Unknown: Hi, Claire!! It’s Poppy. I’m working today, but I wanted you to have my number. Check in if you need anything. I’ve got Phantom on the hunt for a baby bathtub for Aurora. If you need anything today, let the girls at the compound know, and they’ll take care of you. Talk soon.
I’m trying to read the next text when there is a light knock at the door. “Claire, it’s Stella. I have coffee.”
I look down at the phone and see that Stella did text ten minutes ago that she was coming by with coffee.
“One second,” I call out. I run into the bathroom, put back on the same clothes I wore yesterday, take my hair out of the towel and finger-comb it, and then I unlock the door and open it a crack.
The girl who went shopping with Savage is standing at the door with a huge grin and a travel mug in her hand. “Tell me you drink coffee,” she says dramatically.
I nod.
“Cream? Sugar? Nothing? I’ll run back to the kitchen for whatever you want.”
I shake my head. “You didn’t have to do that.”
She waves a hand at me. “No bother, but this one is mine. I need to know how you take yours if you don’t want to come out and make it yourself.”
Just then, little Aurora stands up in her crib and grips the wooden bars with her chubby fingers.
“Holyyyy shit.” Stella shakes her head. “I don’t havea maternal bone in my body, but that baby is gorgeous. Look at you.” She lowers her face and wiggles her fingers at my daughter. “Those eyes. They are crystal blue.” She looks at me and crosses her arms over her chest. She grimaces and then continues. “I want to kick the ass of whoever did that to your eye, but I’m going to leave the violence to the boys. Now, where’d your daughter get those blue eyes?”
“My mom,” I say, and I can’t stop the smile that comes. “My mom’s were the exact same shade of blue.”
Stella frowns and flips her hair over her bare shoulder. Her red tank top is bedazzled with glittery stones, and the color really shows off her dark tan. “Were? Ugh, I’m sorry. How long has your mom been gone?”
I choke back my answer when Stella holds up a hand. “Don’t answer that. I’m prying in your business and making an ass of myself, when I’m here trying to make friends.” She stands up to her full height. “I’ll be back in five minutes with coffee, and if you don’t tell me how you take it, I’m going to bring a little of everything. Are you a breakfast person? We’ve got fruit, bagels. Any basic shit you want, we probably have.”
My head is spinning with how fast Stella is talking and all the options she’s throwing my way.
Stella doesn’t wait for an answer. She drops her coffee on my coffee table and sweeps toward the door.
She heads down the hallway, and I can hear the clacking of her high-heel shoes as she walks. Stella is pretty, in a very done-up way. Long nails, fancypedicure, short shorts, but she seems as genuine as they come.
I’m still rooted to my spot, thinking about all the things happening around me and to me, when Stella arrives back, knocks lightly, and then lets herself in. I realize immediately that I didn’t lock the door behind her.
Stella chatters on while I drink the coffee she brought and eat a banana—feeding some of it, along with baby oatmeal, to Aurora. Then I pack a few diapers in one of the plastic bags from yesterday.
“Oh shit.” Stella frowns.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my stomach sinking. “Did I do something wrong?”
Stella cocks her head. “Baby, no. You’re perfect. You don’t have a purse, a diaper bag. Nothing. Do you have a wallet or ID?”
I nod. I had my ID in the back pocket of the shorts I wore yesterday. It’s sitting on the bedside table beside the phone Savage got me.
“All right, then. You ready to go?” She points to the closet, where some shoes are lined up. “Those are mine, and I swear, baby, I do not have feet cooties. We’ll get you a whole new wardrobe today.”
I slide my feet into a pair of tennis shoes that are a little big, but they’ll work. Then I pick up Aurora. “Honestly, it’s fine. Thank you so much for doing all this.”
We’re about to head out when I suddenly stop. I reach for Stella’s arm. Her skin is so soft, and she’s so… Idon’t know. Beautiful in her own way. She has an ease about her that I recognize. It’s how I used to be. Young, free. Unbroken. I envy that for myself, but it brings me a lot of peace to see that a woman who’s here all the time isn’t miserable. Her easy manner gives me the guts to ask her the question that’s been burning in my brain since yesterday.
“Yeah, babe?” she asks, turning to me.
“I don’t understand,” I tell her softly. “Why is he doing this? You, Poppy? Why are any of you doing all this for me?”
Stella blows out a big breath through glossy bright-red lips. “Right,” she says. “Yeah, of course. I get what you’re asking.” Then she looks me in the eye. “Most people with great lives and stable families don’t join our club,” she says quietly. “Some do, I’m sure, but none that I know.” She looks down at her nails and grimaces. “Every man out there, every woman who hangs around here… We all came from something bad or worse than bad. We’re here because this is a place where other people who come from equally effed-up shit can get away from it all. Find something good in all the anger and the violence and the poverty.”
She swallows and is quiet for a second.
