Page 12 of Day

Chapter Six

Leon

“Never thought this day would come. You finally let a woman into that heart of yours. Did you claim her like the caveman you are and put a baby in her belly?”  Charles was laughing at me while I sat on his couch. Scowling.

It didn’t affect him whatsoever, so he just kept laughing. I shot him a sour look.

“Jesus Christ, Leon.  You must have been pretty drunk to get yourself into this mess.” He ran his hand through his medium-brown hair then moved to the wheels of his chair. He rolled toward me with a push, stopping to my right.

“You were beating yourself up over my call, weren’t you?”All laughter was gone, and now he just stared at me with his soul-searing blue eyes that could get anything out of me with just one look.

“It’s stupid they didn’t accept you. You are healthy, and it could help you. I don’t see the problem.” I really didn’t. He deserved to be able to feel again.

“Shows me how much you were listening when I told you. I’m not a candidate because the nerve damage is too extensive. Plus the fact that they would need to build me a new lumbar spine, to boot. I’m not angry, Leon, and you shouldn’t be either.” Charles had always been someone who just accepted what fate dealt him. Never complaining, or looking at things from a darker angle. He was Mr. Positive all the time.

And here I was, letting my guilt eat me up and not accepting my set of life cards. Instead of saying something else that I would probably regret, I moved our conversation back to my newest complication.

“What am I gonna do about my wife?” The word made my mouth tilt into a grimace. But sadly the asshole strikes on my side kept adding up, because I couldn’t even remember her name. I should have looked at the marriage certificate to find out, but I was so freaked that I wasn’t thinking right.  Seemed to be a theme for me in the past twenty-four hours.

Charles shrugged.

“Go be married to a hot-ass dancer, sleep with her daily, and then at the end of the month if you wanna get divorced then do it. If not, stay married to a really hot chick. I don’t see the issue.”

When he said it like that, it sounded so easy. But this situation was anything but easy.

“Let me stay here?” I threw the question out there just to see if he would let me. High chance his answer was going to be no—he couldn’t handle my rain cloud for too long, and I wished I knew how to turn it off for him. I’d grown into a man who was consumed by resentment and guilt. It was how I lived my life day to day, and by some miracle he hadn’t given up on me yet.

“And bring the crazy to my house? No way.” He chuckled, and I rolled my eyes. She seemed crazy, but that might not be who she really was. Maybe she was a nice, normal chick, and I could explain my situation. We could work it out like adults, right?

“All right, I’m ready to go work out, and you need to go figure your shit out. Maybe learn your wife’s name,” he suggested with a wink, wheeling himself to the door and opening it for me. I was being kicked out.

“Yes, Mother.” I sighed. I stood and looked at my only friend. He still looked so young, like he was in his early twenties. He took better care of himself than I did, though. He worked out a couple times a day, and ate healthy. Only occasional drinking, and I was almost always around for that.

I walked over and stood just outside his door.

“Thanks.” Before everything happened, I was never a man to keep anything inside. I wasn’t afraid of emotions and couldn’t think right until I got everything off my chest. He knew it meant so much to me that I could talk to him, even if he gave me crap for it sometimes.

“Yep. Now go fuck your woman,” he said, and shooed me away.

I shook my head and started my journey back to the boat.

We could talk about this like adults. I’d tell her what was going on with me, and she would understand how it wasn’t going to work between us.

I tried to think of what all I was going to say if she was there when I got home, but she wasn’t.  Maybe she wouldn’t come back, and I could wait it out.

Of course, things with me were never that easy.

A few hours later I was talking with Tony about what all it was going to take to fix Lily Blue when the clicking of high heels echoed around the marina.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” he commented, and I just knew by the tone of his voice that it was her.

Lilith.

I’d looked at the certificate to remember her name. What a name it was, and it fit her perfectly.

She was walking toward me with a big grin on her face, her black hair flowing behind her in the breeze, and an outfit that was causing heads to turn: cropped top with seashells printed over her breasts, showing off her toned stomach, and a tutu-looking skirt that came to her knees. Pair that with tall black heels, and she was the perfect package of crazy.

“Well if it isn’t my super-amazing husband.” She dropped her large purse and leapt into my arms, wrapping her legs around mine. I didn’t help hold her up like I probably should have; she did all the work herself as she pressed her lips to me. Her tongue pushed past mine, and she kissed me like she truly missed me.