Page 18 of Secret Admirer

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“If you need anything, anything at all my bedroom is downstairs. If you start to feel nauseous or your headache gets worse, you can call for me and—”

“I know,” I chuckle. “You’ve already gone over it twice. I know what to do and I promise not to have anything bad happen on your watch. The ibuprofen you gave me earlier is already starting to work and my head’s feeling better.”

She stares at me from across the room, probably trying to assess if I’m telling her the truth or not. I haven’t lied to her yet and I don’t plan to start.

“Maybe tomorrow you’ll let me cut your hair.” She frowns as she appraises me. “They did a hack job on it before they gave you stitches, but I can fix it if you want me to.”

“Sure, I’d like that.” I nod as she stands in the doorway fidgeting with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. It would be nice to get rid of all this hair. In the last four years, it had grown past my shoulders and my beard is gross, even to me.

With her hand on the light switch, Coco hesitates halfway out the door. Pivoting around, she looks at me with tears in her eyes. “Thank you for saving me tonight, Bodhi. I’ll never be able to repay you for what you did.” Her lower lip trembles for only a moment before she composes herself. “Goodnight, Bodhi.”

“Goodnight, Coco.”

She flicks off the light and I’m left in darkness for a few moments until my eyes start to adjust to the shadows. After living on the streets for so many years, my eyes became accustomed to seeing at night.

The only sound is the beat of my heart matching the pounding in my head and the light whooshing of air from the ceiling fan. I turn on my side thinking it might help my head when I think I hear a faint a whimper. Closing my eyes, I try to will away the pain. The medicine has helped but only enough to take the edge off. I fly off the bed when I hear a gut-wrenching sob. I’m down the stairs and searching for Coco frantically. Earlier she gave me a brief tour of the house and showed me where her room was in case—I don’t know what. If something truly bad happened to me then I wouldn’t be able to get to her in the first place, but I listened and agreed to make her feel better. In the dark, I’m all turned around and run straight into a wall.

I find Coco in her bathtub with her chest to her bent up knees. Her arms are wrapped around herself as she sobs uncontrollably. She hasn’t realized I’m here yet and I’m unsure what to do. Do I announce my presence and try to soothe her or silently back out of the room?

Her eyes slowly open and she takes me in. “Bodhi?” she cries.

Kneeling on the floor, I rub my hand up and down the smooth skin of her back. “I’m so-sorry,” I stammer. “I heard a noise and went to investigate and then I…I’m sorry. I can leave if you want. I didn’t mean to invade—”

“Please stay,” Coco whimpers. “I thought I’d be fine, but I can’t stop thinking about what would have happened if you hadn’t shown up tonight. I kept trying to wash the dirt away from my knee, but after a few minutes, I realized it wasn’t dirt but a bruise. This is going to sound terrible and vain, but I couldn’t find the nerve to look at myself in the mirror. My lip and eye…”

I soothe my hand down her back. “There’s nothing wrong with being scared. I don’t blame you for not wanting to see the damage. It will only make tonight more of a reality, but I can assure you it’s not as bad as you think.”

She rests her cheek to her knees and closes her eyes. “You’re just saying that to make me feel better, but I appreciate it.”

I’m not lying. Yes, her creamy skin is now turning shades of purple and blue in places, but she’s still beautiful.

Glistening eyes open and I swear I see deep into her soul. Coco didn’t deserve this. Any of what she’d experienced in the last month with her parents’ deaths, her ex-boyfriend showing up out of nowhere, and feeling like someone is watching her—as guilty as it made me feel, I couldn’t stop watching or listening to her and Trixie.

“Can you…I don’t know,” she shrugs as best she can in her position without exposing herself, “talk to me.”

Keeping my eyes on her face is incredibly trying. My body wants to react to being in such close proximity to her naked form, but if she notices, then I really am the creep they’ve always said I am.

“What do you want to talk about?” I have nothing interesting to say and don’t want to talk about life on the streets.

“Anything. Just keep my mind off tonight.”

Leaning back against the wall, I stretch out and get comfortable. My long legs eat up the space between us. For a moment, I watch Coco run her sponge thingy down her legs, transfixed. What can I say to keep her from ruminating on the night?

“I found a job.” Her eyes pop open and a small smile graces her face, but I continue on. “It’s at a homeless shelter I stay at. I wasn’t looking for a job.” I guffaw. “They approached me after I’d been staying there a few days. I thought I was in trouble or they were going to tell me not to come back.” I straighten up and run my hands down my legs. “Not that I’d done anything wrong, but I couldn’t figure out why the director would want to talk to me.”

“That’s great. What do you do?” Her words are soft and somehow I know she means them.

“I guess you could say I run an after-school program for the kids who stay there. We do art projects. It’s a great outlet for them to express themselves. I’m going to see if the shelter has any money in the budget to buy some pumpkins the kids can decorate.”

“They’re very lucky to have you.” She splashes water on her arms as she watches me. “From seeing your work earlier today, you’re very talented. I can’t believe what you transformed those pumpkins into. To even think of what you did is astounding. Definitely beyond my creativity.”

“Thank you.” I can feel my cheeks heat from her praise, and I look down.

My gaze is instantly back on her as she takes a washcloth from the side of the tub, discreetly covers her breasts and leans back. “No, thank you. I really think we have a chance to win the Halloween competition.”

“There’s a competition?” I guess that makes sense as to why the town went a little crazy with the decorations. I vaguely remember her mentioning something about it when I carved the pumpkins.

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