BOMAW Vol. 10-12 (220 page)

"We've had this discussion before Sylvia, I am, who and what I am. I can't change baby, I will be this way, until the day I die. So, okay, fine, compare me to him, but you know - no matter what, I'll be here for you." He moved in closer, because she was against the wall now, he didn't want her moving from there, and was soon blocking her, his arms up, hands pressed to the wall on both sides of her, lowering himself to look into her face, into her eyes; moving in closer still, his forearms now against the wall. "Look at me." He coaxed softly, watching more tears fall. "Aye, look - at - me."

Sylvia finally forced herself to look up at him.

"I'm sorry Sylvia, I'm sorry. You're right, I - I knew you were pissed and..." He sighed, "... I - hid in bed - and I should have just, come down then, faced it, you - told you, what you needed to know. I'm not trying to stress you out Sylvie, I'm not baby, really I'm not. It's just that, sometimes, I fear you more than any law. More than any foe. There is no one, that I fear, more than you, displeasing you, losing you. And you know that, don't you?" He looked into her eyes, lifting an arm from the wall, his fingers gently wiped her tears away, caressing the soft skin of her cheek, he gazed into her eyes even longer. "Forgive me, please? I'm not perfect, but I will never hurt you, or leave you, I will never leave you - only death would make me leave you."

Sylvia sniffed, and returned, "There's always prison, huh Shawn?" She stared into his eyes to let that sink in, finally, she pushed away from him, leaving him standing there, "I'll be back later."

He turned, "Where you going?" He asked, and dare not try to stop her.

"I said I'd be back."

"Today right? Today? Please Sylvia - today?"

She turned in the doorway, looking back at him, "Yeah Shawn, yeah." And walked out the door. Climbed into her red mustang, pulled out and hit the highway, with the intention of going to the store to pick up her grocery list from the chalk board, but twenty-five minutes later, her exit came up to get off and hit her favorite grocery store; only to find herself passing it by. She didn't feel like stopping yet, in fact, one hour went by, and then two, and then three hours, until she was looking for change to go through the Illinois toll-ways. She looked at her clock on the dash, it was 12:45 in the afternoon and she was in Chicago. Twenty minutes after that, she was pulling up in front of Sheila's house. Getting out, she walked up to the door, rang the bell.

Sheila opened it, saw her.

"Aaaah shit! Now what? Come on in - what he do now?"

*

Crystal was missing the family. The house was quiet. She was up, Victor was in bed, sleeping. She wasn't sure what time he'd come home last night, but he was in bed, knocked out cold. She could tell he'd been drinking, could smell the evidence of it in the room where she'd gone in to get herself something to wear, her make-up and other things before getting in the shower. Now she was fresh, dressed, already had something out of the freezer for dinner, but now what? She picked up her mobile sitting in front of the TV that played low, about to message her friends, or rather, Rochelle, when she put in her pass codes, and her phone lit up. A moment later, it started vibrating as text messages rolled in. She smiled, excited, there were six of them. Clicking to the text messages to see who they were from, she noted, two were from Victor, had come in from the night before no doubt while he was out. And then four from Ben, they were from this morning. She decided to read Victor's first.

*How bout i come get you? Text me back*

And of course she'd never seen the message, because after Ben's message, she'd turned her phone off. The second message said.

Fine, don't expect me to come running right back home

Crystal smirked; at the moment since she hadn't known, it mattered little, she deleted both messages. And then felt her excitement build previous to reading those from Ben. The first,
Good morning Crysta'Bella, want you to know, I stayed with the boys last night
and second text,
Town chief is here this morning, speaking to Mundo, your mom and Shawn
and third text,
I miss you, but I have the boys, that helps - taking them to see, Iron Giant - I love you
and the last text,
I'd like to text you through the day, okay?
- Crystal looked up at the bedroom door, a bit nervous, but discarded it and text him back.
I'd like that, sure. Thank you, for taking care of the boys.
- She sent it. Then set about calling Rochelle, walking out on the front porch so her voice wouldn't wake Victor.

"Whassup girlie?" Rochelle answered right away.

"Nothing much girl, I'm back at home."

"Back at home? What you mean?"

"Victor, I'm back with Victor."

"What?! Why?"

"I really don't wanna talk about it right now, thought we could get together today, need your hair done?"

"Girl yes! Matter of fact I do, need a touch up and my style cleaned up, but I'm at work right now; off at three, that gonna be okay?"

"That'll be fine."

"Your place or mine?"

"Hmmm, yours - that way I can talk freely."

"Deal, see you at three-thirty?"

"I'll be there."

"Straight! Betta' get some money out the bank huh?"

"You know it!" Crystal laughed.

"All right, see you then."

Soon as Crystal hung up, her phone vibrated with a new text message. She checked, it was from Ben.
We're having a ball, don't know what you're missing. Mundo and I, have all the kids, Angela, Sasha, Joseph, Isaac, Darren, bodyguard - driver included. Only thing missing, YOU!
Smiling, she text back,
Wish I were there, you're such a good friend Ben.
she clicked send, walking back into the house, to the kitchen. She decided if she was going to Rochelle's, she should at least prepare something for Victor, as well, leave a note so that he knew where she was. Phone vibrated, reply back from Ben,
Always, always you and I - where's your ring, btw?
Crystal looked up, thinking about it. She knew where it was, in the room, among her things, in her small jewellery box. She crept quietly into the room again, found her jewellery box and took it in the boys room. Opening it, she took the ring out, looked at it, admiring it, cherishing it, an idea came to mind that brought a smile to her face. Putting it safely in the pocket pouch of her purse, she left the house and went to the arts and crafts store at the mini-mall not far from her. She'd always loved having lots of things on her key ring, and thought there was no better place for the ring, than on her key ring and always with her, out in the open, yet - still hidden from view. She went to the yarn section, found the fine, silk, weave thread yarn, purchasing bundles of purple, blue, gold, red and white. Plus a fat curve weave needle, and eight, brass, ring weights. Paying for her purchases, she went home, still quiet, checking on Victor. He was still out cold.

On the sofa, she sat, laying out all her yarns, took out the ring, pulled it from the gold chain, that she put around her neck. There would be nothing suspicious about the gold chain, she swore she would never take it off. Next step, she began weaving and sewing a colorful cover, thread woven tightly against thread, knotting it on the outside until the entire ring was hidden within the color-silk pattern - it would be the center ring. From the knotted edge on the outer ring, she began sewing, crocheting a circular colorful flower, gold petals, sewing into it, the brass rings, to sew in the center of them, red hearts within each. It took her hours, sitting where she was to complete it, but when it was done, she had a gorgeous, sturdy, flower adornment for her key chain. Smiling, she grabbed her keys, and attached it to them. It was big, heavy and pretty - so colorful, it would be almost impossible to lose her keys, and - from now on, that ring from Ben, would be with her everywhere she went. A great sense of satisfaction washed over her. Just then she heard Victor up. She looked up at the door as she was cleaning up her sewing supplies; he opened it stepping into sight, eyes going straight to her.

"What time is it?" He groaned tired.

"Close to one I think."

He mumbled something under his breath and walked down the hall to the bathroom. Crystal stood, put her sewing supply away, picked up her keys, tossing them into the air to catch them, grinning and feeling pretty proud of herself. In the kitchen, she could hear that he was getting ready to get in the shower. "You want me to fix you something to eat?"

He didn't answer her right away, instead, he opened the bathroom door, standing in it, staring at her. She turned as the two of them stood looking at one another, he finally asked, "You get my text last night?"

"No, I hadn't seen it until this morning, I was probably sleep when you sent it."

"Em, okay. What about today? What have you planned for today?"

Before she could answer, the phone rang. They both stared at it. "You should get it, I haven't been back here long enough for it to be for me." Crystal advised.

"Could be your mom? Shawn? Mundo?"

"They don't have this number, I don't even have this number." She reminded him.

He went for it and grabbed the phone, "Hello?"

She turned back to her trusty cookbook, intent on preparing him another good meal before she left to do Rochelle's hair. By the sounds of the conversation behind her, he was not happy. "No, I said that I needed the rest of the week off! I was given until Sunday!"

She listened as he huffed and puffed.

"I can't help it if he's sick, I-..."

He was obviously cut off, and was standing and listening.

"There is no one that can cover tonight?"

Again, listening.

"It's not right, I should not be forced to come in, when I called a few days ago-..."

Crystal turned leaning back against the kitchen counter listening to him, watching him as he turned to look at her, angry as he could be. As she watched him, she thought for a moment that he would quit, but instead, he ended it.

"I'm only working tonight! Not Saturday night! And since I'm working tonight, I was to come back on Sunday, no way - I'm off Sunday." He informed whomever it was he was speaking to. He listened another moment and then, "Yeah, whatever." And hung up the phone looking at Crystal, "Well that blows our day!"

"You've got to go into work?"

"Yes, pisses me off, I had off until Sunday. Hell, I might as well go back to bed, what were you gonna do today?" He asked, leaning against the bathroom door.

"I'm gonna fix you something to eat, then go do Rochelle's hair, I don't know after that."

"How about you call her up, tell her you've had a change of plans, and stay at home with your husband? How about that?"

Crystal glanced over her shoulder at him, that was the last thing she wanted to do, but - "Okay, I'll give her a call. Maybe she can come here."

"In that case, you might as well go there. If she's here, how is that time for us?"

"Fine Victor, I'll call her, reschedule."

"Thank you, we should just chill here at home together today, work on getting close the way we once were." He declared making his way across the room towards her, moving up behind her. "We're long overdue for that." He went on.

"When does your counselling start, what the judge ordered?" She asked, trying to ignore his body up close behind her, his hands, at her waist, moving slowly up and down, signalling that he wanted to pull her back against him, his face going towards her neck.

"Not sure, haven't checked the sheet." He kissed her neck, his hands moving over her flat stomach, and then down. "Emmm, you smell good, good enough to eat." He groaned and grinded his growing erection against her buttocks.

"Victor! Stop now. I can't believe you haven't looked to see when you - would you stop." She couldn't finish what she was saying, for grabbing his hand that moved over her lower mound, his fingers boldly touching her. "No, Victor."

"I want you, I want you so bad, please Crystal? Come on baby - it's been so long."

"No Victor, I've been home for just a little over a day, we haven't talked about anything. You haven't made any attempt to prove you'll be doing your counselling. You just want me back in bed, as if nothing has happened between us."

Moving quickly, aggressively up behind her, pushing her into the counter, he slammed his hand on the kitchen counter, trapping her between him and it, "Dammit! You fuckin' think I'm stupid, huh? This about that, Ben? Huh? Is it? You don't act the same with me-..."

"Move Victor!" She tried to push herself out, he wasn't letting her out. In fact, he was proving to her, that she was not stronger than him, she was not physically capable of making him do anything if he didn't want to, he wanted her to understand that he was not weak or hen-pecked and all that happened in the past, was in the past.

"No! You answer me! You got a thing for that, Ben? Do you? You don't melt when I touch you anymore! I used to touch you, just look at you a certain way, and you would melt, now,-..."

"Stop it Victor." She ground out through clenched teeth, he was starting to worry her a bit, this was a different person and she couldn't push her way out, nor could she turn around, he wasn't letting her. Suddenly his arms banned around her, trapping her arms against her body, gripping her wrists as well, he backed away from the counter, lifting her off her feet, and he wasn't huffing and puffing to do it as if forcing himself, it was coming pretty easy.

"What are you doing? Let go of me! I mean it!" She yelled at him as he was carrying her, even while she struggled, kicking, her heal caught his shin.

"Ow! Damnnit! That hurt!" He barked in her ear.

"Let me go, or I'll kick it again!" She threatened, they were at their bedroom door, she had her legs up, her feet braced against the door frame to keep him from taking her in, he simply backed up, turned with his back to the door and backed in that way. Inside the room, he fell to the bed still holding her; she was now trapped beneath him, his weight pressing down on her. "VICTOR! GET OFF!!"

He pulled her arms from beneath her, holding her wrists tightly, and spread them up and wide, winging them, pinning her in place, refusing to move off of her, looking down into her face, turned sideways in order for her to breathe, "What's going on, huh? Tell me! Is this about him?!" He pleaded, unable to help himself, it scared him that he seemed to no longer have control of her emotions. "You in love with him? Huh, Crystal? Come on, don't do this to us!" He pleaded.