Chapter 5

120 hours until release

Elena

Two days...

It had been two days since inmate Marvin Romero decided to send me back an email. It wouldn’t be too far stretched to admit that the email scared the living crap out of me.

He seemed like the kind of person who was spoiled and wanted things to go his way. That’s the very same reason why I had decided not to let him have his way and tried to make him sweat.

Okay, that wasn’t the only reason.

I was afraid of Victoria’s reaction and knew she would tell me not to reply anymore, but something told me that it was my duty to respond. I mean, the email was a tiny bit rude, but he did ask me about my hobby’s and goals, right? That was nice.

“Hello, earth to Elena!” Rona waved her hand in my face. “Oh, right—I’m sorry.” I apologized.

“One large bloody mary, to go,” Roa spoke with a suspicious look on her face. I turned to look at the customer and smiled. “Coming right up!”

I gave myself a mental scolding before I got to my job and made the cocktail. I had been out of it for two days, and it was all because of that Marvin guy. It was a good thing he had a life sentence because Marvin seemed like the type of guy to visit me—so that he could ask why I hadn’t replied.

“Here you go,” I told Rona and handed the order. I grabbed a napkin and walked to the back so that I could wipe the sweat from my forehead. Anyone else would’ve probably thought it was due to work stress and would’ve never guessed all of this was because of a prison inmate.

“Are you sick?” Rona asked as she walked in. She placed her hand against my forehead and pouted her lips. “Have you caught some kind of virus or something?”

Yes, the prison pen pal virus.

“I hope not,” I spoke and stepped back. “I’m fine, really.” I tried to convince Rona, but she wasn’t buying it. “This doesn’t have anything to do with that prisoner, right?”

“Wha!” I yelled out, surprised. Rona gasped and took a step back. “Wha!” She also yelled out. “What’s wrong? Why are we surprised?”

“How did you know?”

“Oh, about the prisoner?” Rona asked. I only told her about the email, but I never told her I got something back in return. “That’s easy.” Rona shrugged.

“You’ve been walking back and forth, whispering the same damn sentence for the past few days.”

“Should I send him something back? Should I leave him hanging?” Rona mimicked my voice and tapped her finger against her chin. “Really funny, I don’t even sound like that.” I gave her a nudge against her shoulder.

Knowing she knew about my issues made stuff a bit easier because that meant I finally had someone to talk to. Maybe Rona would understand my urge to reply. “So what do you think I should do?

“Reply, of course!” Rona spoke. “When will you get another chance to talk to a prisoner?”

“So, when do you think I should do it?” I asked. Right at that moment, a customer walked in. Rona walked to the counter while I followed after her and waited for her answer. “How about right now?”

“Right now?” I gasped. Rona ignored me and focused her attention on the customer. She took the order and walked off to make the cocktail. “Rona, right now?”

Roa laughed at my reaction and let out a sigh. “Yes, right now.” She smiled. I was still startled and followed her to the customer with my mouth wide opened.

I had not changed the look on my face and looked at her in surprise until the very second the customer walked off. Rona chuckled and put her hand in my apron to reach for my phone. “How about you show me that message first?”

I snatched my phone from Rona’s hand and opened the email. “Read!”

Rona looked at me with big eyes before she looked at the screen and looked through the email. She couldn’t help but laugh every now and then and must’ve probably been as confused as I was. “Marvin is a very bold man,” Rona laughed. “How old is he again?”

“Twenty-five?” I nervously spoke and bit my fingernails with my teeth. It was what I did when I was nervous, and it was a bat habit of mine, but I couldn’t help myself. “He replied like ten minutes after I send the email. Do you think he might have some special privileges?”

“I don’t know.” Rona shrugged.

“He seems like a burden.” Rona sighed. “But you should definitely reply.”

“Right!” I agreed. The only issue was that I had no idea how to approach him. Would it be the smartest to follow in his footsteps and reply with something sarcastic? Or should I just be myself?

“You don’t know what to say, do you?” Rona smirked. I stomped my feet and gave her a nervous pout. “No, I don’t—you have to help me!”

Rona placed her hand on my shoulder to calm me down and giggled. “Do your dad, and your brother know about this?”

“No,” I scoffed. “Of course they don’t. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even be here right now—you know that.”

“Let me think.” Rona huffed. I looked at her with hopeful eyes and waited for her to give me instructions. Rona was smart with these kinds of things. She would know what to do.

“How about you just type whatever’s on your mind?” Rona suggested. “I mean, that’s the entire point of this prison pen pal thing, isn’t it?”

Well damn...

“You’re so useless,” I spoke as I leaned my head against her shoulder. “Even Victoria would be more helpful.”

“What about Victoria?” Rona wondered. “Have you spoken about it with her?”

“Yes, the first time, but definitely not the second time,” I told Rona. “You know how she gets.”

Victoria had stopped by very often, and it was not hard to miss that Rona wasn’t that fond of her. She had no issue showing it and rolled her eyes whenever she walked in. Rona gave me an understanding nod. “I see.”

“Hmm.” Rona went into deep thoughts. “I still stand by my point. You should just respond like Elena.”

Respond just like Elena?

I took a deep breath before I started typing. Rona had a point. It would be the smartest to respond like Elena.

—

Dear Marvin,

The heart didn’t mean anything, and it’s just the way I talk. I know this is not a dating site, and I’m not looking for anyone to date either!!!

Anyway, about my hobbies. I originally planned on becoming a lawyer, but I work as a mixologist at a small cocktail bar, so it clearly hasn’t worked out. I’m a bit too embarrassed to admit it, but I don’t really have any goals yet, but what’s the rush?

(If things go wrong, I can always marry some rich guy🤑)

Enough about me. You seem way too intelligent to be in prison, and you have a ridiculously long list of felonies. My question for you is, where did it go wrong, and how can I prevent the same thing from happening to me?

From,

Lena

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