Chapter 32
“Is Eri feeling any better?” Nesiah asked as she set up for her next client.
Elias glanced up briefly from the sketch he was working on. “I wouldn’t be here if she didn’t.”
After the encounter on the Fourth of July, he’d ended up rearranging his appointments and spent Monday and Tuesday with her. He knew Nesiah had texted Eri to check in, but he also knew his girlfriend hadn’t said much beyond saying she was okay and thanking her for checking on her.
She’d spent the past few days in some article of his clothing, wrapped in a blanket on the couch, eating all her favorite foods and snacks, and watching The PowerPuff Girls episodes.
Elias had been there right along with her.
He’d even been prepared to move his appointments again last night if he had to, but she’d assured him she was okay, and he didn’t need to.
“I’m glad she’s feeling better. I can’t even imagine what she was feeling,” Nesiah replied. “In case you were wondering, a potassium overdose is lethal. You know, for…hypothetical reasons.”
“So is an insulin overdose, and after several hours, levels will return to normal, and it’s like it wasn’t even there,” Elias responded. “Hypothetically.”
“Talks of hypothetical murder?” Marco asked, coming into the main area.
“Hypothetically speaking, if we cross paths again, it might not be hypothetical,” Elias replied.
“Well, hypothetically, I know a guy,” his cousin informed.
Elias knew he knew several guys and a girl, but honestly, it wasn’t something he would pass off to anyone else. The way he felt about the situation, he wanted to handle it himself. If he were lucky, he’d cross paths with the man again.
He turned his attention back to the sketch as his cousin and Nesiah started a conversation about a client they’d both worked on, and a complaint he had about the pricing difference.
Elias would never understand why people assumed artists in the same shop charged the same hourly price.
You were paying for experience, how long someone had been in the business, how sought after they were, and that differed for all of them.
Elias only had one more client, and it wasn’t for another hour. He checked the time and thought about calling Eri, but she’d told him she had an appointment, and he knew she was getting ready for it.
Instead, he put the tablet aside with a sigh, which drew Marco’s attention, and his cousin came over.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” Elias started. “I just…” he trailed off, unsure of what he wanted to say.
“Don’t want to be here?” Marco supplied. “Or you’re worried?”
“She said she’s okay, and I’m trying to take her word for it and give her the space she subconsciously asked for, but yeah. I’m worried, and other than being there when she needs me, I feel helpless. And I don’t like that feeling.”
“I get it,” Marco started. “The last thing we want to feel when the person we care about the most is going through something or hurting is helpless, but you have to trust she’ll come to you if and when she needs you.”
“I do, but you know me. I like to be proactive.”
And Elias felt like he couldn’t be in this situation because he was reacting to what happened.
He was comforting and being a safe space.
Both of which were perfectly fine, but he hated that she even had to go through that, that she even had to see that fucking man to begin with, because of all people, they let him out early. The court system was truly fucked.
“I know, but in this instance, you just need to be available.” Marco patted him on the back before leaving him to his thoughts.
Elias knew they were both right, and he wanted to make sure Eri remembered that, that she knew he’d come right back if she needed him.
He knew his girlfriend well enough to know that she wouldn’t say anything if she thought she was keeping him from something.
She would try to tough it out. He didn’t want her doing that, and regardless of being with her for the last several days, he didn’t want to leave her on her own just yet.
He pulled out his phone to send her a text.
Elias: Can I come over after my last client?
He wanted to ask to make sure he wasn’t smothering her. If she needed that time alone, he trusted her to tell him no. He would do whatever she needed. His phone vibrated a minute later.
Eri: Yeah, you can.
Elias tucked his phone into his pocket, made a mental note to pick up more of her favorite snacks because she’d gone through most of them, and then got ready for his last client to pass the time.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
Eri sat in Cherell’s office, playing with the tasseled edges of the pillow she so often used for comfort as the other woman waited for her to start the topic of discussion.
She’d spent the last few days dealing with the encounter and trying to get over it.
However, she knew that speaking about it would help her move forward.
She took a deep breath. “Last weekend I ran into…Keith. The man who assaulted me.”
“I’m so sorry, Eri. I can imagine that was uncomfortable and frightening for you. Do you want to discuss it?”
“It was uncomfortable, and I was afraid, but not as much as I expected to be if I ever saw him again.”
“Let’s talk about why that is,” Cherell stated.
“I was at the event with Elias and our friends. My first thought when I saw Keith was fear, but I knew Elias was there. I knew he wouldn’t let anything happen to me, and it helped me feel at ease. Even though seeing him then startled me. He wasn’t supposed to be out so soon.”
“Were you not informed that he would be released early?”
“I was,” Eri sighed. “They mailed a letter along with the restraining order, but I hadn’t opened it when this occurred. I thought they would call.”
Sunday morning, after the event, before she’d burrowed into comfy blankets and her boyfriend’s chest, she’d gone through all the mail sitting on her entry table, and there she found the letter she’d received informing her of his upcoming release with the restraining order.
It was dated four days before the incident.
“How did this encounter happen? Walk me through it.”
Eri paused for a brief moment. “I went to the bathroom, and when I came out, I bumped into him. I attempted to leave, but he blocked my path, and when I could finally get around him, he grabbed my arm to get me to stop and listen to whatever he was trying to spout. That’s when Elias stepped in.”
Cherell nodded. “So the initial run-in could have been an accident, but his not allowing you to leave and then following you was a direct breach of your restraining order. He’ll get in trouble for that.”
“He…he won’t. I didn’t report it.”
“Was there a reason?”
“He and Elias got into a fight.” Eri paused.
“I think it would be more accurate to say that Elias used him as a punching bag, and the event security wanted to call the police. I didn’t want them to.
I didn’t want Elias getting in trouble over that man, and spending the weekend in jail because the assault was bad.
So, I asked them not to call, and I didn’t report it. ”
“I can understand wanting to protect Elias. But you can still report it now.”
Eri shook her head. “I wouldn’t put it past him to retaliate by reporting Elias for assault, and since I’m sure his injuries haven’t healed, he’d have some form of proof that he was assaulted. I don’t want to take that risk. But if I run into him again, then I will.”
She’d promised Elias that she would, and regardless of whether any subsequent run-in was accidental or he pursued her as he had at the party, she would report him. She only hoped that with the population of Albuquerque, she’d never have to see him again.
“And you’re okay with not reporting him?”
“Yes, I’d do it again in a heartbeat in the same situation. Elias shouldn’t have to get in trouble for protecting me from that monster.” Just then, her phone vibrated beside her. She glanced at it before picking it up. “I’m sorry. Give me one second.”
Elias: Can I come over after my last client?
She didn’t have to think about it. Eri thought she might have been suffocating him with the way she’d been under him the last few days, but if he wanted to come over, she wouldn’t tell him no. She wouldn’t deprive herself of comfort.
Eri: Yeah, you can.
She put her phone back beside her and returned her attention to Cherell.
“I’m glad you could cope and that we’re speaking about it so you can get it off your chest, and maybe find peace with the run-in.”
“If we’re being honest, had I been alone or just there with friends, I probably would have called you for an emergency session. But…” she trailed off.
“But having your boyfriend there helped ease what could have been a bombardment of negative feelings?” Cherell supplied.
“Yes, exactly. Spending the last few days with him in a bubble helped tremendously.”
Her therapist gave her a knowing smile. “That’s great, Eri.”
Eri returned to fidgeting with the tassels on the pillow, changing the subject to something less unpleasant.
A few hours later, Eri looked through the peephole, even though she knew it was Elias from the text he sent her when he’d pulled into the parking lot. She opened the door, stepping aside to let him in. He kissed her temple as she took in the bags in his hand.
“Hey, Amate.”
“Hey, what’s in the bags?”
“I picked up some of your favorite snacks,” he responded, going into the kitchen to put them away.
“Thanks, babe. How were your clients?” she asked, watching him move to put everything in the correct spot.
“The usual. How was the appointment you went to?”
Eri took his hand and pulled him over to the couch. “It was fine. I went to see my therapist.”
She hadn’t told him the type of appointment she was going to initially, but there was no point in keeping something like that to herself. He was privy to the worst thing in her life that had happened to her, and there was no shame in going to therapy.
“I’ve been going to see her since the assault. I told her about running into Keith and how it surprised me because he wasn’t supposed to be released yet. How, I was afraid, but also knew I was safe because you were there with me.”
“You’re always safe with me. I mean it,” he replied.
“I know,” Eri responded.
There had never been a time when she had felt unsafe with him, even before they began dating. Eri had always felt something from him that told her it didn’t matter the circumstance, he would protect her.
He stared into her eyes, and she always felt so at peace looking into his. Like she was floating in the cosmos and nothing could touch her. Nothing but bliss could reach her. It always made her feel so soft and cherished.
“Keep looking at me like that and I promise I’ll never give you a reason not to,” he told her.
“Like what?” Eri asked, unsure of how she was looking at him.
He leaned down and spoke against her lips. “Like you love me,” he told her before kissing her. It was gentle and ended far too quickly, so he could add, “Like you know, I love you.”
Eri’s breath hitched because he wasn’t wrong. She did, and if his previous actions hadn’t been telling her he did, then protecting her the way he had sure shone a light.
“Because I do,” she responded. “I love you.”
“Ti amo,” he responded, and she pulled him down into another kiss as those butterflies that resided in her stomach only for him took flight and multiplied at an alarming rate.