He turned and opened the door. Just before he stepped through, they heard him mutter, “I’ll be back. You’ll see.”
Phil shut the door once he was through it. He engaged the lock. The two of them then went to the blinds and peered out to make sure he was really leaving. He was. They watched as he staggered down the stairs and out of sight around the corner of the building.
The moment they pulled their faces from the blinds, Laura’s emotions overtopped their dam and she burst into tears. Phil took her in his arms again, hugging her face to his chest, running his hands over her back, comforting her.
“Oh my God, Phil!” she sobbed. “He was really going to do it! He was going to rape me! He as much as said that!”
“I know, hon,” Phil said. “He’s a scumbag, but he didn’t rape you. I stopped him.”
“What if you hadn’t been here?” she cried. “I don’t know if I could’ve fought him off!”
He ran his hand through her hair a few times. “I think maybe you’re not giving yourself enough credit,” he said. “One kick to the balls and he would’ve been out of the game. And even if not, if you’d kept screaming like that, one of the neighbors would’ve called the cops.”
“Still ... he was going to do it!” Another round of sobs.
“But he didn’t, hon,” Phil told her again. “It’s over now.”
“Is it?” she asked. “He said he was going to be back.”
“He doesn’t have a key anymore,” Phil said.
“How do I know that?” she asked. “How do you? How do we know he hasn’t made a duplicate key at some point?”
“Well ... we don’t,” Phil said, “but I’ll call a locksmith and get the locks changed.”
“We can’t do that!” she said. “It’s against the rules of our lease!”
“I’m sure the landlord will understand under the circumstances,” Phil said.
Laura was shaking her head. “But what if he waits outside for me? What if he comes to my work and catches me while I’m leaving? Jesus fucking Christ, Phil. I can’t live like this!”
“What are you saying?” Phil asked. “You want to move out of here?”
“I need to do something,” she said. She released her grip on Phil and looked up at him. “I’m going to call Jake. He’ll know what to do.”
Phil nodded. He suspected that Laura was right.
Jake was watching a rerun of MAS*H on the television—the one where Hawkeye and Trapper try to acquire an incubator for the unit—when the phone rang. The Nerdlys were, as usual, at the computer doing mysterious things on CompuServe. Celia was in the kitchen, puttering around and making some sort of snack. No one made any move to get the phone so Jake, with a sigh, stood and walked over to it.
“Yeah?” he asked, wondering who in the hell would be calling them now.
“Jake?” a tiny, hesitant voice enquired.
“Laura?” he asked, feeling a little sense of dread worming into him. It was definitely Laura’s voice, but it sounded so un-Laura like.
“It’s me,” she confirmed.
“What’s going on?” he asked. “You don’t sound good.”
“I’m ... I’m really not good right now,” she said.
That worm of dread grew stronger. Was she breaking up with him? Why would she do that? She’d been home less than forty-eight hours, for God’s sake! What could have possibly happened? Had she thought things over and decided it was a bad idea. “What’s going on, hon?” he asked.
“Something ... something just happened to me.”
“What happened?” he asked, his voice loud enough and alarmed enough to attract the attention of both the Nerdlys and Celia.
She told him the story, her voice halting at first, but gaining power and anger as the tale unfolded. Jake’s sense of worry about their relationship faded out and was replaced with a black anger of his own. That motherfucker! he thought, his fist gripping the handset tightly. He came into her apartment and tried to rape her? Fucking rape my girlfriend? That shit was not going to stand!
She told of how Phil had intervened in the attack, stopping it and blackening the asshole dentist’s eye in the process. Way to go, Phil! he thought happily. It’s a pity I’m not gay or I’d suck your dick for that. She also told of Dave’s final words as he’d left—about how he would be back.
“What do I do, Jake?” Laura asked. “I don’t feel safe anymore, especially not here, in my apartment. I mean, Phil’s already called a locksmith to come and change the locks, but that doesn’t mean much. If he wants to get in here, he will. And even if he doesn’t get in here, he knows where I work, what time I go to work, what time I get off. I can’t live like this!”
“You’re not going to have to,” Jake assured her.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to take care of this for you,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“Go ahead and get the locks changed, but you’re not going to stay in that apartment anymore.”
“Where am I going to stay?”
“My place,” Jake said. “If I give you the address, will you be able to find it?”
“Uh ... well ... I think so. Phil is good with maps and he’ll be able to help me, but ... your place, Jake? Are you sure about this?”
“I am completely sure. As soon as I get off the phone with you, I’ll call Elsa—I told you about Elsa, right?”
“Your housekeeper,” Laura said. “You told me about her. Will she mind having me come to stay there?”
“She will not mind, and even if she did, that doesn’t matter. I’m her boss. She’s been freeloading these past five months anyway since I haven’t been staying there. It’s about time she did some goddamn work. Anyway, I’ll tell her you’re on the way. I’ll have her put you up in the master bedroom where I sleep. She’ll give you a key to the house, the alarm codes, and she’ll cook and clean for you while you’re there.”
“Cook and clean for me?” Laura asked. “I can’t ask her to do that!”
“She’ll do your laundry too. It’s her job, Laura. I pay her more than thirty grand a year for that shit. Besides, she going to love you, and you’re going to love her.”
“Do you really think so?” she asked.
“I know so,” he assured her. “Now I don’t want to hear any more argument about this. You’re going there.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “Thanks, Jake.”
“No need to thank me,” he said.
“But what about when I’m at work?” she asked.
“I’m going to make sure your dentist doesn’t bother you anymore.”
“How are you going to do that?” she asked, perhaps a little nervously.
“He and I are going to have a talk.”
“A talk? When? Where? What do you mean?”
Jake looked up at the clock on the wall. It was now 12:30. “Today,” he said.
“You’re going to call him?”
“No,” Jake said. “I’m not going to call him. You told me at one point he closes up the practice around five-thirty, right?”
“Right,” she said slowly.
“Then shortly after that moment in time, we will have our talk.”
“You’re going to fly down here?” she asked incredulously.
“You bet your ass I’m going to fly down there. I’ve found that shit like this is best handled immediately.”
“Wow,” she said. And then, “You’re not going to ... you know ... hurt him or anything, are you?”
“Probably not,” Jake said.
“Probably not?”
“Best I can promise,” he said.
“Jake ... don’t get into trouble over this,” she said. “It’s not worth it.”
“I can promise I won’t get into trouble over this.”
“Really?”
“Really,” he said. “Now, do you have a pen and paper to write down my address with?”