Tempted by Trouble by Eric Jerome Dickey Page B

bedroom door opened and I expected to see Jackie swaying in her skirt and high heels, expected to see her hair pulled back or done in some presentable way, but she was dressed in her panties and her bra. Her heels were off and she had on a pair of thick white socks. Sammy’s socks. She looked a mess. She stood in the door frame, struggling to balance herself and gripping what I assumed to be four thousand dollars inside her left hand. Looked like she had just robbed a liquor store. Something told me that she had gone through Sammy’s luggage, appropriated whatever cash had belonged to her dead lover like a vulture.
    Whether she burglarized the living or raided a tomb of the dead, money was money. I accepted the loan and counted the wrinkled bills before shoving them inside my pocket.
    She said, “Now you owe me five thousand two hundred.”
    Her words slurred. She could barely stand. The vodka had finally taken control of her.
    She said, “I’m going mad. My face is breaking out like I’m a teenager. Look at me.”
    “It’s not that bad.”
    “I have to kidnap my own kid, get fake passports, take my kid to South America, and change our surnames. Sammy was going to help me work that out.”
    “So I guess all bets are off on that one.”
    “I can still make it happen. But I’d need enough money to last at least six years, maybe seven. I can build a house right outside of Tegucigalpa for fifty thousand. I’m talking about a mansion with six bedrooms. Sammy was going to leave his wife. He was going to leave everything behind and come with me. He was going to help me build that house and help me learn to speak Spanish and get my kid and me acclimated to Honduras. It was all mapped out. I had concocted the perfect plan. Now Sammy is dead.”
    She collapsed on the sofa and cried again.
    Her tears came on strong, like she was a baby. She cried until she was exhausted. I brought her tissues and she blew her nose over and over. I helped her back toward the bedroom. She’d become dead weight and I had to drag her. I dropped her on the bed and struggled to flip her over on her stomach. She asked me if I was about to sex her. I told her no.
    She chuckled. “You’ve been wanting to get inside me since you first met me in Rome.”
    “Turn over, Jackie.”
    “Are you gay or something?”
    “I’m married.”
    “You’re married. That’s a joke if ever I heard one. You might be married, but she’s not. She left you, Dmytryk. Everybody knows she split. Sammy joked about it and so did Rick. They laughed it up, the way you keep looking for her online and going back to a crappy house in Detroit. Eddie Coyle and his brother laughed about it too, and they laughed harder than Rick and Sammy.”
    “Stop it.”
    “The nerve to insult me. Yeah, my kid is the center of my universe. Your pathetic problems are no concern of mine either, Mister High and Mighty. Sit back, ugly shoes, I have a few insults of my own.”
    “I’m being a gentleman, and with you that is a challenge, so don’t push me, Jackie.”
    “The best way to get over somebody is to get on top of somebody else.” She laughed. “And your wife is probably on top of somebody else every night. Don’t you feel like a fool right about now?”
    “Shut up.”
    “She’s naked and bouncing on top of somebody else and you’re still wearing a stupid wedding ring.” She kicked her heels and cackled harder. “Losers. That’s all we are. Pathetic losers, nothing more and nothing less. So, come on, since this day’s been so bad, let’s give each other some pity sex.”
    It was hard to flip her over on the twin-size bed, but I managed. She put some arch in her back and pushed her backside up in the air. She dared me to mount her. In her eyes, if I entered her drunken body, then my worth as a man would be validated.
    I needed Sammy’s mistress to pass out facedown. That way if she regurgitated, she wouldn’t drown in her vomit and end up dancing the salsa with Sammy