up head of hers, she still
laid claim to him, even after what she’d done.

She’d never been to Cal’s when he’d had a
woman there. But even Bonnie couldn’t be so far gone as to see all
that was Vi in his tee pressed possessively against his side and
not make the comparison, not see that this time it wasn’t just
going to be a no because she had wasted her life away, and her
body, but mostly because of their fucked up history but because
she’d obviously been replaced by a far superior model. Even wasted,
she couldn’t twist that messed up head of hers into thinking she
could talk him into a trip down memory lane, if he paid for it of
course. She had to know he’d never want her mouth on him, his dick
in her, when he had Violet.

Cal didn’t answer, he was too angry and he
wanted this done. Instead, he looked back down to the phonebook to
find the number on the ad and he curled Vi closer.

His head came up when Bonnie suddenly
declared, “Thiz iz mah house!”

Her eyes were narrowed on Vi and she’d swayed
forward.

He knew this drill too, when she got
pissed. He’d been living with that a long time, even before what
she let what happened happen. He was reminded of the vicious,
out-of-control way Bonnie could get pissed every time he looked in
the mirror.

Cal gave Violet a squeeze and murmured, “Go
back to bed, buddy.”

Before Vi could move, Bonnie lurched forward,
shouting, “Mah house!”

Then she lost her footing and dropped
gracelessly down to her hands and knees on the kitchen floor.

Violet’s body jolted at his side and she
stepped back, swinging Cal’s torso with her in what seemed to be an
effort to move him to safety but only his torso went because his
feet stayed planted. He’d seen this all before.

“Fuck,” he muttered, his eyes on Bonnie.

“Joe –” Violet whispered and he knew she was
watching Bonnie too.

“Mah house!” Bonnie screeched, her head
snapping back, her lank hair drifting. “Mah man!”

Cal hit the buttons on the phone to call the
taxi.

Bonnie crawled toward them and lifted a hand
when she got close. Cal moved Violet behind him, dropping his arm
and stepped into Bonnie as she took a clumsy swipe at their legs
and missed.

He put the phone to his ear.

“Shouldn’t we get her up?” Violet whispered,
her hands on his lower back, fingers curling into the waistband of
his jeans. She was so close he could feel her tits in his tee
brushing against his skin.

“Yeah, I need a taxi, one one eight Elm.
Pre-paid, it’s goin’ to Indy,” Cal said into the phone after the
dispatcher answered.

“Joe –” Violet whispered, pressing
closer.

Bonnie lifted up to her knees, still swaying,
her eyes slits and they were on Vi. “You thin’ your shid doan
stink.”

“Soon’s you can get here,” Cal said into the
phone.

“We should help her,” Violet said at his
back.

“Id stinks jus’ like mine!” Bonnie
declared.

“Give me a second,” Cal told the dispatcher
and turned to Violet. “Go get my wallet on the nightstand. I need
my credit card.”

She looked up at him and opened her mouth to
speak.

“Do it, buddy,” he ordered gently.

She closed her mouth, nodded, glanced down at
Bonnie and then rushed out of the room.

“Id stinks!” Bonnie shouted after her,
reeling to the side and down on a hand.

“Christ, Bonnie, shut it,” Cal clipped.

Bonnie turned to glare at him and came back
up to her knees, throwing out a hand to grab onto the counter and
pull herself up.

While she did this, she asked, “Whas she
doin’ in mah house?”

Cal didn’t reply.

With a fair amount of effort, Bonnie got
to her feet and repeated louder, “Whas she doin’ in mah
house?”

Violet rushed back, she had his wallet in her
hand and he took it from her then he used his arm to sweep her
behind him again. She moved back into position, close to his back,
fingers curled into his jeans.

Bonnie glared over his shoulder at Violet as
Cal read out his credit card number, confirmed the address then hit
the button to turn off the phone.

The second he threw it on the counter, Bonnie
snapped at him, “Ahy come home, shiz in mah house.”

Cal was losing it, even if Vi went to the
bedroom she could still hear, the walls were thin and she’d already
seen the worst of it just catching sight of his ex-wife much less
Bonnie crashing drunkenly to the floor. He was done with her shit,
totally over it. He had been for nearly two decades.

Therefore, he didn’t guard his response from
Violet when he reminded Bonnie, “Woman, this hasn’t been your house
for seventeen years.”

“Mah house!” Bonnie declared, her eyes
shifting drunkenly to Violet and focusing. “Joe’s mah man.”

“Maybe we should get her some coffee,” Violet
whispered her suggestion in his ear.

“
Doan whan coffee. Whan you
out!
” Bonnie
yelled.

“You don’t get to say who stays and who goes
in this house,” Cal told Bonnie and her torso pitched as she
focused on him. She blinked, confusion hitting her face then her
torso pitched again and she got down to the matter at hand, the
reason she was there, the only reason she ever came.

“You gonna gimme money or wha’?”

“Do I ever give you money?” Cal asked and the
answer was no, he never did, not once, not even in the beginning.
No, especially not in the beginning.

“Need money,” Bonnie answered.

“Yeah, I know, know why you need it too.
Don’t work hard so I can piss my money away on that shit.”

“Need money,” she mumbled.

“Find it somewhere else, woman, this is the
last time I open the door for you. Next time you show, I’m callin’
the cops and they can deal with you.”

Her torso swung back and her hand came up,
her head shaking.

“Joe, cops, no.”

“I’m not jokin’.”

She leaned in and had to put her hand flat on
the counter to hold herself up. “Wanna come home.”

“Don’t know where that is but I know it isn’t
here.”

She blinked slowly and her head drifted to
the side, her face going slack then filling with something else Cal
was familiar with and he knew they were moving to the next part of
the scene, the part he hated the most.

She whispered to the counter, “Was only ‘appy
‘ere wid you.”

Cal was again surprised when that pain didn’t
come like it always did every time she got to this.

He’d never in the past responded. This time,
he did.

“Then you shouldn’t have fucked it up.”

Her eyes came back to him. “You know ‘ow id
was, Joe.”

“Far’s I can see, it’s still that way,
Bonnie.”

“I need you to keep me straight.”

“You don’t wanna get straight.”

“Ged straight for you, promise.”

Now
that
,
also familiar, made the pain slash through his gut and he felt his
body get tight fighting it.

She’d promised that so many times, it was
a fucking joke. He’d bust his balls guiding her off that dark path
and the first chance she got she’d veer right back there. In the
end she’d had more reason than just Cal to stay clean, all the
reason in the world, and she didn’t get that then she killed
it.

He felt Violet close in on his back, her
hands coming out of his jeans to slide up and her fingers curled
around his ribcage at the sides as she pressed herself into his
back and held on.

At the feel of her softness pressed to him,
the heat of her, suddenly Bonnie vanished, the scene in front of
him melted clean away and his mind went completely blank.

She was so close he could smell her hair, a
hint of her perfume, could feel her knees brushing his legs.
Everything that was Vi was pressed deep into him, soft and strong
like she wanted him to absorb both those things from her so he
could deal.

He’d never had that, not in his life with his
Mom dying when he was eight, his Dad losing it then finding Bonnie
and taking on her shit. He’d never had anyone give anything like
that to him. He didn’t know what to do with it. Until Violet gave
it to him, he’d forgotten he’d had it from his mother, forgotten it
even existed.

“Joe, da’lin’ –”

His name coming from Bonnie brought him back
into the room.

He cut her off. “I know you’re hammered and
probably high but you got any healthy cells in that twisted,
fuckin’ brain of yours, you need to fire ‘em up because what I’m
gonna say to you needs to sink in. Do not come back. You come back,
I call the cops and then I’ll sell this fuckin’ place and
disappear.”

“Joe –”

“I do not exist for you. In your world, I
stopped existing seventeen years ago.”

“We were made for each other, ev’ryone zed we
were,” Bonnie whined.

“They said that in high school, for Christ’s
sakes, then you showed them different.”

She winced and Cal ignored it, twisting his
neck to look at Violet who, when she felt his movement, tore her
gaze from Bonnie and caught his eyes.

“Let me go, baby, I gotta get her
outside.”

She nodded, her fingers giving him a squeeze,
her body pressing deeper for a second then she stepped away.

“We were made for each other,” Bonnie told
him as he advanced on her, grabbed her arm and dragged her to the
front door.

When he hit the door, his eyes went to
Violet. “I’ll be back soon’s I get her in the taxi.”

“I’ll be here,” Violet replied.

He opened the door and hauled Bonnie out
of it. Then he hauled her down the drive to the
sidewalk.