Empty Nest: Chapter 37

The first half of day two on the job ends up being a breeze compared to the first. I was still ‘new boy’ to a couple of the older guys but most of the crew had already begun to use my name. Not only that but the work flow and pace was far more manageable as they didn’t yank me this way and that to do every little thing, instead choosing to let me focus in on being the helper of a framing crew. In retrospect I now realized that yesterday had been my hazing day. They were pushing me to see if I had what it took to stick around. Evidently I’d passed the test.

The hours pass swiftly and along the way I discover that I absolutely LOVED framing. Though I was only holding things, passing things, and learning oh so much as I watched the pros it was so cool to watch the skeleton of the structure slowly come together before my eyes. Through planning and labor what would start as a blank slate would end with the foundation of what would be. It was almost magical to stand there looking over a room we'd made and see through my mind’s eye the finished home and imagine who might live here. I always imagined a young couple raising children and creating the memories of a life well lived right here inside of this space that I helped to create. It gave me a satisfaction I’d never even gotten close to in my old dead end job. For the first time ever I could feel my feet, inside these comfy new work boots, firmly planted on ‘the right path’.

The work was hard, no question about it, but there was something about the knowledge that I was making money for her that gave me a tireless energy. I wanted to help. I wanted to show my worth. I wanted to pay Heather for all her kindness and ease her burden. Most of all I just wanted to be her worker bee so that she would pet me and hug me and call me her good boy. Thank goodness for all these heart lifting wants because simmering just below them…was my want to go punch Myles in the fucking face. I was trying real hard to be mature about this but the more that I thought about him as Heather’s honey boy the more I loathed the man, even though he hadn’t done a thing to deserve it.

I was already having a good day when the foreman brightens it even more just as we were breaking for lunch.

“Elliot!”

“Right here, boss.” I jog up to him, my packed lunch in my hands.

With a shake of his head he thumbs for the fence. “You got a visitor again.” He says in annoyance. “I’m not gonna keep playing messenger. Arrange your lunch dates on your own time, kay?”

“Yes, Sir.” I say as I break into a big grin, knowing the visitor could only be one person.

He chuckles at my silly smile and waves me away. “Get outta here.”

With hoots and whistles the guys are once more Neanderthals when it comes to welcoming my curvaceous female guest.

“Shaddap!” I shout as I trot forward.

“What’s this, Elliot?” Diego laughs. “A new girl for each day of the week? Damn man!”

“New girl?” I mutter. Indeed, waiting for me on the other side of the fence is a figure familiar yet one I hadn’t seen in years. “Lily!?”

Fuller of figure than last I saw her, especially in the bust and hips, Lily had matured into her natural good looks gracefully. She’d been hot back in high school but now she possessed a fuller beauty that nearly rivaled her mother. She was a few inches shorter than Heather with much darker and shorter hair. Her eyes were the same shade of brown but her facial features leaned more toward Alexander’s side of the gene pool. She wore a red sweater over a collared shirt with roomy, comfortable looking slacks. Knowing what I now knew I realized that she had to have been tucked down below so as not to give away her bulge.

“Hello, Elliot.” Lily says in a cool tone.

“Hey, Lily. Long time no see, huh?”

“Indeed.” She says, her eyes narrowing. “I think you and I need to have a little chat. Buy me lunch?”

“Um…”

“Oh, right. You’re flat broke.”

I bristle. “Fuck you.”

She sighs and shakes her head. “Sorry.” With a nod down the street toward a little neighborhood cafe she says. “Let me buy you a coffee. Like I said, we need to talk.”

I look down at the packed lunch in my hands then back up to her. “Alright.”

At first I try to do some friendly small talk about old times and her new career to try to smooth things a little, but Lily wasn’t interested. She closed up, she wouldn’t even let me get within arms reach of her. And so hardly a word is spoken as we walk the block and half to the cafe. As we go I keep looking over from the corner of my eye to see if I could get a sense of where this was going. She was not pleased, that much I could tell for certain, beyond that however she was a brick wall.

At the cafe we make our orders. I order a small house blend coffee and nothing else, then pay for it with the meager funds I had remaining. I was feeling guilty about my current dependence on Heather, especially after Lily had just pointed it out so rudely, and I was damned if I was going to let Heather’s daughter buy me a pity drink. She isn’t impressed by my gesture and tells me to go find us a table while she waits for the drinks. I’m able to find a private-ish table in the corner of the and I settle in, quietly preparing myself for what I was fairly certain was going to be one hell of an uncomfortable conversation. Again Lily is silent when she finds our table and settles into the seat across from me. I add cream and sugar then sit stirring my coffee and staring down into it as I wait for Lily to get out whatever was on her mind. The seconds turn to minutes before I look up into the hard gaze staring back at me. I take a drink and continue to wait. She had sought me out to get something off of her chest and I wanted to hear it before I said anything. So we sit and sip and stare until at long last she breaks the tense silence.

“You’ve got to go, Elliot.” She says as she clinks her nails against her mug. “Today. Right now. You’ve got to get out of my Mom’s life and never look back.”

Sitting up I meet her hard gaze. “With all due respect…”

“Stop.” She holds up her hand. “This isn’t a negotiation. I am telling you, you are leaving my mother’s house today. I don’t care where you go. Just go. You are not her problem.”

“Lily…”

“Listen. I’m sorry about your parents. Really. But you can’t have mine. This weird…thing you have with my mom, ends.”

“What the hell do my parents have to do with this?”

“As if you don’t know.”

Eye to eye we stare each other down, neither of us backing down an inch. “I don’t see how you’ve got any say in the matter of where I stay.”

“Elliot…”

“Lily.” I cut in. “We’ve got it figured out. I know. I know about everything. Heather’s explained about your…stuff.”

“Yes.” She grumbles, anger roiling in her brown eyes. “You’re not supposed to know about any of that.”

“Says who?”

“None of your business.” She retorts. “Mom’s got a trusting heart and a big mouth.”

“Watch your fucking language when…!” I stop, choking back the words I really wanted to say.

“Mm.” She takes a sip of her latte. “You’re awfully upset about me bad-mouthing my mom.”

“It’s rude.”

“You’re bonding.” She shoots right back. “Stupid woman. You’re too close with each other. She’s given you too much, too fast. I warned her about how potent she was at her age. Would she listen? Does she ever?”

“She’s not stupid! We’ve got it under control. We’ve got a plan.”

“Pff! I bet you do. I bet you got it all planned out.” She scoffs. “Elliot, my mother is lonely. Lonely and broken. And you knew that. You took advantage of that. But you didn’t realize what you were messing with, did you?”

“I did not take advantage of her! I am not! I lo…um…”

“You’re taking advantage of a lonely old woman, for what? Some free rent? Some free meals? A little honey high?” She glances toward my lunch sitting on the chair to my right. “Elliot, you have no idea what you’re playing with here. You thought you’d found yourself a real soft-hearted, empty-headed Sugar Mama, huh? Selfish prick. Well this is a game you cannot win, Elliot. Because women like us play for keeps.”

“I’m not playing a…game.” My voice catches as the room around me wavers. Only then do I notice that I’d broken out into a sweat and that the coffee flavor coating my mouth suddenly tasted like ash. My eyes dart down to my half empty mug then back to Lily. “What did you…? Ohhhh.”

“My father’s death destroyed her and Liam fucking off tore what was left of her to pieces. She’d finally started to find some peace, and now you.” Lily continues, completely ignoring my distress. “Men are no good for her. They only hurt her in the end. And poor little boys needing a Mommy to look after them are even worse. Leave her alone!”

“I’m…um…” Try as I might I couldn’t string two words together. “Water.” The foul taste filling my mouth, burnt beans and curdled cream, had me on the verge of retching while my flesh had come alive to every tiny sensation. This time however it wasn’t just the good stuff I was feeling. My clothes were sandpaper rasping against my flesh, the breeze from the overhead vent was a crushing deluge of frigid water, and the pressure of chair against my ass actually hurt! “Nnngh. Help…me.”

“I’m sorry that it had to come to this, Elliot. But did you really think Liam and I were going to sit back and let this happen?” She says as she watches me writhe in anguish. “I did not enjoy this. But I knew you wouldn’t, couldn’t, listen to reason. Either of you. It is for your own good. And hers.” She sighs. “I’m just glad I wasn’t too late.” Reaching across she pats my hand to which I recoil as even her light touch was piercing agony. Her nose twitches and lip curls as if catching a whiff of a foul odor as leans away from me again. “The thing about us, Elliot, is that one woman’s honey spoils a boy for the rest.”

“I’m…not feelin…so good.” My head is swimming and I am barely managing to hold my vomit down. Every cell in body was screaming! “Nnngh.”

“Your bond is breaking. This won’t be pleasant but it will pass. You’ll be okay.” Taking her purse she rises and looks down on me with pity in her eyes. “This is for the best, Elliot. For everybody. Now get the hell out of my mother’s life. While you still can.”

Chapter 38