1989: a story of two misfit kids from mid-west america making it big in the big apple. and in the true sense of the american dream they find themselves in a life of sex, money, drugs, and a little rock n roll too.
warnings: adult content, mature rea...
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February 1993
Bill looked around the small apartment filled with a dozen rose bouquets he had delivered to her home for Valentine's Day a few days prior. He had worked on Valentine's as it was a popular and busy night at the club but he had left earlier than usual to watch Simion's boxing match. While Alma still held onto him she looked up and by the look on his face, he seemed fatigued from the travel. Being tall he could see above the couch's backrest and saw Echo napping hard and splayed out with her arms above her head.
The juxtaposition between his penthouse and Alma's apartment always rattled him every time he visited. Together they lived in nice apartments in NYC but never stayed long enough to personalize it. Alma's apartment wasn't a terrible place to live by any means, it was perfect for herself and Echo. Though besides the couches and everything in Echo's nursery, almost everything looked second hand and they most likely were. He had access to one of two of her bank accounts and noticed her monthly statements were average, maybe even less than that sometimes. She probably only used it for groceries and bills. The only big purchase he ever noticed was when she bought her used Jeep. The other bank account she had she most likely used whenever she needed things for Echo to keep him in the dark until she was ready. She never seemed to touch their joint offshore accounts even though she could access them without a hassle or permission.
He just found it odd sometimes but he understood that a seemingly single mother working at a record shop shouldn't live beyond the means of that metric. Compared to Strathburg living she was doing very well in the facade she had built for herself in Seattle. The life Bill had built in New York was simply unfathomable to those back home though. Besides that, he liked where she lived, the sleepy neighborhood looked good and boring and all her neighbors were old and retired women. The landlady lived just on the other side of the wall in the four-apartment building and while she liked to lease to retirees she took a chance on a young mother and her infant child. He knew she lived in a studio before finding this place and he always wondered what that was like.
"Why didn't you call? I was going to pick you up?" Alma said to him.
"I know... I just didn't feel like waiting around anymore after that bullshit delay," he said, turning to pick up his duffle bag he had dropped by the door.
"You only brought one bag?"
"My luggage is in the trunk of the rental. I'll get it later," he took her hand and walked around the couch to admire his sleeping daughter. She looked like she had gotten so much bigger in the weeks he hadn't seen her. "Is she feeling better?" He asked leaning down to touch a short lock of her golden hair.
Echo had a bad cold the week prior that Alma suspected she had gotten from another child from their library visits. She hardly slept to ensure that her daughter wasn't stuffed up with snot, which hindered her breathing in her slumber.
"A lot better," she assured him. "But she's still a little foggy, she's been sleeping hard still like she is right now," Alma remembered telling him she wasn't well over the phone and he sounded a bit mad about it. Not at Alma but at the germ that even dared to make his child ill. "You're here though she'll be back to her normal self," she smiled.
