If You Can't Stand the Heat

by Ginna Wilkerson

  “No—they should be fine. I made them this morning.”

  “Well, let me put them in the other room and close the door, then. I don’t want these two to get tempted.” Moto and Alvin hadn’t yet noticed the presence of a new food item in the apartment, as they were too busy checking out Jane. Kayla took the brownies into the bedroom—she was surprised when her guest followed.

  “I love your bedroom,” Jane said from the doorway. “Very cozy. Especially the beautiful quilt.”

  “Thanks,” answered Kayla, a bit uncomfortable with Jane in the dark room. “My granny made it a long time ago.”

  “Well, it’s gorgeous. And so are you.”

  Kayla blinked, a bit shocked at this remark. She didn’t know what to say.

  “Well…let me go get the supplies and stuff for the posters. Help yourself to something to drink from the fridge if you like.” And she left the room, compelling Jane to follow.

  In the utility room, Kayla tried to catch her breath as she got out the markers and glitter and things. Why did I think I could handle this? And then she wondered where Reese was, hoping that she got home in a reasonable amount of time. She could hear her new friend rummaging around in the tiny kitchen.

  “Hey, there you are,” Jane said when Kayla returned to the living room. Jane had indeed helped herself and had opened the bottle of wine, pouring a glass for both of them. She also had spread out a large drop cloth and some paints. “Just to add to what you’ve got,” she explained.

  So they got to work. Talking while the posters took shape, Kayla found out that Jane was born in Vermont, had a Master’s degree in Art History, and had moved to Florida to get away from the snow. She would begin teaching at the local community college in the fall. Kayla told her own story, ending with meeting Reese and getting a job in Academic Advising at the university.

  By the time the two women had finished the bottle of wine, they had seven excellent posters completed. Kayla felt more relaxed and less worried about Jane’s presence in her apartment. After the wine and the camaraderie of lettering and painting, it seemed the most natural thing in the world to hang out with Jane.

  As they sat on the couch to take a break, Kayla said, “I just love your hair. I know it was for the sake of keeping it out of the paint, but I wish you had left it down…”

  Jane smiled and winked. “Well, I think we’ve done a good bit of work. And I don’t think there’s any reason to have my hair up for brownie-eating, do you?” With that, she proceeded to remove the band that held her braid together and shake out that wild pink hair that so fascinated Kayla.

  Kayla couldn’t keep her hand away from the pink mass of waves. It was as if her fingers moved without her even willing them to.

  And that’s the moment that Reese walked in the door.

  Kayla froze, afraid that any move she made might make the situation look even worse. Reese looked hot and dirty, and exhausted from the drive and the furniture moving. She also looked quite unhappy about what seemed to be happening in their apartment.

  Jane spoke up cheerfully, flicking her hair over the shoulder opposite from where Kayla sat. “Hi, there. Reese, right? I heard you’ve just been on a charitable mission to move furniture. You must be a great friend to have!”

  “I guess. Just seemed like the thing to do. Could sure use a beer though…”

  Kayla took this opportunity to focus on Reese and do something normal. “Sure, babe.” And she moved to the fridge for the beer, shoving the empty wine bottle behind the toaster. Not that she was hiding it, but why cause extra trouble?

  Kayla tried to act casual. “Hey, babe, Jane brought some homemade brownies. Maybe we should break those out now.” And she went to get the pan from the bedroom.

  But Reese shook her head. “Not yet. I need a shower before I can do anything.” Reese headed to the bedroom, came out with clean clothes, and then went to the bathroom and closed the door.

  As soon as Reese was out of sight, Jane flicked her hair back in Kayla’s direction, then leaned in to kiss her. Kayla felt like she might have a heart attack, kissing this woman with Reese on the other side of the bathroom door. But Jane’s lips were too tempting to resist. Kayla found herself kissing Jane back and soon lost track of the sound of the shower. By the time Reese came into the room, Jane and Kayla were lost in each other and tangled up at one end of the couch.

  Kayla heard Reese cough and sprang back to reality. Jane sat up and looked demurely down at her lap with her hands folded, as if she were perfectly innocent. Kayla turned to look at Reese, but couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

  “What the hell?!” said Reese. And then a bit louder, “I can’t believe what I just saw happening in my own home!”

  Kayla opened her mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. She wanted to say she was sorry, but it seemed ridiculously too inadequate in the moment.

  Jane said, “I better go. Hope you like the posters, Reese.” She started gathering up the art supplies she had brought. Reese paced up and down behind the couch. Kayla sat in silence. Reese noticed the wine glasses.

  “Did you buy the wine especially for her, Kayla? Did you plan this little party all along?”

  Now Kayla found her voice, “Of course not. We were going to be working all together. You, too. You’re the one who had other plans at the last minute!”

  Reese looked about to explode with frustration and anger. Kayla knew that there was hurt there, too, but Reese would never show it in front of Jane.

  By this time, Jane had thrown everything in the canvas bag and was headed for the apartment door. Kayla wanted to say something to her, but didn’t dare.

  When Jane got to the door, Reese burst out with, “You bitch! How dare you? Don’t ever come here again, you hear me!”

  Jane ignored this outburst, closing the door softly behind her. Then Reese turned to Kayla.

  “I can’t believe you would do this, K. I thought we had something real here. I thought I could trust you!”

  Now Kayla found her voice. “I’m so sorry, babe. I don’t know what I was thinking! I wasn’t thinking.

  “That’s not an excuse,” said Reese, getting quieter now and more sad than angry. “How far did it go?”

  Kayla blushed crimson and looked at the floor. “What you saw was it—I swear! No more than kissing…”

  Reese looked a bit relieved, but still upset. “Well, good. But still…where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I don’t want you to ever see her again!”

  For some reason, this really got to Kayla. Even though she usually gave in to Reese, she balked inwardly at being told what to do. If only Reese could stick with sadness and share what she felt instead of falling back on anger…

  The anger made Kayla want to strike back. “You’re no innocent angel, if you remember. What about that woman at the beach two years ago? You spent our entire weekend vacation flirting with that bitch and whispering in a corner of the bar.”

  “Not that this has anything to do with today’s extracurricular activity—on our couch—but Sarah was just a friend interested in traveling and biking. I enjoyed the stories about her adventurous trips. I never cheated on you, ever.”

  All of a sudden, Kayla felt exhausted. She couldn’t do this anymore. “Okay, Reese. Whatever. I am sorry I got even a little bit involved with Jane. I love you. I hope you can forgive me.”

  Reese paced again, this time in the kitchen with Moto following her in curiosity. Alvin snuggled into Kayla where she sat on the couch. Both boys were reacting to the tension between their people.

  Suddenly Reese went into the bedroom and rummaged around in there. Kayla had the brief fear that she was getting stuff together to leave.

  “Reese?” she called. No answer. Shortly after that, Reese reappeared in bike shorts and socks. She searched around for her bike shoes, finding them in the utility room. Moto continued to follow his mom as she sat on the floor and yanked on her shoes. When she was ready to go, she turned to Kayla.

>   “I need to think, K. And I need to use some physical energy to blow off steam. I’m going for a bike ride.” And with that she went out into the night, slamming the apartment door behind her and leaving Kayla to deal with her own thoughts.

  Chapter 10: Emergency

  When the door closed behind Reese, Kayla was at first thankful to be out of the heat of the argument. Then paradoxically, she wanted Reese to come back and talk it over. Then she had the crazy thought of calling Jane. No! Totally bad idea. So finally she decided to get some dinner and watch TV with Alvin and Moto until Reese tired herself out and came home. Maybe then they could really talk it over.

  As she heated up some leftover pizza, Kayla began to feel more and more foolish. Why had she flirted with Jane at the cook-off in the first place? She wasn’t usually the type to take chances like that. Could it be that she was angry about the terrible chili they brought to the event and taking it out on Reese?

  The chili was awful, but—to be fair—there had been several opportunities for Kayla to say something to change the outcome. She could have suggested making the Texas chili with ground beef instead of steak. She could have suggested trying Grandma Griner’s chili again with better tomatoes and without corn. She could even have asked Andres if his family had a traditional Central American recipe and tried that.

  The ultimate chili outcome was not entirely Reese’s fault. And Kayla had to completely own the cheating episode, which, thankfully, had not gone any further than it did.

  By the time Kayla had finished her pizza and had another large glass of wine, she began to be concerned about Reese. It was pitch dark out now, and Reese had been gone close to an hour. Not a long time for a planned bike ride together in the daytime, but a bit long for a I’m mad and I’m thinking night ride.

  Kayla was exhausted, and she knew Reese must be, too. Even more than physical activity, stress and emotion can wear a person to the bone.

  Kayla decided to leave the outside light on for Reese and to lie down on the couch so she would be right there when her partner came in.

  * * * *

  When Kayla finally heard a noise other than the quiet buzzing of the TV, she was asleep on the couch with both dogs tucked in next to her. The noise was her phone. She scrambled to pick it up, saying, “Hello?” to the unknown person on the other end.

  “Hello?” said a soft young voice. “Is this Kayla Serrano?”

  “Yes,” answered Kayla, after finding her voice.

  “Ms. Serrano, do you know a Reese Griner?”

  “Of course—yes. Is she hurt? Who are you?”

  “I’m sorry—I should have identified myself first. I’m Lucinda Brown, a nurse at Baptist General. Ms. Griner gave us your name as a contact.”

  “Reese? What happened to her?”

  “Nothing too major. She crashed her bicycle into a tree and banged herself up a bit. She’s uncomfortable now, but she’ll be fine. Glad to see you, I’m sure. She asked us to call you.”

  “Oh, of course! Baptist General, right? Just give a me a few minutes.”

  Nurse Brown said, “Take your time driving. Ms. Griner is being well taken care of. No need for another accident on the way, right?”

  “Of course,” Kayla answered, and then, “Thank you for calling.”

  Kayla hung up the phone and moved quickly about the apartment to get ready to go. She felt guilty, ashamed of her behavior, but mostly anxious to see Reese.

  * * * *

  Before getting in the car, Kayla had presence of mind enough to put the bike rack on the back. Whether or not Reese was coming home that night, they would need to get the bike back to the apartment. Kayla also brought a few toiletries for Reese and a change of clothes.

  On the way to the hospital, Kayla sorted through her own responsibility for this circumstance. Yes—she had gone much further with Jane than she meant to, and let her attraction cloud her judgment. On the other hand, she wasn’t directly responsible for Reese heading out into the night on her bike without planning ahead. What a mess!

  At the hospital, Kayla headed directly for Emergency, assuming Reese was there. It took almost twenty minutes to get through the red tape and questioning involved in getting back behind the double doors of the ER. Especially because Kayla was not officially next of kin.

  Finally, Lucinda Brown appeared. Kayla knew her at once: smooth coffee-colored skin and a bright smile full of white teeth. Kayla stepped forward toward the nurse.

  “Aren’t you the person who called me? I have a feeling…”

  Lucinda answered, “Kayla Serrano? Yes, I did. Everything’s going to be fine. Just follow me.”

  Kayla did, and was soon not only through the swinging doors but inside a curtained cubicle where Reese lay on a narrow bed with one arm and hand in a cast. As soon as Kayla poked her face between the blue curtains, Reese smiled broadly.

  “Hey, there’s my girl!”

  “Yep, it’s me.”

  “I kept waiting for you to get here,” said Reese.

  “I came as soon as they called. I was worried.”

  Reese made an effort to sit up, cradling her wrist in its white cast. “Kayla, I do love you. I hate what happened.”

  Kayla jumped on this train of thought eagerly. “I hate it more! And it was all my fault.”

  Reese looked thoughtful. “K—I know I can be hard to deal with—and not always as romantic as you would want.”

  Kayla started to speak, but Reese held up a hand to silence her.

  “It’s hard for me—the romantic thing—but I know you want it. And I do love you. And I want us to stay together.”

  At this, Kayla got closer to the bed and took Reese’s good hand in hers.

  “I know I’m not always easy either. I have so many expectations. And I want everything to be perfect. It can’t be, right?”

  “No, it can’t. But we can keep on moving in that direction…”

  At that moment, Nurse Brown came in with discharge orders. She smiled at seeing the two women talking closely.

  “Okay, ladies. If Ms. Serrano has everything under control, Ms. Griner is free to leave the hospital.”

  “I so do—have it under control, I mean.”

  “She does,” agreed Reese. “Where’s my bike? We have the bike rack on the car.”

  Nurse Brown replied, “To the side of the front desk. I had a feeling your partner would think about how to get it home.”

  “Awesome! Let’s go then,” said Reese.

  It took another twenty minutes to fill out the discharge paperwork and load the bike onto Kayla’s car. On the way home, both women were mostly quiet.

  Close to their apartment complex, Reese finally spoke up, “Kayla, like I said, I know I’m not always easy. I know you want more affection and romance. But I can try…”

  “Of course, you can.” Kayla was near tears. “I just want you to love me like I love you.”

  “Well, give me a chance, then. Everyone is different in how they show affection.”

  “I get that,” said Kayla. “And I’m really so sorry about the Jane incident.”

  “Yeah—that freaked me out. On my bike ride, I kept trying to think of what I could do to be more like her.”

  “Oh, no, Reese! That’s not it. I don’t—didn’t—want her. I want the romance she seemed to offer—from you.”

  Reese sighed heavily. She stayed silent the rest of the way back.

  * * * *

  The next morning, Kayla woke up first. She looked over at Reese with her cast lying heavily on the pillow. Somehow, Kayla had to get rid of the guilt that plagued her. She was afraid it would sabotage a second chance for her and Reese.

  She slipped out of the bed and went into the utility room with her cell phone. She dialed Jane’s number, butterflies dancing in her stomach.

  “Hello?”

  “Yeah, Jane. It’s me, Kayla.”

  “Hey, Kayla. What’s up?”

  “Well, I wanted to tell you that I can’t see you again—
like before—you know.”

  “I see. Back to the monogamy scene, eh?”

  “Yeah. I really love Reese. She ended up in the hospital last night.”

  “Is she okay?”

  “Oh, sure—just a broken wrist. She’ll be fine.”

  “Well, good. I’m glad. It was really not my intention to break up a couple. I just see relationships differently, I guess…” And at that, Jane hung up.

  Kayla went into the bedroom. Reese was waking up. She beckoned for Kayla to join her. As they snuggled in the bed, Reese started laughing.

  “What?” said Kayla.

  “I was just thinking we should make some chili next weekend.”

  Kayla waited for more info.

  “The Pedernales River Chili is really awesome—the best!”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Cool—we can have Andres over?”

  “Sure—and maybe Raina and Kat.”

  “A Texas chili party!”

  “Absolutely,” said Reese. “Because I am madly in love with a Texas girl!”

  THE END

  ABOUT GINNA WILKERSON

  Ginna Wilkerson has been writing almost since she could read, and often teaches writing as an adjunct professor. She has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, and discovered a love of travel later in life. She has long been fascinated by the supernatural as it appears in ordinary life. Ginna has two adult children and one grandson, and lives with her partner and their cats.

  Find out more online at ginnawilkerson.weebly.com.

  ABOUT JMS BOOKS LLC

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