Keeping Her Love (6 page)

Rhett dipped to kiss her again, and she pulled him in with an eagerness he hadn’t experienced for quite some time. The covers were pushed away on the floor and they were practically writhing in pleasure. Tula sucked hard on his lips and tongue before Rhett pulled away from her to tug her shirt off. He sucked on a pink nipple, letting a single finger slide down towards the sensitive flesh between her legs.

And then the jackhammering began.

They jumped from one another as if they’d been caught in the act, reaching for the covers. They paused, then looked to one another, wondering what the heck was going on. It sounded like the jackhammering was happening was right under their window, and taking a quick peek, they saw that there was indeed a handyman breaking up the concrete that circled the house.

“What is going on?” Rhett wondered aloud as he peered out the window.

“I have no idea,” responded Tula, raising an eyebrow.
 

“TULA! RHETT! COME DOWN! WE HAVE CROISSANTS!”

They looked to each other again, realizing that the passion had officially drained out of the room.
 

“I guess we better go down,” said Tula dejectedly.

“Yeah.”

“Another time. Tonight. We’ll go away somewhere.”

“Like… San Francisco?”

“San Fran…” She seemed confused at first by the words. And then she realized: “You want to take me to San Francisco?!”

“Uh huh.”

“Right now?”

“Yessum, I was thinking that.”

“Oh, Rhett!” She leapt into his arms, hugging him tightly as he held her body weight up.

They took off for San Francisco not long after making some early morning greetings with Tula’s parents. Apparently the water line under Tula’s window had somehow been punctured the night before—it was uncertain how it happened or by whom—but Mr. Florian’s plumber of a cousin was called right away to have the problem fixed. Tula and Rhett shared one last private look at this, scorning their bad luck, and then decided after a few bites of croissant that it was time for their adventure in the Bay Area.
 

Rhett had decided to drive to the relatively safe city of Concord to park the car and get on the regional subway system known as BART. It wasn’t the most romantic of transportation, but that didn’t seem to bother Tula in the least. She’d never been on the BART before, and found the whole experience to be very interesting. Not five feet away from them was a homeless elderly gentleman mumbling nonsense to himself. Meanwhile, another man was intently eyeing Rhett’s iPhone every time he pulled it out to check the time. When they got off the BART at San Francisco, though, they shook off the glum atmosphere and entered a more enchanting world. Tula was delighted when she saw the red brick sidewalk, and became even more ecstatic when she turned to the ringing of a real cable car.
 

“Wow, look, Rhett! Isn’t it beautiful here?”

He put his arm around her waist. “It certainly is.”

They stood facing the grey-blue facade of the Ferry Building, as beautiful as it was classy. In front of the Ferry Building was a large collection of white tents full of peddlers and merchants. Rhett and Tula strolled down the street, pausing to gaze at photographs, trinkets, art, and souvenirs. Rhett stopped to buy Tula a bouquet flowers and some artisan jewelry before they were stopped by a short old woman. She was dressed in whimsical robes and had on a jingling gold headband. Grasping Tula’s hand without a word, she began intently observing it.
 

“Excuse me?” Tula inquired, not quite knowing how to handle the situation.
 

Rhett was about to interject when the woman announced, “You have good lines, my darling, good lines.” She had a thick accent, and if Rhett were to guess, he’d say that she was from some Eastern European country.

“Oh, thanks,” Tula offered awkwardly.

“May I read your hand more thoroughly, my dear? No charge at all, I promise. I simply had to read your fortune when I saw you. Perhaps it will draw a crowd for my pitiful little stand.”

She gestured backwards, referencing a small tent with a wooden sign out front. Inside was a low round table and a few large velvet pillows. Tula and Rhett traded some compromising looks as they thought it over.

The old woman just wants some free publicity,
thought Rhett.
It couldn’t hurt to let her say a few silly words.

Rhett nodded, and so Tula turned back to the fortune teller. “Sure, go ahead.”

The woman peered down more closely at Tula’s hand, squinting her eyes. “Yes… I see a nice, long life for you, my dear. There will be some health issues as you approach your forties, though nothing too serious.” She mused to herself for a moment. Her breath smelled strongly of some kind of raw mint. “I see some unlucky occurrences. Yes.”

“Unlucky?”

“Mmhmm. Unlucky. You must be wary. You are a good person on the whole, but this bad lucky follows you closely.”

Maybe she isn’t such a crackpot,
thought Rhett.
We’ve had a lot of bad luck lately. More than I’d like.

The woman continued: “Your money line is strong, though I see your travel line is short. Perhaps try to appreciate more of what distant lands have to offer you, hmm?”

“Yes, I suppose I will try to. It is true that I don’t travel much.”

By then a small group of onlookers had gathered. The old woman let Tula’s hand go, staring at her as if to suggest her dismissal. Tula turned to part her way past the collection of amused tourists, taking Rhett by the hand.

“Well, that was interesting, however brief,” said Rhett. “I suppose she got her collection of potential customers.”

“Yes, I suppose so. It was fun enough. You weren’t interested in getting your fortune read?”

“Nah. I’d rather spend my money on spoiling you. I heard that the Ferry Building has some nice shops inside… A place that sells chocolate, fancy cheese, a cooking supply store. If you see something you want, don’t even stop to think about the price. I want you to really relax and enjoy today.”

Tula looked up to him with a jovial expression, her cheeks red from the mild chill and her complexion a smooth ivory. “I love you, Rhett.”

She stopped to kiss him, pressing her dainty hand against the five o’clock shadow on his cheek. When she stopped to gaze into his eyes, her expression slowly morphed into extreme shock.

“What is it?” Rhett inquired.
 

Her lips moved briefly as if she had the inclination to reply, but she held her tongue.
 

“Tula, what’s wrong?” Rhett asked with more urgency. “Tell me.”

As if driven into spilling the beans by an impatient parent, she uttered, “The ring. It’s gone.”

Rhett felt as if his internal organs had fallen down the bottom of his gut. “
What?!”
He took her hand in his, recognizing that her precious engagement ring was indeed missing from her finger. All that remained was the faint imprint of when it had been there. “Are you sure that you hadn’t left it at home?”

“No, I didn’t!” She said, taking a step back. “I know I wore it, because I was looking at it while we were on the BART earlier.”

Rhett swallowed, trying not to let his rage and shock get the better of him. It was a two thousand dollar piece of jewelry, something he had saved up to buy her for the better part of a month. He didn’t want to make the situation worse by upsetting Tula any more, as she was already thoroughly mortified. “Okay, so when was the last time you realized it was there on your finger?”

She shook her head, trying to think, her emotions a terrorizing roller coaster. “I don’t know. We were here. I mean, we haven’t been out and about for very long. It must have been…”

“It was the fortune teller, wasn’t it?”

She looked up to him, her eyes wet with impending tears. “I don’t know. It must have been.”

Rhett left her there, bounding back along the red brick sidewalk for the old hag that had stolen his fiancée’s prize possession. There were a lot of people still milling along past the tents, which slowed his pace down a bit, but it didn’t seem to matter how fast he went. By the time he reached the location of where the fortune teller had been, there was nothing left there but empty space. That terrible feeling in his stomach became present again, and he knew in a very real way that Tula’s ring was potentially lost forever.

Standing in the sea of people, surrounding by wary and questioning expressions, he felt helpless. It was opaquely apparent what had just happened. The fortune telling tent was gone. The woman was gone. Tracing back through it in his mind, it was obvious—the old woman drew Tula in with a free ‘palm reading,’ made sure to direct her attention to the hand without the expensive jewelry, brought a lot of distracting people around them, and then made a quick escape. Rhett wasn’t quite sure how the woman managed to disassemble the tent so quickly, though he assumed that she had an accomplice of some kind.

He didn’t necessarily want to cry when it all sank in. Rage coursed through his veins and he felt like he was one of the biggest jackasses on the planet. In some way, he thought that he had let his girlfriend down. She
did
ask if he approved of the fortune telling, and he had. They were both disarmed by the clever woman, but he felt in a paternalistic sort of way that he should have known better. What kind of provider and partner could he be to Tula if he couldn’t even spot danger lurking around the corner?

When he saw Tula slowly approach him, the temptation to cry really hit him. She was blaming herself, he knew, and there was a sense of shame shared between them.

“She’s gone,” said Tula in tired defeat. She was staring out at the sidewalk, holding back her feelings of sadness.

Rhett gently took her by the shoulders. “I’ll buy you another ring, Tula. We were tricked. I mean, we can go to the police and tell them what happened.”

“What good would that do?” She asked. “We’ll never see that woman again. We’ll never get it back. I’m such an idiot. I don’t watch what I’m doing, and things like this happen.”

His eyes widened slightly. He wasn’t accustomed to Tula being so hard on herself, and had a deep-seated distaste for it. Whenever anything went wrong, Tula was always the one to gloss over any bumps in the road. She was his rock in a way, a comforting light in a dark world. And here she was, down in the depths of depression.

“It’s just a ring,” said Rhett. “I can buy you another one. We’ll be more careful next time.”

She slowly shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Bad things have been happening because of me. First it was the oven and now it’s the ring.”

“Tula! Those weren’t your fault. First, that woman tricked us. Two, nobody knows what happened with the oven. And maybe it’s a good thing.” He took her by the hand as they walked towards the Ferry Building again. “It’s testing our love for one another, so we can see how we handle situations that are less than ideal. Chin up, Tula. This is no big deal.”

She wiped away a tear and forced herself to put on a smile, however jagged it was. “I just feel like I let you down. That ring was beautiful. It was a symbol of our love, and I let someone snatch it away.”

“I have money, especially after moving in with you guys. I can buy another ring.”

She just stared at the pavement. Rhett was no mind reader, but he couldn’t help but interpret the look as her thinking,
But it won’t be the same.
 

As he sighed, trying to form more optimistic thoughts, he saw it: a white van, and the fortune teller throwing something in the back of it. She was only thirty feet away, perhaps completely unaware that Rhett could see her. There was a large road separating Rhett from her with a lot of people dispersed, but if he hurried, he could sprint across traffic and get his hands on her.

She must have thought that we would go the other way or something!
Thought Rhett.
Holy cow, what luck! I’ve gotta take advantage of this before she gets away!

He dashed off, leaving Tula behind without a word. Cutting off pedestrians and leaping past a few families with toddlers, he threw himself into traffic just as the crossing light pulsed red. He ran across with only an inch to spare, some taxis taking off just as he stepped foot on the sidewalk. As soon as he got to the other side, he knew he was near. As fast as her short body could crawl up into the van, she went. Fearful that she would take off on him, Rhett ran as fast as his legs could push themselves. As quickly as he went, it wasn’t rapid enough because the fortune teller was able to start up the white van and pull away. Rhett’s heart leapt in fear as she drove onto Embarcadero Street. The traffic was moving at a decent pace, and at this point, she had a better chance of losing him than vice versa.

“Stop that van!” Rhett called out, waving his arms wildly. Some walkers stopped to stare at him as he ran along the pavement, and the people driving practically ignored his pleas.

The van weaved through traffic as if the driver were drunk or on some kind of crazy drug. Just as it reaching out of Rhett’s sight, some kind Samaritan had decided to slam the breaks in front of the getaway van. Two other cars coincidentally framed the van in because of a red light. His chance presented, Rhett pushed his aching legs to run as swiftly as they could once more. Rhett ran between a few stopped cars once he was close, and he headed for the driver’s side of the van. Despite the fortune teller’s sleight of hand, she hadn’t been swift enough to roll up her window while taking off.

In a fit of rage, Rhett’s hands shot through the open space and wrapped tightly around her throat.

“Where’s the ring?!” He screamed, tightening his hold.

Her eyes popped out of her skull as if his squeezing was pushing her brains out. He felt a little bad about assaulting a woman, but didn’t know what else he could have done about the position she’d put him in. It wasn’t like he could have calmly made conversation about it.

There were some murmurings from the drivers and passersby while he did this. The situation didn’t exactly make him look like a hero, but he didn’t know what course of action he could take from that point to lighten his image. She struggled to speak, only producing squeaks. He loosened his grip, only to let her explain herself, but worried about the impending green light. It was only a matter of time before she could make another rapid getaway.