Page 3 of Handsome
It took me a half an hour to get out of the house, and the moon was high in the sky when I finally escaped.
My son needs to know I love him, and that he belongs here, with us.
I’ll do anything.
I pointed my Aston Martin toward Leah's apartment in town.
Leah was a doctor who worked with my brother Elon to start East Coast centers for his gynecological practice. I met her at an OB/GYN conference, mostly so I could see Elon, another of my brothers, who's only a year younger than me.
As I approached her street, I saw an older blue car bump into a woman on a bicycle.
She fell in the bushes next to the sidewalk, and I was stunned when the car drove away fast.
I jerked my silver Aston Martin to the curb, put it in park, and crossed the street. She was already on her feet and wiping her knees when I asked, “Are you okay?”
She was out of breath as she pointed down the street. “The car didn’t stop, but I think I'm okay.”
At least she was wearing a helmet. I didn’t want to touch her without permission, so I said, “I’m a doctor, and perhaps I can help. Can I see you bend your knees and walk?”
She pointed to the obvious cuts on both her knees as she said, “I’m fine.” She directed my attention down as she said, “It’s this.”
The bicycle wheel was smashed, though I only said, “It looks broken.”
We both turned when a bus at the corner revved its engine and continued on its way.
Her eyes wide, she said, “Fuck! I just missed the ferry back to New York.”
The bus was the cheap way to go to Manhattan. I swallowed and decided a few hours of helping someone would probably be good for my soul.
Besides, the woman’s dark eyes captured my attention, and for some reason adrenaline rushed through me. I was drawn toward her. So I said, “I’m on my way to Manhattan if you want a ride.”
She glanced at me and then my car as she asked, “Are you Cyrus Norouzi?”
“Yes, do I know you?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m just a waitress in a diner. Anyhow, thank you for the offer, but I’ll stay at my sister’s and catch the bus tomorrow.”
Something about this woman made me notice that she kept her head down when I asked, “You sure?”
“Thank you. Goodbye.” She waved me off.
A freer version of myself would have asked her more questions, like her name. However, right now my son took precedence over everything else.
2
Sarah
The walk back to my sister’s took time. I stayed on the backroads when it became clear Cyrus, and his Aston Martin were on their way to Leah’s.
The scenic route included stopping at the grocery store.
My sister would need twenty minutes or less to send him away. I squared my shoulders.
Leah had always been honest with me about how she intended to use her baby boy, Joshua, and how she needed two more weeks to fully deprive Cyrus of seeing his son for two months since she told him. She was playing a dangerous game.
When he decided to bring a full custody suit with his monied lawyers, it wasn’t going to be as easy Leah thought. Cyrus wasn’t an ordinary man. And his lawyers would be sharp, no matter how carefully Leah had mapped out exactly how she intended to pay back her student loans with her trap-a-rich-man-to-have-his-baby scheme. The whole plan had too many flaws.
She often called Joshua her get-out-of-student-loan baby.
