Her Special PayBack: #3
| pulled the sheet up to her shoulders and quietly closed the door, cleaned up the kitchen, had two healthy
drinks and went to bed. | thought, "Tomorrow should be interesting."
I'm an early morning person no matter when | go to bed, so | woke at sunrise, unsuccessfully tried to go back to
sleep, and finally got up. My master bedroom has its own bath so | did my morning things, put on a clean shirt
and shorts and went to the kitchen.
The office door was still closed so | stalled for about an hour sipping black coffee, reading the morning paper and
then started organizing breakfast. | went to the office door and knocked. Nothing.
"Holly, wake up."
| knocked again hard and opened the door. She was on her side facingwith the sheet up to her neck. Her
eyes were full of sleep, but open and watching me.
| said, "In twenty minutes breakfast will be ready so you better get your butt out of bed, clean up and meet me
in the kitchen."
"Are you always this bossy?"
| pretended to look stern and answered, "Twenty minutes."
| walked away leaving the door open. Minutes later | heard the door to the bathroom close, and then the toilet
flushed. Almost twenty minutes later she walked into the kitchen wearing the sT-shirt and shorts. | noticed
this tshe was wearing a bra.
She sat down without talking. A large glass of milk and another of orange juice was in front of her. | put down a
plate with three pieces of toast each topped with two poached eggs accompanied by about eight slices of bacon.
| put a couple of bagels on a side plate with cream cheese next to her.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtShe said, "This is way too much food for me."
Fifteen minutes later the food was gone.
She looked embarrassed. "I ate like a pig again."
"You ate like someone who hasn't eaten right for a while."
She blushed again.
"Phil, I want to thank you..."
| interrupted, "There's a great park four blocks from here. I'll clean up the kitchen and let's walk to the park and
then have our talk. It's cool right now but later it's going to be really hot, so let's enjoy the morning."
We walked to the park in comfortable silence. I'd point out something interesting every now and then, but | could
tell she was getting nervous. We circled the park once along the bike path and then sat down at a picnic table in
front of a large pond; ducks were swimming in the water.
It was obvious she didn't know what to say.
| asked, "What's your most serious problem?"
"I'm broke with no job."
| continued, "What's your second most serious problem?"
"I have no place to live in a strange town and have no friends."
"Do you have cancer or a serious illness?"
"No."
"Are you wanted by the police?"
"No."
"Well then," | concluded, "You have a serious short term problem, but will be fine in the long term, and you don't
considera friend yet."
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She grabbed my hand and blurted, "Shit, that was stupid of me. You saved my life yesterday; | was desperate
and you tookin. | won't ever forget your kindness."
| covered her hand with mine and quietly asked, "If it will make you feel better, why don't you tellhow you
ended up at my doorstep."
She talked for an hour. The first few minutes were stumbling and then everything poured out. She had grown up
in a suburb of Chicago. Her father bailed out even before she was born, so she was raised by her mother. They
were very poor, but her mom got her through high school and started her into junior college. During her second
year of junior college, her mom had a heart attack and died.
Her emphasis in junior college was business and she quickly got a job working for a small business in Chicago.
Two years and two promotions later she was starting to make it in the real business world when she met Jim.
After three months Jim moved into her apartment. The plan was that they would get married as soon as they had
enough money to feel comfortable.
Three months after Jim moved in he lost his job; he had been an alcoholic and had fallen off the wagon. He didn't
look very hard for a new job and the small savings they had built up started to disappear. His drinking got worse;
he abused her when drunk and their sex life becmore like multiple rapes.
Jim cto her office drunk a week ago and demanded money in front of her coworkers and boss. They made
him leave, but he yelled he would cback and kill everybody. He had so frightened her company that they
told her she was fired. She received a week's severance. When she got hthat afternoon she found the
apartment had been torn apart in one of Jim's rages. The furniture was destroyed, all her clothes had been
ripped apart, and there was an eviction notice on the door. Jim had taken the checks for rent, but never mailed
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmthem in for the last two months.
When she went to her bank to get the past due rent money, she found out that Jim had cleaned out their
account. The only favor the bank did was to cash her severance check.
She had met Carol at a charity party about the stshe met Jim and had kept lightly in touch with her
even after Carol had moved to Atlanta. She called Carol to see if she could stay with her a few days and start a
new life. When she arrived in Atlanta, Carol wasn't there; | was.
Holly sat across fromat the park sobbing as she finished her story. The look of desperation had cback as
she realized again the mess she was in.
Other then touching her hand, | had done nothing during her story. | wasn't sure what to do. I felt if | hugged her
she would completely fall apart and be even more of an emotional cripple, but | had to give her shope; and |
was not unaware that even at this moment, | was attracted to her.
I said, "Holly, you have a big short term problem, but that's all it is. Here's what we're going to do.
"For the first week you have to get back on your feet, and in the second week we start working on finding you a
job. Let's go back to the apartment and | want you to write a list of the clothes you need to buy along with other
stuff that will get you through one week.
"Do you cook?"
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