Burning Desire

by Rachel Maldonado

  “I still have this month's rent money that I never got around to paying, so I'm going to have to say a hotel. But only after I visit a laundromat. Everything is soaked.”

  “Listen...” Suzanne paused for a moment, then took a deep breath. “I know that I probably shouldn't, and I might actually get into some hot water for asking, but I was thinking maybe you'd like to crash at my place. Just until you get your situation with the apartment straightened out or until you can find another place.”

  Candi raised her eyebrows in surprise. “You really don't mind if I stay with you? You don't even know me.”

  “That's true, but I can get to know you. Besides, the little that I do know about you I like already. How bad could the rest of you be?” asked Suzanne playfully.

  “Really, now?” asked Candi grinning. “And what do you know about me?”

  “I know you love animals because you have a cat named Toonces. Who isn't here, by the way, so it's safe to assume she's alive and well somewhere. I know you like cooking because you cook for Ms. Landers. I know you're a good person because you keep her company three nights a week, and I know you love art.”

  “Wow, I guess you know me. That's pretty much my life. My art, my cat, and the sweet woman that reminds me of Grandma Lila.”

  “There you go. And now you have me to cook for instead of her, so that's where I get something out of this,” stated Suzanne jokingly.

  Candi smirked. “Oh, I see. You're doing this for personal gain.”

  Suzanne giggled. “Of course. Who else is going to iron my tighty whities?”

  Candi laughed. “Okay, I accept your invitation to stay with you, and I will do your cooking if you so desire, but I will not wash your delicates or iron your Underoos.”

  “What makes you think I wear Underoos?” asked Suzanne laughing.

  “If you wear tighty whities, and refer to them as such, I'm willing to bet that you own at least one pair of Underoos.”

  “I'm not gonna say,” replied Suzanne.

  Candi laughed. “I rest my case. Are they Batman or Superman?”

  “I plead the fifth.”

  After making a quick stop back at the fire station where Suzanne changed clothes, Candi was greeted by several of the firefighters. “Hey, how's it going? Good to see you're doing better,” stated a lean African American woman. Candi squinted her eyes as if trying to visually recognize and remember where it was she had seen her before. “It's me Sasha. I spoke to you briefly before you passed out this morning.”

  Candi nodded. “Oh, right. Sorry. This morning seems like days ago.”

  “What are you doing here?” questioned Sasha. “Are you looking for Mitchell? I thought I just saw her go into the locker room.”

  “I'm here with her, actually. I think she was supposed to change clothes.”

  “Oh, well more power to you, honey. No one can get Mitchell to go anywhere. She's supposed to work four on and four off, but she's been here every day for the past few weeks now.”

  Just then, Suzanne came out of the fire station locker room with a blue duffel bag. “I'm ready to go. Let's hit the road.”

  “I'm glad someone was able to get you out of the fire station. We thought we were going to have to hose you down and drag you out,” stated Sasha.

  “Very funny. I'd like to see you try that,” chuckled Suzanne. “See you in four days, Sasha.”

  With that, Suzanne and Candi were on the road again headed toward an apartment that had been unoccupied since Patrice had left Suzanne six weeks prior.

  “What was that all about? What Sasha said?” asked Candi curiously.

  “Aw, it's nothing. I just like to save myself the commute, so I stay at the firehouse sometimes. No big deal. Plus, I'm not a big drinker like the other guys, so they give me a hard time. It's all good.”

  Candi glanced around the small apartment. “Where will I be sleeping?”

  Suzanne pointed to her bedroom. “You can have my room. I only have a one bedroom apartment, but I really don't mind sleeping on the couch.”

  “Do you have a washer and dryer?”

  Suzanne shook her head. “No. But I'm off for the next four days, so I can show you where everything in the apartment complex is.”

  Candi set her bags of clothes on the living room floor and walked up to the fireplace and bookshelf. She noted all of the photos of Suzanne with a tall blonde woman. “Who's this woman? She's in all your photos.”

  Suzanne stayed quiet for a moment as Candi kept nosing around. She made herself comfortable on the love seat as Candi curiously eyed everything. Candi began to notice rainbow striped candles and pictures that looked like they were taken at a Gay Pride Parade. Finally her eyes focused in on a heart-shaped silver photo frame that had a picture of Suzanne and Patrice embracing on the beach with a heart drawn in the sand by their feet.

  “You didn't tell me you were gay, too!” shouted Candi. “Oh my God. I was going on and on about myself and my art and you never had a chance to get a word in edgewise. I'm so sorry!”

  Suzanne laughed. “It's okay. I would have told you eventually. I usually just don't blurt it out when I shake hands with someone.”

  “Eventually? I seriously doubt that. I had to wait to see your photos to figure it out for myself. Where is she anyway? Is she at work? Do I get to meet her?”

  Suzanne appeared sullen. She looked sadly toward her feet. “No. She's not here. And she might be at work. I really don't know. We broke up a few weeks ago.”

  “I'm sorry to hear that. Was she a cheater? Maybe she knows Lynn. It's like there's a Cheater Club and they all know one another from there. Whenever Lynn and I went anywhere I always found that she knew somebody.”

  Suzanne shook her head. “No, she wasn't cheating. At least, I don't think she was. I guess I was in the dark. I thought we were happy. I was working my four on four shifts. Sometimes I worked extra hours as needed, but I did that for us. It's not like I was out with other women. Anyway, I popped the question, and she freaked out and bailed. She said she wasn't ready for commitment with me because she wasn't in love with me anymore. She said and I quote, 'It's hard being in love with someone that's never home.'”

  “Ouch! That's harsh. I mean, you were working. But maybe it was God's way of telling you that she wasn't the one, you know? You'll get past it.” Candi made a sweep of the photos again, but this time going in the opposite direction. As she passed each photo of Patrice and Suzanne, she knocked them forward so that they lay flat. “There. Now you don't have to see her anymore.” She smiled brightly having tipped over the last photo.

  Suzanne laughed. “I should have taken them down when she left. I guess I thought she'd wind up coming home like she always did after a spat, but when she never came back, I just started staying here less and less...” Suzanne's voice trailed off.

  Candi picked up where Suzanne left off. “And you moved into the fire station. I get it. But I'm here now, and I'm going to get you out of your funk.”

  “I guess you can call it a funk. I'm not sure what it is. But make yourself at home. Mi casa es su casa.”

  Candi stopped nosing around and turned to look at Suzanne. “Oh, yeah. Burritos, nachos, enchilada dinner to you, too.”

  Suzanne laughed. “Mi casa es su casa. It means 'My home is your home.'”

  “Nice. Thanks. I don't speak Spanish. Burritos, nachos, and enchilada dinner is about as much Spanish as I know and that's only because that's all I order when I go out to eat at a Mexican restaurant.”

  “Speaking of food. Do you want something to eat? I've got a freezer full of TV dinners. Help yourself.”

  Candi made her way into the kitchen to open the refrigerator. She found it empty. She opened the freezer and gasped. “TV dinners? Is that all you eat? Those things will kill you, you know?”

  “Oh, I wasn't kidding. I don't cook. That's all that's in there. One of the guys usually cooks at the firehouse, so I normally eat there.”

  Candi shut the freezer, then
walked back into the living room and plopped on the sofa across from the love seat. “It's settled. Tomorrow we're hitting the laundromat and the grocery store.”

  Suzanne chuckled. “What do you know...I get clean tighty whities and a free meal. What did I do to deserve this royal treatment?”

  Candi made herself comfortable on the sofa and put her feet up. “You rescued me from the horrible life I didn't realize I had, and now I'm rescuing you from yours.”

  No sooner had she said the words, then she was out cold. She fell fast asleep, and rather than wake her, Suzanne went to sleep in her bedroom leaving Candi on the sofa. She, too, fell fast asleep. The last thought to pass through her mind was imagining herself with Candi on the beach taking pictures in the sand and replacing the silver heart-shaped photo with one of her and Candi.

  Chapter Two

  “Wake up! I'm starving!” shouted Candi as she stood over Suzanne's bed.

  Startled, Suzanne sat up. “What's going on!? Is there an emergency?”

  “Hell yes, there's an emergency. I'm hungry, and I'm not eating turkey dinners. Let's go get groceries.”

  “Geezus, you're bossy. Can you wait ten minutes while I shower?”

  Candi plopped down on the bed beside Suzanne. “Okay. I can wait. I just didn't eat much yesterday. Hospital food is lousy.”

  Frustrated, Suzanne pointed toward the living room. “Can you wait in the other room? I'm half dressed.”

  “You didn't have any problems looking at my legs and my bare ass, but I can't see you in your night shirt and panties? Geesh. And you thought I was uptight.” Candi stood and walked out shutting the door behind her.

  Fifteen minutes later, Suzanne emerged from her bedroom with her hair wet. She was still trying to put on her sneakers as she was walking towards the door. “Okay, I'm ready. Let's hit the road.”

  “You know, I noticed that you've said that before. Do you always say that? Hit the road? When you say it, it makes me think of that song Hit the Road Jack. You know...” Candi paused for a moment thinking over the lyrics, then began to sing. “Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more no more no more no more. Hit the road Jack and don't you come back no more.”

  Suzanne frowned. “Good Lord, really? It's not even seven AM yet. Can we not sing?”

  “My! Someone's a grumpy puss in the mornings!”

  “I'm usually just really tired the first day off my shift. After about ten to twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep, I'm fine.”

  Candi frowned and placed her hands on her hips. She quickly followed Suzanne out to her truck. “Oh, so your grumpy pussiness is my fault?”

  Suzanne stopped midway to the truck and turned around to face Candi. “Did you just say grumpy pussiness?”

  Candi laughed. “Yes. I thought it was clever.”

  “Don't ever say that to me or anyone else out in public. In fact, I don't even want to hear the word puss or pussy ever again.”

  “Not even sour puss or pussy cat? I wasn't trying to be vulgar.”

  “I know that. But not everyone is like you. Most people have dirty minds, and the last thing I want is for everyone in the neighborhood to think that they heard the lesbians in apartment 12B talking about pussy.”

  Candi laughed. “Okay, okay. I gotcha. No more p-word. I'm buttoning up my lips.” She placed her hand to her face and pretended to button her lips closed.

  Suzanne rolled her eyes, then turned back around to head toward the truck. “It's too early for this,” she groaned.

  “Are you annoyed? I'm sorry. I felt that way when I first took in Toonces. But she grew on me.”

  “She grew on you? Like a fungus?” asked Suzanne jokingly as she turned on the ignition.

  Candi laughed. “No, you turd. She grew on me like she has a place in my heart.”

  Suzanne drove out of the parking lot and headed to the local Cart Mart Grocery. “Are you sure? Because by the rude awakening you gave me this morning, I think you're starting to grow on me like a fungus.”

  Candi teased Suzanne. “We'll see who's singing a different tune after I make you a healthy egg white omelet breakfast with hash browns.”

  Suzanne grinned. “Singing a different tune? I hope it's you because I don't want to listen to Hit the Road Jack all day long.”

  Candi laughed. “Okay. I set myself up for that one.”

  As they pulled into the parking lot, Candi began humming the Cart Mart song from the TV Commercials. At the end of the song, she blurted the Cart Mart catch phrase. “Fill your grocery cart at Cart Mart where every day is a great start!”

  “You like to sing, don't you?” asked Suzanne.

  “I never thought about it. But sure. I guess I sing a lot.”

  “I think I feel you growing on me like a fungus again,” remarked Suzanne with a devilish grin.

  “Oh, shut up,” responded Candi. She grabbed a grocery cart as they walked in the store, and she headed straight for the produce section to get tomatoes and onions for her omelets and vegetables to make a salad.

  Suzanne stood behind Candi as Candi pushed the grocery cart. “I'll just watch. I don't think there's anything I really need.”

  When Candi turned around to speak to Suzanne, she found that she was gone. “What the--? Where the hell did she go?” she asked aloud.

  An elderly woman squeezing tomatoes and avocados glanced over in Candi's direction and shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know, honey. I can never find Cletus either. He usually runs off to the free sample section. He just loves those darn cocktail wieners, and I won't ever let him buy any because they're just loaded with salt! I think he has his weekly fill here at the Cart Mart.” The woman chuckled to herself. “But you know what?” The woman took a deep breath as she was about to start talking Candi's ear off.

  “Excuse me. I've got to go find my friend,” stated Candi as she hurriedly walked away from the woman.

  “Okay, dear,” was all the woman said as Candi left her in the produce aisle.

  When Candi found Suzanne, she was standing in the middle of the soft drink aisle carrying a case of water and a case of a blue sports drink. She was arguing with a woman that Candi recognized to be the woman from Suzanne's living room photos. The blonde woman was wildly flailing her arms in the air as she spoke, and every so often she would push her hair back as it fell toward her face.

  Candi took a deep breath, then pushed her grocery cart at full speed down the soft drink aisle toward the arguing couple. As she got closer to them, she could hear the blonde woman's voice begin to rise as she started to shout, “I need to get my things. I've been driving by your place every day and you're never home. If I hadn't left my keys behind, I'd just go in and...” Patrice's sentence was cut short as Candi interrupted.

  “There you are, babe. I was looking all over for you. I see you found the sports drink I asked you to get for me. Who's this?” Candi wrapped her arm around Suzanne. She extended her right arm for a handshake. “I'm Candi. I'm the new flame. How are you? You must be Patrice.”

  Patrice couldn't believe her eyes and ears. “Excuse me? New flame? I'm done talking to you right now, Mitchell. I'll come by later for my things. Be there.” She pushed her grocery cart with a mad fury down the aisle and turned the corner, heading for the meat and poultry section.

  Suzanne chuckled as Patrice shoved her way through the crowd of shoppers. “New flame? That's being a little presumptuous, isn't it?”

  Candi grinned. “Well, I got her to go away, didn't I?”

  Suzanne began loading her bottled water and sports drink underneath the grocery cart. “For now. I'm sure she'll show up later tonight or sometime this week looking to get some of her things. I used to keep a spare key under the flower pot, but I didn't want her sneaking in while I was away, so I put it in my wallet.”

  Candi turned her cart around so as not to go in the direction that Patrice went. She, instead, headed toward the detergent aisle. “She calls you Mitchell. You don't find that odd? I like your name. Suzanne.
Suzy. Suze. It has a nice ring to it.”

  Suzanne grabbed a box of dryer sheets as they walked down the aisle and tossed them in the cart. “No one calls me Suzanne or Suzy but my mom. Everyone I know calls me Mitchell or Mitch.”

  “I'm calling you Suzanne because that's your name.”

  Suzanne rolled her eyes. “You just like being difficult.”

  After grabbing some detergent, Candi peeked out from the aisle making sure that Patrice wasn't around, then headed for the dairy and eggs. “I'm only getting a dozen eggs. They're bad for you.”

  “I'm sure they're better than TV dinners. Get a few more dozen. Now that I don't have to cook, I can shop more. I can think of a whole bunch of breakfast meals. Scrambled eggs, poached eggs, hard boiled eggs, eggs over easy, bacon and egg tacos...” Suzanne paused as she tried to think of another item.

  Candi picked up where Suzanne left off. “Omelets. Don't forget omelets.”

  “Oh, right. Omelets. Western omelets, veggie omelets, ham and cheese omelets.”

  Candi grinned. “Okay, okay. I get it. I'll get a few more dozen. Geesh.” She grabbed a gallon of 2% milk and placed it in the cart.

  Suzanne shook her head. “Nu uh. I don't want that. I want the 1%. Put it back. Get the other one.”

  “Two percent and one percent is practically the same. One digit doesn't make that much difference.”

  “Of course a digit makes a difference. If you're playing a sport, do you hear the coach say, 'Come on, team! Let's give it ninety-nine percent?' And if you buy some lottery scratch off tickets, don't you want to win something one-hundred percent of the time? The one percent milk has less fat than the two percent, so that's the one I want.”

  Candi shook her head as she took the gallon of milk out of her cart to exchange it. “Oh, good grief. I'll put it back just stop giving me analogies before I have to shoot myself.”

  Suzanne laughed. “You know I have a valid point.”

  Candi went straight to the poultry section to get some chicken breast. “I don't think you have a point. I think you're the one that tries to be difficult. But as long as you don't start jazzercising and running around with aerobics instructors, you're okay in my book.”