1 Unconditional
The midnight air felt cold against the back of Daniel’s neck as he stood in the middle of his dark bedroom. The pale blue glow of his cell phone cut through the pitch black room in the early morning casting long distorted shadows across the hardwood floor.
He did not need to glance at the caller ID to know who was reaching out to him. That specific gentle chime belonged to only one person he cared for. He swiped his thumb across the screen before the second ring could even echo through the quiet house.
"Vanessa? Is everything okay?" Daniel asked eagerly,
"Daniel..." Vanessa called out.
Her voice sounded paper thin over the speaker. It was raspy and quiet as though she had been sitting in the freezing cold shivering for hours.
"I am so sorry to bother you. I really should not have called you like this. I know how late it is." Vanessa continued.
Daniel swung his bare feet out from under the covers onto the freezing floorboards and sat up.
"Do not apologize for calling me. What happened over there? Are you okay?" Daniel asked her eagerly.
A long shuddered breath came floating through the small speaker of his phone.
"He was sitting right outside my house again. A dark four door car was parked right along the curb with its headlights off. I really think Marcus found out where I am living now." Vanessa said between sobs.
Daniel’s grip tightened around the plastic casing of his phone until his knuckles turned completely white in the dark.
Marcus was the aggressive ex-boyfriend who had been relentless in harassing her ever since she signed the lease on the craftsman bungalow right next door around three months ago.
"Did he make any attempt to get inside the house?" Daniel asked her.
Daniel reached blindly into the dark corner of his closet for a pair of denim jeans.
"No," she whispered softly into the receiver.
"He pulled away from the curb the second I turned the front porch light on. But I am absolutely terrified Daniel and I simply cannot stay inside this house all by myself tonight." Vanessa continued to cry.
"Lock the deadbolt on the front door. I am walking over to your porch right now." Daniel advised her.
"You really do not have to do that for me," she said
Although the noticeable tremor running through her voice eased slightly.
"You already do so much for me every single day." She continued.
"I am on my way." He said urgently with reassurance.
Ten minutes later Daniel was sitting on the edge of Vanessa’s couch setting down a hot chamomile tea on the low coffee table right in front of her.
Vanessa had pulled a heavy oversized cable knit sweater completely over her knees until her small frame was practically buried deep inside the cushions. She looked up at him through the tears in her eyes while gently pushing a loose strand of dark hair behind her ear.
"I do not know what I would ever do without you Daniel," she murmured softly.
Her fingers reached out and brushed against his forearm in a soft warm graze that lingered just a second longer than necessary.
"Everyone else in my life always wanted something from me. You are the only person who just takes care of me." Vanessa told him.
Daniel looked down at his lap and gave a quiet nod of agreement. He was well aware of what people around town had been whispering about him behind his back. He had explicitly overheard his good buddy Mark talking down at the local pub just last week when Mark laughed out loud and told everyone that Daniel was paying her utility bills and mowing her grass just to get a polite wave from the porch and that he really needed to wake up.
They simply did not see what Daniel saw every time he looked at her. They did not notice the faint fading yellow bruises scattered across her wrists right beneath her long lace sleeves. They did not notice how visibly jumpy she became whenever an engine backfired down at the end of the street.
She was an extraordinarily talented jewelry designer down at Vance and Sterling downtown but whenever she was off the clock she seemed entirely fragile and broken.
"I will take the sofa tonight," Daniel said
He was smoothing out the heavy throw blanket over the cushions.
"If he decides to come back tonight he is going to have to knock on this front door first." He continued.
Vanessa leaned down over the edge of the couch and pressed her soft lips gently against his cheek. She smelled strongly of dried lavender and vanilla.
"Thank you so much," she whispered
As she headed straight down the dark hallway while leaving her bedroom door cracked open an inch.
Daniel laid on the couch and pulled the blanket all the way up to his chest while staring up at the shifting shadows moving across the living room ceiling.
Across the dark house a faint blue glow flickered continuously behind Vanessa’s cracked bedroom door while her thumbs moved back and forth across her phone screen.
On the end table sitting right beside the couch Daniel's phone screen lit up completely in the dark living room. It displayed a single notification from his banking app confirming an online wire transfer of twelve hundred dollars to an unlisted corporate account processed at precisely two forty-seven in the morning.
He rolled onto his side into the soft pillows closed his eyes and fell asleep.
