Getting by (A Knight's Tale) (27 page)

Finished with the shower, I dried and went to my twin’s room to get some clean clothes from the drawers that he assigned me; a pair of jeans and underwear. When I finished grooming, I went outside the room and joined him in the kitchen. While we exchanged life experiences, I cooked for us. The chef needed a break from the kitchen, and my stomach begged for a set of enchiladas. I made two full trays, in case we didn’t cook the next day or have a visitor—Liam.

JAK: I’m in NYC

LAK: Glad you made it.

JAK: You gonna visit?

LAK: Tempted, everyone’s going to be there over the weekend. Heads up, by the way.

LAK: What’s with the prophet look?

“Mitch, did you take a picture?” I asked. A knock on the door stopped my inspiration to rant to him. “Are we expecting company?”

“Daily.” He gazed at me for a second, whatever was happening at the door he thought was evil and I wasn’t going to like it much. “Nah, don’t put a shirt on. This will teach her a lesson. Or you can hide for the next few hours, it’s up to you.”

“Call.” Mitch faked annoyance opening the door. Emma’s wide smile didn’t bother with his attitude. “When I go to visit you, I call you, expecting the same courtesy. I told you, one of these days you’ll regret these surprise visits.”

I hid inside the kitchen; should I teach her a lesson or hide? And what lesson would that be?

“It’s almost Halloween, Mitchel,” she responded, as if that made all the sense in the world. For her it did.

“Not for a couple of weeks,” my brother said.

“Humor me. I got us tickets for a concert, and after, we can go to haunted houses. See ghosts and…” her voice stopped. “Oh my god, he’s here. Isn’t he, Mitch?”

“Was,” my brother said.

“Aw, but is he better?” Her worried voice tightened my chest. I hadn’t decided on what to do about Emma—no, how to deal with her. There was silence, no words had been said. “That’s fine, don’t tell me. Knowing he’s back with his family gives me peace. As I told you, moving on, twenty three, have plenty of time. Let me know about Halloween.”

“You’re not staying?” Mitch asked.

“Nah, I know when I’m not welcomed, Mitch. Call me when your company is gone. Just don’t put her against the door.”

“That answers my next question,” my brother said after he shut the door. He helped me pour the salsa on the rolled tortillas filled with chicken and cheese. “Why?”

I pressed the tips of my fingers over my closed eyes. The question had a thousand answers. “She’s happy, has a family and—”

“Loves you,” he interrupted. “If you had seen her just now; the world brightened, knowing you were back and safe. But it darkened some, when she realized you were hiding from her. I have a connection with you, and so does Em, Jay. Cade moved on from Gaby in a day. Have you?” I shook my head. “That’s what eight, nine months?”

A heavy knock, no, more like a wood slamming noise, came from the door. Urgent and angry. When I opened it, she stood there, furious eyes narrowing at me.

“You owe me at least a
‘hello, I’m freaking safe,’
” she demanded. “Have the balls to tell me that you’re alive. I looked for you everywhere. I took two months off work to see if I could bribe Serendipity. But the damn thing is loyal to you. And you look like you need food and a groomer. Not an esthetician.” Then she moved a few inches from where she was to look at Mitch. “I’m not happy with you, Mitchel.”

With that, she grabbed the door handle and closed the door, leaving us both motionless for a few seconds. I ran to the room, put on a sweatshirt, a jacket and a pair of sneakers and ran to catch her. Once I hit the street, I headed toward her apartment, reaching her two blocks before she arrived. I gently touched her shoulder, and when she spotted me, I became the next victim of her laser beam attack. Thankfully, the faulty power didn’t harm me. Not stopping, she continued walking until we arrived at her building.

“Hi, Javier,” she said to her doorman, “don’t let him in.”

“Javier, come on, man, I’ll repay you for it.” Fist bumping the man, he opened the door for us both. “Em, can you slow down?”

There was no response. She took the stairs instead of the elevator. I wanted to know when she became faster than me; I was having a hard time keeping up with her. But her strength hadn’t improved, when she tried to close the emergency door of her floor in my face, I was able to stop her and get inside behind her.

“Go back to wherever you were, Jacob Knight,” she yelled, while searching for her keys. “I’m glad you’re alive and hopefully—”

“I didn’t want you to see me like this.” Emma looked up at me after sticking the key inside the door. “Emmy, give me a break, please, baby.”

She opened the door, went inside, and tried again to shut me out. Darn, the woman had become too explosive. No, correction she had already been explosive.

“Never Emmy-baby me again, Jacob Knight,” she said grunting—and maybe peeling her teeth. I was beginning to fear for my life. Emma Anderson had nothing on the Siberian Tigers, or was that the other way around? I had all my shots, rabies and tetanus, in case the bite went deep. “Get out of my house. I can only take so much rejection. And I’m over you.”

“India,” I said throwing out the name of one of the places I visited. Why that one? On purpose, it’s also a girl’s name. She might be over me, but her curiosity to know who I was with won the competition of ignoring me completely, and kept her from kicking me out of her house. Emma stopped and gave me a glance—curiosity and a little bitterness. “Tibet, Japan and China. You’ve been wondering why my hair is overgrown. Since you won’t ask out loud, I decided to answer.” Mitch had been right, there was a link between Emma and I that I had never noticed before, like a cord that joined us and made us a whole. Not like the one that I shared with my twin, no, this was different.

“How long?” she asked. There was a combination of curiosity and anger fighting inside her.

“Gone?” Emma nodded. “I departed right after I flew out of the hotel room, to Malaysia. That night, it was too intense for me. I was afraid of hurting you, and the vulnerability of you seeing the weak Jacob Knight. Not you, Emma, I was your hero and I fell from the highest pedestal.”

“I’ve seen those nightmares before,” Emma told me. I knew now, there had been plenty of times that I woke up from a freaky gaze, not remembering much, but seeing Emma on top of me. Riding me and making me feel as if I was in heaven after a hellish dream. “Only, I wasn’t sure what caused them.”

The emotional overload that caused such an intense reaction toward her cleared my vision. That, combined with the night when we opened up to each other, made me take a deep look inside myself and the life I was headed for; the way I lived, or didn’t live it. I made peace with my past, no more survivor guilt, and crap I used to think.

“Your eyes are softer,” Emma finally said, after neither one of us had spoken. We had been staring at each other. “I’m glad you found it, peace, you deserve it. Why did you come back to New York? Rachel misses you very much.”

“Because I need a chance to prove myself to you.” There was a chance that tomorrow I would die, or her. A meteor could crash, or life simply could continue happening and I wouldn’t be next to her. “That you’re everything to me. Dream girl, my elevator fantasy and the one I want to be next to for the rest of my life. I love you, my Pretty Girl.”

I pulled her against my chest, and wrapped my arms around her. She didn’t push me, but lifted her head to connect her lips with mine. Those lovely pouty lips were as sweet as I remembered. I kissed her slowly, my hands glided around her delicious body and Emma followed my lead sliding her hand under my sweatshirt and inside my jeans.

“I missed you so much,” Emma interrupted our kiss putting both hands on my chest. “Jake, don’t you ever disappear like that again.”

“Make up sex?” I asked her to lighten up the tension inside her eyes. “There’s this i—”

“Don’t you dare kill the once in a lifetime romantic moment, Jacob Knight.” She slapped me on the arm, but then jumped on me, wrapping her legs around my waist and put her lips close to my ear. “Make love to me, Jay, please.” Her raspy whisper made my entire body trembled.

“Your wish is my command, Emmy.”

*

Lunch in Central Park, how cliché of us. We had repeated the same pattern for the past three weeks, almost a month since I arrived in New York, and I had a routine set by the most scatterbrained person I’ve known. Her artistic side bloomed at a dangerous pace, and the extremely organized, compulsive person joined forces with the other. The results scared me beyond reason. She brought her personality into the real world—God help us.

I placed a blanket in front of her, the food, followed by myself. She continued staring at the horizon, the swans I noticed. But her drawing was totally different, yesterday’s full moon. The one we contemplated while sipping some tea and listening to opera on my parents’ terrace. They loaned me the penthouse for the time being, while we decided what to do next with our relationship. Mitch worried we were getting too attached to each other. Were we? I hoped so.

“Hi, Knight,” she finally acknowledged me, placing her sketch pad inside the messenger bag I bought last week, and all her drawing utensils in the smaller case. I handed her the sushi tray Mitch prepared for her, with only Tuna sashimi and the strange shrimp with tons of lime and pico de gallo she loved. “You’re my hero. I think I like you. Ready for today’s question?”

“No.” She smiled at my response and sipped some of the water I brought. “But go ahead, let’s get this over with.”

“We established that sometimes you’re a mercenary, for the right cause and price,” she said, and I nodded, “but you won’t accept your work as a super hero. Do you have an agency that saves the world?”

“You’re adorable,” I said, knowing she wouldn’t give up. Her new peep fight was to find out exactly what my surveillance company hid. Emma learned about all my businesses, because there wasn’t one moment we weren’t talking about it with Mitch or Liam over the phone. But the other one…I only handled it when she wasn’t around, or anyone for that matter. I had a special phone for it and a computer too. “Leave it at mercenary and move on, Emmy.”

“Can you just accept for once that you do superhero stuff?”

“No.” I fed her some of my food, and those eyes craved for a bite of my tuna salad. In exchange she gave me the shrimp ceviche. “Heroes don’t charge, I do. And when I’m pissed, I can be pretty evil about the bill I deliver. Most of the time I only play the strategic part, for security purposes, I don’t allow myself to do a live mission.”

“Because of what happened while you were gone?” I nodded. “You’re hiding something from that mission. Did he die?”

“I killed someone, Emma.” There, hate me? “They had some information we needed. Instead of torturing him…I killed him and continued with the other guy who gave us what we needed, but barely lived to tell the story. We rescued a group of teenage girls who were trafficked from France to Malaysia, and the window I was working with was too slim.”

“I’m sorry.” She placed her chin on my shoulder and rubbed my back. “You saved them, those girls who’d be used and killed before their twenty first birthdays. Think of the positive. What kind of Zen teacher are you, if you won’t use it on yourself.”

“Still not a hero, Em.” Her shaking body gave away the laugh she hid. “How are your little projects going?”

“Great!” she answered and began to tell me all about the new accounts Liam and she landed for the past few weeks. The new company had grown fast and they were looking at expanding the offices in New York. “I thought about what you asked me two weeks ago.”

My hands began to sweat, I was petrified. “Your parents are young, well younger than my grandparents. They have the energy to come and go everywhere, Grampy isn’t getting any younger—he is the oldest of them.” I nodded. “New York, if you’re still open to…do it.”

“I’m thinking about making an offer on the penthouse,” I said, living close to Central Park was one of Emma’s dreams. It wasn’t right across, but we had an excellent view, and only needed to walk a couple of blocks to get there.

“Temporary, for three, four years.” Emma gave me a peck on the lips. “When we’re ready for—” she stopped, widened eyes, thinking she had overstepped.

“Babies…children?” She nodded. “We’ll live wherever you want, Em. And marry when you’re ready and do everything in between.”

“I love you, Jacob Knight.”

“Love you too, baby, let’s go home.” We began to gather our trash and her messenger bag. “I’m thinking against the door, let’s see how that works. Ever since I came back, you have had me wondering about it.”

Her light laugh gave me hope that when I asked the most important question she would say yes. I patted the velvet box inside my jacket pocket, waiting for that moment. Thanksgiving, Christmas, tonight…I’d know when she was ready for it. We were synchronized and had a pretty good idea of what the other wanted.

A KNIGHT’S TALE II

EXCERPT

MITCH

“GET A ROOM,” I said, when I reached the living room and found my brother and sister in-law to be slobbering—sickening was how Liam described them. Emma began to pull the hem of my brother’s shirt, while he started shaking in laughter. The girl had an evil streak. “You begin that and I’ll tape you, Emma Lilian.”

Magically they separated.

“Promise you won’t come back married to some drunk girl, baby?” She touched her fiancé’s cheek. He shook his head and kissed her nose. Whipped. Then she looked at me. “He better come back in one piece and not hitched, Mitchel.”

“Emmy…” annoyed I went to give her a side hug, “what gives you the idea that Vegas is a place where men do so many stupid things? Take a break from the television.”

My brother grinned at her and shook his head, snatching her from my arm and hugging her. “I won’t do anything stupid, babe. Only miss you. If you want, you could come with me, we can get hitched there.” He winked at her.