Footsteps scampered up the steps leading to the stage. Alejandro materialized holding a broom and a dustpan. Avoiding Talia’s line of sight, he scanned the room until he found the pool of shattered glass.
It wasn’t until he finished cleaning up, he finally spoke. “I broke a glass the other day. Now it seems we may have to consider ordering a new set.” Panting, Talia kept her eyes plastered to the door. On his way out, he cautiously shifted his gaze. Talia wasn’t throwing daggers and her feet wavered in the heels that usually fit so securely around them. “I’ll walk you home. Just give me one minute.”
Breaking through the surface of her daze, a groan escaped her lips. “I don’t need an escort.”
He pointed downward with the broom handle. “Your ankles tell another story. It’s no trouble, I promise.”
Swallowing back the hiss in her throat over that final word, Talia waited for Alejandro to disappear before allowing her hands to collapse on her knees. Drained of oxygen, she gasped until she was on the brink of hyperventilation. The tears she fought back finally won. Her cheeks tickled with running mascara. After giving herself a few moments, she regained control. Seeing the makeup smudge her palms, she ran into the bathroom to reapply.
Alejandro just finished zipping the luggage when Talia reemerged. Typically, there were only two or three costume changes in a night. But for special occasions, there were more. In those cases, instead of holding three garment bags, one for each siren, Alejandro packed the clothes away in two large luggage pieces. The brothers’ connections ensured everything would be cleaned, pressed and ready for ShowTime within a 12-hour time period. So overnight deliveries were not uncommon.
Answering Talia’s quizzical expression, he reasoned, “I figure our dry-cleaning guy is on the way, so why not? Not to mention my uncles would kill me if I let you leave in this state.” He made his final attempt to lighten the mood.
Her lip curled, but her response didn’t follow in the way he had hoped. “Oh, how I have wanted to see that. But I will humor you this time.” She took the lead and he followed behind with nothing more to add.
Activity in the streets finally ceased and the remaining street corners were all lit. Some had denizens underneath, either propositioning local strangers or getting high with burning spoons and needles. When tourists retreated to their inns and hotels, the low lives came out of the shadows and the corners foreigners dared not go. Shortly after Talia realized her vision for Calypso, the brothers had their people broker this arrangement. It helped foster a healthy income of seasonal tourism that secured a foothold within the first year. But for reasons they kept to themselves, this change only affected the neighborhood where the sirens lived. The downtown area known as The Underground, which Amber explained she hailed from when she joined the group, got its nickname because its lewd atmosphere had worsened in recent years.
“Was the drink okay?” Alejandro asked as they turned the first corner.
Talia kept her body extra straight and her eyes dead ahead. “It was perfect. The same cannot be said about the rest of the night.”
“Honesty didn’t work, huh?”
She sighed heavily. “Stupid American boy. So clueless.”
“Don’t take offense for this, but he is far nicer than some of your regulars. They only come to you with one thing in mind. This guy, he looks like he actually wants to know you.”
“If he knew the rest of what we do, he wouldn’t be so nice.”
“Wait,” the wheels scuttling along the cobblestones stopped, “are you saying…”
Before she could stop herself, Talia rattled off everything that sprung to mind, growing increasingly irate by the second. “It was the only way he might understand how pointless this conquest is. But I also admit I said more than I should have. He gave me his word he wouldn’t tell anyone. He said this before I could even ask. I still have no reason to believe the word of any man, American or not.”
“Yet for some reason, you have no problem telling me all this?” Alejandro pulled up alongside her. She sighed again and braced for another migraine. A million words boiled onto the surface, but she extinguished them all.
After dropping off the luggage, Alejandro held out his arm. “Lean on me. Your ankles haven’t stopped shaking since we left.” Well aware of this, she opted out of looking down and shot him a dirty look instead. “It’s either that or I carry you.”
“Fine.” She begrudgingly chose the first option, but on one condition: no more words would be exchanged for the rest of the journey.
It wasn’t Talia’s style to drink to excess. She had other preferred paths of overindulgence, none of which were available to her at this point in time. If she could swallow her pride and subject herself to the same honesty she’d given Juan Paulo, she would admit it wasn’t her one drink that weakened her ankles. Her new suitor confounded her to no end. He was immune to all of her tricks. Perhaps even more distressing, he saw through her tough demeanor the way no one but the brothers had. And they had met Talia in the direst of circumstances, before she developed into the romantic cynic she became.
For most of her life, Talia only had her mother. Although she had asked about him several times, her biological father was never discussed under their roof. She could only assume there was a big falling out or he simply left without explanation.
Juanita Montez worked two jobs to make ends meet. In her spare time, she taught her daughter the art of belly-dance. What began as a childhood passion soon blossomed into a 10-year long career that ended with Talia’s arrival. But unbeknownst to Talia, her mother began struggling to maintain their household as she grew older. She also hated to leave Talia alone. She worked so late that her daughter was already asleep when she came in to kiss her goodnight.
Talia never learned the exact details, but her mother started bringing home a man she met after a long shift at her waitressing job. She waited in bed for her to kiss her goodnight, only to see her canoodling with him through a crack in her door. In truth, Adrian Shapiro was a regular patron where Juanita worked. Over the past several nights, she had been out of sorts and he lent a sympathetic ear as she explained their situation. One thing led to another and the two were married by the end of the summer. Between school and her mother’s work schedule, the wedding was the first time Talia met him. Although her mother never allowed her to see the cracks that had begun to show, she knew that this new man made her mother happier than she’d ever seen her.
Adrian left early in the morning for work, but he was always there to greet Talia when she came home from school. Juanita, meanwhile, quit her first job and took the night shift at the restaurant. Thanks to her seniority, she was promoted to manager. The job paid more, but it was more demanding. The end result was Talia spending more time with her new stepfather and seeing less of her mother than she had before his arrival.
She still remembered it so vividly, the day she lost her virginity when her relationship with stepfather became more than what was considered normal. She caught her boyfriend of six months making out with a tall girl with long blonde hair in the hallway outside her last class. Not allowing herself to steal a better look at the other girl, she ducked behind the wall against the classroom door before either of them saw her there. But against her better judgement, she eavesdropped.
The girl broke away for a moment and said, “I should go. Your girlfriend will be here any minute.”
“Don’t you worry about her. The two of us never agreed to be exclusive. Besides, I always preferred blondes anyway. They’re more of a handful in the bedroom. Now that’s my kind of girl.”
Talia covered her ears. She’d heard enough. An ache built in her chest like nothing she’d experienced before. Her eyes blistered with tears. Breathing became impossible with the rage pent up inside her. She knew if she tried to speak, the sound of her voice would embarrass her. Left with no other option, she turned her heel and ran all the way back home.
However jumbled her words were, she bared her soul to her stepfather at their dinner table. He held her hand, nodding occasionally, but otherwise remained silent while she spoke. Once finished, he stood up, “Come with me,” and escorted her to her bedroom. She sat on the bed and he took a space next to her. “Teenage boys are idiots. They don’t know what’s good for them even if it was right in front of their faces. You’re too good for any of them.”
“I do not think I can go back there. I am humiliated.”
“There is no rush. I can school you at home if you like. I will take time off work to do so until you are ready to go back.” Seeing how dejected she still was, he asked, “Why don’t you lay down for a moment?” Wiping the remaining tears away, she did as he asked. He laid beside her, cradling her body in his arms, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. “You are so beautiful. Any boy who does not see that is too stupid to be worth your time. Here’s a little secret.” He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Little by little, he inserted his tongue in her mouth, giving it no choice but to cave in. He broke away to say, “It’s like this. You let your mouth and your tongue do the talking. Convince them that this is what they want and they can’t be without it.”
The kisses continued and grew more passionate with each passing second. The tenderness and care of his touch felt so good, she never stopped to think that it didn’t make sense. This being her stepfather and having a 25-year age difference between them. However, if there were concerns, he answered them before they could creep in. “Your mother and I have not been intimate in a long time, so this arrangement will work out for both of us. I get what I need and you will feel what it’s like to be truly loved by a man. The way you deserve to be loved.”
*** “Men are helpless when it comes to sex. If you make them feel good, they will melt at your very touch and do whatever you want them to.” *** She cried out, not out of fear, but surprise at how good it felt. He started slowly *** She met his wild eyes with gratefulness as he kissed up her neck, making his way back to her mouth. His tongue slipped easily back into her throat, her tongue strengthened to keep up with his as the fire in her belly built and exploded. He gasped with such ecstasy, she felt better than she ever had in her life. The fact she made someone else feel this good made her feel incredible and she never wanted to lose that feeling again.
Talia never returned to school. Her stepfather taught her everything she needed to know, both in education and the manners of seduction. But their relationship felt so good to her, she couldn’t imagine wanting to leave home to be with anyone else. She was never convinced anyone else would understand her in the same way. Even when her mother discovered the truth about their relationship and left them both, the resulting distress only drove her closer to him.
Then, without warning, it all ended. She discovered her stepfather dead on the living room floor. The brothers, his employers, had come to confront him about misconduct in their business. Instead, they found Talia leaning over his body, searching his pockets and struggling to wake him up. They explained as delicately as possible all Adrian Shapiro had done and it was more than she could bear. After that day, she resolved never to allow a man to have that degree of influence over her again.
The remaining terrifying thought she had before sleep found her that night: what if her uncharacteristic body language was the result of her attraction to Juan Paulo? After everything she’d been through, what if she decided to give in to his advances and the result was exactly the same? As much as she didn’t want to think about it, it might only be a matter of time.
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