From the City to Simmons

"Yeah, no problems," he said, kicking off his shoes.

"That's not what I meant."

"Well, what did you mean then?" he asked. He knew what she meant.

"Don't be silly, Chris. That girl never took her eyes off you all night. It's not that hard to see what she wants."

"Yeah, I get it. I take it you don't like her much," he replied.

"No, it's not that. I like her just fine. Believe me, I understand why she's attracted to you. The same reason I am, you're a wonderful, good-looking man."

Chris walked over and sat next to his sister, putting an arm around her shoulders. "And you're a wonderful woman. A wonderful woman that I came home to, and I always will. I don't want to do anything to spoil what we have."

Carrie leaned into him and kissed his cheek. "I know. She has to be kind of tempting to you, isn't she?"

Chris groaned. He thought that they had stopped talking about Tina. "She's tempting, alright? What do you think I should do about her? I can't just start being mean to her. Plus, I have to work with her every night."

"No, don't be mean to her. I don't think you're capable of it, anyway. Just be her friend. She needs that more than she needs to get laid, probably."

"Yeah. You're gonna have to help me."

"Help you? Help you what? Help keep you from the clutches of a sexy, horny, teenage girl?" She put on her best scolding face.

"Oh, come on. You know what I mean. I can keep my hands off of her without any help. I want you to help me straighten her out. She's a good kid."

"She's pretty top heavy for being a kid. Looks pretty grown up to me," Carrie pointed out.

"Listen, Carrie I love you, but seriously now. Do you want her to spend the rest of her life dating losers and getting smacked around? She's supported herself since she was fifteen years old, which is great but she doesn't seem to go anywhere but in circles. You and that crazy pack of women that you hang out with could give her some serious guidance."

Carrie had full confidence that Chris wouldn't cheat on her. She still wasn't too keen on spending much time with a chick that wanted to bone him so bad that she might as well have been wearing a sign around her neck that said just that. She supposed that was a downside of falling in love with someone who genuinely cared about people. It was just too bad that Tina didn't have the body of a linebacker or the face of a bulldog.

"I think she's a good kid, too, Chris. I'll see what I can do."

*****

"So, what do you have for gossip on your girl?" Erin asked.

"Well, I think she definitely got that eye from her boyfriend, who appears to be out of the picture now. Jail." Chris told her from across the break table.

"Hmm, you'll be able to slide right in, so to speak."

"Anything's possible I suppose, but I have barely enough energy to keep the tables clean, I don't think I need to go chasing around a nineteen year old. I don't think I could keep up with her."

"I know what you mean. Especially after the weekend, my bed spoils me. Human beings should be asleep at two in the morning," Erin said.

Tina and Chris spoke with each other throughout the shift, she seemed to be doing fine. No sign of Luke, his friend came by the apartment to get his things like he said he would. All in all, it was a normal night of dish washing and collecting stray french fries for Chris. He did his nightly duty walking Erin to her car, then he and Tina took off for her place.

"So Chris...uh, I know you don't have time to date or anything. If you wanted to, you could come in for a little while."

Chris suddenly felt like it was very hot inside the vehicle. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but he was going to have to turn down Tina's very generous offer. "I think I'm just gonna head home. It's been a long day."

"Okay. You sure you don't want to? Cause you know, I thought you would." Tina seemed to be fairly perplexed at the thought that Chris was basically turning down a chance to sleep with her.

"I want to Tina, I really do. Thing is, Carrie's waiting for me and I'm tired, and it might not be the best thing for you if we jumped into something. You're not mad, are you?"

"Maybe tomorrow? I like you, Chris. You do know what I mean, don't you?" she asked.

"I definitely know what you mean. You don't need me to tell you how incredible you look. I like you, too. Can we just take it easy?" he asked.

"You mean like slow?"

"Exactly. Let's work on being friends and take things nice and slow."

"We are friends, aren't we?" she asked.

"Yeah, we are. All I'm sayin is that I'd like to get to know each other better. Maybe after you get to know me, you won't want to have anything to do with me. Who knows?"

"Don't be silly."

*****

It was over a week later when Tina and Carrie were side by side on treadmills at the gym. Carrie had a few passes and had invited Tina to join her. She was keeping a far more aggressive pace than that of the younger girl.

"Chris said that he wants to keep things slow and just be friends. It's been like a week and we still haven't, you know, done anything. Do you think he really likes me or what?"

"Of course he does. Taking things slow takes more than just a few days, you know. He talks about you all the time," Carrie replied.

She couldn't seem to not like the girl. It was the second time that week that they had hung out with each other. Carrie had been wracking her brain, trying to figure out ways to get rid of her without hurting her feelings. For some reason, when she actually spent some time with her, she just couldn't bring herself to tell her to lay off her brother. Tina was a little ditsy, but she was far from stupid. She said what was on her mind and was just kind of refreshing to be around. Carrie stepped off the treadmill and toweled off. Tina did the same.

"What's he say? Anything good?" Tina asked. They were walking out to Carrie's car. She had to get home and get ready for work.

"Oh, it's all good. You're gorgeous, you're a good waitress. He really likes you. He doesn't say so, but he worries about you."

"He's sweet like that. You know, he walks the other girls out to their cars when our shift's over to make sure they get out okay. He kept trying to give me a ride home when I first started working there. I thought he was just trying to, you know, come on to me, but he's not like that," Tina said.

"He's a good man, there's no doubt about that. Look, Tina, he and I have lived together for five years. He's never had a steady girlfriend."

"Why not? He deserves one, don't you think?" Tina asked.

"He does. He needs a woman to make him happy and take care of him. He's never had one because of me. I need him, and I don't know what I'd do without him. He knows that and I don't think he'll ever leave me for someone." Carrie suddenly found herself on the edge of tears, wondering how the hell she had become so emotional. She had a hard time putting the keys in the ignition. Tina's hand was suddenly covering hers.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you shaking like that?" Tina asked, concerned. "You all right?"

Carrie could only turn and look at the girl with her eyes watering. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. After trying to come up with something to say for a moment, she gave up and just covered her face with her hands.

Tina's eyes opened wide as a realization struck her. "You're in love with him, aren't you? Like not brother and sister love, like IN love? I've seen the way you look at him." Tina's voice was soft and low.

"He means everything to me. Please don't take him away from me," Carrie pleaded. She was crying now. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that she could be reduced to a basket case so easily. She had been worrying herself half to death wondering what people would think if they ever found out about her and her brother, and here she was blabbing about it the first chance that she got.

"Hey, take it easy. I don't wanna take him away from you. Is he, you know, in love with you too?" Tina asked. She wasn't sure what to think of this. She had been thinking it was odd that a grown brother and sister had been living together for so long, but she had just chalked it up as an innocent living arrangement.

Carrie couldn't say anything. She just nodded her head and looked at Tina with tears coming down her cheeks.

"That's why he couldn't just tell me he was seeing somebody. He's seeing you," Tina said. Carrie nodded in the affirmative again. Tina slumped back in her seat and put her hands over her face. "I really thought that I had a chance for something good. I should have known that he was too good to be true. I should have known that this was going to turn out to be just as shitty as everything else that's ever happened to me."

"Tina, I'm sorry. You're a nice girl. I like you, Chris likes you. I'm sorry, I'm just so sorry," Carrie whined. "What are you going to do?"

Tina spoke through her fingers. "There's not much I can do, is there? I fell for a weirdo that I never had a chance with from the start."

Carrie didn't like hearing the word 'weirdo', huge sobs erupted. It took a moment for her to compose herself. "Are you going to tell anyone? About Chris and I?"

"No, I won't tell anyone. You two are a couple of the nicest people I know. I couldn't do anything to hurt you or what you got. Fuck! Why couldn't he have just told me so I wouldn't get my hopes up? It hurts, you know? He made me feel like he cared about me," Tina said.

"He does care about you. Can you forgive him? Forgive me? Do you work tonight?" Carrie asked. She wasn't sure how things would go down at Whitmore's after Tina's insightful revelation about her and her brother.

"No, Erin and Cindy are on. And I don't know. I just don't know. I'm gonna walk," Tina replied, opening the door and stepping out.

"Wait! Let me give you a ride home at least!"

"I need some space. Let me walk." Tina shut the door and stomped off.

Carrie banged her forehead against the top of the steering wheel. "Shit, shit, shit!" With more than a little trepidation, she grabbed her cell phone and dialed her brother.

*****

It was a long walk home for Tina. The heat of the afternoon had basically cooked her through and she wanted nothing more than to grab a bottle of water and hit the shower. When she pulled out her key to unlock the door, it took her a moment to realize that it had been kicked in.

Fuck! I got to get robbed, too.

She pushed the door open and took a look inside. It looked kind of like a small tornado had just swept through. Just when she was thinking it might be prudent to alert the authorities, a hand locked around her wrist and pulled her inside.

"Luke! What the fuck are you doing here?" she screamed.

"This is where I live. You forget that? You think I was just gonna rot in a cell forever? I know that you wanted me to, you fuckin' bitch. Hopin' I'd spend the rest of my life in jail?"

Luke appeared to be upset. He was a large man and towered over the girl. He had no problem keeping a grip on her wrist, even though she was struggling to get away.

"I couldn't make your bail. Your lawyer said you were going away for a long time. I couldn't even talk to you. Come on! You're gonna break my arm!"

"Where's my stuff? This is fucking important, where's my speakers?" He twisted her arm, causing Tina to cry out in her new-felt pain.

"Bobby came and picked up your stuff yesterday. He said he'd hold onto it 'til you got out!" she cried.

"I talked to fucking Bobby and he didn't say anything about picking up my stuff. He's been out of town. You know what was in those speakers? The rest of my fuckin' stash, that's what! So you better think fucking hard about where it is. You understand me?" Luke pulled her further into the apartment and kicked the door shut. "I need that shit back. I owe a lot of money to people that you can't afford to owe money to. The kind of people that make going to prison seem like a trip to Disney Land. That shit is my ticket out of here."

Tina knew that she was in serious trouble. By some strange act of God, or Satan, or some other unexplainable mystic force, Luke was out of police custody and was asking her a question that she just couldn't answer to his satisfaction. His friend Bobby had come and taken his things away. Luke didn't believe it and she couldn't think of a thing to tell him that would possibly appease his rage.

"Luke, you gotta believe me! Bobby came yesterday with his van and got all your stuff! What do you think I could have done with it? I don't have any place to take it to. I sure as hell don't want anything to do with your stash!"

"So, you want to make this hard. That's fine. You've had this coming."

*****

"Did you happen to talk to Tina at all?" Chris asked his sister. He had just gotten home from the restaurant that night. He'd tried to call Tina a few times with no luck.

"No, I called, but it goes right to her voice mail," Carrie replied.

"She's got to be pissed. I kind of led her on, I guess. I didn't mean to. I didn't know what to say to her." What he said succinctly summed up his feelings. He knew what the situation was with Tina, yet he couldn't seem to be able to do anything to diffuse it before it blew up in their faces. He felt like a criminal.

"It's my fault. I don't know what happened. We were just talking, she was asking about you and I guess I just broke down. I didn't mean to tell her anything. It just all came out," Carrie tried to explain.

"It can't be your fault, Carrie. I think that all belongs to me. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but I kind of feel relieved in a weird sort of way," he said.

"'Cause you don't have to worry about it anymore?" she asked, her voice pained.

"Yeah."

"Well, I feel like shit. It broke her heart, Chris."

"I'm sorry, Carrie. But between you and her, I have to pick you. You know that." Chris took her hand and kissed the back of it. "I shouldn't have done that to her, she shouldn't have found out about us. I'm a terrible person, babe."

"You're not a terrible person. I think we've both done a terrible thing, though. I haven't even known her that long. There's just something about her...I don't know what it is. I hope she doesn't end up hating us."

"Me too."

The two didn't do much more talking that night. They retired early (for them). It was shortly after lunch the next day when Chris noticed his cell phone vibrating while he was sitting in his cubicle. He was hoping that it wasn't his sister with more bad news and was surprised when the screen told him it was Whitmore's that was calling. It wasn't like the restaurant to call in the middle of the day.

"Hello?"

"Hey Chris. It's Sid. Got a call from Tina. She's in the hospital. Mercy General. She asked me to let you know, says she lost your number, lost her phone or something."

"Holy shit. She alright?" Chris asked.

"I don't know. She didn't sound too great. Said she might be out for a while," Sid replied.

"What happened?"

"Don't know for sure. She wanted me to tell you she's there. I assume that she wants you to go find out for yourself."

"Alright. Thanks, Sid. See ya."

Chris ducked out of the office early and drove over to Mercy General. His mind was racing with thoughts of things that may have happened to her. Hit by a bus? Tried to kill herself? Whatever it was, guilt was eating away at him. His belly felt full of acid, the kind that wasn't supposed to be there. He was selfishly hoping that he had no blame in whatever it was that happened; he felt bad enough that she was in the hospital without him being the cause. He checked with reception and they told him what room she was in and that he could go see her. He was surprised to see a police officer standing outside the door to her room.

The officer looked at him suspiciously and made sure he was who he said he was before he allowed Chris into the room. Even then, he waited for Tina to give the okay before he went back to his post in the hallway. Chris stood by the side of the bed and looked down at the poor girl. Her face looked like one huge bruise, he barely recognized her. Her left arm was in a cast from her elbow down to her hand. Her eyes brightened a bit when she saw Chris.

"Chris. You came. I didn't know who else to call." He could tell that it was painful for her to speak.

"I came as soon as I heard. Sid called me. What the heck happened to you? It looks like you got run over by a truck."

"It feels kind of like I did," she admitted. Chris pulled a chair over and listened as she told her story.

Tina told him of arriving home from the gym and finding her door kicked in, then everything that followed. The police had later told her that Luke had been bailed out but wouldn't tell her who bailed him out. Had to respect his privacy. Luke had beaten the piss out of her, trying to get the location of his precious speakers. When his hands got sore from punching her, he started kicking her instead. He either finally believed that Bobby had taken his stuff or just thought that she was dead, Tina wasn't sure. She fell into unconsciousness for quite a while. When she came to, she made her way out to the street where a woman called 911. She had too many broken ribs to count, and was going to need some extensive dental work. Luke, at the moment, was at large.

"I hope they catch the motherfucker." Chris was sick to his stomach that someone could do this to another human being.

"I hope they just shoot him. I need to take a break from talking, my face hurts. Stay with me for a bit?"

"Sure. Would it be okay if Carrie came to visit? I haven't called her yet." The subject of Chris and his sister hadn't come up and he was in no hurry to bring it up, either. Apparently, Tina wasn't so sickened by the situation that she never wanted to see them again.

Tina didn't say anything, but she nodded her agreement. Chris stepped out into the hall to make his call just as a nurse was coming in to give Tina some pain medicine. He got a hold of his sister and informed her of the situation. After the call, he went back in the room and took a seat while Tina dozed. As he watched her chest rise and fall in shallow hitches, it fully occurred to him why he hated the city so much. Tina didn't deserve what happened to her any more than his sister deserved what happened to her all those years ago. Neither woman would ever be the same.

He wasn't sitting there very long before there was a light rap at the door and Carrie stuck her head in. Chris motioned for her to come in and stood to greet her.

"How's she doing?" Carrie asked. She could plainly see from the looks of her that the girl had seen better days.

"She spoke with me for a little while after I showed up. I think she's conked out on something pretty strong right now."

"Oh my god. If I would have just given her a ride home, maybe none of this would have ever happened. I can't believe this happened to her." Carrie buried her head into her brother's shoulder.

"That didn't have anything to do with it. That bastard was already in her apartment waiting for her. It wasn't your fault."

"I think she ought to come home with us when she gets out of here. She shouldn't be alone," Carrie said.

"I'll tell you one thing Carrie, we're getting out of this hellhole of a city. I don't care if we go to New York, Wisconsin, or friggin' Nova Scotia. I've had enough of this place. I can't take it."

*****

Tina ended up spending the next three days in the hospital, which wasn't bad considering the beating that she had endured. She had to have some surgery done on her teeth and had to wear something that looked like a bullet-proof vest to protect her ribs. It hurt every time that she took a breath, and she'd have to eat soft foods for a month. Just standing up was painful, something that she was reminded of when she rose from the wheelchair to get into Carrie's car. Carrie helped her get situated in the back seat for the ride back to her apartment. They were going to grab some of Tina's things, then go back to Carrie's.