Pieces of it All (8 page)

He had to get rid of Ricky while Nelson was occupied in the stockroom. If he witnessed this, he'd probably be fired, something he couldn't afford. "I don't need to be around the likes of you."

Ricky slapped himself on the knee. "
The likes of you?
Is that really what you just said? You got yourself all fancied up while you were gone. I thought only hicks lived up north."

"I meant that I don't plan on associating with the people I used to."

With air quotes, he repeated, "Associating." He stepped into the next aisle. "My, my. Such big words for you." He ran his hands down the inseam of his coat. Ninety fucking degrees out and Ricky wore a coat.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I'm at work, okay?"

"You went and got yourself a job. How's someone gonna hire a drunk?" He unhooked a windshield wiper from the rack in front of him. His bony hands shook as he massaged the blade. He was always thin, but his eyes now looked sunken in and dark. "Oh yes, I forgot. You're sober now." He flicked the tip of the wiper with his finger.

Harvey squeezed his hand into a fist, his clenched jaw sending pain to his forehead. "How did you find me?" He hadn't exactly had a homecoming party, and only met up with a few people who didn't associate with Ricky.

"People talk, Harvey. You owe people money, and they talk."

"I don't owe you shit."

As if in slow motion, Ricky put the wiper back. He continued down the aisle. "Is that right? I seem to recall you borrowed my car and returned it to me a little, ahem, damaged?"

Harvey remembered the night quite well - the same one he decided to enter rehab. After he and his father had another terrible argument leaving each with cuts and bruises, he drove to Ricky's apartment and they went on a drinking binge together. Once they drank all the hard liquor Ricky had, they decided Harvey was the most sober to drive for more. He didn't even make it down the block before he ran Ricky's car into a fence. The incident led to rehab, and community service. The front end had some damage, but it could've been a lot worse.

"Fine. I'll give you two hundred dollars for any damage I caused, but I can't pay you for awhile."

"Two hundred dollars? It cost me almost a grand to get fixed!"

Harvey flinched back as Ricky spat his words. "I'm sorry, Ricky. I can't do any more right now. I probably can have it by the end of next month." He shouldn't even have been offering to pay him, but in a way, he owed Ricky for the rehab stint. Had the night never happened, he still could have been drunk off his ass all the time, probably in the street. Or dead.

"We can start with two hundred." He reached the end of the aisle where Harvey had just completed the car wash supply shelving. He shoved the containers to the ground. "Welcome home, Harvey. Clean up in Aisle Seven."

Cinnamon enveloped Beth's nose, dragging her out of her replay of her day with Harvey. She didn't want to leave his soft lips and his gentle hand on her cheek, but the sweet and spicy aroma lifted her from her bed and she followed it down the stairs. Her mom pulled a tray out of the oven as she entered the room.

"That smells absolutely incredible." She complimented the baker.

Her mom lifted the tray of cookies and set them on the stove top, shoving the door shut with her hip. "Thank you!" she replied as she took her oven mitts off. "I never get tired of the compliments." She placed the mitts on the counter and wiped her forehead. "How was your date? Or non-date? Did you figure out what to call it?"

Beth pulled a stool out from the breakfast bar. "Can volunteer work
be
a date? Then, yeah, a date."

She set a cookie on a napkin in front of Beth. "Did you have fun?"

"Yes. He's sweet. I like him."

"Good." She took a cookie herself. "Are you seeing him again?" She bit into the cookie and grinned.

Cookies straight out of the oven reached high up on Beth's scale of favorite things. The softness was perfect. Her mom's cookies never crumbled in her hand, but they weren't hard enough to crunch. She sunk her teeth into the first bite and enjoyed the sugar rush. "I wanted to talk to you about that. He wants me to go to his house tomorrow."

"Oh?" Her mom stood straight up and set her palms on the counter.

"Yeah. He asked if he could make me breakfast." She was always honest with her parents. She wasn't going to stop now.

Her mom held her hand under her mouth as she nervously bit into a Snickerdoodle. "Doesn't he believe in eating at a restaurant?
Denny's
is twenty minutes from here."

Beth rolled her eyes. "Mom, I thought you didn't worry about me."

She took a place at the counter. "Look. I
do
worry about you. You're smart and trustworthy so I don't as much as I'm sure other moms do. You're also a wonderful judge of character. This Harvey guy is probably very nice."

"But..."

"That's right. There
is
a but. He may be a friendly guy, but you don't know him at all." With her closed mouth full of cookie, she mumbled, "And he
is
still a guy."

"Not every boy is only after sex." Her mom chuckled, mocking her. Probably more than half her graduating class was having regular sex. Her parents were lucky she wasn't. Yet. "I can't learn more about him until we spend time together."

She put her hand on top of Beth's. "In due time. I don't think going to this guy's house alone is a good idea."

She couldn't back out. Harvey expected her in the morning, and she didn't want to let him down. He liked her as much as she liked him. Too many times she missed out on potential relationships. Sex wasn't in her breakfast plans. Sure, some time before she left for school she wanted to lose her virginity. She didn't want to go to college unexperienced, but tomorrow wasn't the day. Even though they shared a kiss, an amazing one, she needed more growth in the relationship. The thought of his hands all over her body turned her on to the extreme, however, she desired to discover more about him.

"Fine. What if Lucy comes with?"

Her mom moved her hand to her chest, letting out a laugh. "Two girls at this guy's house? Are you trying to live out a fantasy for him?"

"Gross." Beth stuck her tongue out, erasing the image from her mind. "I get it. I'll see if he can meet at Denny's."

Beth accepted a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."

Chapter Nine

So many things to be grateful for - a fresh start, a new job, and meeting Beth. Much to Harvey's surprise, Nelson didn't get upset with him over Ricky's destruction in the store. The vandalism came as no surprise. Ricky and his crowd screwed with anyone and everyone. Luck sided with him as Nelson had no idea Harvey used to hang with the same group of people.

Another evening at the bar for his father. Harvey wished deep down in the small pieces of his heart that cared (the teeniest bit) his father would quit drinking, too, but, he was glad to be by himself. He didn't have the energy to argue tonight. Stress exited his body as his phone vibrated and a text from Beth popped up.
My mom is freaking about me going to your house alone. Okay to meet at Denny's?

The text didn't surprise him. The first time he met Beth he overheard her discussing sex with her friends. The two of them being alone in the house together could lead to things she may not be ready for. He got the impression she wanted to do more than kiss, but he didn't want to move too quickly. He placed one foot on the coffee table and crossed the other over his knee. God, he wanted to be alone with her. He did a lot of things to her in his fantasies, and she enjoyed every moment. Sex between them would be fucking unbelievable. From just the kiss, no doubt her tongue could do some damage, and his had a few tricks of its own. He'd be able to show her a few things. Staring back at the empty text box, he pushed the thoughts from his mind. Part of his changed man mentality meant taking this relationship slow. Beth didn't strike him as the type of girl to rush into anything. If he wanted to move forward as an honest, caring, responsible adult, he had to play the part. He typed back.
No problem. I completely understand. Meet at seven?

He finished up the Hot Pocket he'd thrown in the microwave for dinner. Ten-thirty arrived already? The night disappeared from him. He didn't rush home from work. Instead, he drove around town, not quite sure what, if anything, he was looking for or what he would find. Once he passed Beth's house and saw her car in the driveway, he started thinking about her in her bedroom, dreaming about him, doing things to herself. He pictured that and kept himself busy for a very short amount of time, but worked up quite an appetite.

He thought getting away from his past would be easy. He'd never been more wrong. He anticipated running into some of the jackasses he hung with before rehab. If he had anywhere else to go, he would have, and avoided the confrontation at all costs. Fuck! He'd gone to his mom's if she were around, but she wasn't. What if she were the only chance he had and her leaving pushed him into the life of a drunk? He always placed the fault on his father, but maybe he should have blamed her. Where the hell
was
she? Why would she leave her kid with a beast like his father? What the fuck kind of a parent did something so asinine?

He resigned to his bedroom. Despite having the house to himself, it was the one place he could relax. The box hidden away in his closet was why. A perfectly choreographed placement of clothes and books concealed the black box with the Nike swoosh which had not been opened for at least a year. The box didn't matter when the depths of rock bottom hit him in the face. While locked away in the rehab center for months on end, he tucked the existence of the box to a corner of his mind he couldn't reach. Now, it stared back at him. He inhaled, holding on for a moment before blowing dust off the cover. In another breath, he blew the hair off his face and lifted the lid.

The truth didn't live in this box, as much as he forced himself to believe it. It held a
Toy Story
ticket stub, faded and difficult to read. He stuffed the potpourri in shades of red and brown wrapped in smoke stained tulle in the corner. The tiny red stocking he had stolen from the local Kmart fit in the palm of his hand. He never had a stocking, but on the most difficult days, he would hang this small piece of fabric from a nail in the wall, pretending he and his mom were waiting for Santa with cookies and milk. He inhaled the lavender scented candle, imagining it probably was her favorite. Underneath everything - the real and the fake - lay the Polaroid, the edges crinkled and faded. He sat on her lap, so happy, and his father and the other woman in the picture smiled as well. This photo proved his mother existed, somewhere out in the world waiting for Harvey. He took a deep breath and pressed his thumbs into the corners.

He would find her.

Beth barely slept the night before. She spent the evening tossing and turning, anxiously watching the clock move forward at too slow a pace. Every time she closed her eyes, Harvey stared back at her, a grin across his face, kissing her and tickling her neck with his lips. The butterflies in her stomach fluttered all night as she anticipated their date.
This
time was a date.

The clock finally showed six, and she jumped out of bed and showered as fast as she could. It took about ten minutes to blow dry her hair, and then she tossed it into a pony tail, smoothing out the top and sides with a few barrettes. A light coat of makeup satisfied her. She raided her closet at least four times before deciding on a pale blue ribbed tank with a white skirt with large ruffles that just grazed her knees. She glanced in the mirror, tossed on some sandals, and ran down the stairs.

"Where are you off to?" Her mother stopped her at the bottom of the steps. "Six-forty-five is a little early, don't you think?"

"Yes, Beth. You were gone all morning and afternoon yesterday." Her father's voice reminded her from the other room.

She stepped into the dining room where her father, Michael, sat at the table reading the paper. He folded the pages and set it down. His dark hair, feathered on the side, trimmed perfectly around his ears, and he wore a slick black suit, a turquoise tie smoothed down his shirt.

"I know, Dad. Didn't mom tell you I volunteered at a fair?"

"Yes, she did. That boy brought you home yesterday. He never bothered to come in. Is this who you are off to meet this morning?"

The truth. They were looking for the truth here, right? "Yeah. His name is Harvey. We met last month. He invited me to his house for breakfast."

"His house?" He picked up the paper and swatted the table. "Beth, think this through. Does this seem like a good idea?" His eyes narrowed disapprovingly. "You just met him."

"Mom and I talked about this yesterday." She pointed toward the stairs where her mom still stood. "I'm meeting him at
Denny's
instead, not his house."

He sighed. "Still. I haven't met this boy. Your mother said he showed up briefly for your graduation party, but he never cared to introduce himself to me. I'm not sure I approve of this."

Her mom piped in as she stepped into the room. "Beth and I did talk about this last night. I'm sorry, I forgot all about her going today. Michael, she planned on going to his house. I've at least talked her into meeting at
Denny's
instead. It's only breakfast."

"Yeah, it's only breakfast, Dad." Wrong response.

He flashed an evil eye at her. "I don't know if I like you seeing boys and all that jazz."

Beth had to deal with the over protectiveness of her father more than she would like, especially since she was an only child. Lucy had an older sister as a role model, therefore allowing her the freedom to do so much. Beth's dad never left the new fatherhood phase and wanted to shield her from the world. "It's called dating, Dad. I don't do a ton of it." Even if she had guys falling at her feet, he would make dating on a regular basis near impossible. He managed to warm up to Ryan a little bit before they broke up. She didn't think he'd cozy up to another boyfriend of hers again for quite awhile.