King of the Mountain

"You're going to have to learn to trust me, Evan."

"I know, and I will because I want to." I took her hand and kissed it. "Help me."

She smiled. "Just don't hurt me or Nicky."

"Never again."

*****

I walked her to her door, holding her hand. It was a good date, if I do say so myself, and I was glad we did it. I knew she was happy to have an adult night out of the house, and I hoped she'd let me take her out again. It was strange, but I couldn't believe how nervous I was as we walked the short way.

What was the protocol with her? We already knew each other, so was there a rule about the end of the date? Should I kiss her? Make out? Would she invite me in? Would she take me to bed or play the bases on the couch? I had no clue how to handle the next minute.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wonder long. When we reached the top of her porch, she turned and smiled at me. "Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?"

The look of lust in her eyes told me what her intentions were. I only hoped my perception was reality.

"Sounds good,"

When we walked into the living room, my mother was disappointed. "I wanted to flick the porch light on and off. You guys are no fun."

We laughed and I said, "Shall I walk you home, Mom?"

"No, Evander. Stay with your, um, date. You can watch from the porch. I'll be fine."

Her smirk annoyed me. I knew she knew what we were up to--well what I hoped we were up to.

"Go ahead, Evan. I'll put the coffee on. Thank you for watching Nicky, Jean."

"You know it's no trouble at all, sweetie. That little boy is a perfect angel."

Lisa laughed and said, "No, he's just well-trained to behave with other people."

Mom kissed her cheek and winked at me. "I better head off; us old birds need our beauty sleep."

When we reached the porch, she kissed my cheek and said, "I know you still have your doubts. Don't hurt her, Son. She's fallen in love with you."

"Whatever, Mom. Go to bed," I chuckled.

I watched her walk home and thought about the beautiful woman waiting inside the house for me. I felt like a teenager on a first date rather than an experienced adult. I wondered how Lisa was doing and if she was feeling the same? I hoped I wasn't the only nervous one.

"Coffee smells good," I said as I sat at her kitchen table.

"At least the smell from the sink is gone. Thanks again, for fixing that."

"That's what friends are for," I said.

She turned and said, "Am I your friend, Evan?"

I stood and walked to her, making her shift back into the counter. I cupped her cheek in my hand and said, "You're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen."

I don't know if it was me or her that moved first, but our lips touched softly. I wanted to devour her, to make her mine, but I used every ounce of self-control I had to hold back.

She moaned as she broke our kiss. "You're holding back on me, Evander."

"You have no idea."

She smirked and turned to the coffee maker. I couldn't help but wrap my arms around her and nuzzle her neck. "God! You have no idea."

She giggled and turned, handing me a cup of steaming brew. "I hope Folger's French Roast is okay."

"It's good. Mom is a Folger's woman too."

Her eyes dropped. I realized she either got the coffee from my mother, or my mother was buying her groceries.

"Lisa?" I asked as I sat at the table. "Do you need anything? I mean..."

She shook her head, "You've done enough for me already. I would've lost my house if not for you, I..."

She started sobbing and I regretted ruining her night by trying to help her. I pulled her off the chair and walked her into the living room.

"Evan," she sobbed as I sat on the old couch, placing her on my lap.

I pulled her head into my chest and kissed the top of her head. "Don't hold back. Let it out, it's okay."

Her shoulders shook as my shirt wettened. I felt so bad for her, at that moment I'd have given her anything she wanted. She didn't deserve to struggle.

And then, a few minutes later, I heard her snoring.

I wanted to laugh but didn't want to wake her. The martinis and wine caught up with her and with the last emotional release, it was just too much for her.

The next thing I knew, I felt movement against my side waking me up.

"Hi, Mister Evan," Nicky whispered in that loud whisper only kids can get away with. "I can't sleep."

I opened my arm and the Star Wars jammied kid slid into me.

"Why isn't Momma in her bed?"

"Let's put her there now, okay?" I answered.

Not surprisingly, she didn't wake when we moved. I carried her with Nicky leading the way.

I watched as he pulled her blanket down and pointed to her spot. She rolled under the covers making me smile and I pulled it up to her chest and kissed her forehead. I saw the clock on the nightstand said 4:17 and took Nicky by the hand.

"Come on, Spud. Let's get you tucked back in."

He yawned and nodded.

"Goodnight, Mister Evan."

"Goodnight, Nicky."

I kissed his forehead and left him to his sweet dreams.

*****

I decided to stay. I knew she was off on Saturdays, and it was only a half hour before I normally woke anyway. I made another pot of coffee and looked around her kitchen.

I was looking for any other little things that needed fixing. I found a small puddle on the floor in front of the fridge and wiped it up. She didn't have a water dispenser, so I figured it was condensation building up. I made note of that and opened the fridge and freezer. They were practically empty. I sighed and kept looking around.

I found a stack of mail on the counter and snooped through some of the open bills. Two months behind on the electric bill, two months behind on the gas bill, shut off notice for the cable bill. It seemed she used my money to catch up on the past due payments but struggled to stay current after that. She was barely treading water and being pulled downstream again.

The coffee brewed and I poured myself a cup. I saw my mom's kitchen light come on through the window and smiled at the thought of her being a creature of habit. She was always an early riser, and like me, never slept in on the weekends.

I set the pile of mail back where I found it and noticed the letter on top was from the local Little League. The registration fee was $275. I winced for Lisa. I folded the letter and put it in my pocket. I knew she'd be mad, but I would deal with that when the time came.

I sat on the front porch and enjoyed the morning's fresh air. I knew I had to give Lisa a lifeline, but I couldn't figure out how to do it without her getting angry with me. She was going to be mad enough that I took the Little League registration, but I couldn't let my little buddy suffer.

I sipped my coffee and watched a dog lead its owner along the dark street. Life worked like that sometimes, I thought. We didn't control where we were going all the time. Sometimes, life was a bitch and dragged us around by the neck.

I heard my mom's screen door open and watched her put a rug over her railing. She jumped back, startled, when she saw me watching her. She laughed and shook her head. "You're gonna give your old mother a heart attack, Evander."

Not wanting to yell back, I walked across the lawn and driveway. "When I give you a heart attack, it won't be from sitting idle on Lisa's porch. You can take that to the bank."

We laughed and she looked at my empty cup. "Come get a refill and tell me how your date went."

"It went really well, Mom."

She looked at me with a smirk.

"Settle down. There're no grandbabies on the horizon just yet."

She mock frowned, "Do I have to give you the birds and the bees talk?"

I laughed, "Yikes! I hope not. Nothing happened last night, so get that out of your dirty mind. It was late and we fell asleep on the couch. Fully clothed, mind you."

She laughed, "I'm glad I raised a gentleman. What's on your agenda for today?"

"I don't know. I was thinking of taking them out to breakfast and going to the zoo."

"Nicky will love that. He loves animals"

I nodded. "Did you know she's in trouble again? Behind on her bills?"

"No, but I suspected. Did she tell you?"

"God, no. She was upset enough when I offered to pay for Nicky's tee-ball. I can't imagine how pissed she would be if she knew I found her pile of overdue bills."

"Don't do anything to rash, Evander. You'll..."

"I know, Mom. I have to do something to help her though. I just can't figure out how to approach it with her."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure it out. I'll keep an ear out for you."

"Thanks." I looked at the clock and saw it was nearing six. "I'd better get back. I can't imagine Nicky sleeping in."

She let out a loud, "Ha!" Then said, "That boy gets up early and is watching cartoons long before Lisa gets up."

"That settles it then. I'll see you later."

"Thanks for the coffee." That made me think of Lisa's coffee. "Mom, are you buying her groceries or giving her some?"

"Evander, I will give that poor woman anything she needs."

I smiled. "Fair enough."

I walked into Lisa's house and refilled my coffee. I heard footsteps behind me and then Nicky shout, "Boo!" and launch into a giggling fit when I pretended to be scared.

"Good morning, Spud."

"Morning, Mister Evan. Can I have some cereal?"

"Where does mommy keep it?"

He pointed at one of the upper cabinets. There was a container that had cereal dust in it, and I said, "Looks like we're out of cereal."

He frowned and walked away sadly.

"Hey, Nicky?"

He stopped but didn't turn around.

"I was thinking of taking you and your mom to breakfast. Would you like pancakes or waffles?"

He turned and brightly said, "Can I have Mickey Mouse pancakes. Jimmy says his dad takes him for Mickey Mouse pancakes every week."

"Sure, who's Jimmy?"

"He's in my class. He's my friend. I go to his house to play sometimes."

"Sounds fun. Go ahead and watch some cartoons until your mom wakes up."

He ran off and I followed to watch the first Saturday morning cartoons I'd seen in years.

Evan had brought his pillow out to the living room and set it on my lap. He managed to stay up for the first half hour of the Scooby-Doo DVD he put in. After that he was out like a light.

I was startled by Lisa taking our picture. "Hey," I said, "I charge fifty cents apiece for pictures."

"Nope. Not when my son is in it." She walked behind the couch and kissed my cheek.

"I'm gonna take a look in the fridge. I think I've got some eggs..."

I cut her off. "Will you go out to breakfast with me? Spud wants Mickey Mouse pancakes."

"Yes, thank you. He's been talking about them non-stop since his friend Jimmy bragged about them."

"Okay. I'll head home and shower and shave. I'll be back in an hour or so. Is that enough time?"

"Does it matter? You can hang out if it isn't."

We kissed chastely and I headed home.

*****

Lisa was turning my world upside down and the oddest thing was, I wasn't uncomfortable with it. My biggest problem was going to be how would I convince her to take money from me? There was no way I could move forward and date her while hiding I knew she fell behind again.

When I walked up the steps to her door, Nicky sprung out and opened the screen door.

"Mister Evan, I'm starving."

I laughed, "Me too, Spud. Is your mom ready?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "She's in her room singing."

I walked in and heard her singing along with Taylor Swift. I decided to not interrupt her and sat down with Nicky to see what Scooby-Doo was up to.

I smiled when I saw it was an episode where the band Kiss was featured. I asked Nicky, "Did you know that Kiss is one of my favorite bands?"

He shook his head, "Nope."

"They are. What song do they play in the show?"

He jumped up and acted as if he had a microphone, "Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud."

"Nice. You like that one?"

He said, "Yep. They have another song too. I wanna rock and roll all night, and party every day."

"Another good one. I'm gonna have to watch the whole show with you some time."

"We can watch it after breakfast," he said as he jumped on my lap. The amount of energy the kid had was enviable.

"I was thinking about going to the zoo. How about we do that instead?"

He hugged me and ran off. I heard him yell, "Mommy, Mister Evan is taking me to the zoo!"

I laughed and refilled my coffee. I looked at the pile of bills and Lisa walked in and grabbed them. "We're ready to go. Have you been waiting long?"

"No," I said and kissed her cheek. "Nicky and I were watching Scooby-Doo."

She groaned, "I hope he didn't make you watch that awful Kiss one. I want to throw it away, but he would be too upset. It's his favorite."

I shook my head and said, "Well, there it is. I can't see you anymore; you have no taste in music."

"Oh, God! You don't like that horrible band, do you?"

I nodded my head and walked away singing, "Shout it, shout it, shout it out loud." I walked in and picked up Nicky off the couch, "Come on, Spud. Let's get some pancakes."

He started clapping and shouted, "Mommy, come on!"

As I walked to her truck, I wished I had more time to spend doing things like that, and that's when it hit me. I was angry with myself for not thinking of it before. My epiphany would be perfect for us all if Lisa would agree to accept my offer.

*****

I sipped my orange juice and watched Lisa enjoy her omelet. She looked measurably happier than when she was sobbing on my lap the night before. I was glad I could give her a few hours of respite from her problems. All she had to think about was our adventure, and I was going to risk all of that with one sentence.

"Lisa, I want you to be my personal assistant."

She stopped chewing and glared at me. She swallowed her bite and said, "No." She reached over and cut her child's sausage links for him and poured syrup over the top. She was acting as if I said nothing at all.

I said, "I'm not..."

Her eyes shot up at me and cut me off without her speaking a word.

"I'm only going to say this one time, Evan. I am not going to take a position at your company that doesn't exist, solely because you feel sorry for us and our situation."

She looked down and scooped some of her extra crispy hash browns. Her lips were pursed in a slight frown, and I decided to risk it again.

"Do you know what I do for a living. I mean the actual details of my days?"

She shook her head without looking me in the eye. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. I almost regretted bringing it up.

"Lisa, I spend hours and hours every week doing research on any number of topics. Cryptocurrency, real estate listings, business investment opportunities, and on and on. I have an executive assistant as you know, but what she handles is the operations portion of my business. I still do all of my own research for the most part."

She looked up and said, "Your mother always complains about how much you work."

I nodded, "Exactly. Most of that time is spent reading news articles, financial analysis, expert opinion, blah, blah, blah. My point is, if I had someone that can manage that information, spend the time to collect and organize those things, I would cut more than half of my days. You could save me all that time."

"I don't know anything about what you do," she countered.

"It's not that difficult. We would meet and I would give you a list of what I want, and you would get that for me. It would come from the internet mostly. Sometimes you would get information from the businesses directly. You would give me a file of articles and reports, or a collection of online links, in a neat and organized ready to go package for me. I'm telling you; you could save me an enormous amount of time."

"Why don't you have someone doing that for you now?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I never had a reason to not work so much before."

I saw a smile crack her stoic countenance. I wanted to scream in joy; I had my solution to her problems.

"You could even work from home."

I hoped that would put the icing on the cake. She looked at Nicky and he smiled at her as he shoveled syrup into his mouth with a little bit of pancake as it's vessel.

"I don't have a computer."

I knew I had her at that point. I just had to reel her in.

"The company would provide one and will upgrade your home internet if necessary. Your internet bill will be paid by the company as well. Also, if you need a desk, that will be provided."

"I don't want special treatment," she argued.

"There's nothing special about that stuff. We already do that for people working from home. Lisa," I said as I grabbed her hand, "say yes."

"I have to have benefits, from the first day."

I nodded, "Of course."

"What is the pay?" she asked.

"You would be salaried at 60k to start and would be eligible for our bonus program."

Her fork dropped.

"Evan, that's..."

"If you want more, we can negotiate. I thought that was a fair offer for a starting rate."

She looked horrified. "No, I mean it's a lot more than I make now."

"I should hope so, I have to lure you away from your current job."

She had a tear in her eye and said, "I don't know what to say."

"Say yes."

"Yes."

I smiled and let out a deep breath making her laugh.

"Evan, I need it to be permanent. I can't afford to be let go in a few months if you..."

I dropped my head.

"Evan, I'm sorry, I didn't mean."

I said, "I know what you mean. You're worried about me firing you if something happens with our personal relationship."

"No, well, it's just..."

"I understand. You have Nicky to think of. I tell you what: I'll give you a contract that guarantees your salary for five years. If you get terminated, you will get a lump sum buyout of the remainder of your salary for the duration of the contract term."

She took a bite of her food and I thought that was a good sign.

"Okay, but can you do me one favor?"

"What's that?" I smiled.

"Please don't treat me as if I'm just a body in a chair. I want to actually work."

I laughed, "Sweetheart, I assure you, you will be plenty busy."

"You're changing my life, Evan. I don't know how to react to this. Two months ago, I was losing everything. I didn't even know you."

"You're changing my life too, Lisa."

She smiled shyly.

I continued, "I didn't even tell you about the signing bonus yet."

Her eyes snapped up and I laughed.

*****

After a day at the zoo, I can say that I was more tired than I'd ever been before. Where kids got the energy to run from exhibit to exhibit was a mystery to me. We visited every section of the zoo and much to Lisa's chagrin even the reptile house.

When Nicky overheard one of the adults say that his snake at home was bigger, Nicky immediately started begging for his own pet snake. The meltdown he had when Lisa told him no was epic.

The best part of the zoo for me had always been finding all of the wax animal machines. Some of them were broken, just like they were when I was a kid, but we got all of the others. I couldn't believe Nicky had never collected them before, but then I realized that a trip to the zoo was expensive enough without Lisa wasting money on souvenirs.

We hadn't made it to the exit before Nicky fell asleep in my arms. Lisa held my hand as we walked, and she pulled the wagon behind us. I looked down at her and caught her looking at me. She smiled and I leaned down to kiss her.

"I had an amazing day. Thank you."

She laughed, "I should be thanking you. Nicky's never had an experience like this. I always felt bad that we couldn't get him stuffed animals, or books, or any of the other stuff you bought him today. But that's not what he will remember the fondest. He'll remember you running with him chasing pigeons and laughing at the funny-looking animals. He'll remember you lifting him onto your shoulders so he could see the lions better. He will remember that you kept calling the penguins water chickens. He'll never forget today." She kissed my cheek and continued, "Evan, we've never had a better day. I mean it. Thank you."