I pulled into the parking garage of my apartment before Kim said anything more. When I parked, she looked over at me and asked, “Where are we?”
“This is my apartment. Actually I own the building. I have a place I’d like for you to stay. It’s with a friend of mine and she’ll take really good care of you.” We got out of the truck and stepped into the elevator.
“Why can’t I stay at the place I was at?” she asked.
“I’d really like for you to be some place a bit safer. Nobody knows about where I want to take you. Also, my friend is an ER nurse and she’d like to talk to you.” The last statement was a bit of a lie, but I knew that once Sharon found out about Kim’s rape, she would definitely want to talk to her.
“Why are we here, then?” Kim asked with some suspicion. The elevator opened and we were standing in my lobby.
I had to smile, “I need to chat with my friend first. We’re having some issues and—”
Kim asked, “Is she your girlfriend?”
“Yes… and no.” I laughed nervously. “I mean… well, we do love each other but when we’re together for too long we seem to end up fighting.”
Kim stared straight ahead. “My God, can I relate to that. It seemed like Mom and Dad would be just fine for about three days, and then they would start to fight about everything. The stupidest thing would set them off. It drove me frickin crazy.”
I explained to Kim, “Well, I need to go and talk to Sharon about you. I know she’ll want you to be with her, but I need to discuss it with her first.”
“I take it you two used to live together and now you don’t?” I agreed. “And when you broke up, you didn’t talk things over, you just moved out, like a typical male.”
I held up one finger. “Just to keep the record straight, Kim, she moved out on me. I own the place where she lives, but Sharon moved out.”
“Whatever…” God I hate that saying. I hate to sound like an old grump, but I absolutely hate it when kids say, “Whatever!” Like I said, I hate that word, but it seems to be part of today’s young people’s vocabulary.
I know, get used to it old man!
I said, “I’m going to leave you here. I’ll leave Beanie with you if you want?” Kim shook her head no. I continued, “I’m asking you not to leave. Please stay here and I’ll be back for you. There’s some food in the fridge and drinks, too. Help yourself. Can you stay here alone? Will you be okay?” Kim agreed. I wrote my cell number on a piece of paper and gave it to her. “Call me if you have any problems.”
I took her to the front room and then showed her around. Kim really liked the view over the lake and up the canal. “I’ll be fine here,” she assured me. “Go ahead. I’ll be okay.
Chapter 9
SHARON
I decided to leave Beanie in the truck since the last thing I needed was any sort of distraction during this visit with Sharon. I’ve always joked about the four words that strike terror in a man’s heart, “we need to talk.” But, to be fair, I think it goes both ways. When a guy says those words, I suppose a woman is just as frightened as we are when we hear them.
Anyway, not only was this a talk I dreaded, but somewhere along the line I also needed to try and convince Sharon to let me stash Kim with her. Not to mention, I wanted Sharon to have some time with Kim to talk about her rape. I knew to pull this off, I had to keep all my wits about me and the last thing I needed was for Beanie and Sharon’s dog Max to get together. They were littermates and to this day, when they get together they run through the house, barking at each other and then play fight on the floor until it just drives me crazy.
I have never wanted to hurt Sharon, but not talking about the elephant in the room was actually hurtful to both of us, and not addressing the issue was creating larger issues. We had danced around our problems for too long, and it was finally time to decide what we wanted to do with our relationship. I felt like an ass since we had just had dinner together the other night and it had been my intention to have the talk with her.
My feet drummed on the wood decking of the wharf as I walked out to the houseboat—the houseboat that had caused me so much grief in the past. But every time I see it now I like it more. The dark green shade is appealing and all of the exposed light-colored wood had been varnished. I really like it now.
I stepped up onto the barge the houseboat is built on and knocked. I waited a few minutes and was about to leave when Sharon cracked open the door. It was obvious she hadn’t expected me. Mentally I kicked myself for not calling first. I realized since we were really no longer an item, it would have been polite to call first, but I didn’t, and now here I was asking her if I could come in for a minute. She stood there looking at me with a troubled look on her face. She seemed to be ready to say something to me when from deep inside I heard a male voice call out, “Who is it, darling?”
Her face turned red and as she put her hand on my chest. I noticed it was shaking. I stepped back down onto the dock and as I turned, I called back over my shoulder, “I’m so sorry. It was really rude of me not to call first. I had no right to just show up. Forgive please.”
She raised a hand and begged, “Stop! I want to talk to you. Can you come back in fifteen minutes? Please.” Her last word was a plea.
“Yeah, sure,” I said and I turned and started to walk away. I heard Sharon step onto the dock. I stopped and looked back at her. Her hair was messed up and I could tell she was naked under her robe. She stepped up to me and put her hand on my chest again. “Matt, please come back. I want to talk to you… no, make that I need to talk to you.”
“Fifteen minutes?” I said it as both a question and a statement.
“Yes! Please. Will you come back?”
I nodded and she mouthed the words, “Thank you.” I headed back to my truck. Bean was overjoyed to see me. I moved my truck to the far end of the lot to wait out the fifteen minutes. I knew it was childish, but I wanted to see who her visitor was.
As I sat there petting Bean, who by now was snuggled into my lap, I thought about what had just happened. When Sharon had moved out, we never discussed seeing other people. I had wanted to take Gladys to dinner but I didn’t because I felt it would be cheating on Sharon. From what I’d just seen, it would seem she was doing a lot more than just having dinner with somebody. I knew I had no right to be angry, or hurt, but it was still painful to know she could move on so quickly after we parted ways. But I also try to be fair about things and I know I had been putting off having a discussion about our relationship, so I really had nobody to blame but myself.
After about ten minutes I saw a man walking up the dock dressed in a suit with his tie untied, just draped around his neck. He appeared to be in his late forties or perhaps early fifties. He didn’t seem too upset about getting the bum’s rush and I thought he was handsome in a rugged kind of way. His suit looked expensive. When he got to the parking lot, I watched as he climbed into a new BMW 700 series car. Whoever this dude was, he had money. I knew that the BMW with all the right bells and whistles could run well over a hundred grand, not to mention what the custom made suit cost.
I watched as he started his car and then pulled out into traffic. Once he was gone, I put the windows down a little for Bean and then locked up the truck. When I knocked, Sharon opened the door immediately. “Come in, please.” She stepped back and motioned me in.
“Thanks,” I said, and stepped into her living room. Sharon pointed towards the couch and asked me to sit down. She asked me if I wanted a drink and I almost said yes, but then I declined because I really needed to keep my wits about me. As I dropped onto the couch I noticed she had changed her bathrobe to sweats. Being the horn dog I am, I also noticed that she wasn’t wearing a bra. Unfettered breasts made it difficult for me to maintain focus. See, I told you I was hopeless!
I knew I had screwed up big time and I hoped I could mend this fence. Looking up at her w
ith a most sincere look on my face, I started in, “Sharon, I am so sorry I didn’t call first. I didn’t know—”
Sharon, facing me, held up her hands to interrupt, “Stop! No, Matt, this is so embarrassing. This is all my fault for not talking to you. I just dreaded having this conversation and I am such a chicken. I kept putting it off and now…” her voice dropped. She shrugged her shoulders and continued, “Oh shit! I was just looking for the right time to talk to you and it just never seemed to happen. I’m the one who’s sorry.” She was hanging her head and she directed the last few words at the floor. “Matt, I never wanted to hurt you.”
I could tell she was upset with the situation and I wanted to let her off the hook. “Hey, look! Sharon, please look at me.” She slowly raised her head and finally looked me in the eye. I explained, “I can’t let you take all the blame. I’m just as guilty for not having the talk about us. I understand how it is, I know why you put it off. It’s the same reason I kept putting off talking to you. I didn’t want to hurt you either. It had been so easy to just let things float along.” I sat there looking at her. I didn’t care how it happened, I just was sorry I had embarrassed her. I continued, “Look kid, you have nothing to be embarrassed about, and anyway, regardless of when we should have had our talk, I was wrong not to call first. That was just rude and thoughtless on my part. For that I ask you to forgive me.” I was serious and I hope she realized how I felt.
Sharon shook her head and gave a halfhearted laugh. “Okay, it’s agreed, we’re both at fault for today happening. I forgive you if you’ll forgive me for having somebody here?”
There was really nothing to forgive her for. Sharon had only done what I wanted to do, which was to be with another person. I’ll admit I was a little hurt to find her with another guy, but to be honest, if I could have dealt with my guilt about being with
Gladys a little better, I’d have done the same thing. Just because I had been too chicken to try and define our relationship was in no way her fault. I smiled at her and replied, “Nothing to forgive, is there?” Sharon shrugged her shoulders. In a way, I was relieved that she had made the first move, and now it was just necessary to figure out where we wanted to go from here.
I leaned back on the couch and put my arms across the back. Sitting there I kind of wondered who the guy she had been with was. I briefly considered and rejected making a smartass comment about how I had just discovered her, but that wasn’t really fair of me; since I had met Gladys, and I was interested in pursuing a relationship with her, I needed to do this. Since I felt this was the best time to finally work something out between us, I decided to ask Sharon about her visitor. I would get to the real point of my visit in a second, but first I asked, “It’s none of my business, but who was the dude who just left?”
Sharon looked down at the floor for a second and then back up at me. “He’s a doctor I know from the hospital. His name is George. Before you and I were involved, I dated him a few times. Lately he’s taken me to dinner a couple of times. When he stopped by this afternoon… well, things happened and…” her voice trailed off.
There was no point in not addressing what was going through my head about the two of them. I asked, “So, I guess my question is: are we through, then?”
Sharon looked at me with a really sad face. Her chin was quivering and I saw a tear slowly slipping down her cheek. From the look on her face, I knew she still didn’t have an answer yet. “Matt… well, yes and no.”
“Yes and no? Care to explain that?” I asked with apprehension.
As she stood there, I still thought she was lovely with her hair all messed up and her eye makeup smeared. She really was a very sexy woman. As she spoke, her words were slow and soft. “Well, yes in that I would like to see others. I want us to be friends, but I’d like to date other men…” I shifted on the couch as I prepared to stand up. I was getting ready to leave. She extended her hand towards me. “Sit! Listen to me, please. To finish my thought, no we’re not through, because I still want to see you as well.” She walked over to a chair across from me and sat down. She sat for a long time just looking at me. Sharon took a deep breath and then asked, “Is that possible?”
It was my turn to just sit and wonder about things. I leaned back on the couch again for a while with my legs extended in front of me and my ankles crossed. I didn’t really know what exactly to say and I just started rambling, “I think I understand why you want to see others,” I thought about my next words carefully, “but I fail to understand why you still want to see me. What did I miss here?”
Sharon answered immediately, “Because I really do love you in so many ways, and you’re my best friend.” She snickered, “What I want, is what I think is called friends with benefits.” Her face turned beet red and she looked down at her lap. She continued, “Matt, nobody understands me like you. I can tell you anything and you always understand. And,” her voice was barely a whisper, “Nobody satisfies me like you. Nobody can do the big nasty to me like you do!”
She looked directly at me and smirked as she continued, “You must think I’m really a slut.” I shook my head no. I know I’m a slut, so how can I cast stones at her? Sharon continued, “George, the guy who was just here, he’s very nice, but as a lover… well, let’s just say he leaves a lot to be desired. As a surgeon he’s the best, as a lover he is way too fast.” She gave me a cute grin. “I was feeling so randy this afternoon and just as I was about to call you, he showed up. As you can tell, we had sex. But, the problem is, it wasn’t all that satisfying.”
In a way I was still hurt to find out about George, but I was pleased to hear she still wanted to see me and if she was going to start dating others, then that should make it permissible for me. I know it sounds so weird, but her admission to me that she still wanted to be with me was a turn-on. I guess I’m a typical male, because once she told me she still desired me, my cock went from a little lump in my pants to wide awake in seconds. I wanted her more in that moment than I can describe.
I know! I know. I really am a sleaze. The morals of an alley cat and all that. In my defense, I offer this: You had to have been there. There are certain moments in life that defy explanation and this was one of them. I’d ask for your forgiveness, but I don’t deserve it. However, forgive me this time please.
Looking at her sitting there, I had to admit, Sharon was really something. It didn’t matter to me Sharon had just been with somebody, I was pleased she was still interested in me. But more important, I was happy she wanted to continue to be friends, that meant a lot!
Eventually she looked at me and I could see the question forming., “By the way, just why did you come over?”
Caught! Now I was going to have to explain my feelings about the two of us. “Well, this is a bit difficult. Seeing as how I caught you and now you’re going to think that’s the reason…”
Her eyes grew large and she interrupted, “Were you coming over to break up with me just now?”
“Well, remember your earlier answer of yes and no? I have the same.” Sharon’s eyes were big and I could see she wanted more of an explanation. “Well, in a way it’s like your yes and no. It was more like I wanted to discuss exactly what kind of a relationship you wanted with me. Way back in the beginning, I told you being your friend was important, more important than anything else, remember?”
“Yes, and I feel the same way.” There was a long pause and when she spoke again, it was almost a whisper, “Are you going to break up with me?” Her voice sounded a little hurt.
I leaned forward, reached out and put my hand on her knee. “I didn’t come here to break up with you, I came to see if we could come to a decision on what to do about our relationship. I hate it that we fight so much. But I understand why things are the way they are. We understand what our problems are; it just seems we can’t change them. Since we don’t live together any longer, I felt we needed to have some sort of an agreement regardi
ng seeing other people. If for no other reason, so something like this afternoon doesn’t happen.” She smiled at me. I continued, “And as for making love with you, are you kidding? The sex part of us has never been the issue. Like I said, for some reason, after we’ve been together for a few days, we start to pick at each other, and that I just can’t stand.”
Sharon’s voice was soft and I could tell she felt the same. “I know, and I don’t know why we do that either.” She added with a smile, “But I’m glad you still find me desirable.”
I laughed. How do you explain what a treat it is to make love with a woman as sexy as Sharon, how do you tell her she’s one in a million? “Darling, that was never an issue. I do find you desirable. Very desirable.”
“Thanks.” She paused and then asked, “What are we going to do about us?”
I thought things over carefully. “I think we should still keep an us as best we can. I want us to be friends. I also think we need to work on being able to talk to each other more freely in the future.” I thought about how I wanted to tell her what I wanted to say. I pushed on, “But I think we should still be free to go our own way. Can you deal with that?”
Sharon was still for a long time. She gave a deep sigh and started talking, “Yeah. Just so long as we can remain friends. I love you so much, but you’re such an asshole at times.” She chortled. “I’ll work on my communication skills with you if you promise to work on yours.” I murmured agreement. “We’re still friends?”
“Friends. And,” I hesitated, “Well, there is one other thing,”
“Yes?” Her voice had taken on a slight edge.
“Well… um… I would like for us to still…” I waved my hand between the two of us, indicating my desire for us to be together. “That we’ll still make love?”
Laughing she replied, “Oh God, I hope so. But just call me first.” And we both broke up laughing.
Code Name: Crescent: A Matt Preston Novel Page 12
