Gift From The Bad Boy

I saw his head whirl just as I slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it. My heart was pounding a thousand beats a minute as I yelled through the wooden frame, “Whoever you are, leave me alone! I have a gun in here!” I didn’t have anything of the sort, but I figured the man on the other side of the door wouldn’t know that. I looked around for something to defend myself just in case he tried to force his way through. All I could find was a plunger. I grabbed it anyway, fully aware that I looked like a massive idiot, crouching against a bathroom door in my underwear as I squeezed a plunger in my fists like it was a sword.

The man said something, but I couldn’t hear him.

“What?” I said.

“I said, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you, Carmen. My name is Jay; Ben sent me to check on you.”

I lowered the plunger slowly but I didn’t set it down just yet. The man knew my name, he knew Ben, and he obviously knew where this apartment was and had some way to get inside. He was probably trustworthy. But I was still going to be cautious.

I unlocked the door, twisted the handle, and let it swing open a little bit. I still couldn’t see him, but I felt the breeze of the air conditioning drift through the opening. “How can I trust you?” I asked. I kept my right hand wrapped around the plunger’s handle.

“Ben sent me, I swear. I work with him. I was at the wedding, remember?”

The door eased open a little farther and I could finally see him. It was a familiar face after all. He had a brown beard speckled with gray, kept trimmed tightly against his jaw, and dark brown hair that he swept straight back away from his widow’s peak. He’d been sitting in the front row, I remembered, with an expression that was neither a smile nor a frown, but instead somewhere in between.

When he saw I was holding the plunger like a weapon, the corner of his mouth twitched up into a grin. “You’ve got a gun in there, eh?” He chuckled.

“Not quite,” I admitted. I pointed at the shirt on the bed. “Can you hand me that? I’m not dressed.”

I was surprised to see him lower his eyes immediately. My mental image of how a Dark Knights member acted certainly did not include modesty for an unclothed woman. He spun on his heel, picked up the shirt from the bed, and walked it over to me, all while keeping his gaze trained on the floor at his feet.

I took it from him carefully and ducked back behind the door to pull the garment over my head. It fell down almost to my knees. It was as ridiculous-looking of a dress as I’d ever seen, but it would have to do for now, at least until I got some new clothes of my own.

When I was dressed, I set the plunger down, opened the door, and walked into the bedroom. Jay wasn’t in there. I kept walking into the living room and saw him seated on the armchair, facing away from me, one ankle crossed over the other knee. He heard me approaching and twisted around to watch as I came and sat on the couch to his right.

“I’m sorry to have scared you like that,” he said.

I laughed. He really did look embarrassed. If I had to be honest, it was kind of cute. A blushing biker; I never thought I’d see the day. “It’s okay,” I said. “I’m just glad you didn’t make me use my weapon on you.”

He looked at me with round eyes. “God forbid.”

I settled back and relaxed for the first time since he’d walked in. He seemed nice, and I liked how composed he was. Of the few of my father’s comrades I’d actually met, they all seemed like loose cannons, liable to explode at any minute. Like Ben, Jay was different. He was clearly in control of himself. It made me feel safer to be around him.

“How are you settling in?” he asked.

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could. “I’m not yet. But I’ll get there, I guess.”

He nodded. “I’m sure it’s a hard change for you.”

I wondered how much he knew of the circumstances that had led to this whole situation. There was no telling; he kept everything so close to the chest. I decided to play it cool. He seemed trustworthy, but I couldn’t see any advantage in rocking the boat. Better to go with the flow until I figured out the lay of the land here. “It is what it is,” I said. As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I frowned.

Jay noticed and his eyes narrowed. “Something wrong?” he asked.