Chapter 4

After sleeping on it, I feel extremely wary about the choice that I had made with Candice and wondered if I should maybe nip it in the bud before it was too late. I followed the breakfast aromas wafting in the air. Bacon, eggs, toast, and butter enveloping my senses. I found her in the kitchen and was about to announce my decision to squelch the idea, but then I saw her face, and the excitement dancing around in her eyes. I can’t say no to something that makes her this happy, it will be OK, we will just make sure we don’t get caught.

Candice asked me to sit with her so that we could fully absorb the plan and execute it perfectly. I obliged because it’s what needs to happen. I asked her when she thinks we should do this and she replied with, “How about tomorrow?” I felt a humongous knot form in my stomach, “Tomorrow? Are you sure we would be able to do it on such short notice?”, I asked. She looked at me with a glint of amusement in her eyes and said, “Yes, that is why we are sitting here and going over the plan until it’s all we can think about.”

I have accepted that I am attracted to women in charge. Candice is just this fiery ball of wonder and I find myself wondering if she thinks of me in that way at all. Surely it’s not just me feeling the electricity bouncing off of our skins? I shouldn’t even be thinking this much about her because we only just met, right? For now, I will just focus on the plan with her and whatever happens, happens.

Candice and I set off the next day to carry out the plan she made for robbing the bank and the whole way there I just felt so overwhelmed with anxiety. Candice, on the other hand, looked like this was the best day ever. I don’t understand that. She looked over at me and winked before getting out and starting towards the bank. I followed making sure we were alone.

Masks on, we headed inside and made our way to the point of interest and made sure they didn’t set off any alarms. I should probably include that Candice, being the exciting specimen that she is, has these friends that do dirty work with her, and she asked them to come and help us out any way possible. They are basically the muscle and will be doing the main job, taking the money out of the big safes. We are just the distraction, crazy right? Our plan is to stay in the front where all the people are and keep them there making demands we don’t actually care for until her friends let us know that they are done, then we leave.

I suppose it was a pretty good plan or would have been if there wasn’t a crazy imbecile with a gun. The guy got up so fast we didn’t see it coming and shot Candice in the leg, luckily it was just the leg. I freaked out, rushed up to him and elbow punched him. All it took was one knock and he was down for the count. I rushed back to Candice, threw her over my shoulder, and made my escape.

At this point, it doesn’t matter if we have the money or not, what mattered was the safety of Candice. I am so glad that I have first aid training, it could help. We arrived home safely, hopefully, no one followed us back. I didn’t even check, I am so one-track-minded sometimes. I laid her out on the kitchen counter and ripped her pants off, not the way I wanted to do this, but the situation is just not ideal. The medkit was still in the kitchen at least. I cleaned her up, removed the bullet, since it didn’t go out the other side, then started closing her up. As I was closing her up she stirred awake and realized what was happening.

I thought that she would freak out, but instead, she relaxed and just seemed to accept that this was her reality. Something occurred to me and it almost made me laugh out loud, but that was just too insensitive. Instead, I just voiced it, “Is this going to be our thing? Me fixing you up, you fix me up? It’s certifiably insane how we are starting out, in pain.” She just let out a chuckle and replied, “It might be insane, but it’s ours and ours alone.”

I am pretty used to being wrong about these things but it almost seems as though Candice feels the same way that I feel for her. Is it possible? I’ve never given much thought to myself. I guess for me, I have just always existed and had this need to get along with at least one person. Is she that person for me?

Just as I was finishing up, there was a knock at the door. I wondered who that could be. I am on vacation, the only people that knew I was here were Mrs. Jones and Candice. I opened the door expecting trouble, but instead, I was greeted by the friends of Candice that helped us with the Job. They came inside and dropped four black giant duffel bags onto the floor. One of the guys, a burly-looking one said, “We come bearing gifts. We know what happened and we know why you had to leave, so we tracked you down to return what was yours. We took some money for ourselves for the job but these bags are for you and Candice.” After that, they just left, didn’t wait for us to say anything. I just stood there astonished and a little giddy to be honest. This is the start of something new, and I am all for it.