2
Ethan
I watched her walk back into Teddy’s Tavern, carefully balancing the door with her delicate little hand so it didn’t slam closed. She tossed me a quick smile before disappearing inside, giving me one last look at her perfectly shaped ass when she turned.
Her body was tight and compact, like my very own Scarlett Johansson. Their likeness was uncanny; she could easily pass as the actress’s double. Still, I couldn’t help but notice no panty lines were visible through Gianna’s black pants. I wondered if she was wearing a thong. Or maybe she wasn’t wearing underwear at all. I hoped it was the latter.
Then again, maybe I didn’t want that.
I chewed my lower lip as I started the car and pulled away from the curb. I wondered if Scarlett Johansson went completely without. As soon as the idea popped into my mind, I chuckled. How stupid of me? Of course a refined beauty like her would choose a thong over nothing at all. A woman who went commando would definitely classify as sexually immoral, sinning against her own body.
And it was dirty.
Did I want my girl to be dirty?
No.
Hopefully, Gianna had class like Scarlett. I thought she did, but I’d need to make sure. If she didn’t, I could adjust to the changes if needed. Intelligent men like me adapted. Hadn’t I proved as much tonight? My original plan had been to stage a run-in with my girl. It would have been brilliant and romantic—a love at first sight sort of thing.
But love was hard work and it was never predictable.
So, when a different opportunity presented itself, I took advantage. Casually mentioning the pretty bartender who worked at Teddy’s to the drunk loitering outside of the music festival had been all too easy. He took the bait—and the fifty-dollar bill I slipped him—allowing me to become her knight in shining armor. And the rest, as they say, was history.
Or at least it will be.
A few minutes later, I pulled into the parking lot of a run-down apartment building in Avondale. I grabbed the duffle bag I’d hidden away under a flannel blanket in the backseat and climbed out of the car. I grimaced as the smell of urine from the nearby alley assaulted my nose. The area, in general, was the definition of urban decay. With the rising crime rate and deteriorating housing, the absentee landlords neglected their properties, and tenants often abused the buildings. I scowled at the surrounding rot.
Why would anyone actually choose to live here?
The only reason I rented this particular flat was so I could have a safe place to stash my earnings. It was cheap, and it worked. I never planned to spend any amount of time there. I much preferred the pristine and orderly space of my inherited condo over on West 4th Street.
Then I wandered into Teddy’s Tavern two years and seventeen days ago. From that moment on, everything changed—that’s when I saw my girl for the first time.
In an instant, I knew I could love her. We were meant to be together. She didn’t have to smile or be polite as I sat at a table all alone that day at Teddy’s. Sure, she may have acted like I was any other customer as she jotted down my order for a bowl of baked potato soup and a craft beer, but it was obvious we were experiencing our first date.
She knew it.
I knew it.
I remembered the special day as if it had happened only yesterday. A nearby customer had spent a small fortune on eighties tunes at the jukebox. I hadn’t minded because Sade was piping through the speakers.
And it was our song—mine and my girls.
And that was me.
I was a smooth operator.
We’d been so close, I could have reached out and touched her, but had refrained. It wasn’t the right time, even if I knew the truth. She couldn’t hide it from me. I could see it in her eyes.
She wanted me as much as I wanted her.
What we had right from our very first moment together was real. True. Authentic.
She changed my life.
She was the reason I didn’t find an alternate, less putrid location for what had come to be the home for my most sacred belongings. Instead, I continued to renew the lease every six months to stay close to my girl—my Gia—at all times.
“My Gia,” I whispered as I inserted the key into the doorknob of the flat. She was different from the others. She was special. After more than two years of watching, learning, and biding my time, I had finally moved to ‘friend’ zone. If all went as planned, it wouldn’t be long before she was officially mine.
All mine.
No more fucking my mattress. No more watching her through a telephoto lens. She would be with me always.
I flipped on the overhead light and closed the door behind me. Pausing at the small table next to the door, I looked down upon the statue of the Virgin Mother, surrounded by seven unlit votive candles inside little red glass jars. Pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth were artfully etched into the glass of each jar. A framed photo of my own mother sat beside the Virgin, their presence here giving life to an otherwise lifeless room.
“Hello, Mother.” I lit the candle that represented lust, then leaned down to kiss my mother’s portrait. “I had a very interesting day today. I can’t wait to tell you all about it.”
I smiled when I thought about how pleased she would be to hear my news, then stepped away from the table. Walking passed the threadbare couch and large fish tank that covered the far wall, I headed to the kitchen pantry. Opening the door, I slid open the fake wooden wall hidden behind a few boxes of dried pasta to reveal a combination lock safe. I spun the dial until the cams aligned and I could open the latch. Removing the duffel bag from my shoulder, I unzipped it and removed my take from the day’s bust.
The department seized fifty-two thousand in cash and sixty-eight pounds of cocaine in a raid today—or at least that’s what they bragged about to the local newspapers. Little did they know, I skimmed fifteen grand and a brick off the top.
I didn’t sniff the stuff personally—drugs clouded the mind, and intoxication led to sin. However, the street value for one brick was over thirty thousand. I never knew when I might need a bunch of cash in a pinch, and I just happened to have the connections to move it.
Did that make me a dirty cop? I didn’t think so. As far as I was concerned, it was my right. If the other cops in my unit didn’t think to do the same, that was their loss. We put our lives in jeopardy every day because of the scum who roamed the street—and the paychecks we received to do it were a joke. For me, it was a matter of survival, whereas the dealers and the traffickers were driven by greed. It was the deadliest of all cardinal sins but I had faith in Him. He would not let them go unpunished if they didn’t repent.
“Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered,” I recited, having committed Proverbs 11:21 to memory years ago while still under my mother’s teachings in the White Room.
After the cash and plastic-wrapped brick were placed neatly inside, I locked the safe and put everything back to the way it had been. Walking to the corkboard hanging on the wall above the rickety kitchen table, I smiled and pulled a pin from one of the pictures I’d placed there a few months back. It was one of my favorite pictures of Gianna and I didn’t even have to use the zoom on my Nikon D850. I’d caught this one with my cell phone.