CHAPTER 36-1
1014 Words
CHAPTER 36
Eve cringed with each cautious step she planted upon the stairs. The smallest creak in the woodwork made her skin tingle. She held her breath and waited. Had anyone heard? It had been an hour since everyone went to bed, but that didn’t mean they were asleep.
In the dim light in the hallway, Eve paused in front of the mirror. Her figure was more developed than Mee-Kyong’s, but her face was too angular, her features a little too harsh. She smoothed down her hair, tucked one strand behind her left ear, studied the effect, and then set it back how it was. She ran her hands over Kennedy’s blouse. Good thing the little American princess was too far away to care if some of her clothes went missing tonight.
Eve was almost to the front door when she turned into the small secondary hallway. She padded silently down a set of two stairs and brushed the door with her fingertips. “Are you awake?” She pressed her cheek against the wooden frame and tapped it twice with one finger. “It’s me.”
Then he was there.
Benjamin still had on his work pants from the day but had taken his shirt off. As he opened the door, he pulled a sleeveless undershirt over his torso. He placed one arm on his doorframe and leaned against it. “What do you want?”
Eve positioned her body at a slight angle to his, willing him to notice her hair, her blouse, her skirt — which Eve knew for a fact Mr. Stern had forbidden his daughter to wear out of the house when she was still in high school. “I was having a hard time sleeping. Just thought I’d come down for a visit.’”
Benjamin continued to block the door with his bulky frame. “You know we can’t do that anymore.” She saw the way the lump in his throat worked when he swallowed. “It’s different now.”
Eve lifted one shoulder. “It doesn’t have to be.”
Benjamin grunted, but he didn’t make any move to shut the door. His eyes wandered slowly, shyly. “We can’t.” He snapped his head back up. “I can’t.”
His flushed face gave Eve the courage to put one arm against his chest. Her palm was on the cloth of his undershirt, and her fingertips brushed the hard smoothness of his skin. “The Sterns never found out before,” she purred. “They don’t need to now.”
Benjamin glanced quickly down the hall. “I’m trying to change.”
“For what? Good-conduct badges in heaven?” Eve deliberately let her volume rise more than necessary. With another shush, Benjamin grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside. He kept the door open and whispered in her ear, “You need to stop this. It’s not right.”
Eve let the corners of her lips curl up as she wrapped both arms around Benjamin’s neck. One swift motion from her foot shut the door behind them. “I’ve got a whole lifetime to earn back my reward points from God.”
***
* * * *
Juliette couldn’t even think of lying down yet. She paced from one bedpost to another, gesturing with her hands every now and then and almost panting from walking so fast. “I can’t believe how quickly she’s changed.” She glanced at Roger every now and then to make sure he was still listening. “I’ve been so worried about her leaving, about going through another round of good-byes, you know. All that stuff.” Roger nodded, so Juliette continued. “And then it just came together. I mean, you encouraged me to have the conversation and get it out of the way, and it was like she had just been waiting for that very moment, for that exact question. She wasn’t flippant, but there wasn’t any second guessing, either.”
“Almost sounds like it was too easy.”
At Roger’s murmur, Juliette froze halfway between the mahogany bedposts. “What was that?”
She had already resumed her pacing before Roger replied, “I still don’t know how to read that girl. That’s all. She was so tough when she came here. She’s got an iron will, that one, so it’s hard for me to see her accepting the truth that readily.”
Juliette was too excited, and her spirits were too high for her husband’s words to discourage her. He wasn’t there in that den. He didn’t know. He wasn’t the one who had studied with Mee-Kyong for weeks on end. He saw her as a hardened young woman from the brothel, but Juliette had seen glimpses into Mee-Kyong’s heart, and it was beautiful. “I was thinking we could plan the baptism for Sunday afternoon.”
“Fine with me.”
Juliette placed her hands on her hips. “Maybe you could at least pretend to be enthusiastic.”
Roger sighed. “I’m just tired, Baby Cakes.” Juliette glanced at the clock. It had already been an hour since they got ready for bed. “In the morning, I’ll have more energy to be ecstatic with you, all right? For now, I just want to rest.”
Juliette threw on her slippers. “Well, there’s no way I’m getting any sleep yet. I’m going downstairs to email Kennedy.”
Roger muttered his consent.
***
* * * *
As soon as his door slammed shut, Benjamin threw on his sweatshirt and wrapped his arms over his chest. The spot above his heart burned where Eve’s fingers had brushed his skin. The heat seeped all the way down into his lungs. He wiped his chest as if he could erase his body’s memory of that touch.
The base of his spine tingled with an icy chill, and small drops of sweat beaded on the back of his neck. He rubbed his clammy hands on his cheeks, while his body shivered once in protest against his morals. Maybe he shouldn’t have sent her away. After all, it had been so long ...
What right did she think she had, coming to him in the middle of the night? How many months had she regaled him with that cold, indifferent stare? How long had she spent ignoring him, only to throw herself at him now? What had changed? Benjamin slumped onto his bed but jumped back up just a minute later. He knew exactly what changed.
Mee-Kyong had arrived.
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