A Man of Honor.

Chapter 36: A Emerald in the Rough.

"The only one that can do what I do is me." ~ Frank Costello.

I sat on my bed in my room above the club and strummed on my guitar making the occasional glance at the windowsill where I had left my cigar ashtray as a sign to Blake that I was open to meeting her tonight. I wondered how often she came around just to check that I had left my signal for her. It couldn't be every night, but so far she never failed to show up when I put it out for her.

I looked at the notes displayed on my scroll screen. My hands becoming reacquainted to the chords found their place and I managed to strum out the song well enough. I hummed the tune as I played, thinking about my next move. So far my investigation had reached a dead end until I managed to get to the intel Emerald had snagged from Sal's safe. We had agreed to meet up tomorrow midday to go over it but I hated waiting. She was far from cooperative.

"What are you playing?" I heard a familiar but slightly muffled voice ask me.

I looked up and found Blake crouched at my window. I laid down the guitar and stood up, unlocking and opening the window for her to climb in through.

"Hey Blake, good to see you." I said, closing the window behind her.

"And it's good to see you as well." She said sitting on my bed and looking at my scroll with the music displayed on it. "It sounded like a sad song."

I shrugged to her. "It's just something to play, it's an old Donny Cash song."

"So what's it called?" She asked me, idly setting my scroll down and looking around my room silently.

"Folsom Prison Blues." I said to her with a shrug. "My old guitar teacher had me practice a lot of Donny Cash songs when I was learning."

"Can you play it for me?" She asked with a little smile. "I've never really bothered to listen to Donny Cash."

"Uh... sure." I said looking at the music and strumming it out for her.

"What are the lyrics?" She asked me, stopping the song.

"You don't want to listen to me sing." I told her with a shake of my head and a bashful smile.

"I'm sure you're not that bad." She told me encouragingly. "Besides, if you can sing karaoke with a bunch of Mistrali Gangsters then I'm sure you can sing just a little for me."

"Alright, but no comments on me being tone deaf." I said resetting my fingers on the chords and starting again.

I sang the song knowing the words. It was about a murderer stuck in prison listening to the train passing by and lamenting being stuck there imagining everyone on the train living a better and more interesting life than him.

Blake folded her hands in her lap and listened to the song quietly. She thankfully spared me from any commentary on my singing and she even moved her head ever so slightly to the rhythm of the song. She didn't speak until the entire song was finished and letting the last note vibrate on the strings.

"Is that how you think of yourself right now?" She asked me after I had finished the song. "Just... stuck?"

"It doesn't mean anything." I lied to her. "It was just something for me to play, I just figured I should have some kind of hobby, you know?""

She nodded even though she clearly didn't believe me, but I appreciated that she just let it go. A part of me liked the fact that she had those moments where she could see right through me. Especially since she never pressed the issue. I felt safe talking to her about this because of it. I never felt pressured or interrogated by her. She just listened. She talked, she asked questions but she never made me feel attacked with her questions. Whenever she asked me something I just felt like she wanted to understand me with no ulterior motives. It was exactly what I needed.