Now and Again (24 page)

“That’s fine,” he said, panting with exertion. “We can do it this way.” He pressed a knee into her back and she screamed as she heard him unzipping his pants. She tried with every muscle in her body and every ounce of her will to move, but she was trapped.

“Ben,” she whimpered. He wouldn’t come, but thoughts of his strong, protective presence flooded her mind. She pressed her face to the thin rug on her floor, trying to think only of Ben. If only they hadn’t fought. If only he was here.

Her body tensed and another strangled cry escaped into the rug as she felt Eric struggling above her to get his pants down. But then she heard a powerful thud and his weight fell away as he slumped into a motionless pile beside her.

She looked up, wondering if her prayer had been answered. Had Ben known, somehow? But it was Jill, her neighbor from across the hall, who stood wielding a metal baseball bat in both hands, her eyes on Eric.

“I called 911,” Jill said, her voice calm and level. “Get up and find a weapon so we can fight him off if he wakes up.

“Jill! Thank God!” Layla sobbed, overcome with how close she’d come to living a nightmare. “Where’s Travis?”

“He’s at work. Where’s Prince?”

Layla flew across the room to her dog. He was still, but alive, his brown eyes pleading.

“Mommy’s here, Prince,” she said, her tears falling onto his back.

“Stay with him,” Jill ordered. “If this fucker moves a muscle I’ll bash his brains in.”

***

The trip to Creighton Hospital in the back of an ambulance was surreal. Layla was still in a fog. Her body hurt all over, but she could only think of the horror she’d felt in her apartment. She clamped a hand over her mouth and sobbed, overcome with emotion for all the women who hadn’t been saved at the last minute.

“You’re okay now,” a bald paramedic said, patting her hand. Layla texted Emma to meet her at the hospital. She was unable to talk to anyone.

By the time she was wheeled into an exam room, she’d stopped crying and was just replaying the scene in her apartment in her head. Jill had taken Prince to an emergency animal hospital, and Layla wished she was there, too.

“Hi, I’m Nancy,” a nurse with a blonde ponytail said, pulling back the curtain. The rhythmic pounding of running footsteps sounded outside the curtain, and Nancy turned to look.

“Layla?” Ben whipped the curtain aside, his eyes wide and frantic. “Holy fuck! Are you okay?”

“Ben? How did you know?”

“The 911 call. The officer who took it recognized your name and called me.”

Nancy reached up a hand to stop his approach. “I need to—”

He blew past her and stood next to the bed, his lips pressed tight. Layla wanted to feel nothing, to tell him to leave, but when she saw the shine of tears in his eyes, a loud sob burst forth from her.

“What should I do?” he asked helplessly. “I want to touch you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

Layla leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her cheek to his chest. She wasn’t out of tears after all. They wouldn’t stop now. Ben stroked her hair and laid a hand on her back.

“Sir, I need to check her vitals,” the nurse said.

“You’ll just have to wait. I need to be with her right now.” He pulled back and crouched down, bringing himself to eye level with Layla.

“Ben.” She wiped her tears away. “I’ll be okay.”

“What the fuck happened?” His eyes were still wide, his voice still panicked.

“It was Eric, this guy I hardly know who I went out with like a year ago.”

“What happened?”

“He broke a window and came in my bedroom. We fought, and—” She paused, her voice thick with emotion. “—Prince bit him and he threw him across the room and hurt him. Can you call the animal hospital and see how he is?”

“I will, yeah, in just a minute. Did he hurt you?” Layla hadn’t changed into a gown yet, and Ben’s face twisted with anguish as he looked at her torn pants.

“He hit me, but that’s all. Jill knocked him out with a baseball bat. But another few seconds, and—”

“
Fuck
, Layla!” Ben covered his face with his hands. “I can’t stand to see you like this.”

Nancy the nurse approached Ben and touched his shoulder. “Sir, why don’t you take a minute? You can go out in the hall?”

He glared at her and she drew back. He pulled his badge from his pocket and shoved it at her. “I’m talking to her. Why don’t
you
go out in the hall?”

“Can you just give us a minute?” Layla asked. Nancy nodded, pulled the curtain closed and walked out.

“I thought of you,” Layla said, wiping her fingers across her cheeks. “When I thought there was no way out and I was desperate, I wanted you so bad.”

Ben grimaced and shook his head. “You’re killing me. If I’d known you needed me—”

“No, I don’t mean it like that. I just mean . . . you came to my mind. It was comforting.” She smiled weakly.

“Layla, I’ve called you so many times and left so many messages. I’ve been trying to give you space and not just show up on your doorstep, but this can’t be it for us. It can’t. I’m so—”

The curtain flew open and they both turned to see Emma, panting as she eyed them frantically.

“Layla! My God! What happened to you?” She ran to the bedside and reached for Layla’s shoulders.

“Ow, no! Don’t touch me,” Layla said.

“Were you attacked?”

Cole came in on Emma’s heels, also breathless. He sighed and turned away when he saw Layla’s face.

“Yeah, in my apartment by a guy who I went out with a year ago. He’s been following me for a while.”

Emma’s hand clamped over her mouth. “Did you know? Why didn’t you say anything? Was Ben there?”

“No, it was just me and—” Layla’s voice wavered as she spoke. “—Prince.”

“Who’s at the hospital with him?” Ben asked.

“Jill took him. It’s the one a couple blocks from my place.”

Ben looked at Cole, who stood by the curtain with his arms across his chest. “Will you drive there and check on him? He was hurt, and she wants to know how he is.”

“Yeah, we can do that,” Cole said.

Emma pulled a chair up to the bed and sat down. “I’m staying with Layla.”

“Go be with Prince for me,” Layla said. “Ben’s here. And call Mom and Dad, okay?”

“I already did, they’re on their way here.”

“Tell Prince I love him, okay?” Layla tried to swallow the lump in her throat. “Tell him I’ve loved him since the first time I saw him.”

Emma blinked and tears fell down her cheeks. “I will. I love you, Layla.”

“I love you, too.”

Emma leaned forward and kissed her sister’s forehead gently. “We’ll be back soon.”

They left, and Nancy poked her head around the curtain.

“Not yet,” Ben said, raising a hand.

“This is a hospital.” She arched her brows with annoyance. “We have other patients waiting.”

“Just five minutes, that’s all,” he said. “I promise.”

Nancy gave him the evil eye but left again, and Ben turned back to Layla.

“I was an asshole and I’m so sorry. I’ve replayed that morning in my head so many times and imagined myself saying yes instead. Meeting your parents.”

Layla shook her head and looked at her hands in her lap. “It’s okay, Ben. You’re not ready, and that’s okay. If I’ve learned anything over the past year or so it’s that you can’t force things, no matter how badly you want them.”

“I do want it.” His bright blue eyes seemed to be pleading with her.

“Ben.” She shook her head and refused to look at him. “I cried every day for more than a week after our fight. I still cry about it, off and on. I’ve rarely liked a guy enough to ask him to meet my parents, and the few times I have . . . I’ve never had the guts to ask anyone but you. You really hurt me.”

“I’m sorry.” He reached for her fingers and held them lightly. “I want a chance to explain. It might be too late, but give me a chance to tell you why I said no.”

“Okay.” She turned to him expectantly.

“Not here. I need to show you something. When you get finished here, if you feel like it, I’ll take you then.”

“Okay.” She touched her swollen eye gingerly. “I had no idea it hurt so bad to be punched like that.”

“From what I heard, your neighbor got the guy pretty good with her bat. He’s here getting treatment, but he’ll get a special visit when he makes it to jail.”

“From you?”

“No, some other guys I know.”

“Thank God Jill was there.” Layla squeezed her eyes shut, the memories still fresh.

“How did he have a key if you only went out a couple times?” Ben asked.

“I don’t even remember. I must’ve given him one.”

Nancy wheeled a cart of supplies in, not even looking at Ben.

“Sorry I was rude earlier,” he said. “Thanks for letting us talk.”

The nurse’s face softened and she nodded. She checked Layla’s temperature and blood pressure and asked about her injuries, typing into a small computer as she answered. When she wheeled her cart out and left them alone, Ben reached for Layla’s fingers again and they sat in silence.

It was only a few minutes later when Shawn and Eliza Carson came bursting through the curtain. Layla smiled at her parents. Her mother’s blonde bob didn’t have a hair out of place, though her face was lined with worry. Her father wore his trademark khaki shorts, white tennis shoes and golf polo.

“Honey!” her mom cried. “Emma called and told us what happened! Are you okay?”

She sank into the chair next to the bed and reached up to push the hair up from Layla’s forehead.

“I’m okay. My neighbor came and saved the day.”

“Is this your neighbor?” Her father nodded at Ben. Layla looked down at his hand in her lap, wrapped around her fingers.

“No . . . This is Ben. He’s my friend.”

Ben stood and offered his hand to Layla’s father, who looked up with surprise at Ben’s height while standing.

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Ben said solemnly.

“You, too.”

Layla’s mother smiled and stood, offering her hand. “I’m Eliza, Ben. Nice to meet you.”

“Yes, ma’am. You too.”

She sat back down, the worry returning to her face. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Do you need anything?”

A man in a doctor’s white coat with dark hair and a friendly grin opened the curtain and greeted them. Layla was relieved. She wanted to get this exam over so she could get back home. Well, maybe not home, but somewhere she felt safe. She wasn’t ready to sleep in her bedroom just yet.

***

Her phone buzzed with an incoming text while Layla was being pushed down the hospital hallway in a wheelchair. She let out a breath as she read it, relaying Emma’s message to Ben and her parents.

“Prince’s leg is broken. They sedated him so they can put a cast on it. But Emma says he’s gonna be okay. He has to stay there for now.” She sighed with relief.

“Okay, you’re all set,” the nurse said when they arrived at the exit door.

“I’ll go get the car,” Layla’s dad said.

“Actually,” Layla got up from the chair as she spoke, “I think Ben can give me a ride.”

“You’re not going back home!” her mom said. “You’re coming home with us.”

“No, I’m not going back home. But Ben can give me a ride. I’ll be there later, okay?”

Her parents both looked at Ben before they looked at each other, seeming to decide it was okay.

“Have you had dinner?” Layla’s mom asked. “I can make something for when you get there.”

“I’m fine, Mom. I’d hug you guys but I’m sore. Thanks for coming.”

Ben pulled up to the door in his work-issued sedan and helped Layla lower herself into the passenger seat, and they both said goodbye to her parents.

“They seem really nice,” he said as they pulled away from the hospital parking lot.

“Yeah, they are.”

“I figured they’d hate me after . . .”

“I never said anything to them about you.”

“Oh.” He sounded disappointed, and Layla bit back a comment about irony.

“Are you planning on taking me to your place?” she asked, looking over at him. “Because that may not be the best place to just . . . talk.”

“No, we’re not going there.”

Ben drove toward the city, and Layla wanted to ask him how he’d been, what he’d been doing, whether he’d missed her. But she stared out the window instead, thinking about the loss of Ben’s image as the man who would never disappoint her.

When he pulled the car to a stop, she looked out the windshield and saw a rundown building divided into several shabby apartments. Garbage littered the yard and boards were nailed over one of the front windows. The roof was sagging in on one side and siding was missing from the building in several places. It looked abandoned, with graffiti scattered on doors and the siding that was still there.

She looked over at Ben, who sighed deeply, his gaze focused on the steering wheel.

“This is where I grew up,” he said, his jaw set tensely.

“Oh. It looks like no one lives here now.”

“I imagine people still do. It’s always been like this.”

“This is what you wanted to show me?” she asked gently.

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Ben, but I still don’t understand why you didn’t want to meet my parents.”

He turned to look out his window. “Because I’m not like you, Layla. I don’t belong at your parents’ house in the suburbs for a barbeque. What would I say when they asked where I grew up? In a broken down shack full of rats? And when they ask what my mother does, what would I say? That she doesn’t do shit, she just collects welfare and smokes and drinks beer all day? And my father? I don’t even know who he is. No one does. Bree and I were the product of a drunken one-night stand.” His voice was tight with tension.

“I wish I knew what to say. My heart is breaking right now.” A new wave of tears hit, and she let them fall.

Ben shook his head, still not looking at her. “That night we were at the house with those two kids . . . That was my life. I’ve been hungry and neglected. It’s why Bree and I are so close. We survived that shit together.”

Layla reached her hand toward him but stopped before her fingers reached his back. “Ben.”