“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said, wondering a little uneasily what they were going to say about what had happened.
He shifted awkwardly on his feet, but his gaze was direct. “That was a spontaneous moment that I’ll still be thinking about with pleasure when I’m eighty, but I just want to be completely honest that I don’t know what it means,” he began.
She nodded, giving him points for directness. “Okay. I don’t either,” she said truthfully.
“Misty and I definitely seem headed for the final break but we’re not quite there yet, and I want to be fair to both of you,” he said, wanting to explain but not sure if he was doing it correctly.
Callie felt a brief pang at his statement, although she didn’t know why. She had known all along Misty was in the picture and you couldn’t wish somebody’s girlfriend out of existence even though you really wanted to.
“I know,” Callie said. “We don’t have to make anything out of it,” she continued. “We can just let it be what it was and not worry about it.”
Ryan smiled, looking more at ease. “You really are one in a million,” he said sincerely.
“You’re not exactly your average Joe yourself,” she said wryly.
He grinned and from the glint in his eye she thought he was going to be unable to resist making a smart comment about his recently demonstrated and very above average skills, but he didn’t.
“So, we’re good then?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yeah.”
“All right, I’ll let you get back to your ironing then.” He turned and headed back toward the living room.
Callie thought about what had happened and their exchange as she ironed her favorite sundress for her date that night. By the time she was done, she decided she really didn’t know what it all meant and she wasn’t going to worry about it. She had a date tonight and had had the best orgasm she could remember in a long time that afternoon. Despite its rocky start, the weekend was turning out pretty well. She was just going to enjoy that, she thought with determination, and let the future take care of itself.
****
An hour later, she had showered, fixed her hair, and put on her makeup twice. The first makeup attempt had been marred by her regrettable impulse to try for the latest look by outlining her eyes with white glittery eye shadow. In Style magazine, the look had seemed sexy and relatively easy to accomplish. In reality it was nothing of the kind. She had however, achieved a kind of white on black raccoon effect. Unless John was a punk rocker, she didn’t think he would go for it, and somehow it didn’t quite go with her sundress either she thought sarcastically.
She had quickly re-washed her face and gone through her normal process the second go round. She was surprised at the nervous flutters in her stomach over how she looked. In a normal dating situation, the guy would have asked her out after meeting her and she would have been fairly confident that he liked what he saw or he wouldn’t have asked her out. It was kind of nerve-wracking to think that her date might be letdown when she opened the door tonight.
She took one last look in the mirror at her turquoise blue sundress. Her hair wasn’t flat--her makeup was fine. The color of the sundress accentuated her blue eyes. All systems were go, she told herself firmly. She got her cashmere cardigan from her bedroom in case the spring evening was chilly, and then went into the living room to wait for her date to arrive. The look on Ryan’s face, seconded by the one on Rick’s, when she walked into the room did more to soothe her nerves than anything else could have.
“You look fantastic,” Ryan said with warm approval. “There’s still time to save your evening by cancelling with this guy and hanging out with us,” he added sincerely, but with a glint in his eyes.
“Yeah,” Rick seconded enthusiastically. “Ditch the boyfriend and we’ll all go out for some drinks.”
Callie laughed, flattered. “He’s not my boyfriend, but I can’t ditch him all the same.”
Ryan gave Rick a look. “She’s going on a blind date.”
Rick screwed his face into an exaggerated grimace. “No, no, no,” he moaned theatrically.
“Yes, yes, yes,” said Callie with exasperation. “And Ryan’s already given me an earful, by the way, so I don’t need to hear again all the reasons why it’s a bad idea.”
Rick pursed his lips, looking like he was dying to say something while Ryan smiled angelically at her.
“I’m not saying anything,” he said self-righteously.
The doorbell rang and she shot a darkling look at both Ryan and Rick as she went to open it. John, her blind date stood outside, and she smiled warmly at him determined to give this date every chance.
“Hi, you must be John,” she said.
He smiled a little stiffly, she thought, but hey, he was probably nervous.
“Yes, it’s me,” he replied and awkwardly held out his hand.
She shook it as her hopes of a surprisingly relaxed and fun evening began to fade. This guy did not look like the relaxed type. Everything about him was buttoned down, from his placidly blank expression to his regulation khakis and buttoned down, tucked in shirt. She gave herself a little pep talk reminding herself that people can surprise you and that there’s nothing to be gained from being judgmental.
“Great, well it’s nice to meet you,” she said and winced inwardly at her own chipper banality. “Are we ready to go?”
“Sure,” he said and she grabbed her purse, shot Ryan a smile that she hoped was more carefree and confident than it felt, said “have a good evening” and marched out to enjoy the experience of meeting a new person.
Chapter Five
Four hours later, she’d had about all she could take of the joy of meeting a new person. John had been only too willing to open up to her during their dinner at a trendy, expensively stuffy restaurant in the downtown district. His conversation had ranged from the mundane to the deeply personal and back again in some of the heaviest date conversation she had ever experienced. He had told her an alarming number of stories about women friends who had been stalked or attacked, explained incoherently the reasons why he had broken away from a scarily conservative religious upbringing and relayed an endless litany of stories from when he lived in the dorms in college.
She didn’t know what was worse, that he was still telling dorm stories or that he obviously prided himself on his ability to calmly and firmly put his foot down when those crazy kids had gotten out of control. He was undoubtedly a perpetually aged person, the type of person who was the same at twenty-four as he would be at fifty-four. A numbness had crept over her after that first hour of listening to him talk, and she wished with all her heart they had gone to a bar where she could have at least gotten drunk enough not to care what the conversation was. Unfortunately, they were at a coffee house rounding out the evening and it was all she could do to keep a pleasant, interested look on her face.
“When I crawled into the bushes after the dog, you could see it had been abused and was terrified,” John was saying, as if one more, sad story would put the nail in the coffin on convincing her what a knight in shining armor he was.
He shook his head. “You just wouldn’t believe what people will do to a defenseless animal. The poor thing only had three legs and one of its eyes was missing.”
He shook his head again and Callie knew she was an evil, evil person because she felt nothing at his story. Nothing at all. Not the slightest bit of sadness for a poor maimed dog. In fact, her cheeks hurt from keeping a sympathetic look pasted to her face.
It was warm and cozy in the coffee house and they were tucked into a back booth where the dim lighting created a feel of intimacy. It should have been romantic. It wasn’t. In fact, she realized she was slightly repulsed at the idea of him touching her. She hadn’t thought he was unattractive when he arrived to pick her up this evening. But after an evening in his company everything about him seemed to repel her, from his short stubby fingers, to his slightly squat body, to h
is placid face that never showed any emotion. She’d never seen someone with a more limited range of facial expressions. He could be the poster boy for Botox. She should have listened to Ryan; going out with someone she’d never met had been a mistake.
“Wouldn’t you agree?” he questioned, and she realized she had absolutely no idea what he had just said.
“Yes, of course,” she said remotely, and then stood up and picked up her sweater.
“Well, it’s getting late, don’t you think?” she asked. Tact be damned. It was time for the evening to be over.
He scowled and a dark looked passed over his face as he set his coffee aside with unnatural deliberateness. Great, she thought, he probably had rage control issues and was about to go off like a time bomb. She eyed him warily, but he stood up without comment and they headed toward the door. She noticed at the car that he didn’t come around to open the door for her as he had earlier in the evening. Just got in and petulantly tugged his door shut before she had even gotten hers completely open.
Good riddance, she thought grimly. She had never liked a guy to make a big production out of opening her car door. Walking into a restaurant, opening the door was a nice gesture, and even occasionally opening the car door if they both approached it from the passenger side was nice, but walking around the car to open the door every time while she waited beside it had always felt awkward to her.
She watched as he flipped on the lights and stabbed the radio on with an angry economy of motion. “It’s a good thing I’m an easy-going guy,” he said nastily as he turned the car onto the street and punched the accelerator down.
Callie didn’t say anything to this; alarm was battling with anger and anger was starting to get the upper hand.
“So what, now that you’ve gotten me to shell out a hundred dollars for your entertainment tonight, you’re too good to even acknowledge that I’m talking to you?” he asked, his voice jeering.
“I’m sorry,” Callie said. “I didn’t think a response was called for.”
Now alarm was back on top, and she wondered if the evening was going to take a bizarre, dangerous twist. He suddenly hit the brakes and pulled the car over to the curb.
“I’m not going to drive another foot until I have an apology from you.”
Callie felt adrenaline surge through her as she took the unexpected opportunity he had presented. She had her seatbelt off and the door open in a flash, and was up and out. The wind was cold and welcome as she slammed the door shut. He glared furiously at her, and then took off with a squeal of tires. Callie took a few deep calming breaths and was surprised to find her hand shaking a little as she dug her phone out of her purse. That had been unexpectedly scary.
The mental battle over calling Ryan was quickly over. He was going to gloat, but who else was she going to call shortly before midnight after her freaky, asshole date abandoned her without a way home. She wasn’t in a bad section of town but she needed a way home and calling a cab would involve finding a bar or convenience store that was open so she could look up a number.
“Hey,” she said, when he answered the phone.
“What’s up?” he asked, sounding distracted.
She heard Misty’s voice in the background and felt her misery level rise a little more at the unexpected concern that she was interrupting something between the two of them again. He hadn’t mentioned Misty coming over earlier. She had not thought about the real possibility that Misty would want to get together to talk some more after her and Ryan’s not so great exchange this morning. She quickly revised her plan.
“Could you call me a cab and tell them to come to the corner of 4th and Market to pick me up?” she asked. She sensed his attention focusing.
“Why, where’s your date?” he asked sharply.
“Words were exchanged, and I exited his car rather precipitously,” she muttered and was chagrined to feel tears welling up. “Look, I’ll tell you about it later. Just call me the cab,” she said, struggling to keep from sounding as close to tears as she was.
“I’ll be down to get you in fifteen minutes,” he said and since that’s what she’d wanted all along, she couldn’t bring herself to put up even a token resistance.
“Okay, see you then.”
“If I see the little prick on the way, I’ll be sure and run him off the road,” he said with half serious menace and she laughed, feeling a little better.
He was true to his word, arriving in just under fifteen minutes, and Callie felt a rush of gratitude that she could count on him when she really needed to. She opened the door of his Camry and slid into the seat. His eyes scanned her from head to toe, and when she smiled at him sheepishly, he visibly relaxed and eased the car back onto the street.
“So,” he said, the word a clear invitation or demand depending on how you interpreted it.
“He was an asshole,” she muttered. She cleared her throat. “He got pissed off because I cut him off mid-story about a maimed dog he found, and it looked for a minute like he might go postal on me, so when he stopped the car and demanded an apology, I jumped out.”
“A maimed dog?” Ryan asked incredulously.
“Yes,” Callie said sharply. “A dog with one eye and three legs. That was after the story about the woman friend who was stalked, and the story about the girl he knew who committed suicide because she’d been sexually abused as a child.”
She unexpectedly felt tears well in her eyes and struggled to fight them back.
“It was terrible,” she said, her voice sounding tremulous and pathetic even to her own ears.
“I told you, you were an idiot to go out with that guy,” he said with relish, and Callie felt the tears recede as she experienced an overwhelming urge to hurt him.
“After the evening I’ve had, I’ve got a lot of pent up emotions just clamoring to be released,” she said silkily. “Are you sure you want to give me a hard time right now?”
He gave her an assessing glance as he maneuvered into the spot next to her car in the driveway. “I’m just saying…”
“Well don’t,” she ground out and got out of the car.
She had started toward the door but he caught her arm, pulling her into his arms. She was stiff for a second then relaxed into the hug, her head fitting into the curve of his shoulder as if it was made for that purpose.
“You’re okay?” he asked and squeezed her gently. One hand stroked her hair for a second before sliding up and down her back. She nodded but didn’t move.
She expected him to pull away after a second but he didn’t, just stood there as if he was willing to hold her all night, and she felt another little piece of her heart surrender to the inevitable. When she finally pulled back and looked up into his face, he dropped a soft undemanding kiss on her lips.
“Better?” he asked, and she nodded.
“Good. Time to hit the bed then,” he said.
“Each to our own, I mean,” he added as she froze momentarily. She nodded, squelching the spurt of disappointment she felt as they walked up the front stairs and he let her in. They paused in the hallway to the bedrooms.
“Thanks Ryan,” she said solemnly, and his cocky grin gleamed in the darkened hall.
“All in a day’s service for us white knights.” He winked.
She rolled her eyes and his grin widened. He disappeared into his room and she heard the thud of him kicking off his shoes as she made her way into her room. She wanted to stay awake for a while, savor the way the evening had ended with Ryan and try and make heads or tails out of her feelings for him. But she was too exhausted and fell asleep thinking about the warm feeling of his lips on hers.
****
As he got ready for bed, Ryan felt uncharitably happy that Callie’s blind date had turned out to be a disaster. His heart had stopped beating for a second when she told him what happened. The guy sounded like a nutcase, and he was more than glad that Callie had not been hurt. With every hour that went by, he was more convinced that she should be with him, t
hat she belonged with him.
Misty had called earlier and wanted to come over and talk, and he had known he owed her that. They had discussed their relationship, and he had told her that it just wasn’t going to work out. She had been understandably upset but had been coolly contained about it, and when Callie had called, they had parted ways on decent terms. She was a good person, if a little driven at times, and he had enjoyed dating her.
She just wasn’t Callie.
He thought back to that afternoon and felt himself getting erect again at the image of Callie coming apart in his living room chair. She was so damn sexy and he didn’t think she even knew it. He should have just gone outside and told Rick to go away but at that moment his mind had been the least functioning part of his body. Not being able to sink inside her had been the most frustrating thing he had ever experienced. He had been thinking that he would see if she was interested in finishing what they had started when she got home. She’d been so obviously upset and wound up over her date from hell, though, that it clearly hadn’t been the right time. Tomorrow would be soon enough.
Chapter Six
The next day at work passed in a blur for Callie. Sitting at her desk staring sightlessly at the design she was working on for a company selling copier supplies, Callie felt ridiculously optimistic and happy. Nothing had really changed between her and Ryan, she reminded herself. He hadn’t asked her out or said he wanted to be with her. In fact he’d said he needed to figure out how to be fair to both her and Misty, which was the antithesis of saying he wanted to be with her.
Still, their little interlude yesterday afternoon had been so unexpected and fun, and so extremely pleasurable, that she couldn’t stop smiling. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d done something that uninhibited with a really hot guy. Then he’d been so sweet last night, rescuing her from the blind date from hell. Even now, just thinking about how good it had felt to be held by him made her feel all gooey inside.
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