Page 37 of The Love Duet
As she grabbed a cold bottle of water from her fridge, she said, “Well, I’m having wine.I need wine if I’m going to get any sleep tonight.”
Getting as comfortable as I could in her home, I said, “I’d also like to apologize for trespassing on your property.Even though Officer Morton’s a jerk, he wasn’t wrong about what I’ve been doing.”
Pepper set the water in front of me, then went to preparing herself a glass of wine.“While I can admit that I’m a bit...feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment, you were sleeping in my shed, Josiah.That’s hardly casing the joint.”
“How do you know that I wasn’t?”I posed, the woman way too trusting.
“Because you admitted to sleeping in it for over two weeks,” she drawled out as she poured the wine into her glass, and I was honestly surprised that she wasn’t just drinking it straight from the bottle after the kind of night that she’d had.“If you were going to rob me, I’m sure that you would have done it by now.”
“I could have been lying,” I pointed out.
Pepper took a seat across from me at the table before saying, “Yes, you could have been.However, it makes more sense if you’d told the officer that you’d only been staying in there a couple of days.Why admit to a couple of weeks?”
Unable to help myself, I opened the bottle, then guzzled it in practically one swallow, and it tasted so damn refreshing.Her home was also temperature-controlled, and that also felt nice for a change.I couldn’t remember the last time that I’d been invited into someone’s home, and it felt weird and emotional all at the same time.
Ignoring her very valid point, I asked, “Are you sure that you’re okay?Your screams took twenty years off my life.”
Suddenly, she looked unsure.“Physically, I’m fine,” she answered quietly.“I mean, my shoulder is probably going to hurt like a bitch in the morning, but...”She shrugged.“Other than that, I’m okay.”
“Mentally?”
“Mentally, I’m a mess,” she admitted, and that kind of honesty was a virtue in my book.Pride was a motherfucker, and it caused more problems than not.“Mentally, I’m probably not going to get any sleep tonight.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, meaning it.“I...I can understand how...how your brain can be your own worst enemy sometimes.”
After finally taking a drink of her wine, she said, “I just...no matter what he was here for, I just...I turned into one of those people that think it’ll never happen to them, and I just feel...stupid.”
“You shouldn’t feel stupid for believing that the people of this town are good,” I told her, hoping to help.“In a perfect world-”
“But we don’t live in a perfect world,” she said, interrupting me.“If we lived in a perfect world, then you wouldn’t be homeless.If we lived in a perfect world, then every veteran would be taken care of.Instead, money has become everyone’s god, and that’s all that everyone cares about.”
While I appreciated her consideration, it was obvious that she was upset and needed to rage out at something.“Well, we’re not going to fix everything that’s wrong with the world tonight, so how about you do your best to get some sleep.”
“Do you honestly believe that I’m going to get any sleep tonight?”she asked, and the tone of her voice felt like a heavy weight on my chest.
“Look, I know that...that I can’t live in your shed forever,” I said, embarrassment creeping up my neck.“And I’m more than happy to move along and get out of your hair.However, I can...if it’ll make you feel better, I can sleep outside tonight again...you know, one last time.”
Some unknown emotion flittered across her face, and it was clear that Pepper Milo had no poker face whatsoever.“First of all, you aren’t living in my shed,” she said.“You’re sleeping in there, and there’s a difference.Second of all, you’re still talking like you sleeping in my shed is more important than the fact that you saved my life, and I don’t like that.”
Since she felt free to use my first name, I returned the favor.“Pepper, I’m a homeless man that’s been sleeping in your shed without your knowledge.How can you not feel...feel doubly violated?”
“Probably becauseyou saved my life,”she repeated, stressing each word like I was slow or something.“Why is that so hard to understand?”
It was on the tip of my tongue to give this woman a lecture on personal safety, but that was the last thing that she needed to hear right now.She’d just been attacked, and I needed to remember that.Whatever it was that she was thinking and feeling right now, that mattered more than logic.
“Okay,” I said carefully, doing my best to understand.“Then I’ll head on back outside and make sure that everything’s okay.”
She looked hesitant for a second before asking, “Am I overreacting?”
I shook my head.“No matter what, taking your safety seriously is never overreacting, Pepper.”
Pepper just sighed, and I knew that no one was going to be getting any sleep tonight.
~
Pepper~
I hung up the phone, thankful for Roxanne all over again.After Josiah had gone back outside, I’d taken a shower, then had immediately called Roxanne to tell her what had happened.Like the gem that she was, she’d been ready to board a plane to whisk me away to the safety of her home, and it’d taken quite a while to settle her down, something that was making me smile now.
