by Dawn Steele
In town, Karen went to the Korean mom and pop shop that sold a lot of cheap groceries. She was bending over in an aisle, looking at the nacho selection, when a voice arrested her.
“Can I help you, sir?”
“Yes, thank you. I’m looking for the cheese section.”
It was Noah’s voice!
“You’re very close to it. If you’d just follow me.”
Karen grabbed her trolley and pushed it to the next aisle. Noah was there, his arm linked with a Korean shop girl, who was clearly beaming.
“Noah!” Karen called.
He turned.
She left her trolley and walked quickly towards him in her flat shoes.
“Hi!”
Noah was as handsome as she remembered him. He wore a black jacket and the same dark glasses. He grasped a white cane. He smiled as she approached.
“Karen, right? From next door?”
“You remember my voice.”
“How could I not?” he said.
Shop girl smiled graciously. “Do you still need my help, sir?”
Noah turned to Karen. “Uh, do I?”
“No,” Karen quickly replied. “I’ll see to his every need.”
“Be careful how I interpret that,” Noah joked.
The girl left, and Karen was alone in the aisle with Noah.
“So, what are you looking for?” she asked.
“I was thinking of grilled cheese sandwiches, and so I’m looking for some Mozzarella. Maybe some Camembert. I like to mix my cheeses up when I melt them.”
“Excellent. Do you have a sandwich maker at home?”
“Yes. I unpacked it yesterday. I also have a rice cooker, a dishwasher, a juicer . . . you’ve seen the coffee machine, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I haven’t.” He paused. “You’re not laughing, so I take it that was a bad joke.”
She was stunned. “Oh, right! Well, now I got it.”
She started to laugh at the absurdity of it.
He laughed as well.
They spent the next twenty minutes shopping and laughing. It was a pleasant interlude. She couldn’t recall having this much fun shopping for groceries before.
Then it was time to broach the subject.
She said, “Zach . . . that’s my boyfriend . . . would like to invite you over for dinner.”
“Your boyfriend wants to invite me over? What about you?”
“Definitely. I’d like you to come, too. Especially since I’m making dinner.”
“When?” He sounded pleased.
“Um, tonight?”
“I can’t tonight. I have an engagement. A deadline I have to meet.”
“Oh, of course.” She wondered what callous editor would give a blind man a deadline. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you write anyway?”
“I dictate, and the computer converts my voice into text. It doesn’t always work that well. There are lots of mistakes. But I usually have the computer read the passage back to me. Then I correct it.”
“At least you don’t have to deal with autocorrect.”
“Oh, believe me, I do. But I have a helluva editor.”
“I’d be interested in reading some of your work. Where can I get your books?”
He looked pleased. “I’ll send you some author copies. Meanwhile, I’m thinking of grabbing some coffee. Care to join me?”
“Sure.”
“Any recommendations?”
Of course. He didn’t know his way around, literally.
“I know a place,” she suggested.
*
Marmie’s teahouse was one of Karen’s favorite places in the entire town. Kellerton’s population was only 3000, so there weren’t many eateries around. Kellerton’s appeal was that it was a home away from the city, which was exactly one hour away by car.
Karen and Noah took a table by the window.
“What do you recommend here?” Noah asked.
“Everything’s good. Better than my cooking anyway.”
“Oh, maybe I should reconsider dinner,” he joked.
She laughed. “Maybe. But seriously, everything is really good here. You could try the veal, unless you’re vegetarian.”
“I’m not vegetarian. Never have been.” He mock shuddered.
“Then I won’t suggest the Thai salad. Though that’s pretty good, too.”
“OK, I’ll have the veal. I trust you.”
“You won’t regret it,” she promised.
The waitress came. She beamed at both of them, especially Noah.
“I haven’t seen you around here before,” she quipped brightly.
“Noah, meet Sal. Sal, Noah just arrived in town.”
“Oh, have you?” Sal smiled coquettishly, and then remembered that Noah couldn’t see. “I hope you’ll come around to Marmie’s often.”
“If the veal is good, I just might.” Noah smiled back.
Karen could tell that he was a real charmer.
Sal spent an inordinately long time taking their orders until a customer from another table snapped, “Hey, Miss, are you paid to work or flirt around here?”
Sal turned around crossly. She pointed to Noah’s white cane.
“Can’t you see I’m busy here, Mister?”
“Oh, sorry.” The customer sheepishly waved, and then realized the same thing – that Noah couldn’t see.
“You’ll come in handy around here,” Sal drawled at Noah. She finished repeating their orders for the third time and then sashayed away.
Both Karen and Noah burst out laughing.
“Small town girl with a big city attitude,” Noah remarked. “I like that.”
“I can tell that you’re going to be real popular around here.” Karen paused. “If you don’t mind me asking, were you always blind?”
“No. I was in an accident several years ago. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I was blind, but I had to. It was difficult at first. I had to let go of all the things I knew. My job. My girlfriend. I had to practically start over.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. What did you used to do?”
“I used to work for a family owned business. But I needed to use my sight for what I was doing. They had to let me go, naturally. My then girlfriend couldn’t cope with taking care of a newly blind person. I was in a bad place. She left. I wanted her to leave anyway. I was no good to her, and it wasn’t fair of me to bog her down.”
“I’m so sorry.” It was all she could think of saying.
“Don’t be. If I hadn’t let go, I wouldn’t have discovered writing. It was ironic, not being able to see what I was writing when I had finally discovered it. But I could feel the words, and in many ways, it was cathartic.” He smiled wistfully.
“Do you miss it? Seeing?”
“Every day. I’d give anything to see the sky again, and the sun, and the moon, and everything and everyone.”
He had such beautiful lips, she observed. She wondered if it would be rude to ask to see his eyes. He didn’t specify what type of accident. She wondered if his eyes were damaged in a disfiguring way and that was why he never took off his dark glasses in public.
Yes, it would be rude to ask.
They spoke of other things. The food came, and she was gratified when he proclaimed how good the veal was.
He asked, “How did you meet your boyfriend?”
“Zach? It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
She blushed at the memory. Did she tell Noah the truth or some embellished, more sanitized version of it?
“We met at a club.”
It was a club for the less than savory members of society. She had gone there with a friend because she hadn’t known that fact.
Her friend, Shawna, had urged her to come. “It will be fun. It’s the most happening new club in town.”
“OK.” She had agreed to go.
The club itself was ordinary looking from the outside, although a line had formed at the door.<
br />
“Don’t worry.” Shawna winked. “I made friends with the doorman.”
She marched up to the doorman, bypassing everyone in the queue.
“Hi, Ben.”
“Hi, Shawna.” Ben was a big, big man with a goatee and tattoos on his biceps. He certainly fit the biker type.
“Care to let two hot girls in for free?”
Ben looked Karen up and down. He smiled.
“Sure. You two will do alright.”
“Thanks.” Shawna grabbed Karen’s hand and pulled her in to the protests of the people in line.
“Hey!”
“That isn’t fair.”
“Why’d you let them in?”
“Because they’re hot, and you’re not,” Ben replied calmly.
There were several outraged yells. Shawna laughed and stepped inside the club with Karen.
Karen felt ill at ease. Here she was, trying to be sexy when she was a chubby, slightly overweight girl with very big tits and a pert, round ass. She wore a little black strapless dress that showed off those tits to good effect. The dress was threatening to fall off. She didn’t do strapless very well, unlike Shawna, who was nice and slim – with sloping breasts that could fit into any dress and look dynamite.
The club was filled with dancing people. Other people milled around, especially at the long bar which was lighted in blue.
“Come on. Let’s go to the bar,” Shawna said.
There were plenty of men at the bar. Some of them were with women. Others were alone.
“I’m going to get laid tonight,” Shawna avowed. “This pussy ain’t been stabbed since the Fourth of July, and it’s sealing itself shut.”
Karen didn’t dare mention that her own pussy hadn’t been stabbed since . . . well, a far longer time than the Fourth of July. Shawna was her apartment mate, and she got a lot more action than Karen. Karen remembered all those nights she had spent listening to Shawna’s moans and cries from the next room, as well as the creaking of bedsprings and the banging of the headboard against the wall.
A tall, blond man at the end of the bar caught Karen’s eye. Three attractive women surrounded him. He was very tall, practically a giant compared to short Karen. She thought that he was very handsome. He had bright blue eyes, and his strong jaw was covered with a short blond beard.
She thought that he looked like Thor, the god of thunder.
She must have been staring, because he looked up. His eyes met hers across the room.
A shudder went through her.
It was kismet.
“Oh, look,” Shawna said, her eyes lighting on Thor. “Competition. But I bet I can wrest him away from those three.”
Karen’s spirits fell.
Oh, come on. As if you had the slightest chance with that Norse god anyway.
“Sure,” she said.
She watched enviously as Shawna walked up to the blond god. The three women gave Shawna murderous glances. Shawna started to chat animatedly with the blond man. Then Shawna pointed at Karen.
Karen panicked. What was Shawna doing?
The blond man glanced at Karen. Their eyes met across the crowded room again, and Karen felt her pulse skip.
The conversation went on for a while, and the three girls looked angrier as each second trickled by. Finally, Shawna detached herself from the little gathering. To Karen’s surprise, the blond man followed her.
Wow. What magic did Shawna possess?
Shawna weaved her way through the crowd, the blond man in tow. She went up to Karen.
“Guess who I brought?” she said gaily.
Karen could only stare at the handsome, blond, hulking man as he gazed down upon her.
“This is Zach,” Shawna said.
“Hi, Zach,” Karen squeaked.
“Hi. You’re Karen, right?” His voice was deep and commanding. It sent a shiver down Karen’s spine.
“Yes.”
“So let’s get on with it,” he said to Shawna, although his vivid blue eyes were still on Karen.
Shawna smiled at Karen. “Let’s go.”
Let’s go? Uh, but we just got here, Karen wanted to say. However, in the presence of the phenomenally imposing Zach, she was tongue-tied.
“Should we go to your place or mine?” Zach said.
Karen found her voice. “B-but we just got here.”
“And now we’re leaving. Objective secured,” Shawna said firmly. “We’ll go to our place.”
“Wait,” Karen said, looking from Zach to Shawna. “If you’re leaving with him, I don’t have to go, too.”
The last thing she wanted to do all night was to listen to Shawna’s moans under the blond god. Her blond god.
It wasn’t fair.
I saw him first.
“Oh, no, I thought this was the deal,” Zach declared. “The two of you, together.”
Karen’s eyebrows shot to the top of her head.
“What?” she screeched.
THE BLOND GOD
Zach eyed her quizzically.
“So you don’t do threesomes?” he asked.
Karen was indignant. “No!”
Shawna was nonplussed. “Come on, Karen. For once in your life, do something you haven’t done before. Remember, YOLO.”
It was Shawna’s favorite text message – the one she liked to end conversations with. YOLO. You only live once.
“Yeah, YOLO.” Zach seemed amused.
“It isn’t the thought of the threesome,” Karen shot at Shawna. “It’s the fact that you didn’t ask me first what I thought of it. It’s like that time with the heater repair guy. You didn’t ask me if I was OK with the quote. You just went ahead and hired that really expensive guy because you wanted to boink him.”
“Come on, Karen, it’s not that big a deal,” Shawna whined.
“Oh yes, it is. Look, the two of you can do whatever it is you like. I’m hightailing it out of here.”
She turned and stalked of.
Maybe she was overreacting. But Shawna had been taking her for granted lately, and this was the last straw.
A threesome!
And with a guy she had absolutely phenomenal chemistry with, too.
Karen’s cheeks burned as she fled the club.
She almost didn’t dare return to her apartment that night. But she knew she had to. When she opened the front door, she listened for Shawna’s usual lovemaking sounds. And sure enough, the screams and whimpers filtered through the door of Shawna’s bedroom and the thin walls.
I’m going to get my own apartment next year, Karen thought firmly. Get a new job that pays enough and then move into my own apartment.
She needed a shower badly. She proceeded to the common bathroom, stripped all her clothes off, and turned the shower on to the max so that the jet of water would drown out all the moans.
It didn’t work.
Damn Shawna.
It’s your fault, you know, she scolded herself. Shawna has the guts to go after what she wants. You don’t.
She dried herself off and then went to her own bedroom. She locked the door behind her. She didn’t want threesomes or foursomes or anything that wasn’t real anymore. She went to the club because she wanted to meet someone to make a connection with. Not for a one night stand.
The bedframe started to bang against the wall, punctuated by gasps and cries. Zach must have incredible endurance.
Karen put a pillow over her head and tried to go to sleep.
She didn’t succeed.
*
The next morning, a bleary-eyed Karen crept out of her bedroom. Shawna wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Karen got dressed, still in a grumpy mood. She went down to the Starbucks across the street to get coffee.
“Hey, Karen.” Shawna waved from a table.
Karen swung round. Her bottled-up feelings were mixed.
Why do you do the things you do?
Why are you the way you are?
Then she saw who Shawna was with. It wasn’t Za
ch. It was a hot black guy Karen had never seen before.
Shawna got up and sauntered over.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” Karen muttered.
“You got in pretty late last night. I wanted you to know that I didn’t go home with Zach. I hooked up with Kevin over there instead.”
Kevin waved. He was very cute, Karen thought.
But why? She turned to her apartment mate in amazement.
Shawna looked sheepish. “You’re right. Sometimes, I get ahead of myself. I should have asked you if you wanted a threesome instead of assuming you did. I geddit. Not everyone is as adventurous as I am.”
She paused.
“Anyway, it was only a go for him if you were in the picture. He didn’t want to go home with me. So I went home with Kevin instead.”
Karen’s eyes went round.
Shawna’s mouth pursed. “Before you think I’m all rotten, I’m not. I’m really not, OK? I do watch out for you, Karen. He asked for your number, and I gave it to him.”
“Wait a minute. Who asked for my number?”
“Zach. Hot blond guy from last night. Remember him?”
Now Karen was shocked into speechlessness.
“Yup.” Shawna nodded. “He’s apparently into you.”
Just then, Karen’s phone vibrated in her jeans pocket. She looked down at her pocket, still in shock.
“That might be him,” Shawna said knowingly. “I told him to call you around this time to be sure that you were awake.”
Karen’s trembling hand went into her pocket. She fished her phone out. It was an unidentified number.
Shawna smiled.
“Hello?” Karen said shakily.
Zach’s deep voice went, “Hello? Karen?”
*
“So that’s how you met?” Noah said, smiling. “That’s very romantic.”
Karen groaned. “I don’t think so. But he was very persistent. He asked me out immediately.”
“And you said yes, I presume?”
“Yes.” Karen flushed. “I don’t usually get hot guys like Zach asking me out for a date, so I didn’t want to play hard to get or anything you learn in college.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Huh?”
“Why do you say that you usually don’t get hot guys asking you out?”
Oh, right. He couldn’t see.
