by Rye Hart
I made quick work of soaping the rest of me and washing my hair before I got out of the shower and toweled off. I went to the closet and found some loose jeans to put on with a gray T-shirt. I scrubbed at my stubbly face with my palm and knew I wasn’t ready to shave it off, even if it was annoying everyone who knew me.
I found my camera next to my bed and sat down on the messy covers to see what kind of pictures were on file. I had some of my shots on this particular one, but out of the five cameras I owned, this one was mostly for taking pictures of random objects and people. I didn’t like to adjust settings, so I’d just buy a new camera for each subject I was shooting.
This infuriated my father, who thought my love of photography was a colossal waste of time. He didn’t care about the fact that I’d already sold my astral photography for some of the highest premiums in the industry.
My dad’s disappointed was nothing new. Ever since my teenage years, I’d started a collection of tattoos on my arms, chest, and various other regions of my body. Every time he’d catch a glimpse of my inked skin he’d bark a long string of curse words.
Sorry Pops. You’re going to have to accept that your son is a complete fuck-up, as far as you’re concerned.
The memory card revealed several of Terri’s nudes, and for a moment I wondered if I should take to the internet to plaster her image on every porn site I could find, but that wasn’t my style. It might imply that I actually gave a shit. Besides, knowing her, she’d love the attention. I deleted the images and took the card out of the camera and walked it over to my computer. I had some others I wanted to download but wasn’t sure what I would do with them.
It was definitely time to focus on my work. It was also time for a trip out west, so I sat behind my computer and turned it on as I checked my calendar for the next new moon. When the moon was away, the stars would play, and that was when I photographed them in all their glory.
I needed to work on my latest project to give the proceeds from my next batch of portraits to a nonprofit that my mother got me into, Dream Weavers. They provide income to single moms in Nicaragua, with home-based businesses sewing authentic clothing items, to feed their families. I planned to match the profits from the project 100 percent from my own savings. It turned out this spoiled trust fund prick had an okay side to him. Maybe so, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that shit spread. I had a playboy reputation to uphold.
The phone rang before I could lose myself in planning my trip. “It figures,” I mumbled when I saw my old man’s mug on my phone’s screen. He had a knack for calling at the worst times.
“Hey, Dad.” I waited for the familiar attitude that always came through my phone when he called.
“Where are you?” The man always asked the same thing. Never hello, champ or how are you?
“I’m home.”
“Of course you are. You should be out looking for employment. I guess that girl of yours has you playing house again this morning?” He’d been upset to learn that Terri had been staying with me most of the tie instead of living with her roommate.
“No, and you’ll be pleased to know we broke up last night. So, she’s not around.”
“Well, I hope you didn’t let her make off with the credit cards.” He’d also been pissed when she’d accidentally took the wrong credit card from my wallet and bought dinner on it. It’d been an honest mistake since she’d meant to steal my own instead of the one for family emergencies, but my father wouldn’t let it go.
“It was fifty-five-dollars, Dad. I paid you back. And no, she didn’t get away with my credit cards.” I wanted to tell the old man off, but I held my tongue.
“Watch your tone, boy. I wanted to call and tell you that your trust check is here. The bank didn’t do a direct deposit this month. You’ll need to put some serious thought on settling down with a descent girl soon, if you expect to see your full inheritance.”
“I’m on it dad.”
That was a lie. I had zero fucking clue what I was going to do about my inheritance issue.
My grandmother left me a fortune in money that was to be paid out in a trust until next year, when I reached the age of thirty-five. At that time, I’d get the rest in a lump sum. The fact that his mother had split up her money between her grandchildren, claiming her no-good children had enough money of their own, had always chapped his ass, as well as the fact that he couldn’t tell me how to spend it.
The one thing he managed to do was convince my grandmother that I needed to be settled before the money came to me in full. Apparently, their definition of settled was married with at least one child. So I had exactly fifteen months to find a girl I wanted to be tied to for the rest of my life and get her pregnant. Great.
The fact that my father, who’d been a total womanizer who’d practically driven my mother away, would give a shit about family life was fucking laughable.
“Have you even looked into finding work?”
“I am working. I’m head deep on building my photography.”
My father thought if I didn’t work, I’d end up in trouble or running off like my oldest brother, Daniel. No one had heard from him in months. I wasn’t that close to him, though; not like I was with my sister, Megan.
“A man needs a job. A real job, not a hobby like that star photography shit you’re into.” That ‘shit’, as he liked to call it, meant a lot to me, but he didn’t care. And one day, I was going to make a huge name for myself, so that my dad could eat his words.
“Have you heard from your sister? I’m not sure I like that new roommate she’s living with. That girl is trouble. She’s only going to get Megan in trouble, and I’m afraid it will hurt her career. I want you to try and talk her into moving home. She’s still got a room here.”
“She doesn’t want to live with you. She’s a grown woman, and you treat her like a child. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that she hasn’t called.”
Or that Daniel took off.
“She was just upset that I brought Evangeline here to live with me. She'd still not forgiven me for the incident with your mother.”
“You cheated on her and divorced her; let’s call it what it is.”
“Yeah, well your mom moved away, and that’s not my fault. She should have stayed close.”
“We speak at least three times a week. She’s living her own life, like the rest of us. I’ll talk with Megan, but I’m not convincing her she needs to be anywhere she doesn’t want to be. I have an extra room, and she knows it’s hers if she wants it.” I wasn’t going to tell him that she’d used the extra room several times already and he sure didn’t need to know why.
The only thing my father and I agreed on was her roommate. That girl was trouble.
“Just check on Megan.” He hung up the phone.
I took a deep breath. I didn’t need his passive aggressive bullshit. I’d just lost a gold-digger with the same problem.
I needed a break more than ever, and planning a work trip out to West Texas would be a great way to clear my mind. With nothing but my camera and camping gear, I’d be able to escape. I hadn’t taken a trip to do my astral photography as often as I liked in months. Terri didn’t appreciate my hobby any more than my father did, and the only thing she wanted me taking pictures of was her; naked. She hadn’t been too pleased when I wanted to take her out to sleep in a tent and brave the wild animals and Texas-sized mosquitos to get pictures of the sky. She also didn’t want me going alone for some bullshit fear that I’d pick up a chick on the way out of town to warm my sleeping bag.
I spun around in my computer chair, still looking for the calendar and moon phases. I wanted to make sure I had everything planned out so I could leave town. The only person I’d tell I was leaving would be Megan, and I’d ask her to stay at my house while I was gone. It was a sure way to kill two birds with one stone. I’d get my rest and the images I needed for my project, and I’d know right where my sister was.
As I got up and headed down to the storage clo
set to find my sleeping bag and tent, I thought about how I couldn’t put off finally finding a girl to settle down with, if not for the damn clause in my inheritance but for my own sanity.
Next time, I was going to find a real girl who not only loved photography but didn’t mind roughing it.
I didn’t know if she existed, but I’d sure as hell do my best to find out.
CHAPTER THREE – KAMI
Sunday mornings were for family, so Aunt Helen always cooked a big breakfast and insisted that Rain and I be around to eat it. I’d gotten up early and was ready to go down in plenty of time to help her finish cooking.
I walked into her bright living room, where the sun was shining in through the windows shadowing the couch beneath and blinding me.
Then Devin’s unsettling voice brought me around. “Morning, Kam-Kam.”
I whirled around as he sat up shirtless, clearly seeking attention. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Rain walked up behind me from the kitchen. “He was too drunk to drive home last night, and I was too tired to take him. Aunt Hel insisted he crash here.”
“Whatever. Don’t call me Kam-Kam.” I hadn’t minded the nick-name when we were together, but since the breakup, he’d only used it as a way to annoy me.
“I would have gone home with my girl, but we broke up. It was time for a change anyway. I’ve got plenty of girls barking at the bit.”
I wanted to say, “Seems fitting for a dog like you,” but I didn’t want him to think I cared enough. So I turned to go into the kitchen and help Aunt Helen. She lined a pan with bread, and I took over by getting the butter out of the fridge and buttering each piece.
“Thanks,” she said, wiping her brow. She took a load off while I popped the pan into the oven to make our toast. “You’re down early today.”
Rain joined her aunt at the table. “You’ve also been pulling doubles a lot lately. You should slow down.”
“I’m glad to have the extra work. It helps with the bills, and I’ve been enjoying this new phase of cleaning out unneeded trash and clutter.” I fought off the urge to say: ‘Devin being the first and biggest.’, but I stopped myself.
“I’m about to change the apartment up a bit. Maybe I’ll paint it and get a new couch. The ones I have now are too old.”
The truth was I couldn’t wait to move out of the apartment and had Devin’s nuisance to thank for that. Though, I couldn’t afford the rent in the area. At least for now I could enjoy my space for however long I was going to be here.
“Those couches are ancient, honey. I had them when I moved into this place forty years ago,” Aunt Helen said.
“It’s great furniture, but it’s time to die.”
Devin came into the kitchen and grabbed a mug before helping himself to a cup of coffee.
“I’m going to take this on the road.” He raised his mug and took a sip as she waved her hand dismissively.
“You go on ahead. Bring my mug back, though. You can’t find anything with Iggy on it anymore.”
The oven timer went off, and I got up to take a peek at the bread that was ready. As usual, there was way too much, and Aunt Helen stopped Devin.
“Come back here, honey, and get you some toast for the road.” She grabbed a paper towel and wrapped a few pieces up for him to take, which he gladly did.
“Thanks, Hel. Rain.” He gave my friend a nod and then met my eyes with a smirk.
I felt my blood boiling. Why did he have to hang around like an unwanted rag doll? He brought out the worst in me.
Once the door was shut, Rain giggled. “Wow, you could cut the tension in here with a knife. It’s one thing to have hard feelings, but you waste way too much emotion hating him, Kam.”
“Uh, hello? Can you blame me? He did nothing but put me down for months and cheat on me. Am I supposed to kiss his feet just because he’s a good guitar player?” I asked her.
I loved Rain, and knew that she had my back in most things, but I was still a little pissed that she stayed connected to Devin knowing how much he’d hurt me. I didn’t want to start a fight with my best friend, so I instead excused myself and made my way to my apartment.
As I walked in and threw myself on my coach, I heard Rain’s footsteps up the steps. She entered my living room with a concerned look on her face.
“You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind. I’m sorry Devin was here. I know it’s not easy, but I couldn’t let him drive home.”
“You did the right thing. I just wish he’d have the decency to at least try not to show his face around me. He’s always in my space and says things that only annoy me even more.”
Rain sat down next to me in the couch. “I wanted to tell you about something. Samantha at work was telling me about this dating site. I don’t know if you’ve ever considered that sort of thing, but this one is based locally, and it matches people based on your interests. Who knows you may find your perfect man and baby daddy. It’s called Matched Solid. She’s had a good experience with it so far.”
“I’ve never thought of using a dating site. I hear they can be dangerous if you’re not careful, and the last thing I need is a stalker.”
“This one is supposed to have security features in place, and you’re only sharing the information that you allow to share. It’s not like you rush into anything. If you find someone, you can call them and say hi through their chat and online call feature. That way, you’re not giving these men your numbers.” Rain shrugged, and I had to admit, it’d sounded different from anything else I’d heard of.
Rain’s concern was warranted. My life was beginning to feel like complete hell. And every time I had a run in with Devin, all my anger and resentment stirred back up. How the hell was I going to move on with my life like this? I needed something other than work as a distraction, because I was slowly going mad.
“So how much does this thing cost?” I knew there had to be some catch and I didn’t want to spend all my hard-earned tip money paying monthly fees.
Rain took out her phone. “Here, let’s look it up.” She sent her thumbs moving across the screen and put the phone in front of us. I leaned in close to get a better look.
“They have an introductory special. It’s a one-time fee of fourteen-ninety-nine. You can’t beat that. You get access to their forums and have your own profile page that you can add pictures to.”
I leaned in over her shoulder. “It’s kind of like the Facebook of romance. I guess it has algorithms that suggest people based on their interests. I guess I could try it.”
“We can’t look at the profiles unless we have an account. Do you want to set one up?” Rain smile widened as she bounced in her seat.
“I guess we could. My laptop is in my bedroom.”
As if we were kids again, we gave each other mischievous looks and raced to my room. We opened it, and it lit up, the screen coming to life to reveal my lock screen. I typed in my password, and I let Rain take to the keys.
She typed in the web address, and soon the site popped up. “OK, let’s see how to sign you up.” Rain filled in the appropriate information and only had to ask me a few questions to get me started. Once it went to the payment part, she turned the computer around, and I punched in my numbers, giving Matched Solid my fifteen-dollar entry.
I kept the computer in front of me. “We can look at the profiles now.” I let out a deep breath and scrolled down through the gallery of profiles, each of which had a picture and a brief description. There was a search feature, and it had options to search for specific interests, but I glanced over several profiles on the page. The entire group was filled with attractive people, and even if someone wasn’t to my personal attraction, there weren’t any who looked like they belonged in prison.
That’s a win.
Rain whistled. “Nice looking bunch. I’ve heard when people pay to be on a site; it usually means they are going to put their best face forward, but then again, this site could be doing the same thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, the site probably puts their more attractive people on the front pages.” She lifted her shoulder casually and leaned in closer.
“I guess I can see why they’d do that. Let’s dig around a bit.” I went halfway into the profiles and found that the further back into the pages, the less “apple pie” the people looked. Rain was right.
“Dang, he’s fine.” Rain practically pushed me aside and leaned in to get a better look. “Hellooo, Daddy.” She fanned herself as I giggled.
“You’re terrible. He is hot, though. It’s good to see a few rugged guys here and there, for a minute I thought we’d stepped into an ivy league yearbook.” I hit like, and she smiled.
“Yeah, but look at this guy. If he contacts you, I’ll be so jealous. He’s even making my ovaries boil. I think you better turn the page before we become pregnant by osmosis.”
“If only it were that easy.” I nudged her and scrolled further into the list.
“Wow, he’s got some serious hair.” I gave her a look and shook my head. “I think we better keep going.” We scrolled through all the pages, making comments and hitting the like button when necessary. We laughed at a few until we cried and couldn’t believe what some were putting in their profiles.
“I think you need to do your profile. We could spend hours here.”
“We have. I don’t know what to put. Do you think you could help me write it? I noticed many of them were written in the third person.”
“I’ll do what I can. We’ll have them lining up in no time.”
I wasn’t sure I wanted them lining up, but I had to get started somehow.
“First things first. Let’s add a profile picture.”
After we got my profile all set up and Rain left to go to work, I sat and scrolled through the guys one more time.
I sat and looked through the photos of all the “eligible bachelors near me.” I couldn’t help but wonder which one of them might make a good dad.
