Chapter Twenty Five
June First
“See, didn't that feel good getting your workout first thing in the morning?”
He stepped into the elevator first.
“Sure.”
Roxy was still tired after their six am workout.
“I'm just looking out for you, a lot of girls would be attracted to me, I'm a pretty good looking man. The lady at the reception desk looked at us like we were a weird couple.”
The elevator lifted and Roxy stayed quiet. “You know you’re pretty but if you lost ten pounds, you would be hot, you need to take care of yourself.”
He rambled on, “Don’t be mad, you don't have anybody to look out for you except me. This is for your best interest and people will respect you more if you lose weight.”
Roxtyn was glad he was going to his first day of work. “I know,”
she said as the elevator dinged, opening to the thirteenth floor. Her plans for the day was to do more job hunting, so she could get her own apartment and move far away from Ben. Being with him was like putting on a pair of synthetic jeans. At first, they felt great, they fit perfectly. But as time went on, they started to sag and get loose, they just didn't fit right anymore, didn't hold their value; they were gross. She didn’t love those pants anymore.
Ben unlocked his door at the end of the hall and walked in first. She looked at the building staircase door passing by it and thought of how many times she had almost needed or wanted to use it after arguments. But Ben hand always came back with his empty promises and apologies, and for some dumb reason she always fell for them. It was part of her survival mode.
“Are you going to find a job today?”
“I’m going to go down to the cafe and look online, it helps me focus when I'm there.”
She closed the door.
“Good, " he turned to her, grabbing her by the waist. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She lied and knew the last five months she wasn’t with him, he felt like a complete stranger and she couldn’t wait to be away from him. Forever.
“Did you want to shower with me?”
“No, thank you. I'm gonna have coffee and then shower.”
*****
Sitting down at the cafe, Roxtyn opened her laptop on the cafe table and the screen wobbled from broken hinges, but it still worked. She typed in the neighborhood bulletin website and began searching for a job. She was open to other things besides sewing, maybe retail, customer service or the food industry.
The barista interrupted her, “Here's your coffee, ma'am.”
Setting it on the table, Roxy responded with a thank you and pulled it close to her. She had scoured the couch, old jackets and under furniture for change, finding almost forty dollars. She sat there without looking up, without getting distracted and applied for a waitress job, a drug store clerk, a seamstress, and even a barista.
People had come and gone and she had been there for a few hours but noticed a man who had not left the entire time she was there. He stared directly at her as she looked at him and every time she looked up, he was staring at her. He was good looking but he was coming off as weird and she didn't understand why he was staring at her so much. Roxy had realized that he was the neighbor from the parking garage and ignored him, thinking maybe he was wondering how he knew her too.
Her phone rang, it was Ben. “Hey,”
she answered.
“I'm getting off work a little early today.”
His voice cracked on the speaker.
She closed the laptop, “All right, I'll meet you at home.”
June Second
Roxy was proud of how much she had gotten done at the cafe, so she went again. She went down to the cafe after Ben had left and she had gotten ready. She ordered the same drink and sat at the same table and pulled up the website and continued her search. Nothing really new was listed this time.
She looked up as a man slowly walked past her table, staring down at her. It was the same man as yesterday. His pale green eyes dug into her. Was she supposed to know him? “Roxtyn?”
he questioned her.
Her brow furrowed with complete confusion. “Yes?”
“Do you remember me?”
She shook her head “no.”
“It was a long time ago, you look the exact same.”
He tried to convince her, “I used to call you June.”
“I'm sorry,”
She closed in on herself to block him out, “I don't think I know you.”
“Oh, I’m sorry to have bothered you. Have a good day.”
He stepped into the cafe towards the line. She watched the back of him as he ordered a water before going back to her work.
As he sat at the table facing her, Roxy felt unsettled and decided to leave. She lied to Ben that night, saying she had gotten a call for an interview. Some progress was better than none, even if she had to lie about it. She planned on saying how she didn’t get the job because she could already hear him accuse her application or resume.
June Third
She had thought about the man, thinking that he must be a transient in that area but unsure of how he would have gotten in their building garage. She brushed off the worry and headed for the coffee shop on the other side of the building, two blocks over. She had told Ben she was going to her job interview and left her laptop at home. She left, knowing she would have an hour at most to be alone. To breathe.
The day was nice, the air was light and the sidewalk wasn’t as crowded as she assumed it would be for a Saturday morning.
The black door squeaked as she opened it and walked to the counter. She ordered her coffee black because she would add her own cream and sugar. It was cheaper and they never added the right amount. The man behind the counter slid her a lidless cup and she handed him the exact change.
This time Ben had offered to pay for her coffee the last few days, because she was doing so much and making such an effort to get a job, like she was his dog and he was trying to reward her. She accepted his offer anyway, Roxy wasn't going to admit to him that she combed his apartment, finding his loose change. She snapped the lid on and turned from the little condiment counter.
The homeless man she had been seeing was towering over her and she jumped, spilling a small amount of coffee out of the hole and onto her hand. He reached around her to grab napkins, “June?”
He questioned again, dabbing the liquid off her hand and her body positively responded. “I mean, Roxy.”
He blocked her in.
Following what she should be doing, s he pulled back, “Look I’m sorry, I don't know you, and I don't know how you know my name or why you're following me.”
She stepped to the side frustrated.
“Please,”
He begged as she walked around him. “Just listen to me, you were with me , we had a life, where do you think you were for the last five months?”
“Stop!”
She said turning back at him, wondering at first if he had mental problems but assuming she was with him for the last five months and her not knowing him? Or the fact he knew she was gone for five months was too much. “You're creeping me out, leave me alone or I'm going to call the police.”
Were they homeless together? She couldn’t understand his obsession with her.
He followed her outside, not giving up. “Will you just listen?”
His voice grew louder.
She stopped and faced him full of fear, “I don't know you, please leave me alone!”
Scared of knowing the truth she turned without looking and stepped in the road.
The man screamed, “Juniper!”
gripped her arm and pulled her into an embrace. Tires screeched as her coffee splattered onto the hood of the car and the driver blared her horn at June.
Eye level with his necklace, Roxy recognized it. She was staring at her mothers necklace and before she could question him about it, she looked up at him with wide eyes. Everything came back to her, slamming into her at once as if it was the vehicle she almost met. Overcome with emotion, tears welled up in her eyes and her chin began to quiver, “Wolfgang Montgomery, how did you find me?”
She remembered everything . The island, their first date, her roommates, his mom, the ball, the council, up until she saw his face in that back medical room window. She was afraid and relieved at the same time. She was saved.
Wolfie kissed her on the lips and hugged her tightly. His arm wrapped around her waist and his hand in her hair. She felt him inhale deeply before pulling back without letting go of her, “Leave with me.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks, “I can’t.”
She remembered everything, that was her problem.
“Why?”
His face softened and his brow raised.
“Ben will follow me again. I can’t just leave, I can’t just break up with him. He’s become possessive of me thinking I owe him for being gone.”
“Sit with me.”
He pulled her to an outside table.
“I have forty five minutes. I’m supposed to be at a job interview, he’ll start calling or come down here.”
She sat across from the empty chair.
Wolfie grabbed the spare chair and dragged it next to her, smiling wildly. “I love you Juniper.”
She happily looked up at him as he said her name and grabbed her hand, “How did you find me?”
She asked again.
He kissed the side of her hand, on top of her chip injection scar and interlocked their fingers. “You’re chipped, remember? I will follow you until they put me dick down in the dirt.”
June chuckled, “They let you leave?”
“They didn’t find out until I was on the plane, I also bribed Jay.”
“You stowed away?”
Her eyes lit up, eyelashes wet with tears.
He smiled, “Yes, I stowed away Juniper.”
He brushed her hair out of her face. “What can I do to make you come back with me? Jay will be coming in July.”
“Ben would rather have me dead than let me leave.”
“What if I talk to him? I’ve been wanting to have some words with him.”
He raised a brow briefly before dropping it.
She knew it was more than words, more than talking, “Okay,”
She looked up at a street camera, “But not now.”
His brow creased, “What? I don’t want to let go of you, I just got you back.”
His hands tightened.
“Listen, there are cameras on a lot of streets.”
Her tone softened. “This is downtown and they are to prevent crime and watch people. The police have solved a lot of cases by face recognition with them.”
“What if they have never seen my face?”
He leaned in smirking.
“Do you have paper and pen?”
She shuffled, “I’ll give you everything you need to find me tonight.”
“I know what building you live in already, finding your building isn’t a problem.”
“I’m on the thirteenth floor, room one zero nine.”
She stopped, “Where will we go?”
“My mom has an old family cabin up in Whitmore. I was hoping to go there to wait. How far is that?”
"Like three hours north." June looked at him, as if he had everything figured out, knowing what needed to happen, “If you need money, the safe code is zero seven, zero seven.”
Her phone chirped. “It’s Ben.”
She kissed him hard, afraid to let go, “I love you.”
*****
"Ben?" She closed the door. The phone call was his invitation to dinner tonight and he wanted to go out somewhere nice.
"I'm in here." He yelled from the bedroom. She set her bag down and trailed to the back to see he was in a towel laying out articles of clothes to wear, "Hey." He grabbed her and pushed his body to hers with a kiss.
'Pretend.' She told herself and leaned in, until she felt him harden against her stomach. She cringed without him letting go and felt the sexual tension radiate off of him. She pulled away, "No, I'm not in the mood."
He scoffed, "I'm not surprised. I let you live here, buy you food and you’re not in the mood? Come on. I deserve something." He stepped closer and grabbed her wrist, placing her hand on himself through his towel, moving it up and down until she latched on. Roxy stood terrified as he pulled on her shorts, kissing her sloppily as she made no movement.
"I'm really not in the mood," she let go of him, trying to get away.
"Let me help you get in the mood, I'm trying to be intimate with you right now and you said you loved me, show me." He grabbed her by her hips, spinning behind her. Ben continued kissing her neck, each kiss making her skin feel like ants and pushed her shoulders forward, bending her in half. She heard saliva leave his mouth and within the moment, he forced his way inside her.
His hands gripped into her hips as terror overcame her, no part of her body moving. She almost just let him, giving in, to get it over with, then pleaded with him, "please stop." She curled her fingers over his, digging her own fingernails into the soft skin around her groin to peel his hands off.
He jeered over her "Don't be a tease, I'm almost finished." Roxtyn let out a wail, defeated as he continued, she felt her legs begin to collapse from the emotion, the pain and the thought of Wolfgang, he was love, Not this, he would never do this.
Ben grunted, grabbing the back of her shirt and pulled himself out. Staying doubled over, quietly crying, Roxy felt disgusted but this wasn't new, he had done it before. Embarrassed the first time it happened, she told him it was too intense and part of her climax. He patted her on the back, "I'm going to go shower and get ready for dinner."