by Tabby Storm
Metal Hearts
(Josie and Kyle, Book 1)
By Tabby Storm
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
THE END
Chapter 1
Josie Carruthers sat bolt upright in bed. She grabbed her smart phone and checked the time. Panic set in.
“Shit, I’m late!” she yelled to the studio apartment she sublet from her brother Sam, an international banker that moved in with his banker girlfriend downtown.
Josie rushed around the room looking for a clean pair of underwear and a bra. Shoving a brush through her long blonde hair and putting it in a low pony tail, Josie found her undergarments and quickly put them on. Checking the time again as if it could somehow not be 7:24 am, she searched for a decent outfit to wear for her first day as a 5th grade teacher. She had exactly 5 minutes to make herself look presentable enough to impress the parents of the charter school that she had just taken a position with before her bus left.
Quickly, she chose the sweet yellow sundress with eyelet capped sleeves that luckily covered her butterfly tattoo (no need to scare the parents off yet) and black flats. Rummaging through her closet she found a pink ¾ sleeved cardigan to make her look more professional and added some gold hoops to her ears. Slipping into her trusty black flats, she ran for the door.
“Dammit! I can’t be late!” she said to herself as she flew down the four flights of heavily stained wood stairs. As she got to the lobby she saw Marga Agapova entering the building carrying her Shih Tzu, Ted. “Gud mornig Jowsie.”
“Morning, Marga. I’m late!” Running out the front of the apartment she got to the bus stop just in time to see the 43 California about to take off from the curb.
“WAIT!” Josie yelled as loud as she could. Screeching to a stop, the driver pulled into a deep well of water that splashed everywhere, including on Josie’s tanned legs. In too much of a rush to worry about it yet, Josie flashed the bus driver her bus pass and climbed on. As she made her way to the back of the bus where there were a few seats, the bus driver took off causing Josie to lurch forward and land in the lap of a man reading the SF Weekly.
“Erm, sorry,” Josie said as she righted herself.
“No need to be sorry,” said the man, wiping a bit of mud off of his jeans. Josie stood up straight and gasped she noticed the soft brown eyes of the man in front of her. His floppy black hair, vintage leather motorcycle jacket, worn jeans and grin were irresistible.
“Oh, um, thanks. Sorry,” Josie said, flustered. “I’m running late and I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
“Really, it’s okay,” brown eyes said. “No worries. Have a seat.” He motioned to the seat beside him. Josie smiled and squeezed past him to the window seat.
Josie sat down. Brown Eyes looked sideways at her muddy legs. Josie felt heat rising in her cheeks. “The bus hit a puddle and I, uh, got wet.”
“Here,” said the man, and he took out a Kleenex pack from his jacket. He handed it to Josie.
“Thanks,” Josie said, and wiped her muddy legs off as quickly as she could. “Shit,” she whispered.
“Sorry?” smiled the man.
“Oh, I got some on my dress. It’s my first day at a new job, and I don’t want to look messy.”
“They’ll take one look at your smile and never notice the mud.”
Josie unconsciously smiled, her blush making her warm all the way to her hairline. “Thank you.”
They rode in silence for a while. Josie looked at her phone 3 times checking the time. It was 7:40. She was supposed to be at school at 8:00 am for an 8:15 start. She was starting to panic again and closed her eyes. She repeated her mantra in her head that her best friend Maya taught her, “I am enough. I am enough. I am ENOUGH.”
Suddenly Josie felt a hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she opened her eyes and saw Mr. Brown Eyes looking at her.
“You’ll be fine, really. You are enough.”
“Did I say that out loud?” she sighed. “Ugh. I went out for a few beers last night friends and I forgot to set my alarm.”
“My name’s Kyle,” said Brown Eyes. He looked very amused.
“Josie,” she said quietly, suddenly deeply embarrassed about the entire exchange. She looked out the window for a moment and patted her dress straight. Kyle seemed to take the hint and picked up his crumpled SF Weekly and started to read an article about legalized marijuana.
The bus turned on to Divisadero at 7:51. Josie took a sigh of relief and pulled the stop cord. Kyle looked up at her as she rose from her seat to exit the bus, and smiled. “Good luck, Pussycat.”
Josie smiled back. She was used to people joking about Josie and the Pussycats, which was indeed her namesake. As she stepped down the stairs she turned back. “Thanks. And thank you for the Kleenex.”
At 7:59 am Josie climbed the stairs of her new building and remembered why she loved this school so much. There were parents everywhere, helping to usher children from buses, from cars and into the gym for the school’s morning meeting. The school had a definite sense of community and had won a “distinguished school” title the year before. Josie had been teaching 7th grade for four years in Cancun, Mexico, and her Spanish speaking abilities had helped her land this job back in her hometown of San Francisco. The Carson School was known for academic rigor, especially focusing on environmental studies and ocean life conservation, like its namesake. While in Mexico Josie had earned her advanced diving certification and had done a lot of scuba diving on her breaks from school, including volunteering to do clean-up dives. Carson School was a perfect fit.
There were children everywhere. Josie was glad that she had set up her classroom the week before and her curriculum plans were ready to go. She was a bundle of nerves when she opened the door to her new classroom
On her desk was a note she had written herself. “’Remember, be the change you want to see in the world.’” She smiled. “Ok. I’m ready.” She turned and walked down the hall to meet her new 5th graders in the gym.
Chapter 2
“I can’t believe how tired my feet are!” Josie whined over the phone to her friend Maya. “I mean, all I did was walk around the classroom and school today, how do my feet feel like I went to Disneyland today?”
Maya laughed. They had gone to San Francisco State together and had driven down to Disneyland during Spring Break more than once. Maya was a photographer and made great money taking pictures of food for Edible.com, but she dreamed of being the next Dorothea Lange.
“You say this every September,” said Maya. “Maybe I should tape this conversation to replay for you next year.
“Sure,” said Josie, “but I still won’t remember it! There are just too many other school things to remember to keep this detail in my head.”
“Well, besides the feet, how was the first day?” Maya inquired.
“I have 28 kids and 19 of them are boys,” Josie answered. “and it was shockingly chill. I’ll regret that statement tomorrow, having just jinxed myself.”
“Pshaw, it’ll be fine. I’ve never seen a better teacher in action.” She could hear Maya’s smile through the phone.
Josie loved Maya. She was the most supportive friend a girl could ask for. Having been raised by parents that were therapists, Maya had a very calm and stable outlook on things. She also had a naughty streak a mile wide, and could off the rails at a moment’s notice.
Maya did a fake cough. “I’ll be so lonely at Bank Street toni
ght. C’mon, won’t you come with me? Please? I promise Don will be nice.”
Josie couldn’t stand Maya’s boyfriend. He was super show-offy because he’d lived in Germany for a few years and thought he knew everything about beer. It didn’t matter that Josie went to Oregon every year to see her favorite Auntie Rose and enjoyed all her favorite hoppy beers on draft. Don liked Bank Street because they tended to brew German-style beers and he could wax poetic for hours about their IBU’s and malt content. Josie was over it. She hesitated. “I’ll buy the snacks,” Maya said. “And I’ll tell Don no nookie if he argues about beer with you.”
Josie had to laugh. Maya never threatened to withhold sex. “Okay. But promise me I’ll be home by 9. This morning was super stressful and I don’t want to repeat that.
“Deal,” Maya agreed. “I have a big shoot tomorrow, anyhow. Early night it is.”
Josie pulled the string to the light and stood in front of her small mirror. She remembered with a pang how James had given her a hard time for not having a full-length mirror. She just never got around to it and was still rocking the vintage dressing table mirror she’d inherited from her Grandma Ethel and had even taken to Mexico with her for sentimental reasons. She didn’t want to teach in the US after getting her teaching license. She figured she was young and untethered; she spoke Spanish, and should try teaching around the world. She traveled to Mexico to teach, and met awesome people in Cancun. She traveled around Eastern Mexico, and even learned how to prepare some regional dishes. After two years, she met James, her big love and big heartbreak.
James Norton was a surfer and scuba diving instructor that owned a small business teaching tourists how to get certified to dive in the reefs. Josie had fallen hard for him when she signed up for advanced open sea diving lessons. She hadn’t had a partner, so James was her partner in all the classes. They shared breathing apparatus and jokes. While cleaning and checking their gear together they learned a lot about each other’s families and James always made Josie laugh with his silly impressions of celebrities. He shared that his father was his hero and had raised him as a single dad. Josie was touched to hear his reverence for his dad. She loved her parents, but she wasn’t close to hers like James was to his dad. Her parents had instilled adventure in here, for which she was very grateful. They had close family friends in Ensenada, Mexico, and spent every spring break there.
Over the next three years they traveled the Yucatan and Central America diving during Josie’s breaks from school, making love in the sun on the deck of borrowed yachts, eating fruit and letting it drip down their chins. They both got tattoos on their right shoulders. Josie got a rainbow butterfly, James a sea turtle. They were young, in love, had some money and a beautiful place to live. It was bliss. Their bubble broke when James’s dad got sick back in Puget Sound. He had to quickly sell his business and move back to the states. Josie had just signed a contract to work another year at the International School and paid for a year lease on an apartment.
She couldn’t leave.
They tried to make it work from afar, but the toll of caring for his dad on his own was taking a lot out of James. Josie’s heart hurt hearing his voice on the phone when they were able to talk. When James’s dad Robert died after only 4 months, his heart was deeply broken. She flew home for the funeral and he was a shell of himself. He had drifted away from her and was gone. They tried to make it work for a little while, but he was too hurt, and she couldn’t heal him from another country. She desperately loved James. He was the person she saw her future with. She never thought she could see a future without him, until she had to. It was the hardest thing she had ever done. It was like a death, losing him.
Josie was shattered by the loss. It was too hard to live in Cancun thinking of him all the time and not having any family around. She left at the end of the school year and headed back to San Francisco to live with her parents while she looked for a job in town. During that year she had worked as a waitress at a fancy breakfast place on Noe as well as doing as much substitute teaching as she could get. She forced herself to smile at work every day, but some days it was hard just to get out of bed. Some days, she didn’t.
By the time her brother offered her his studio as a sublet she started to feel like some of her torn parts were coming back together again. Maya had been forcing her to go out once a week, sometimes even shoving clothes on her and pushing her out into the street and into a cab. She told Josie “I REFUSE to let you become Jane Eyre. Get your ass out of the house.”
It was such a blessing to have a friend like Maya that made her go out and talk to people, even though sometimes Josie felt kind of exhausted by her. Maya was so busy all the time, always doing something exciting. However, this was precisely what Josie needed right now.
It wasn’t easy to get back into the swing of going out. And tonight she was going to have to listen to Don’s incessant chatter about German beers with his booming voice. Ugh.
“Ok, Maya,” she said to her closet. “This one is for you.”
She pulled on her trusty favorites, a frayed jean skirt, a black t-shirt and a pair of vintage cowboy boots. The sturdy brown leather of the boots was soothing to her. It wasn’t “fancy,” but this outfit always made Josie feel like herself. A country girl raised in the city, a woman of contradictions. She smiled at her reflection in her tiny mirror, pulled the light off and headed for the door.
When she arrived at Bank Street she spotted Maya and Don at a table near the taps. Don was, as usual, arguing with another patron about beer. His blonde hair was spiked on his head and he was wearing those Levi’s that look really beaten up but cost a whole paycheck. Don was also a banker. Josie’s brother Sam had introduced Josie to Don at a Giant’s game earlier that summer. Sam was trying to set Josie up with Don based on their mutual love for beers and the ocean and his ability to impress their parents with his go-getter attitude. Josie knew immediately he was not her type. Maya however, whom Josie had brought along for support, got along so well with Don that they left the game early. As Josie made eye contact with her friend across the brewery, Maya made a ‘shoot me’ sign as Josie walked toward their table. As Josie approached them, Maya jumped up and said “I’m going to the bathroom.” She handed Josie a pint of IPA as Don continued to argue, oblivious to Maya, Josie’s arrival, and the volume of his voice.
“I know, I know. Don’t remind me.” Maya shrugged as she led them to the restroom. “But he is so cute, and he’s a freak in bed. His dick is huge. I’m weak.” She made a pout face at Josie, as if to say, ‘forgive me my bad choices.’ Josie stuck out her tongue at Maya. She wasn’t a prude, but she was much more “vanilla” than Maya. Maya had told her stories of taking photos of sleeping lovers for her “collection” while her recent conquest was asleep. She talked about doing things with men and women that made Josie blush to think about.
“It’s really okay Mayala. I just hope you’re having a good time. He can be such an asshole.”
“Trust me honey, sex is not overrated. If you think it is, we have bigger things to worry about here.”
“Ok, ok, I won’t say another word” Josie giggled, talking with her hands and waving her arms she turned down the hall to the restroom. In one fell swoop she slammed into a leather jacket, and her beer went sloshing in a dramatic arc far above her head. It was a slow-motion nightmare. When her glass slammed to the floor at her feet, the contents of which covering not only the person in the leather jacket, but her cowboy boots and the neon sign on the wall, Josie registered that she was looking at Kyle.
“You’ve got to be kidding.” Josie said.
Chapter 3
“Pardon the prosaic nature of this comment, but we have to stop meeting this way,” Kyle said, smiling and looking right into Josie’s eyes.
Maya started in immediately. “Well, hell lo, I’m Maya,” she cooed, obviously finding Kyle attractive. “How do you know my friend Josie?”
Josie could feel her cheeks burning already as she remembered th
e rushed morning, the mud and landing in his lap on the bus. It was so embarrassing and she didn’t really want to relive it. She loved her sweet Maya, but Maya would naturally have to tease her a little about it. That’s what friends did.
“She lent me a Kleenex on the bus this morning when I spilled coffee in my lap,” Kyle said quickly. He slyly winked at Josie.
Josie gulped. “It was nothing,” she coughed. “Nothing at all.”
A brewery employee had made her way over by now and was asking them if they were okay and had gone for the mop. Maya noticed the awkward silence between Kyle and Josie and said, “Well, don’t mind me; I’m going to dip into the ladies’ room before I pee my pants.”
“I’m so sorry, are you okay?” Josie asked when Maya left. She felt horrible as she saw Kyle standing in a puddle. Kyle was so handsome, it was hard to look directly at him. His hair was flopping in thick wet chunks over his face like Bender in The Breakfast Club and he kept brushing it back. And she had just poured a pint of hoppy beer all over him. She could see some chest hairs glinting wet where he’d stopped buttoning his fraying plaid shirt.
“No matter,” he smiled, “I haven’t had a beer yet, so now I smell like a party and don’t even need any.” However, she could tell that he was worried about his clothes and she felt like such an idiot.
Josie gulped. She really should be thinking about how to help him, not about how his chest looked.
“Did you make it?” Kyle asked.
“Sorry?” Josie stammered. His eyes were so deep and warm.
“The job, did you make it in time?”
“Oh, yes. I got to school in time.”
“School?”
“Urm, yes, I’m a 5th grade bilingual teacher at The Carson School. I teach Spanish Club after school as well.”
“Wow.”
The brewery employee returned and started mopping things up. She offered Kyle a few towels. He started wiping his head and his jacket off.
