Sweetheart, West Virginia - 2. Chapter Two

Last night was certainly eventful. After Benjamin emptied his stomach and probably some his guts in my car, I drove him back to his uncle’s mansion. With his arm slung around my shoulders, I dragged him onto the front porch and through the front door. He gave me directions to where his bedroom was, and after the long trek of going up the staircase, I finally managed to lead him to his bed where he collapsed like a loose-jointed doll.

I would’ve left right afterwards, but I was worried if he ended up throwing up again, it wouldn’t look good by the way he was lying on his bed. So, I took another minute to reposition him on his side, and I moved a small trashcan that was next to his desk to the side of the bed as well just as an extra precaution. I remembered Claudia doing the exact same thing for me whenever I came home completely drunk before collapsing onto the living room couch. Benjamin didn’t deserve to be treated or cared for in the same manner; however, his uncle and aunt were good people, and I didn’t want them to have to see their drunken nephew in such an undignified manner.

So, with Benjamin sleeping in his bed, I turned to leave. But then I felt a hand grab my wrist, and I turned around to see him looking at me with half-lidded eyes and a saddened expression on his face.

“Thank…Thank you, Cash for bringing my ass back to my place,” Benjamin slurred.

I just nodded. “No problem.”

“And…And I’m sorry about Claudia…I’m sorry about everything,” Benjamin said before dropping his hand to the side of the bed and closing his eyes.

I turned away from Benjamin, and wondered what exactly he meant by that. However, the time was one in the morning, and I was too tired to think about my sister and what exactly he did to her. So, I walked out of his bedroom and after a ten-minute drive, I was back at my own place, which was just a small, one-story house in a woody area of the town. I didn’t realize how tired I was until I entered my bedroom and collapsed onto my bed without taking off my clothes or brushing my teeth. I just pulled the sheets over my body, and I fell asleep almost immediately. I couldn’t sleep peacefully, though, because my dreams were consumed by Benjamin and only Benjamin.

Now here I was at the town’s grocery store with my head still swimming with thoughts about the man I hated for five years, the man who finally came back to town like nothing had happened, and the man who vomited in my car, which afterwards took a lot of cleaning and air freshener to remove the stain and stench. However, my thoughts kept drifting to how five years turned the man from just a pretty face back in high school to a face that could make anyone weak in the knee with just one look at those striking features. And the way his body felt against mine as I pretty much carried him confirmed my observation that he did filled out more since leaving the town, and it made me feel completely weird, like I was hormonal teenager again looking at half-naked men who were posed in a magazine that made my body do strange things. And along with that came the guilt like a religious person thinking about impure thoughts since the man was associated with what happened to my sister, I was sure of that.

I also shouldn’t be having these thoughts about the man because he was my sister’s former fiancé! I wanted the thoughts of Benjamin to sink back into the depths of my mind and be forgotten. My phone then buzzed in my pocket, and I looked at the screen and saw the caller was my father. I sighed and tapped the answer icon before immediately hanging up. Now I was thinking about my father and wondering what he wanted from me now, which wasn’t any better.

Walking to the produce aisle, I distracted myself by looking for the perfect lemons that I could use for zest in a meal that I planned on making for an evening barbeque. It was being hosted by the town’s church, and though I wasn’t a religious man, never was, I still went to service every Sunday just for the mind-tingling singing from the church’s chorus and the way that the Lord’s words brought everyone together. And Pastor Daniel’s sermons had a very universal message that people of different faiths and even nonreligious people like myself could understand. The place was the same church Claudia attended, where she read and taught the bible to the children who all adored her. After what happened, the church helped me with reconciling with my personal demons, and I wanted to return the favor. Though I could replace Claudia’s position since I wasn’t very good with handling children, I cooked a classic Italian dish for every church-hosted event in town, which I was told could rival Jane Bratt’s Filipino dishes.

I took a lemon from the middle of the pile and sniffed it lightly when someone called out, “Officer, is that you?”

Turning my head, I saw Patty Fuller, formerly known as Patty Wilcox before her divorce, approached me with her waving hand and a smile on her. “Oh, hi Patty. How are you?”

“Oh, I’m doing great! How about you, Officer Cassius Monroe?” Patty asked with a hand on my forearm.

“I’m doing fine. And please, Patty, just call me Cash.”

“Okay, Cash, but only when you’re off-duty,” Patty said before giggling and squeezing my forearm.

It didn’t take a genius to know that Patty was flirting with me. She was very nice woman, but I just wasn’t interested, for obvious reasons, and she had her own problems that she still had to deal with. Just a year ago she divorced her husband of fifteen years, a town doctor, who was cheating on her with a much younger, barely legal patient of his. This obviously caused her to have issues with her age, and it made her take the money she won from the divorce settlement and spend a lot of it on clothing that revealed and accentuated her features like her chest and makeup that she layered on her face like layers of a cake.

I knew Patty did this to boost her self-confidence after what her former husband did to her, but I heard rumors that she was planning on taking her transformation to another level with plastic surgery. So, it was becoming more apparent that she was also trying to make her former husband jealous, and what better way to top off that cake than to also get a younger man who also happened to be part of the police since the person who exposed the cheating scandal was an out-of-the-town detective. I wasn’t going to become part of her revenge scheme, and even if I was attracted to women, I still wasn’t attracted to people who hid their insecurities with expensive clothing and beauty supplies.

This preference of mine was the same for men who gelled their hair to a rock-hard finish, shaved every part of their body and drowned their natural musk with cologne. They took taking care of themselves to a whole other dimension, and if I wanted someone so artificial, I would’ve dated a mannequin instead. My attraction was for small-town men only, and then my thoughts went back to Benjamin who lived in the city for five years, but he still had that small-town charm to his appearance from his slightly messy hairy, light stubble on his face and the scent that I got a whiff of when I carried him… God, I needed to stop thinking about him like that. I really did need to get laid; it wasn’t a joke anymore.

“So, did you hear the breaking new?” Patty asked, taking me out of my thoughts.

“No, I haven’t?” I said, playing dumb.

Leaning closer, Patty said, “That Benjamin Bratt kid is back in town.”

Feigning surprise, I said, “After all these years…”

“I know, right? And he comes back right before the anniversary of…you know.” Rubbing my forearm now, Patty continued by saying, “I’m sorry you have to hear this, but I thought it would be better that you heard it from someone before you accidently bump into him.”

“Thank you, Patty. I appreciate that.” I gave a small smile to her.

“I also heard he’s staying at his uncle and aunt’s place. Hopefully it won’t be for too long. They’re such good people, and they shouldn’t have to deal with having a murder suspect living in the same home as them.”

I just nodded my head. “Yeah…me too.”

“Anyways, enough of about that. Will you be at the church barbeque this evening?”

“Oh, of course. I’m actually here to buy ingredients for a dish that I’m going to bring to the event,” I said, lifting the lemon in my hand as proof.

“Oh, I’m looking forward to tasting it!” Patty then took a step closer. “Do you want any help with preparing it? I’m not the best cook, but I can follow directions really well.”

I chuckled and was about to politely refuse when someone approached us and said, “Mom, are you done yet?”

Patty turned her head to her daughter who had her phone in both hands with headphones on her hand and said, “Oh, honey! You know, Officer Cassius Monroe, right?”

I gave a friendly, single wave to Patty’s daughter who gave me a quick, upward tug of her lips before looking back at her mother. “So, are you done yet?”

“I am. Just let me catch up with my friend here, and we’ll be going,” Patty responded as she continued to look at me with flirtation in her eyes that were heavy with makeup. “Do you want to use my kitchen instead? It has everything you need to cook your dish? Is it going to be lasagna?”

“Mom. My favorite show is coming on in less than thirty minutes. So, can we go to checkout now and get out of here?”

“Just a minute, sweetheart. So, what do you say?” Patty said to me.

“Mom!”

Patty sighed and turned her body to her daughter. “Honey, just wait for me at the checkout aisle, and I’ll be there as soon as I can!”

Patty’s daughter rolled her eyes and stomped away. Patty returned the gesture with her hands on her hips and shaking her head. “That girl…”

“Kids are a handful, huh?” I said, trying to lighten the mood.

Patty chuckled humorlessly before turning back to me. “That’s an understatement. More like a forklift. Only twelve years old, and she’s already acting like her daddy.”

I nodded, understanding Patty’s dilemma in an odd way, and then we just stood there for a moment until the intercom came on and said, “Patty Fuller. Your daughter is looking for you, and she wants you to pay for your items at checkout aisle number seven right now. Thank you.”

Patty huffed, and I turned my face to the side, amused by her daughter’s spunky attitude as I tried to hide it. “Anyways, I don’t think right now is a good time for you to come to place to cook your dish. I didn’t mean to take up all of your time.”

“That’s okay, Patty. It was nice talking to you again.”

“You too, and I hope you to see at the barbeque this evening.” Patty rubbed my shoulder, well more like caressed it.

The sound of the intercom was heard again, and Patty shouted that she was coming before walking away with her cart. I chuckled and resumed my search for the right lemons. I soon found two of them, and I picked up the rest of the ingredients that were going to make the perfect pasta. I then went a checkout aisle and unloaded my items from the basket onto the conveyor belt. I greeted the cashier as she scanned my items and bagged them, I looked at the rack of magazines to get a glimpse of want the latest gossip was beyond the town of Sweetheart. Most of the covers were about the latest celebrity hookups, breakups and how to lose the most weight the fastest with a secret drink mixture of drug. I then looked at one particular magazine cover, and it captured my attention instantly. The cover had two pictures placed next to each other, one was of a painted portrait from the Victorian era and the other was of a photograph of a model that duplicated the portrait. They looked completely identical, and I couldn’t tell which one was the authentic one.

The cashier then told me the total price, and I pulled out my wallet. As I handed the cashier my debit card, an alarm went off, and I turned to see a hooded man at the front entrance. One of the other cashiers called out to him, and then he sprinted through the automatic doors. I immediately went after him, knowing the man was stealing something that was noticed by the theft detector. Outside at the parking lot, I called out repeatedly for the man to stop, but he continued to sprint and was furthering the distance between us. However, he was quickly losing stamina, and I caught up to him before tackling him to the ground. The man groaned as I pulled him back up by the hood of his jacket, and when I pulled it down, a teenage face was revealed. I was surprised to see it was Kevin Conway, eighteen years old and the youngest son of Pastor Daniel.

“Kevin? What the hell?” I looked down to see that Kevin had a hand in the pocket of his jacket, and I said, “What did you steal?”

“I didn’t… It’s just a candy bar, and I’m sorry,” Kevin said.

“Then let me see it,” I ordered, but when Kevin turned his body away, I was forced to pull his hand out of his pocket. “Come on, Kevin! Is a candy bar worth stealing?” I finally managed to pull the stolen item from his tightly wrapped hand despite him begging me to stop, and what I saw surprised me. “A box of condoms?”

The kid was looking down, but I could tell that he was blushing a very bright red. “Please…please, don’t turn me in?”

I sighed, looking the crushed box of condoms and back at the kid before saying, “I’m sorry, Kevin, but stealing is illegal, and you as the pastor’s son should know better. Besides, you’ve already created a scene, so there’s no way I can let you walk away from this.”

Kevin cursed as I dragged him by the arm back to the grocery store. “Oh, God, my dad’s going to kill me.”

I sighed. “I guess you got the wrong type of protection, huh?”

***

I felt completely crappy from the lingering hangover caused by all the beer I drunk last night at the bar. I seriously wasn’t planning on drinking that much, but I needed something to calm my nerves as Leroy King and his friends were saying so many lies about me that they wholeheartedly thought were true. And I was sure that they wanted me to hear what they had to say about me. I could’ve left, but I didn’t want them to think that their taunting worked on me, but after the fifth beer, I just wanted to go back to my uncle’s place and pass out from my drunkenness. I didn’t expect to get punched in the face by Leroy, and for Cash to let him walk away from assault charges pissed me off.

My memory got hazy after that, but I did remember vomiting inside Cash’s car, which made me feel even more crappy among other things. I mean the man rubbed my back as I continued to vomit in his car, took me back to my place and even left my trashcan by the side of my bed, which was useful since I threw up again right after I woke up this morning. I didn’t know what I did between returning to Sweetheart and going to the bar that made me deserve the kind of treatment that Cash gave me. Regardless, I was very thankful; I could’ve easily drove home drunk and crashed, and I didn’t want to put my uncle and tita through any more pain or give the town something more to gossip about.

I was now at the grocery store with Tita Jane after she asked me if I wanted to come along, and I knew I couldn’t refuse since my rental car was still parked at the bar and I needed her to drive me there, especially since the rest of my stuff was still inside the trunk. I just needed to find a way to tell her without giving away the truth that I got drunk and had a police officer of all people drive me back home. I was going to have to tell her regardless since the bruise on my face was becoming more visible; she was going to have questions, and I highly doubt that telling her that I fell was going to work. I just didn’t want to worry her, but I was already doing a bad job since my tita already asked me a few times if I was okay with each lie making her look more suspicious.

At the ethnic food aisle, I watched Tita Jane as she looked for an ingredient necessary for the fruit salad. I checked my phone to see if I got any unread messages, but not a single one. I honestly thought the people back in the city would at least text me, friends who cared about me and would worry if I suddenly disappeared without any explanation. Obviously, I was wrong, and if I could tell my past self who was lavishing at huge, penthouse parties caused by my growing career that was earning me so much wealth one thing, I would say to not trust anybody. If I would’ve known that, I wouldn’t be back in town, and instead would be still in the city, continuing my dream career. Now I was dealing with people who were not pleased with my return despite the fake smiles and waves of their hands.

“You can’t find it, Tita Jane?” I asked as she was moving cans left and right.

“It was here two weeks ago. Benny, could you ask the store manager if they still have the cans of condensed milk. You can ask for him at customer service.”

I wanted to say that she should just order it online with same-day delivery instead since I was trying to limit the amount of interaction with the townspeople as much as possible. But I held back my complaints and walked to the customer service instead. I stood behind a woman complaining about how she wanted to return a bag of chip that were already expired. After fives minutes of the girl repeatedly telling the woman that returns without receipts weren’t allowed, I was ready to either give up or tell the woman that losing five dollars wasn’t the going to be the end of the world. I was about to go with the former when I saw three people walking together towards customer service. I recognized two of them as the store manager based on the framed picture of him on the wall and…Cash Monroe, of course. The third person I didn’t recognize, but I could tell he was scared as Cash pulled him by the arm, and my best assumption was that he just stolen something. Cash must’ve caught him even though he wasn’t on-duty based on the regular shirt and jeans he was wearing. All three of them walked into the store manager’s office, leaving the door halfway open.

“Sir, can I help you?”

I looked at the girl and knew that the woman finally left. “Yes, I want to ask the store manager whether there’s still condensed milk here or not. There’s none at the aisle where it’s supposed be at.”

“That’s okay. Just let me call a person who works at the storeroom and see if they have it there.” The girl used the customer service phone to call, and she said, “Hey, this customer service. Is there any condensed milk in the storeroom? There is? Okay.” Facing me, she asked, “How many do you need?”

“Just three,” I replied.

“Just three… What? I have to go to the storeroom and get them? Why can’t you come here instead? But I can’t… Fine! I’m coming right now.” The girl slammed the phone down and said, “I’m sorry, sir. I just wait here a minute, and I’ll be back with your items.”

“Thank you,” I said.

The girl went around the desk and walked away to the storeroom. I just waited for her to come back, but then I heard yelling coming from the office, and I couldn’t stop myself from closely listening to the conversation. Apparently, the teenager was trying to steal a box of condoms, and that he should’ve known better than to steal since he was the pastor’s son. I felt bad for the kid since he just wanted to stay safe and people would most likely gossip about discovering the pastor’s son buying condoms, so I understood why he took the risk. However, it seemed that the store manager wasn’t taking any of that to consideration by his continued shouting, and then I heard him say that he was going to call Pastor Daniel personally. The kid started begging the man not to, and I also heard Cash trying to calm the kid down, but without success.

The door suddenly opened, and I saw Cash walk out of the office. He looked at me with surprise, and then his face returned to a stoic expression and said, “What are you doing here, Benjamin?”

“I’m sorry. Just doing some grocery shopping with my aunt,” I answered.

“Were you listening to the conversation we were having in the office?”

“N-No. Of course not.” Cash narrowed his eyes at me, and I knew I was caught lying. “I mean…I wasn’t trying to. I was able to hear it from where I’m standing… So, are you really going to tell his dad?”

Cash just sighed. “It’s none of your business. Besides, this place is run by the store manager, so he gets to decide whether the kid gets in trouble or not.”

“Yeah, but—”

“The kid stole. End of discussion.” Cash crossed his arms as if that added to his argument.

I, however, wasn’t convinced, and when I heard the kid crying, I quickly jumped over the desk and walked into the office before Cash could stop me. Inside his office, I saw the store manager trying to call the kid’s father with his smartphone, and the kid was sitting on a chair with his head bowed and crying.

“Damnit! I can’t even leave a message,” the store manager said before tossing his phone to the desk. He then looked at me. “Who are you?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ll get rid of him,” Cash said as he grabbed my shoulder.

I shrugged Cash’s hand away and said, “Sir, I overheard the conversation, and I just wanted to say that I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell the kid’s father who happens to be a pastor that he just tried to steal condoms.”

“And who do you think you are? The last time I checked, I’m the store manager. I can do whatever I want in terms of calling the father of someone who just shoplifted from me.” The man eyes then widened, and he then said, “My God…you’re that Benjamin Bratt boy, aren’t you?”

I sighed and nodded. “Yeah…that’s me.”

The man shook his head and chuckled. “You’re the last person I’d expect to get a moral teaching from.”

“I’m not trying to. I just want you to look at this situation from different angle. He just doesn’t want to get the girl he’s seeing pregnant, and him getting caught buying condoms would spread throughout the town faster than a plague. And if we’re going to talk about morality, not wanting a girl to have an unwanted pregnancy that will forever mark her as an adulterer in a town like this is pretty moral to mr,” I explained.

The store manager sat on his desk chair and rubbed with forehead. “Look. I could care less whether or not this boy wants to have sex before he’s married. My problem is that he just stole from my store, and this isn’t the first incident either. Meat products have been disappearing from my store for a few months now, and the surveillance cameras haven’t captured anything incriminating. I have a feeling that this boy could be the one responsible.”

“I didn’t steal anything other than the condoms! I swear! And I have the money to pay for them. I was just too scared to have anyone see me with the condoms and have it go back to my dad. Just let me pay you, and I promise I won’t do it again,” the kid begged.

“See? He’ll pay you for the condoms,” I asserted. “And unless there’s a connection between steak and condoms, I don’t think you have the evidence to prove that he committed those thefts as well.”

The store manager sighed. “Fine. I surrender. Just give me the money for the condoms, and I’ll won’t call your father or press any charges. But if you do this again, boy…”

“I promise I won’t, sir! Thank you!” the kid said graciously as he pulled ten bucks and handed them to the store manager. “And you can keep the change.”

“I wasn’t going to ask anyways. Now get out of here.”

The kid hesitantly grabbed the condoms back and quickly walked out of the office. I smiled and walked out of the office as well, ignoring Cash’s stare. The girl came back just in time to hand me the condensed milk, and I searched through the aisles until I found my tita at the frozen food section.

“I found some,” I said happily before placing them in the cart.

“Oh, good! Thank you, Benny! But what took so long?” Tita Jane asked.

I just told my tita that they had to get the condense milk from the storeroom, which wasn’t a lie, and she looked satisfied by that answer before resuming her search for lumpia wrappers. After another ten minutes of finding the last few items on her list, we went to a checkout aisle, and the items were quickly scanned, bagged and paid for. We then exited through the automatic doors, and that was when a friend of Tita Jane came up to her and started talking. Knowing this would take a while, I told her that I’d move the groceries into the car and wait for her there.

Tita Jane thanked me as she handed me the car key before returning back to her conversation that was about a barbeque that was happening this evening. I rolled the cart to the car where I unlocked the rear door and began placing the groceries inside.

“Need any help?”

“Oh, no. I’m fine. But thanks…” I turned to see Cash standing by the cart with a disgruntled look on his face. “Oh…hey, Cash.”

“Benjamin,” Cash said with his arms crossed over his chest. “Very kind of you that you didn’t want Kevin Conway to get trouble for a one-time offense, but next time stay out of police business.”

I was confused and said, “What are you talking about? You’re off-duty right now, and from what you said to me, this was something that the store manager should decide on. Or am I wrong?”

Cash narrowed his eyes and took a few steps towards me. “Don’t mess with me, Benjamin Bratt. If Kevin Conway ends up stealing something else, the fault will be on you.”

“Come on. The kid promised he’s not going to steal again,” I argued.

“Oh, and you can predict the future?”

“No, but I can tell when someone is not being genuine by how they speak,” I asserted.

Chuckling, Cash said, “Takes one to know one, I guess.”

I just shook my head and placed the rest of the groceries into the car, hoping Cash would leave, but when he didn’t, I said, “What?”

“Sorry…just wondering what my sister ever saw in you.”

“What do you mean? It wasn’t like you were there for her to know what she was thinking,” I said, instantly regretting what I just said.

And on cue, Cash gripped the front of my shirt and looked at me like he was about to tear off my face with his teeth when Tita Jane approached us and said, “Oh, Officer Monroe! Is that you?”

Thankfully, Cash’s back was towards my tita, so she didn’t see when he released his grip on my shirt and turned to her, saying, “Yes, Mrs. Bratt, it’s me. I just wanted to chat with Benjamin and catch up, you know?”

“Oh, that’s great! You’re going to the church barbeque this evening, right? Benny will be there too, and you two can continue to catch up,” Tita Jane said with benevolence.

“I’d love to, but I have a lot of work to do,” I lied.

“What work are you talking about, Benny? You’re on vacation, aren’t you?” Tita asked skeptically.

“Yeah, I am…but…you know, Uncle Jack might need my help with something around the house.”

“He’s been maintaining the house for the five years you’ve been gone, so I think he can still manage. Don’t worry, Cash. He’s going to be there. You’re going to bringing a dish of yours to the barbeque, right?”

I decided to close the rear door and entered inside the car, while Cash talked to my tita so candidly like he wasn’t going to punch her nephew in the face. Cash was being a douche, totally different from the way he treated me last night. And why would he be pissed that I helped the kid who would’ve gotten into unnecessary trouble when he let Leroy King go without hesitation. Maybe it was because I took over a situation that he was handling on his own or he had a vendetta against horny teenagers, I just didn’t know. I was getting mixed signals, and I highly doubt that we were going to continue our conversation at the barbeque.

A few minutes later, and Tita Jane entered the car as Cash walked away, and after she exited the parking lot, she said, “Why are you so grumpy today?”

“I’m not grumpy. And if I am, it’s just because I’m tired.”

“Is something going on between you and Officer Monroe?” Tita Jane asked suddenly.

“No. Why are you asking?” I said, my tone almost defensive.

“Well, he did pull you over last night, and I saw him leave your bedroom as well,” Tita Jane noted. “What’s up with that? Come on, Benny. You can talk to me, can’t you?”

I sighed, and I knew I had to tell her the truth. “I got too drunk at the bar, and I couldn’t drive myself back home, so Cash offered to drive me home instead.”

“Why were you drinking so much? Was it because you were with friends?”

“No, Tita Jane, it’s because…” I sighed and turned to look through the side window. “Everyone at the bar, including Leroy King and his friends were all talking about how I responsible for what happened to Claudia Monroe. They all still blame me, thinking I should be locked up in prison or be sentenced to death. I…I got myself drunk because I couldn’t deal with it.”

Tita Jane didn’t say anything at first, just continued driving, and then she said, “Is that how you got that bruise on your face?”

I touched my cheekbone and felt the pain from the tender skin. “Yeah…”

Tita Jane placed her hand on top of mine and held it warmly. “You’re a good boy, Benny. Your uncle and I both know that. You just need to prove to everyone else that you’re still a good person by going around the town and showing everyone who you really are.”

“What’s the point? I’m only staying here for a month?” I argued.

“So, you’re just going to stay in your bedroom for your entire vacation?”

I just shrugged.

“Okay, if that’s how you want it.” Holding my hand more firmly, Tita Jane then said, “Just know that if you have any problems you want to talk about, your uncle and I will be there immediately to listen. Okay, Benny?”

I nodded, and I gently squeezed my tita’s hand.

“And please come to the barbeque evening, and I’ll leave you alone after that. I’m going to make lumpia, and they are all for the event, so better come if you want some.”

I chuckled and said, “Okay, I’ll go.”

Tita Jane giggled. “I love you, Benny.”

“I love you too, Tita Jane…and since we’re on the road, can you take me back to the bar, so I can drive the rental car home since you love me?”

Tita Jane just sighed before making a U-turn.