Missy's Gentle Giant (21 page)

Just after one in the morning Ben
came in soaked to the skin, didn’t even notice the lamp on and went
upstairs.  He took a hot shower, dropped on the bed and was instantly
asleep.  At six when the alarm rang, he rolled over and fought his
arousal.  Damn the dreams were getting to be nearly as bad as when he’d
been close to Missy.  He couldn’t continue this way.  For nearly an
hour he lay there trying to decide what he could do.  It had been days
since he’d even talked to her, and it seemed she didn’t want to see him
anymore.  Just touching her with his hand through her gown had done it. 
What would she do if he’d touched bare skin?  He rose and headed for another
shower.  Dammit, he decided he’d quit early, go see her and have it out in
the afternoon.  They were just going to have to talk about it!  He
couldn’t take much more.

Missy too, woke up feeling empty
and terrible.  She wanted to know why Ben, hadn’t called, and she wanted
to tell him what the doctor said—for him to ignore her protests and
shaking.  She tried to talk to her mother about it over breakfast after
the guys left, but her mother was little help.  In the first place, sex
was never discussed in their house, so all she could tell Missy was about her
own experience of being afraid on her wedding night because she was a virgin,
and how it had hurt and then became a gratifying feeling when her husband was
pleased.  Missy sighed.  Her mother considered sex a duty, something
men want and women accept, and Missy felt even more frightened.  Finally
over her second cup of coffee, she decided to go see Ben at his office.

Ben was clearing up things so he
could leave early when Ms. Erika Flambeau, a well known masseuse, angrily
demanded to see him because he’d chosen not to allow her to rent space for a
massage parlor.  Ben didn’t want to see such a place in his mall and
didn’t want to see the woman.  She was overwhelmingly repulsive to
him.  This lady turned him totally cold.  Every other word was “Dahhhling,”
and she constantly wanted to put her hands on him as if it might convince him
to see things her way.  Her face was thick with makeup, and everything
about her was disgusting.  The moment she started around behind his desk,
Ben rose and suggested they go out for coffee in the cafeteria which had just
opened.

Half an hour later Ben’s secretary
told Missy he went out for about an hour, and Missy decided to have coffee
while she waited.  She got no further than the cafeteria entrance. 
There Ben sat with this—this creature who was obviously playing up to him and
oh damn!  One hand was on his shoulder, another on his thigh!  White,
hot rage hit Missy.  She turned and ran blindly from the mall, right into
a car driving through the parking lot.

The frightened driver jumped from
his car and went to Missy who sat on the pavement in a daze, her chest still
heaving with anger.  When the man asked if he should call an ambulance,
she didn’t hear him and didn’t answer. She looked up, saw him ask if someone
was nearby to help her.  She glanced toward the mall with fury and shook
her head no.  Tears rolled down her cheeks as she told him to take her to
the Sanchez Trucking Service!  The worried man picked her up, put her in
his car, and nearly flew to the shop.

Gonzalo saw the guy drive up, raced
out to get Missy, hardly heard the guy’s explanation and rushed her to the
emergency room.  Still worried about her, the driver followed them. 
All the guy could think about was how he might be sued.  He sat in a
corner of the waiting room and watched it slowly fill with several men and an
older woman. The older woman went to take care of Missy.  Moments later
Mrs. Sanchez called Gonzalo back into the room where he listened to how Missy
ran into the car because of how she’d seen Ben. 

In the meantime, the driver wished
he was invisible when he saw signs of anger creep into the faces of the
men.  He nearly jumped out of his skin when Gonzalo walked from the
patient room toward him, stopped in front of him and was instantly flanked by
eight angry faces.  Gonzalo held out his hand and thanked him.  The man
and her brothers blinked in surprise.  Dumbfounded, they watched while the
poor driver hurried out to his car. 

“Missy ran into his car.” 
Gonzalo said quietly.  “First we see she gets home, and then we go get
Ben.”  It wasn’t even necessary for Gonzalo to explain to them Ben was at
fault.  They knew, stood back and watched while their parents walked Missy
to the car.  All the doctor found was a small bruise on Missy’s forehead
where she hit the window.  As soon as their parents drove off, the
brothers jumped in their cars and headed for the mall.

While Ben tiredly rubbed the back
of his neck in his office, his secretary stiffened into a near catatonic state
when nine men burst in demanding to see him.  All she could manage was a
wave of her hand to indicate Ben’s office.

“You’re a dead man!”  Gonzalo
burst into Ben’s office screaming.

“What the hell—”  He dropped
the folder in his hand.

“In here or outside?”  Marco
glared.  “We don’t give a damn!”

“Out—”  Ben mumbled totally
confused. 

Almost like robots the ten men walked
outside to the vacant parking lot where building materials were stored. 
Foremen and employees looked up, could see what was about to happen and
followed the crowd.  Ben’s anger rose.  Was all this because Missy
went home?  Damn, he’d tried to be patient, and when he tried to call she
was always out or had nothing to say to him.  Besides, how could they
expect him to talk to her through someone?  What the hell else did they
expect?  Well enough was enough!  He could take no more!  All
his building anger and sexual frustration since he’d met Missy bubbled and
boiled until it turned to white, hot rage.  He wasn’t about to let these
guys beat the hell out of him.  Not this time.  And this time he’d
save Gonzalo for last!

When he saw the first clearing, he turned
with arms swinging.  Ricardo was in the way and went down with a
crash.  When two guys quickly jumped him, he threw them out of the way
with little effort and went for Marco.  He slammed his fist into Marco’s
face several times like it was a punching bag, felt him go limp, let go and
reached for Paulo.  Gonzalo tried to step in, but Ben flung him
away.  Holding onto Paulo’s collar, Ben mashed his face twice then went
for his ribs before he dropped him.  Pedro and Luis jumped Ben.  He
knocked Luis out of the way and grabbed Pedro who managed to land one punch to
Ben’s eye before he went down.  Ben turned around looking for Luis and saw
Jose nearest.  Lunging at him, Ben knocked Jose in the right side of the
head and then the chin.  He went limp when Ben hit him in the stomach just
as Tony and Gonzalo jumped in again.  Ben flipped Gonzalo out of the way
again and kneed Tony in the groin.  No one noticed the police cars drive
up, and the policemen get out slowly, not sure what they were seeing.  Six
guys were on the ground in various stages of consciousness and Ben was circling
the other three.

“Come on.”  Ben’s voice was so
low it could hardly be heard.  He was breathing hard, gasping, and his
body was wet.  “I’ve had it with you guys.  Come on and fight me
now.”

“Look there’s an ordinance—” 
One of the officers came to life.

“Screw your ordinance.”  Ben
glared at the three brothers he circled, giving him some time to catch his
breath.  “They’re on my property, and it’s personal.  I hope I never
hear the name Sanchez again.”

“But still the law—”

“Screw it!”  Ben glanced at
the officer and circled.  Tony looked up at Gonzalo helplessly with his
hand holding his groin.  “Arrest me when I’m finished if you want!” 
He lunged for Luis.  It just took two good upper cuts to down Luis, and
Ben turned to Juan.  He grabbed him by the collar, landed four blows to
his face and felt him go limp.  Ben dropped him to the pavement and turned
to Gonzalo.  Although none of the guys had managed to do much damage,
tears rolled down Ben’s cheeks.  One of the policemen quietly called for
an ambulance.

“Dammit!”  Ben yelled. 
“I tried!  I don’t even know what the hell this is about this time.” 
He slammed Gonzalo in the jaw.

“She saw you with another
woman!”  Gonzalo circled and hit Ben in the ribs.  “Sitting there at
home every night waiting for you—you were with some damn woman!”  Ben
punched Gonzalo in the ribs.

Ben was stunned.  “When?” 
Gonzalo slammed Ben’s eye.

“Today in the cafeteria.  She
came to tell you what the doctor told her to do—”  Ben got Gonzalo in the
right eye.

The day raced through Ben’s
confused mind.  “In the café—”

Gonzalo’s fist slammed Ben’s other
eye.  Ben’s reaction was instant.  Both swung like they were
competing for a heavyweight championship when a third patrol car and an
ambulance drove up.  A rooky cop nervously jumped out of the squad car,
saw nothing but two men fighting, whipped out his gun and yelled “FREEZE!”

Ben and Gonzalo stopped too,
totally surprised.  For several moments no one moved like time stood
still.  Then, as if coming to their senses, officers quickly handcuffed
Ben and Gonzalo and three of the brothers who didn’t appear seriously
injured.  These five were pulled into patrol cars, Ben was put in one all
alone, and the rest of the brothers were put into the ambulances to have ribs
taped and cuts cleaned at the hospital.

At the station, once the initial
shock of such a large gang coming in was over, things slowly cooled down. 
Ben was hauled into a separate office and pushed into a chair.  He was too
tired to argue, too tired to make a call, too tired to care what happened, too
tired to give a damn anymore.  He barely heard the charges read to him and
shuffled silently to a cell.

Gonzalo called his father while
officers wrote up their reports.  He watched as Ben was led away, felt a
surge of guilt and then turned his attention to his brothers.  In less
than half an hour Mr. Sanchez came with an attorney who argued the boys
shouldn’t be charged because Ben attacked them.  He pushed for charges
against Ben.  It seemed since the police were outnumbered by Sanchez boys
at the station they decided it was easier to arrest Ben than nine
brothers.  Besides, the witnesses verified Ben went after them.  It
amazed everyone how quiet the station was after the Sanchez family left. 
Even the Spinelli guy was quiet.

“In the morning we’ll formally
press charges.”  The attorney told Mr. Sanchez  “The man must have
gone crazy.

“No you’re wrong.”  Gonzalo
chewed his lip.  “We went after him, and I think we pushed him too
far.”  Ben’s confused expression over their accusations haunted
Gonzalo.  Instead, in the morning he’d do some checking.

It wasn’t a quiet night in the
Sanchez household.  Gonzalo dropped on a sofa and ignored everyone when
his brothers came back from the emergency room.  Ben got some of them
pretty bad.  There was a lot of groaning and moaning.  His mother
fussed all over the place; his father stomped around uselessly. Gonzalo chewed
his thumb worrying about Missy upstairs.  Finally he jumped up, raced
upstairs, hesitated at Missy’s door and quietly opened it.

“What do you want?”  Her red,
swollen eyes showed she’d been crying.

“I just wanted to be sure you’re
all right.”

“How would you feel if you were
me?”  She bit her lip.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” 
Gonzalo nodded.

“If that’s all you wanted, I’m all
right, I’m doing fine.”  She sighed heavily.  “Why don’t you just
leave me alone?”

“Yeah, goodnight Melissa.” 
Gonzalo left the room when she turned away from him.  He wandered back
downstairs and sat on the sofa, watched as one by one his groaning brothers
went up to bed, watched his mother tiredly push his father upstairs too, and
still Ben’s confused face about their accusations haunted him.

On the way to work the next
morning, Gonzalo decided not to go to Ben’s office and scare his poor secretary
again.  The lady probably sat there all night frozen.  The first
thing he did was call her on the phone and find out who the hell the woman was
Ben was with and why.  Just as he figured, every one of them took it
wrong.  When he dropped the receiver, he knew much more too—how Ben had
worked late into the night each night since Missy came home.  So they HAD
pushed him too far!  Well the least he could do was see the charges were
dropped and get Ben out of jail.  Afterwards, the rest must be up to
Ben.  Even Missy seemed resigned to it.

 “You can go.”  The
officer unlocked Ben’s cell later in the morning.

“Yeah?”  Ben uncovered his
eyes in surprise and rose from the cot.

“Charges have been dropped.”

“Oh.”  Mechanically Ben
followed the officer to the front office, picked up his personal belongings and
walked outside.  Still feeling numb he didn’t bother to ask questions,
just called a cab and went home.  What the hell happened to make them drop
charges?

Still seeking an answer to the
question, Ben let himself into his house, went upstairs and showered. 
After changing he went downstairs and dropped on the sofa.  He felt
drained—too drained to go to work—too drained to do anything.  For over an
hour he stared at nothing through the window.  Then slowly he hauled
himself up, went to the garage for his other car and went to the office. 
Nothing was left but work—a half finished mall.  For a split second he
considered chucking it all and going back to New York like a beaten dog, but it
was only a split second.  Ben never left a job unfinished.  No, he’d
call his attorney to arrange an annulment and free Missy, finish the damn mall
and then disappear.  Being forced to leave his intended marriage in a mess
was enough.

When Ben walked into the reception
room sporting two black eyes, his secretary’s mouth dropped open.  His
eyes were not the reason; she’d just spent the morning calling all the
hospitals to see if he’d been admitted, then imagined he was dead somewhere.