“Stop it. You're sleeping with Esmeralda, not with me.” Ashleigh smiled at him anyway. She enjoyed the time they spent in bed together, when she pretended to let Esmeralda's personality out to play. Tommy never seemed to mind that “Esmeralda” was more interested in sex than in conversation.
“I can only see her when I look at you,” he said. “Let her out for a minute before you go.” He kissed her neck. “Esmeralda, are you in there?”
Ashleigh pulled away from him. “If you're such a man, why don't you get a job?”
“I don't do jobs.” Tommy flopped back on the bed. “Don't like people ordering me around. I get enough of that from you.”
“Then get a hobby,” Ashleigh said. “Do something with yourself. We've been here a week and all you've done is smoke and drink and fuck.”
“That's the life,” Tommy said. He pulled a thick wad of cash from his pocket, from a couple of muggings he'd committed on the way across the country, plus a gas station he'd robbed in New Mexico. “If this is because you need money—”
“It isn't,” Ashleigh said, though she took several bills from him anyway. “If I'm going to do what I plan to do, and you're going to be Esmeralda's boyfriend, you have to do something respectable. It doesn't have to be great. Just legal.”
“I'd rather talk to Esmeralda about this.”
“Plus, you're an escaped convict,” Ashleigh said. “You need to keep a low profile. You can't just be robbing people every time you need cash.”
“That's what I do,” Tommy said. “How do you expect me to get a job? I can't use my Social Security number, the cops'll find me.”
“We're in a city full of illegal immigrants with jobs,” Ashleigh said. “Figure it out. It's not like you're busy all day.” She turned to face him. “How do I look?”
“You better not sleep with anyone else,” Tommy said. “That's Esmeralda's body. Get laid when you've got your own.”
“I'll take that as a You look great, Ashleigh, and good luck today!” Ashleigh said. She kissed him on the cheek. “I have to go. We can let Esmeralda out to play when I get home. Okay?”
“Hurry the fuck back, then.”
Ashleigh walked out through the tiny living room/kitchen and into the parking lot. A short but very muscular Latino man leaning against a low-riding black Acura stood up when she emerged from the apartment, and he folded his arms and scowled at her.
Ashleigh tried to ignore him and hurry to the bus stop, but he stepped onto the sidewalk and blocked her way.
“What are you doing?” he asked. “Just going to pretend you don't see me?”
“Sorry?” Ashleigh looked closer and realized that this must be Pedro, Esmeralda's boyfriend. Ashleigh recognized him from the pictures in the living room and in Esmeralda's mother's bedroom, though oddly Esmeralda didn't have any pictures of him displayed in her own room. “Oh, hi, Pedro.”
“'Oh, hi, Pedro?' That's it?”
“What do you want?”
“What do I want? What do I want? The same thing as your mother wants. I want you to tell us where the hell you've been all this time, and get rid of that filthy gringo you brought back with you. He scares your mother, do you know that?”
“Everything scares my mother.” Ashleigh shrugged.
His eyes narrowed. “You've changed. There's something different about you. Your eyes. Did you get contacts?”
“So what?” Ashleigh said. “Get out of my way, Pedro. I'm busy.”
“Too busy for me. But not too busy for him.” He pointed his chin at her apartment. “What good is he? Your mother says he's got no job, nada.”
“I like him. So, go away.” Ashleigh tried to pass around him, but Pedro seized her arm and squeezed it hard enough to bruise the bone, and she cried out in pain.
“I love you, Esmeralda,” he said, his eyes burning into her. Clenching both her arms now, Pedro sank to his knees in front of her. “I want to marry you. Say you'll marry me, right now.”
“Let me go, jerk!” Ashleigh said.
“Not until you say yes. I know it's the right thing. I can feel it. You and me, together—”
“Take your hands off her.” Tommy must have been watching through the window, because he came out of the apartment and walked quickly toward Pedro.
“You!” Pedro snarled. He stood up, let go of Ashleigh and raised his fists. “You get out of here. Esmeralda is mine.”
“Not anymore,” Tommy said.
Pedro charged. Tommy dodged his first punch, then hit him in the face. Pedro ducked low and jabbed two quick punches into Tommy's stomach. Tommy staggered back, clutching his guts, and Pedro decked him in the face.