24. FRANKIE

I shouldn't have found it as amusing as I did to see Cal cumming when he was surprised. I thought it was adorable. Thankfully my mom didn't come to the bedroom, in a way, it was almost like as a teen when I heard someone knock at my door while I was masturbating. Nothing made me finish faster than almost being caught.

Cal ran to the bathroom to clean himself off and take a shower.

I grabbed a pair of gym shorts and a tank top.

My mom sat in the living room, redness in her eyes from crying. She sniffled. "You can't leave," she said. "I'm not letting ya leave."

"Mom." I sat beside her. "I'm not leaving the family, but I am leaving. You're still my mom, and dad is still my dad, but he made me chose, and—" I felt the heat rise in my face. I never got emotional. It was a weakness, and someone had already tried exploiting it today. "I love Cal, and not in a temporary, I love you, but if you do this, I'll hate you. I love him without clauses, without him needing to change. Do you get that?"

She smiled. "Does he know that?"

"Of course," I said. "It goes without saying."

"Then tell him," she said, nodding.

Cal stood in the doorway, the large, fluffy bathrobe from the hotel covering him up. He had tears in his eyes. "I—I—"

"I love you," I repeated. "Without clauses, without change, or even with change, I'd love you."

He choked on sob in his throat, adorable. "I was just gonna say I think the boiler is acting up. I can't get any hot water." He pressed his lips together, almost like he was hiding his beautiful smile. "And—and I love you too."

My mom sniffled. "I'd never stand in the way of you finding love, even if I might have stood in the way."

We shared a laugh about that. It had been no secret that my mom thought Cal could do better, and that I had probably given too much of my humanity away to love.

"I suppose I should go sort the boiler out then," I said.

"Also, let me take a look at your nose," she said. "Your dad mentioned it being a mess. Did he mention his snoring? Ugh. I don't want to wish that on Cal."

He smiled. "If you could do something about it, I can only do the basic stitching. I've never set a broken nose, which is surprising considering you get into a lot of fights."

"He's always been like that," my mom said. "I don't think it's gonna change much, but if it does, then more power to you."

Cal shook his head. "I'd never tell him what he can't do, unless the thing he wants to do is cheat, and then I'd make a special plan that involves a pickling jar."

I choked in surprise, not at all where I'd expected him to go with that. "A—a what?"

He continued to nod and grin. "Yep. I saw it once on this true crime show. Cut it right off and pickled it." He shrugged. "It seems drastic, but we are getting married." He flashed the ring to my mom.

She immediately fawned over it. "You should have led with that," she said. "Well, have you set a date?"

"It's very recent," I told her. "Anyway, the boiler, and then my nose." I didn't want Cal to see my mum fix my nose, mostly because I knew my eyes would start watering and he'd think I was crying. I couldn't have that image playing in his mind.

I'd never broken my nose before; I'd broken arms and legs but never anything on my face.

Once the boiler was turned on, that was the only problem, my mom started to prepare my face with some alcohol wipes and a couple shots of vodka, for both of us.

"I've set many noses," she said, cracking the knuckles of her manicured fingers. "It's nothing. Just a little pain, and it's done, but you will need something on it to keep it set."

I sucked down and clenched my jaw anticipating the pain. It came, a crunching echoed in my head. My eyes water and without thinking I grabbed the vodka bottle and downed a couple fingers worth from the bottle.

"So, you're going off somewhere with him," she continued her interrogations as I passed her the vodka bottle. "Will I be getting postcards? Or an invite to the wedding at least?"

"Of course, it's not planned, but I need you there, you're my mom."

She sniffled and then pressed the vodka bottle to my chest. "You know, I always thought you'd be the one who kept coming around every Sunday without fail. The one who didn't get married or have kids."

"Hey," I grumbled. "Still not wanting any kids. But I am going to marry him."

"You'll need to give me a date. I'll need to find a hat in advance. What colors are you going for as well?" she continued. "Maybe I could just help you plan the entire thing. You know, at least then it's not just gonna be beers down at some clerk's office."

"We'll be fine," I told her. We hadn't decided on anything yet. The only thing we both knew for certain was that we were leaving Philly.

"And what are you gonna do for work?"

"Not your concern," I told her., mostly because what I did wasn't something I liked broadcasting, even to family. "I'll probably live off money I've got. Sell this place. Do a little travelling, and just enjoy my time with Cal."

She hummed, taking another shot of vodka from the bottle. "I'm happy for you. Both of you."

The idea of not doing anything scared me. I was always doing something, there was always a hit out on someone. I knew there was a business for it. There were agencies all over the world that hired out hitmen. But those people were all ex-military.

"You should probably go to a doctor," she said. "Your cousin Vin went to med school."

"Vin lives all the way out in California now."

"Yeah, he does the plastics. You remember my sister, she got an entirely new face, I swear. Probably wouldn't even recognize her if she walked down the street," she laughed.

I tapped at the bridge of my nose and gave it a little pinch. It was tender, but it was also broken. "I'll be fine," I said.

"When are you leaving?"

Before we could leave, we had to decide. I knew Cal wanted to go to New York, but the world was open to us now. Neither of us were holding onto anything anymore. It was a wild feeling, but I loved it. All the time thinking about what would happen if I told my family I was leaving, and this was the one I thought was the most unrealistic. I suppose it helped that my younger brother was in bigger trouble, and I was just looking out for the love of my life. Not completely selfish.

"Tonight," I told her. It was probably wherever Cal wanted, but I could be persuasive. "You can call me or text me whenever you want, I'll try and keep the same number, but who knows what this next step in my life holds."

She gave me a big hug. "Frankie," she whispered. "Why is there a big knife in the sink covered in blood?"

I turned around to see it. Snickering to myself. "Cal is more like me than you think," I said. "He's just a lot more put together." And that was all thanks to my hard work getting him there.

She gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Well, you're gonna want to clean it, and go over this entire place with a blacklight. I don't think the next owners wanna see all the blood and whatnots."

My mom left a little after that. Cal was still in the shower, or so I'd thought. Knocking on the bathroom door to give him the all-clear, I opened it and steam rolled out. I found him sitting on the toilet seat in his bathrobe, sobbing to himself.

"Baby, what happened?"

Sniffling, Cal looked up at me. "It's all done now. I—I don't know what to do with my life anymore."

"Baby, you can do anything you want in this life," I told him. "That's a promise." From the steam in the air, it seemed to alleviate some of the stuffiness in my nose. Breathing through it for the first time all day.

"I was also waiting for you to join me," he said, pouting.

Of course. I didn't expect anything less.

I'd never experienced the feeling he did. My revenge was always swift. I'd never given it much time to eat at me. If I had, I might have felt some similar struggles as he did. And I felt awful because my family had been to blame for all his issues. But I'd drive myself crazy thinking about the what-ifs and should-haves. Instead, I forced myself to think of all the things I could do now.

As Cal packed clothes into suitcases, he came back across the box of toys from under the bed.

I was fixing the door back on its hinges and wiping everything down with a solution my mom had sent over. I'd never had to do my own cleaning like this before. But she had, plenty of times.

"Can we bring these?" Cal asked, holding up his pair of handcuffs. "Because you promised we'd be handcuffed together."

"Bring whatever you want," I told him.

"What about my mask?" he asked. "I think I left it at the house though."

I sighed. I knew he loved that mask. "It's in the car. I'm surprised you didn't find it with your laptop."

"My laptop is there too?"

"Yeah, it's in the trunk."

He let out a squeal. "Ok, be right back!" He hopped into a pair of slides and raced out of the apartment.

His laptop was his lifetime to Sutton and the rest of the world. Plus, it wouldn't have been good if the police had found it and discovered all the tech installed on it. I'm sure there were a couple felonies waiting to happen on that alone.

I didn't know how long it would take to sell my apartment, but I had enough to tide us both over until it did. And then Cal announced to me he'd already found us our next home. He'd called out from the living room.

"What?" I asked, maybe I hadn't heard him right, the fumes from the cleaning solution had probably eaten at my brain. I went in, removing the yellow gloves. "Where?"

Cal sat with his feet up on the coffee table and a big smile on his face. "Yeah, so it's only one million, and it looks nice," he said.

"No," I said.

He stuck his tongue out. "I was joking," he said. "Sutton found us a place to crash tonight. So, are you ready?"

I looked him over in his shorts and T-shirt. "I think the real question is, are you ready?"

He pushed the laptop shut. "I'm always ready!" He stood. The shorts fell from around his waist, landing at his feet. "Oops. These must be yours," he giggled. "I thought they were very roomy when I put them on."

"Have you packed?"

"Obviously," he said. "Look in the bedroom. We have, four—no, five suitcases. I think." He acted out like he'd counted on his fingers. Neither of us could see into the bedroom from here.

I gave him a hug, squeezing his ass. "Put some clothes on," I whispered in his ear. "If we're going to make it to your friend, tonight, then we need to leave soon. And maybe we can hit up a drive-thru on the way."

His belly let out a giant grumble. "Oh. When?" He pulled away and grabbed at the shorts around his ankles.

"Right now," I said, snapping my fingers. "Go on. Get dressed. We're ready to leave." I didn't think I'd ever be ready to leave, to start the next chapter was something I'd only dreamed of. It felt like the hold everyone had held over me was gone. The only hold on me now was Cal, and that was one I wanted to keep forever.

I couldn't stop staring at him as he ran around acting headless trying to say goodbye to everything while simultaneously getting dressed.

"Are you gonna miss this place?" I asked.

"It's where you saved my life," he said. "But as long as I'm with you, I'm home."

I wanted to pretend it was the pain in my nose that was pulling tears from my eyes, but it wasn't, the little bastard emotionally kicked me in the balls. I turned away and wiped my eyes. "I love you, and we're going to the beach, not right now, but I'll take you to the beach so often that you'll hate it."

He laughed, squeezing me tight into a hug. "You're silly," he said. "I'll never hate the beach."

Maybe after rolling around in that sand, he'd change his mind. I'd never seen him this happy before.

It was all worth it.