A New Kind of Bliss

by Bettye Griffin

  “She took a bus ride to Atlantic City. She’ll probably be home in an hour.” When I told Mom that Aaron would probably be there when she returned, she’d broken into a wide grin. Although she hadn’t come out and said anything, I knew she’d been worried about my staying out so late last night with a school chum I dodged identifying by confidently saying, “You don’t know her.” Mom knew the great majority of my friends, and I thought she might have figured out I was with another man. Fortunately, I caught myself before I said, “You don’t know him.”

  “Did you have fun last night?” Aaron asked as we munched on the steak-and-cheese calzone pie he’d brought. He’d also brought some black-and-white cookies, a New York classic that I’d never been able to find in the Midwest, because he knew I loved them.

  His thoughtfulness made me feel all the more guilty about last night with Teddy.

  “Oh, yes. I’ve got close friends in Indy, but I’m enjoying getting reacquainted with the people I grew up with. I didn’t get home until nearly ten.”

  “I tried to call you. I’d hoped I’d be able to reach you, even though you said you probably wouldn’t be in until late. I guess I just wanted to hear your voice.” He nibbled at my neck. “Could it be I’m getting accustomed to having you in my life?”

  “Would that be such a bad thing if you were? Especially if I feel the same way.”

  Aaron held my gaze for a few moments before giving me one of his delicious kisses. The man could teach a course on how to kiss. Even now, with me totally unable to act upon it, he made my pulse race. I felt his hand slip beneath my T-shirt and settle on my breast, gently squeezing and teasing my already hardened nipple.

  My breathing became audible, and my eyes remained closed after the kiss ended. I had to find a way to make this work. Aaron was so perfect for me. This could be the beginning of a whole new life for me.

  Chapter 15

  Aaron told me that Beverline and the kids were back at home for the weekend, because Kirsten was attending a classmate’s quinceanera. He asked me to join them in seeing her off to her first dress-up affair. I didn’t want to, but remorse for sleeping with Teddy got the better of me, and I accepted. I was still unsure about the wisdom of spending an evening around people who hadn’t exactly welcomed me, even if one daughter wouldn’t be present.

  Then again, maybe things would be different, now that Aaron’s mother-in-law and daughters had had time to adjust to the idea of there being a woman in his life.

  As it turned out, I should have stuck to my original hunch. Beverline seemed shocked to see me, and Kirsten’s sunny smile became a scowl when she saw me standing by as Aaron filmed her descending the stairs, looking lovely in an orange gown with spaghetti straps that made her skin look beautifully bronzed.

  Billy greeted me cheerfully, and Arden with polite caution. Beverline managed to convey that I’d come at an inappropriate time. “Emily, I hope you won’t be bored, since we’re all so preoccupied with my granddaughter. This is her first grown-up party, and our whole family is excited about it.”

  What she didn’t say, but I just knew she was thinking, was, And only the family should be here tonight.

  Ignoring the slight, I gave her a hundred-watt smile. “I think it’s wonderful. I remember my first dress-up party.”

  Kirsten looked at me, obviously startled. “You went to a quinceanera?”

  “No. It was my prom, so I was a little older than you are now. But I had a beautiful dress, and I still felt like a princess out of a fairy tale.”

  “Kirsten has to be home by midnight,” Arden said with a giggle. “Or else she’ll turn into a pumpkin.”

  “You look real pretty, Kirsten,” Billy said, sounding awe-struck in the way only kid brothers can.

  “Yes, you do,” Beverline added as Kirsten thanked her brother with a warm hug. “Although I do think that fifteen is a little young to be going to a formal party,” she fretted. “In my day it was put off until sixteen.”

  “It’s not your day anymore, Beverline. It’s Kirsten’s,” Aaron pointed out.

  Her face took on a pinched look. “Thank you for pointing that out,” she said in a tone as dry as hay.

  “It’s the truth, Beverline,” he said gently. “Your day, and mine as well, have passed.”

  She gave him a meaningful stare, then moved her eyes to me for a few moments, then back to his, as if to say, If your day has passed, then what’s she doing here?

  He ignored her. “Kirsten, walk into the living room and stop in front of Mom’s picture.”

  Aaron looked just like a movie director as he followed Kirsten with his video camera.

  As Kirsten stood in front of that large painting of her late mother that continued to give me an uneasy feeling, I was struck by the strong resemblance between the two. I felt a little teary eyed when the teen smiled at the camera her father held, then spontaneously turned to blow a kiss toward her mother’s likeness. Then, in an instant, she crumpled. Aaron quickly put the camera down and ran to embrace his daughter, reaching her a few steps before Beverline. “It’s all right, sweetheart,” he said as she fought back tears. “Don’t cry. Mom would want you to be happy tonight.”

  Suddenly feeling like an intruder, I discreetly slipped into the foyer and sat in a wing chair. Perhaps Beverline had been right and tonight should have been just for their family.

  But surely if Aaron hadn’t wanted me to be here he wouldn’t have invited me.

  I tried to settle my discomfort by studying my surroundings. There was enough room in this white-tiled foyer to hold a dance, like in all those old movies Mom used to watch. The ornate, large, painted Bombay chest that my chair and its twin flanked must have set Aaron back two or three grand. My eyes went to the gently curving staircase, which probably had twenty steps, due to the high ceilings on the first floor.

  I wasn’t in the foyer for long. Aaron soon came looking for me. “I’m sorry about that, Emily.”

  “Nothing to apologize for. I just felt I shouldn’t be witnessing such a personal moment between father and daughter, so I came in here. Is Kirsten better now?”

  “Yes, she’s fine. She teared up a little, but she didn’t break down. Her ride will be here any moment. I want to film her and her friends driving off, and then I thought we’d order some Chinese food. Billy wants to bowl downstairs later, so how about you and Arden teaming up against him and me?”

  I looked down at my brown leather Earth Shoe sandals. “I don’t have bowling shoes.”

  “You don’t need them. I happen to be a very close friend of the lane owner.” He winked as he helped me up, a sight so sexy my knees almost gave out. “Come on. Let’s go back. I want to take some still photos.”

  Aaron held my hand as we returned to the living room, a fact that wasn’t lost on Beverline, who openly stared at our clasped hands.

  My back normally went up when people tried to make me uncomfortable, but this time my opposition was winning. I’d seen the emotion on Beverline’s face as she’d watched her granddaughter posing under the painting of her deceased mother. For a moment she, too, looked as if she were about to cry. I’d known all along about why she’d moved in with Aaron and the kids, but suddenly her grief had a face. Her daughter had died tragically young, leaving behind three children who needed a mother. Kirsten was trying to cope with her mother’s permanent absence during an important event in her young life. A loving grandmother was a wonderful thing…but there was no one quite like mom.

  I thought of my own mother. Lord knew that Ruby Yancy could try my patience at times, but she’d always been there in the audience beside my father at school functions and dance recitals, applauding wildly whether I had a featured part or not. She’d been at all my graduations, even the one from fifth grade. She’d taken me shopping for new school clothes and shoes at the beginning of each school year. She’d helped me pick out a prom dress and, later, my wedding gown. Kirsten and Arden, despite having all the advantages money brought, would have to gr
ow up without that.

  That had to be tough.

  Still, I couldn’t let Beverline make me feel like I had no business in the house. I squared my shoulders and said, “Aaron, why don’t I take some pictures with you in them?”

  He handed me his digital camera, and I took various shots of him with Kirsten and then a few that included Arden and Billy as well.

  Kirsten was riding with five other girls in a seven-passenger minivan, courtesy of someone’s parents. I hung back, not sure if Aaron wanted the couple who were driving to know he’d rejoined the dating world, but he gestured for me to come out and casually introduced me to Kirsten’s classmate’s parents. If they were surprised to see a woman with Aaron, they kept it under wraps.

  Aaron draped an arm around me as Kirsten joined her friends in the backseat. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?” he said to me proudly.

  “She certainly is.”

  “Diana would be so proud. Kirsten’s the spitting image of her, you know.” He sucked in his breath. “I’m sorry, Emily. I guess that was a thoughtless thing to say.”

  “It’s all right. I think I understand.”

  He moved his hand down to squeeze mine while waving good-bye to Kirsten as the van took off. When we broke apart to go inside, there was Beverline glaring at me before she went inside ahead of us, letting the front door close.

  I was surprised she didn’t lock it.

  I tried not to look envious of the couple who sat across from Aaron and me.

  Dr. Elias Ansara continually whispered sweet nothings into the ear of his companion, another attractive blonde, this one named Kara.

  When Kara excused herself from the table to go to the ladies’ room, I asked Elias, “So what happened to Melissa?”

  He winked. “She got tired of me, I guess.”

  “Don’t believe it, Emily,” Aaron said with a laugh, his warm palm resting easily on the bare skin of my shoulder. “The reality is, I’ve yet to see Elias go out with the same woman twice. He loves ’em and leaves ’em.”

  “Don’t be lyin’ on me, Aaron. Emily will think I’m some kind of lothario,” Elias said in an unconvincing manner I found captivating.

  “I can see you’re all broken up about it,” I said with amusement. “Took you forever to find someone new.”

  “What can I say, darling? I’ve always believed that the best way to get over someone is to get under someone.”

  That broke us up. I’d learned that Elias was probably Aaron’s closest friend. I found it fascinating to be in the company of a man who oozed sex appeal, but it also made me feel a little sad to think of my own predicament. I felt pretty damn sure there was no boring sex going on in Elias’s bedroom. Get under someone, he’d said. I could picture some blonde riding him like she was at the rodeo. Not like my missionary man, who always had to be on top.

  Aaron had been especially attentive tonight. His conservative displays of affection toward me—squeezing my shoulder, holding my hand, even giving me a quick kiss—in the restaurant made me feel terribly guilty. It had been just over a week since I’d slept with Teddy.

  This week there’d be no reprieve, and I felt like someone had taken my nerves and shaken them like an improperly mixed martini. Teddy had stopped by the Norman practice several times after our encounter and tried to schedule another one.

  “I can’t,” I’d told him when he last dropped by. “My friend and I are trying to patch things up.”

  He hadn’t been convinced. “Come on, Emily, there’s no boyfriend. You’re putting me off, for some reason.”

  “I never said he was a boyfriend,” I’d clarified. “He’s a friend I’ve been seeing romantically here and there.”

  “Yeah, and all this happened in just a few weeks. You haven’t been in Euliss long enough to develop a relationship that’s already hit the skids. If a couple has problems that early on in a relationship, y’all would have just called it quits.”

  He had a point, I realized with annoyance. Then I’d decided to capitalize on it. “Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe it happened too fast.”

  Teddy had flashed his most irresistible smile. “What’re you doing Wednesday?”

  “No, Teddy.”

  I couldn’t say I regretted having slept with him. I just had to prove to myself that sex was every bit as exciting as I’d remembered and that I was right to feel cheated. Still, one time was all it took for me to know that. I wasn’t about to do it again.

  I really wanted to make it work with Aaron.

  “Oh, my God,” I moaned into Teddy’s mouth. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

  “Come on, baby. Let’s get it on.”

  I felt powerless to resist. I only came here to tell Teddy I couldn’t see him anymore. I’d finally gotten him to stop his visits to the office, but then he started calling my cell phone. He insisted I have a drink with him before I left. I wondered if he’d slipped something in it, because the next thing I knew we were kissing, my shirt was pushed up to my collarbone, and my breasts were exposed.

  He yanked my arm, pulling me toward the bedroom, tearing off his shirt with his other hand.

  Completely nude, I pulled back the sheets and lay down, and once he stepped out of his jeans he dove between my legs. I wiggled my hips toward his face while he reached up with one hand to squeeze my breast. My heart was thumping with pleasure and anticipation.

  Teddy moved his body up the length of the bed, his leg brushing mine, and rummaged around in the drawer of his nightstand.

  “Uh-oh.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m out of condoms.”

  I groaned. “Now you tell me.” Nothing kills passion faster than those four dreaded words I’m out of condoms.

  “You don’t happen to have any on you, do you?”

  “No.” I’d never seen the point in buying condoms “just in case.” Every man likes his own special brand. Me buying condoms was kind of like a man picking out a box of tampons for me.

  “Don’t panic. We can go to the store; they’re still open.”

  “It’s ten to ten, Teddy.”

  “Then we’d better hurry the hell up if we don’t want to go across town.” No merchants stayed open around the clock on this side of town; you had to go to the white section if you wanted a Tylenol at midnight.

  Never before had two people put their clothes on so fast. I had no time to do anything to my hair, including look at it. I imagined that after the combination of my stretching out on the bed and Teddy messing with it, it must have resembled one of those strawlike witch-hair wigs they sell at Halloween. I pulled my brush out of my purse as we rode down to the lobby in the elevator and wished I had a coated rubber band on me.

  Once outside, we raced to his car, and Teddy gunned up the hill. The steel curtain in front of the store was partially pulled down, but the store was still open. From the haphazard way a car was parked in front of ours, Hardy’s had at least one customer.

  “I’ll wait here,” I said. The mom-and-pop grocery store was located on Burns Boulevard, a major thoroughfare just a few blocks away from my mother’s place, not that she’d be driving anywhere after dark. But there were plenty of other folks driving down the street, and while I couldn’t say I was exactly hiding from the public, nor did I want to flaunt the fact that I was out with Teddy.

  Now that we’d managed to make it to the store before it closed, I was able to chuckle at the silliness of it all. This kind of thing hadn’t happened to me in years, and I thought those days were behind me.

  I glanced in the sideview mirror on the outside of the passenger seat just as Teddy emerged, talking to a woman who’d also been inside, probably the owner of the car in front of us. They stood outside for a minute, while the store owner pulled down the steel curtain and disappeared inside.

  My jaw dropped when I realized the woman talking to Teddy wasn’t just someone he knew from the neighborhood, but someone we both knew.


  Tanis.

  What in heaven’s name was she doing down in Euliss at ten o’clock at night?

  My head darted about, as I tried to think how I could make myself invisible. Throwing myself flat across the bucket seat wouldn’t work; no way could I wedge my body in that tiny space between the gear and CD storage box. Besides, Tanis had to walk past Teddy’s car to get to her own and would surely notice me stretched out. Damn. Why couldn’t Teddy have parked in front of her?

  I had nowhere to hide. How could I possibly explain being out with Teddy at this hour? She might even have seen him purchasing the condoms!

  My ass was toast.

  They started moving toward me, and I did the only thing I could. I turned my body away from the window and scrunched forward, pretending to be adjusting the radio. Teddy knew that Tanis and I knew each other, of course, but I felt fairly positive he wouldn’t feel it necessary to point out to her that I was his passenger. He knew discretion was the name of the game.

  With one hand I quickly gathered up my hair and pushed it over my left shoulder. A lot of women had long hair, but the less Tanis saw of it, the better. I wanted to be as anonymous as possible. I wished to God I had thought to grab the baseball cap Teddy kept on a table near his apartment door; I could have stuffed my hair inside it.

  The driver’s door opened, and I heard Teddy’s voice. “Good seeing you, Tanis. I hope your father feels better.”

  “Good to see you, too, Teddy. And thanks.”

  My God, her voice sounded like it came from barely a foot away from where I sat. Did I imagine it, or did she linger a few seconds before moving on?

  I didn’t dare look up for confirmation when I sensed she had finally moved on. I might have been wrong and looked dead at her.

  “Okay, you can straighten up now,” Teddy said as he made a right turn onto Hillside Avenue. “She went straight.”

  I sighed as I straightened. “Well, that was a close one. The last thing I need is Tanis Montgomery in my business.”