This is all so surreal.
Eating in a fancy-ass dining room; listening to the conversation between Larry, my lawyer turned guardian angel, and Stewie, Gio’s baby brother—I couldn’t get a grip on reality.
I liked Larry. I loved him for what he’d done for me. But we were still lawyer and client, not friends—we were on our way, but people like me didn’t let their guard down easy.
For years, I’d lived alone on the streets. Scrapping for safe sleep spots, fighting over good quality dumpster food, arguing over the best corners to beg at.
Making friends in that situation wasn’t easy, so I avoided everyone. If someone smiled, I took that as a threat. If someone followed me, I took that as war.
For Larry to open his house to me—a fucking thief—and make me welcome. Well, that made me feel like a real shitty person that I didn’t have his class and trust.
It also made me ache inside with a heart that’d long since stopped looking for affection when he and Stewie grinned at each other.
Their relationship was totally different from ours.
Theirs was pure and uncomplicated.
Man and boy. Tutor and student. Father and son.
They laughed with each other. Joked. Stewie giggled with intelligence that I’d never seen him show on the streets, and Larry poked fun at him, throwing corn kernels, not caring if he got food on his expensive dining room rug.
I didn’t say much that first night.
I couldn’t.
I just soaked it in, waiting for life to interrupt this wonder and say ‘you asshole, get back on the streets where you belong.’
Instead, Larry offered me a place to stay until I got on my feet. He told me I could earn my keep by helping him with other cases. That I could go with him when I was ready to visit Gio and maybe let bygones be bygones and become friends, thanks to Stewie.
To him, the offers were so simple. But to me, they were the motherfucking world.
Before retiring to the guest room where a queen-sized bed and navy striped linen invited me so much better than scratchy single bunks, Larry called me into the drawing room where he and Stewie were playing a game of Chutes and Ladders.
I doubted Stewie had ever played games, let alone board games with no other purpose than social fun. His fun had been lighting fires with Gio to destroy evidence. Probably a pickpocket or two.
“Penn, before you crash, Stewie has something to give you.” Larry looked pointedly at the kid with slightly protruding ears who stared at the game board as if he could magically make the dice roll so he could avoid all the chutes and climb all the ladders.
When he didn’t look up, Larry prompted. “Stewie, remember what you wanted to give Penn? You spoke about it this afternoon when I said he was coming to stay with us for a while?”
Stewie’s head suddenly sprang up. “Oh, yeah!” Pushing up from the coffee table where he sat on his knees on the thick carpet, he bounced over to me, pulling something small from his pocket. “Here.” Handing it to me, I flinched as the cold slither of a necklace fell into my palm.
A sapphire star.
It might’ve been nine months since I’d seen her, but I remembered everything she said. How Gio and Sean had run off with her necklace. How her father had given it to her as a nineteenth birthday gift and how she’d forgotten to ask for it back. She’d also said it wouldn’t have been hers anymore but mine for saving her.
I’d told her no fucking way would I accept her charity. And yet, somehow, the necklace had ended up in my possession anyway.
It’s not mine.
I’m not keeping it.
It has to go back.
“How?” I cleared my throat. “Why do you have this?”
Stewie dug his foot into the carpet. “Gio gave it to me when he got snatched.”
Larry came over, holding a glass of amber liquor, looking content and completely relaxed even though he had two thieves living under his roof. “He asked Stewie to keep it for him, so he didn’t get charged for the robbery and attempted rape you were currently serving time for.” He lowered his voice. “That would’ve been highly inconvenient to Arnold Twig if evidence came to light, and the girl in question testified that it wasn’t you who’d accosted her in that alley.”
My heart pounded. This one piece of evidence could clear my record of that misunderstanding. All I’d need would be for Elle to collaborate my story. I could have vindication.
But then I’d also have two vicious enemies.
Sean was still out there...who the fuck knew what he would do if he learned I was free and ready to start fighting rather than remain the easy scapegoat.
“You didn’t return it to her?” I looked up, fingering the sapphire as if the jewelry could magically transport her to me.
“No.”
Stewie reached for it. “It’s mine. I gotta look after it. Keep it safe.”
It’s not yours.
I held it up, just out of reach. “Do you mind if I borrow it for the night?”
Larry met my eyes over Stewie’s short height. He tilted his head, trying to understand why I wanted to keep something so unusual and unimportant to me.
But he was wrong. It was important. So fucking important.
I wouldn’t say it out loud. I wouldn’t admit that the plan to head to bed and sleep safely for the first time in forever had been put on hold for a few more hours.
But somehow, he knew.
He smiled, full of secrets as if he’d stolen mine and made them his own.
I’d told him a little about Elle. It’d been a mistake. I’d been down one day and didn’t want to talk court cases and potential freedom, so he’d brought up girlfriends. I’d snorted and said, of course, I didn’t have one, but then slipped as I mentioned the girl who’d kissed me in Central Park.
The entire story had come out.
Including the saga about the missing sapphire necklace.
“Uh, I dunno.” Stewie chewed on his lip. “I’m not supposed to let it go.”
I ducked to his height. “I know. And I won’t do anything bad with it. I promise.”
The lie burned my tongue, but I loved how easily it came. How swiftly I was able to bullshit. Was that my first real lie? The practice run for the torrent about to come?
Larry moved forward, placing his hand on Stewie’s shoulder. “Let Penn borrow it. He’s heading out, but he’ll be back soon. Won’t you, Penn?” His eyes were serious, intent on hearing my assurance.
How does he know?
“Upper East Side. Number twenty-two on Cherry Avenue.”
I didn’t need to ask who the address was for. Just like he didn’t need to ask what I was about to do.
Not looking at Stewie—unable to see the unwillingness to part with the necklace—I nodded once at Larry. “I’m coming back. I promise.”
“You’d better.” He tipped his glass in a salute. “I’m counting on you to keep that promise.”
“You can trust me, Larry.”
With Elle’s necklace clenched in my fist, I jogged to the front door and disappeared into the night.
*
Fuck, she’s even more beautiful than before.