Boston: Present Day
"Man, oh man…" I said shaking my head. "Now I know where Jordan got that forward, get-what-I-want attitude." I said and looked over at Max who was staring me down in much the same way as he had during the sting last year when I made a certain 'hot damn!'-like comment about Jordan in a little red dress. And once again, I tripped over my words.
"Not that I'm in any way trying to dishonor the memory of your wife or..or…shaming Jordan…I just…" Max smiled.
"It's alright son, I know what you meant to say, my wife always had a certain charm about her…which Jordan very rightly picked up within a matter of hours after being born." Max said with a smile.
"Emily could talk me into just about anything…" he said and I allowed myself a cautious smile. "Problem was…" Max said with a coy, nostalgic smile, "what she was usually talking me into was trouble."
Boston: 1960
On Sunday, Max was at Emily's 4 o'clock on the dot.
"Howdy ma'am." Max said smiling and giving his worst cowboy impression. Emily rolled her eyes and pulled him inside the door.
"Anybody home?" Max said glancing briefly around the house. Emily giggled.
"Guess not." Max said playfully and cornered Emily inside the foyer. He pressed his body against her and rubbed her cheek with his nose.
"mmmmm…..you're cold." Emily said chucking.
"So why don't you warm me up?" Max asked and let an icy cold hand slide up the outside of her thy under her skirt. Emily squealed and slipped under Max's armpit, scurrying up the stairs.
Max removed his coat and stuffed his scarf and gloves inside the coat pockets before bounding up the carpeted steps two at a time. He swung around the doorway to Emily's room.
"Where you at Girlie?" he asked teasing as his eyes searched the room. Then he noticed the bathroom door in her room was ajar and steam was steadily beginning to seep out. Max strolled quietly to the door and pushed it slowly open. He smiled. He could make out Emily's naked form behind the frosted glass door.
"Any room in there for me?" Max asked pulling his blue knit sweater hopefully over his head.
"You stay where you are sir! I want to get clean!" she called over the rush of water and Max felt the sudden heat of desire through the humid little room.
"Awww….come on…kill joy." He said and stumbled backwards out of the room, flopping down on Emily's soft, flowery, canopy bed. He sighed and preoccupied himself with letting his eyes adjust to the glare in the room caused by the late afternoon sun bouncing off of the deep New England snow.
A few minutes later, Emily exited the bathroom in a fluffy white towel, a matching one wrapped around her head making her look like the Queen of Sheba.
Max smiled and pulled himself up on his elbows. His tight, labor-made muscles flexing as he did so. Emily bit her lip as she looked over his tight six pack stomach and creamy-looking white Irish skin. She smiled coyly and backed into the bathroom. Max sprung forward.
"Oh no you don't…I want to get clean!" Max said heightening his voice in a mocking way and gently guiding Emily out of the bathroom. She laughed and went to her bed and turned when Max's Dockers hit the floor outside the door with a thud. She shook her head when she noticed his boxers were still inside the pants.
Max was in the shower briefly and when he exited the bathroom in a white towel, he was surprised to see Emily sitting on her bed, still wrapped in a towel but her nearly black long hair lying freely around her shoulders. She smiled at Max. He looked down at the bed and his suit was laying out all ready for him to put on.
"Thanks mom." Max said teasingly and ran a hand through his long
blonde bangs, slicking them back.
He walked over to the bed and Emily sat up on her knees, the towel loosening just enough to make Max pray for a breeze in the airtight room. Emily smiled and looked between Max and the suit and back again. He looked around the floor and snatched his boxers out of the pants he had worn over and when he looked back at Emily, she was staring, almost unabashedly at his towel. He hadn't realized until just that moment, and just as Emily's adolescent, curious eyes narrowed at the slit in his towel, that she had never seen a man naked before. He tried not to let on that he realized this but he was sure his posture and expression changed.
Max silently cursed himself for forgetting in his worldliness, that Emily was indeed still a very sheltered girl. He wondered briefly if she had ever even kissed a boy before. If she hadn't, she had him fooled. Since he met her he had always assumed her to be a…worldly person. Emily looked up at his face and just as her brow was about to furrow and her lips pursed to ask what was wrong, Max casually dropped his towel and walked to his suit on the bed. He stepped into his underwear and as he pulled them up, he snuck a peek at Emily whose cheeks were giving away a telltale blush. Max ignored it but smiled to himself before picking up a clean white sleeveless undershirt and pulling it over his head. Emily nervously picked up the suit pants and handed them to Max.
He nodded a thank you and pulled them up, fastening them with a shiny black belt. Emily stood from the bed, tightening the towel around her and picked up the crisp white dress shirt. She held it open and Max smiled appreciatively and slipped his arms into the sleeves. He looked down as he buttoned the sleeve and Emily reached out slowly and took the wrist that hadn't been buttoned. Max smiled as she fastened the button and remained holding his hand. She turned it over and ran her fingers over the deep lines of his palms. A chill ran down Max's spine and he stepped closer to Emily and laid his hands on her shoulders. She looked up and smiled at him, before reaching and straightening the collar of the shirt.
Then she let her hands travel slowly down his collarbones and across his broad chest, the ripples in the tight undershirt causing her fingertips to make a soft sliding noise as they traveled.
Max let his own hands travel down Emily's soft, shower warm arms and he toyed with the edge of the towel. Emily instinctually arched towards his touch and Max took that as permission to let his hand slip under the edge of the towel and lay his hand on the soft skin of her hip. Emily laid her hand on Max's forearm and guided it up her hip, over the curve of her waist and steadied it against the outer curve of her breast. With her eyes she gave him silent permission, and Max used his long middle finger to release the corner of the towel that was tucked in and holding it onto her body.
The towel fell to the floor without a sound and Max's hand traveled around her soft back as he pulled Emily to his body. When her naked body was pressed against him, Max noticed that he could probably almost button his shirt with her in it. Emily wrapped her arms around Max's middle and he dropped onto his backside on the bed. He was much too tall to explore her standing up. Emily stood in front of him, unsure of what to do. Max reached out and took her hands, pulling her to him and Emily protested.
"Max…" She said and he looked slowly up into her eyes. Emily crossed her arms self-consciously across her chest. "I don't want us to…What I mean is…we still have to go to…" She stuttered nervously and Max just smiled and looked down at the floor. He was actually appreciative that she was stopping him now before he got too far. Emily misinterpreted his looking at the floor as disappointment. Max bent and picked up her towel as Emily continued to explain what Max already knew.
"Here…go get ready so we can get there a little earlier…" He said and Emily smiled shyly as she wrapped herself back in the towel. She bent forward and captured Max's lips. Then she pulled back and walked over to her dresser where she pulled out a bra, panties and a slip. Max smiled as she scurried into the bathroom and exited a few moments later, the silky slip swishing across her.
Boston: Present Day
"So…….?" I asked leaning on my hands, sitting on the edge of my stool at the bar as Max continued to tell me his story. He looked at me, his brow furrowed in feigned confusion.
"So….what, Woodrow?" Max asked raising a familiar eyebrow at me. I must have looked like a child with a lollipop dangling just out of my reach.
"So…" I said choosing my words carefully. "did you…well…I mean…you said that…did ya…what happened after you chased her up the stairs and you saw her bathroom door open?" I asked after I noticed Max had been staring off into his own little world for the past several minutes.
He smiled then looked over at me appalled.
"Whadda ya mean did ya? Mind your own bees wax Hoyt!" he said and took a swig of his drink.
"Uh…yes…yes sir." I said and returned my head to resting on my folded arms.
Boston:1960
"I think you should go like that." Max said playfully as he buttoned his shirt and tied the burgundy tie. Emily smiled and raised an eyebrow at Max. She went to her closet and took out the dress she was going to wear and looked it over. Max watched as she regarded the dress for several minutes.
"You okay, sweetheart?" Max asked and Emily slowly placed the dress back in the closet and turned to face him. She was smiling sadly.
"Screw him." She said
bluntly and with a Boston accent that Max was sure was hiding just under the
surface of her well-spoken upbringing. Max's eyes widened and he froze in mid
tie.
"Huh?" he asked dumbfounded and Emily reached behind her and closed
the closet door.
"I said…" Emily said as she moved slowly across the room towards Max. "Screw him." She said again as she stepped right in front of Max and took a hold of the tie.
"He can't run my life forever…I'm not a child anymore…"She looked disgustedly towards the closet where she had just put her dress back. "I'm not a doll that he can just…just dress up and parade around when he wants." She said and loosened the tie from Max's neck before pulling it gently over his head. She traced his jaw with her fingertips.
"I'm not going…we're not going. I want…I want to stay here…with you…I want to be with you." She said as she slowly unbuttoned Max's dress shirt. He watched her face, wanting to make sure that she knew what she was agreeing to.
"Emily…I don't want you to feel pressured to do anything just cause I'm older and…" She placed a finger on my lips and then replaced it with her own lips.
"He's gonna kill me if he comes home and I'm here having…" Emily silenced him again and gently pushed him backwards until Max tripped on the foot of the box spring and fell onto the bed. Emily straddled his knee and Max pulled the satin slip over her head, discarding it on the floor by some stuffed animals.
"Well, what am I gonna do with this suit now that we're…"She cut him off.
"I'm sure we'll find something." Emily said teasing and unbuckled the belt at Max's waist.
Around 9 o'clock, Max lay in Emily's bed on his side. He knew he should leave but he couldn't. It would be nothing but trouble if he was caught in her room, but his brain and his feet just couldn't come to any sort of agreement. He watched her sleep, the rise and fall of her chest moving in time with his heartbeat. She rolled onto her side and a bare leg wrapped around Max's sliding up and down. He felt a sudden rush of excitement and Emily awoke almost as if she had felt the wave of heat from his body. She smiled and snuggled closer to him. Max wrapped her in his arms and they rested their foreheads together. He began running his hands up and down Emily's back softly and it caused her to stir against him. One more minute, one more hour, a lifetime and then he'd leave…
Without a word, Max rolled Emily to her back and held himself over her by leaning on the mattress with his elbows. He ran his knuckles across her cheek and whispered,
"I love you." Emily's eyes filled up and she looked away.
"No one's ever…ever…said that to me before." She said and then whispered it back to Max. He bent his chin forward and kissed her nose and her lips and her eyelids and just as he was settling himself between her legs, they heard the front door being angrily opened.
"EMILY!" Her father bellowed up the stairs. Max leapt from the bed, stark naked and ran to her door, pushing it shut and locking it. His heart lodged in his throat as he turned to see Emily's pale, frightened face staring back at him. He wished he could wrap her back in his arms and tell her he'd keep her safe. But he knew that wasn't realistic. He was no match for her father and his connections. He could hear Emily's mother begging her husband to stop as he tore up the stairs in a rage. Max grabbed his underwear and pulled it on as he hopped across the room back to Emily. She sat up in bed, the sheets gathered around her and Max threw her some clothes to put on. He could already tell that she was crying quietly.
"It's gonna be alright, Em." He said pulling on his undershirt and sweater before shakily pulling on his Dockers.
"Emily, sweetheart, you've gotta get dressed!" Max whispered nervously as he pushed the clothes closer to her. Emily only trembled, frozen with fear. Wax was torn. Would he actually hurt her? Had he done it before? Emily's head snapped as she heard her father's voice right outside her door.
"Emily! Is HE here!? Is that bastard little street rat Mc here with you!!?" he began to pound on the door, and for the first time, Max was surprised to hear the familiar tongue of a born a raised Southie boy coming out of Harvard's headmaster. "Is that what you want?! To be his little street rat whore for the rest of your life?! To throw away a better life for love?! Cause let me tell you girl!! Love doesn't mean nothin' when he can't feed all those little Catholic brats you'll give him!" Max was drowning out her father by this point. He went to Emily's window and threw it open. There was a fire escape. Emily was dressed and beside him in seconds, angry tears streaming down her face. Her father was silent for a few seconds, probably catching his breath and slicking back his oily black hair even while humiliating his daughter, pretending to be the high classed man that he so obviously wasn't.
"I'm coming with you." She said stubbornly and Max nodded.
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Max said and offered her his hand. Emily ran back to the bed and gathered the pieces of Max's suit as well as a small velvet red purse from under her bed.
"EMILY!!" her father
screamed again pounding on the door so hard Max thought it might actually bust
open.
Emily returned to the window and Max pulled her up to the sill with him. She
took one last look around her room, at the rumpled sheets on her pretty pink
bed and then followed Max out onto the fire escape. They made it a point to
move slowly and not let on to her father, still screaming from the other side
of the door, that they had gone. As they got to the first story of the house,
Emily stopped suddenly when she saw her mother only feet from her, on the other
side of the window. She had one hand pressed against the glass, tears ran down
her cheeks and the light from the hall illuminated her short blonde hair. Max
looked away as Emily laid her hand on the glass where her mother's was before
taking Max's hand with the other and giving her mother one last look before
they jumped from the fire escape to the grass. Max slowly opened the iron gate
door that surrounded Emily's home. When Max closed the door behind him, it creaked
and then slammed with a groan. It caught Emily's father's attention. He ran
down the steps to the middle level of the house and hung out the large bay
window.
"If you're leaving, then that's IT little girl!! Don't ever come back to
this house again! Go live in the sewer with your rat!!" he yelled as the
young lovers ran down the block towards South Boston. He continued to watch
them run as they became smaller and smaller and eventually turned off the long
street and headed downtown. Only then did Cornelius Burns lay his head down
upon his arms on the windowsill and cry.
Boston: Present Day
"Wow." I said dumbfounded as Max stopped talking. He nodded and threw back the last of his whiskey.
"Yeah." He said in a hiss as the power of the drink hit him.
"Wow." I said again and Max nodded his head slowly a few times.
"Yeah." He said again and I shook my head.
"So…what did you…then what?" I asked and Max let out a sigh.
"Well, Emily came to live with my family, she slept in a separate bed, mind you, she was only going on 17…" He said and trailed off.
"And?…" I asked eagerly. Max looked sideways at me.
"And what Woodrow, we made it work. We spent the next two years living in my house with my family…and….then…Max said and a bright smile spread across his face.
"We found something to do with that suit she bought me." He said and I lifted my head from my arms.
Boston: 1963
"You may now kiss the bride." Father Frank Cavanaugh proclaimed with a wink as his older brother smiled and dipped his bride for a kiss.
The wedding guests clapped and Max gently took off his police hat and held it at his side as he dipped Emily backwards and kissed her passionately.
"Hey, come up for air there pal." Frank said leaning forward and Max flopped his hat onto Frank's head.
Max righted his wife and turned to Frank.
"How come I let you resign over my wedding?" Max asked with a smile and winked back at his 20 year – old - brother. He still couldn't believe that little Frankie had become a priest. Except that it had made sense that he of all the Cavanaugh children would be the one most in need of thanking his maker since the cold winter night he had been stabbed.
"Cause I'm your little brother and just about the only Catholic priest in Boston that would marry you two with a big belly between you at the altar." He said and Emily teasingly slapped Frank's arm. She rested the other hand on her swollen belly and then stood on her toes to kiss Max again.
They turned to the guests as Frank announced them.
"I present to you by the Catholic church and the commonwealth of Massachusetts, Mr. and Mrs. Maxwell and Emily Cavanaugh!" He leaned next to Emily's ear and whispered.
"You're one of us now Girlie!" Frank said and kissed her cheek Emily and Max walked down the aisle and out to the steps where the force was standing along the steps prepared to litter the couple with rice. Max placed his hat back on his head and he and Emily dodged rice as they ran to their car and jumped into the back seat.
"Let's go driver! I wanna go change into my best suit for the reception!" Max said slapping his brother Davey on the back. Davey rolled his eyes and pulled out onto the street and headed back to the family house.
Back at the house, Max stood in front of the full length mirror in his room and looked over his suit one last time. He adjusted the burgundy tie.
"Emily! You almost ready to go!" he hollered down the hall to his young wife.
"Yes, Max, you just have to give me a minute, peeing has become an Olympic event since I got pregnant!" She called back angrily. Max cringed. Since she was carrying the baby, Emily could not take the mood stabilizing pills that had been prescribed to her months ago. Something very bad was happening to Emily's mind, but Max was hopelessly devoted.
Boston: Present Day
"Wow. So…she was already having problems that young…and I assume…she was already having an affair with Captain Malden?" I said slowly, not sure even as the words came out of my mouth that it was the right thing to say.
Max sighed heavily. "Like I said…whatever she did out of sickness…it was forgivable." I shook my head.
" I don't think I could ever deal with something like that…it would have hurt me too deeply to forgive something like that." I said looking upon Max with a newfound respect.
He shook his head sadly. "Just because I was forgiving didn't make it any less hurtful. I loved her more than anything in the world. Yeah, it was tough. The mood swings, the times when she tried to hurt herself…the times when she tried to hurt others…but we pulled through it. We were actually doin' pretty good for a while there…we had Jordan we had each other…we'd been through too much to just throw away what we had. There were so many complex complicated problems in our lives…and then…there was just us. Just the Princess of the West side and the Watchdog of South Boston." Something seemed to strike Max's fancy and he cleared his throat.
"You know…as a kid when I was thieving about and headin' towards a life of crime, I never believed in things like faith, fate, true love, or predestined paths." Max looked along the bar.
"But now…on the night I woulda been married to Emily for 40 years…I'm looking back and remembering all of these things that led to right here….right now, and all of those things I thought of as silly like faith and true love and predestined paths…they ah, they don't seem so silly anymore. Tonight I thought about my brother, who lives down in New York and teaches at a Catholic boys school and I know that everyone needs a little faith in their life. I think of the night I decided to become a cop and Blackie chose to become…a robber and I know that I never would have met Emily and I wouldn't have the beautiful daughter I have today…and I know that I married my one true love. And now it's got me thinking of what your predestined path is Woody. Whether you have a little faith. A path you're following blindly and knowing your heart's gonna lead you the right way…" he said and I sighed narrowing my eyes and debating on whether I wanted to ask the question on the tip of my tongue.
"What about fate and true love?" I asked and cringed at how much I sounded like one of those crazy people who pay palm readers 20 dollars a minute to tell their fortunes.
"Well…" Max said looking across the room to the door where Jordan was standing just inside, watching us hesitantly with a smile playing across her lips. "funny you should mention that cause I was just wondering whether it was fate that my little girl, for whom you have been truly and accurately 'struck by the thunderbolt', should finish her shift just in time to walk into my bar as we're discussing such topics as fate and…and….ahh…"Max said pretending to lose his train of thought. I decided to play along.
"True love." I said quietly and looked across the room to Jordan. She offered me an almost shy smile.
Max smiled and slapped a hand down on the counter. "Yep! That was the one!" he exclaimed exuberantly and patted me on the back. He followed my gaze to Jordan.
"True love." He said again and laughed. Jordan stood waiting, her hands in her pockets on the step inside the door.
"I'll see ya later Max." I said and pulled my coat on as I walked towards the door.
"Yeah, yeah…see ya later." Max mumbled quickly as he busied himself with cleaning the bar for the 50th time that night. I strolled to the door, almost face to face with Jordan as she stood on the step. I stopped at the step just so my feet were right at the edge of it. Before Jordan could say a word, I leaned forward and captured her lips with mine. She was surprised but didn't protest. Finally she laid a hand on my chest and pulled back to look in my eyes. I expected some inquiry into my actions but Jordan just smiled and looked at me curiously.
Jordan looked around the bar briefly and let her eyes stop on her father who was pretending like he was the only one in the room. She looked back to me and I hopped up onto the step with her. I offered her my arm but she took my hand instead.
"Goodnight Dad." She said raising an eyebrow at him as I opened the door for her.
"Goodnight Sweetheart." Max said lifting the stools we were sitting on up onto the bar.
I threw Max a smile over my shoulder.
"Goodnight Pop." I said smiling and flipped my bangs out of my eyes as the wind whipped them forward. Max chuckled and shooed us off.
"Goodnight Casanova." He said and Jordan and I walked up the stairs together.
"So where are we going?" I asked as we hit the sidewalk and I let Jordan lead the way down the street.
"How bout we stop at North and South's…and grab some heartburn in a pita to go and take it back to my place." I made a noise of mock surprise.
"Weird! That's just what I was thinking." I said with a coy smile and Jordan wrapped her arm around my waist as I pulled her closer to me and we continued down the dark, quiet street.
THE END
