Overcoming

by H. R. Kitte-Rojas

The phone rang, and Shauna answered. "That's OK, Mum. Take your time. No, it's not back on yet. It'll be a while, so you might as well. Mmm-hmm. Love you too. Bye."

  How soft and wonderful her voice was. At that moment, there wasn't anything about Shauna he found to be less than awesome.

  With instructions for Katina to bring him a bottle of water, Shauna left him in the chair, bustling about between the bathrooms. He breathed deep. His boots and socks didn't smell that bad.

  Shauna returned with more supplies. She dabbed iodine on his wounds, then bandaged them with gauze. Once finished, she stepped back to visually inspect her work. For the first time in a while, she smiled at him.

  "I think you're going to live."

  He hoisted the water bottle toward her, then finished it off with one last swig. "Outstanding job, Nurse Shauna. You were born to do this."

  She turned to her daughter. "Katina, Baby, do me a favor. Go look through those cardboard boxes in the garage. Grandpa put some of his old shirts in there. Can you find one for Miles?"

  "I can find one!" Katina said, and bolted for the garage.

  Miles watched her go, grinning. He continued staring in that direction even after the door slammed behind her. "She's so eager to help people. Like her mother."

  Shauna looked askance at him. "You should call your supervisor now; get him to take you to the hospital and have you checked out."

  "Can't do that," he mumbled. "I was doing something I wasn't supposed to do."

  "What? Fixing somebody's cable?"

  "I was working in an unsafe manner," he said.

  "Miles, that was a big fall. You might have other injuries you haven't felt yet. We're supposed to report every accident, no matter how minor."

  "They could fire me, Shauna. Please don't tell anybody."

  They locked eyes, at first to confirm that she would do as asked. Then something passed between them that was more than that.

  "OK," she said, and broke eye contact.

  He reached for his boots. "Thank-you."

  She knelt before him again. "Let me get those."

  He was about to protest, when their hands touched. Both of them froze. Then, slowly, their heads swiveled up. They looked in each other's eyes. Miles' heart pounded hard and fast. Emotions swelled to bursting within him. Their faces were only inches apart. His body screamed for his brain's permission to grab her; hold her; kiss her.

  Shauna blinked, inhaled, and stood.

  He stared up at her. Her eyes glowed with an intensity he wanted to think was mutual yearning. He hoped it was not fear or offense. He rose slowly, never tearing his gaze off her. She took a baby step back. He stepped forward.

  Carefully, he raised his hands to her waist, then gently cupped her sides, at the lower edge of her ribcage. Breath escaped her mouth in a soft, but sudden, hiss.

  There was no mistaking why a man would touch a woman this way, but she didn't shrink back.

  She reached up inside his loose, tentative embrace, to probe his bandaged arms. "How will you hide this at work, tomorrow?"

  "I'll wear a long-sleeve shirt."

  "In this heat?"

  "I'll take it off after I leave the warehouse."

  "Maybe you should call in sick. And heal." Her hands, with only enough contact to tickle, moved up his arms, to his shoulders, then over to his chest, where she combed through his hair with her fingers, then pressed one soft, tiny palm against his pectoral muscle. Her other hand felt his forehead, then slid down to his cheek, where her thumb traced over his lips.

  This contact drove him batty. He pulled her toward him with slow, deliberate steadiness. Their noses almost touched. Then she closed her eyes, tilted her head to the side, and he finally knew that this dream could come true.

  He kissed her gently on the lips. She responded, and his heart raced to ramming speed. They kissed again. Then again, and this time, he nibbled tenderly on her succulent lower lip.

  Her arms snaked around his neck and a short, soft murmur escaped her throat. His hands slid around her back and pulled her tighter against him. He opened his mouth slightly and tested her with a tentative probe of the tongue. Her mouth opened, she thrust her tongue past his and into his mouth, searching his every contour with desperate passion.

  Scintillating flames shot through his body. He broke off the kiss to look at her; make sure this was really happening. Then their heads tilted the opposite way and their mouths met again. Normally the feel of her voluptuous body squeezed against him so tight would have been the most overwhelming sensation. But he was lost in the magic of kissing her.

  11

  Ever since their shopping trip, Celeste asked about the white boy every time they talked. Shauna informed her of her plan before the fact.

  "I have to know," Shauna said. "I can't take any more of this waitand-see game."

  "I know, girlfriend," Celeste said. "And I'm glad you're not, but don't get a third person to mediate, okay?"

  "Oh no," Shauna replied. "I'm taking the initiative, but the ball's in his court. I'm just making sure he has an opportunity. If he doesn't take it, then the question's answered."

  "You go, girl."

  Celeste called again while Miles was there at Mum's house, wanting a play-by-play. Not really having specific developments to give her yet, Shauna was evading her questions when she heard Katina come inside, calling for her as she ran from room to room. Shauna concentrated on her conversation with Celeste, resolving to let Katina find her in the laundry room.

  "Mommy! Miles fell down!"

  Shauna briefly wondered how Katina knew his name, but said, "I'm on the phone, Baby."

  "But Mommy--"

  "Hang on, Celeste. It's OK, Katina. What happened--he tripped over something?"

  Katina shook her head, eyes moist and pleading. "He fell far. It must have hurt."

  "How far?"

  "A long way. There's blood."

  Katina sometimes overreacted, her five-year-old mind not yet practiced in judging the seriousness of a thing. Shauna hadn't heard any loud noises, and she had pretty good ears. But still, Katina was upset, so the best thing to do was investigate.

  Halfway through the house, she remembered that big, heavy ladder Miles used. "He didn't fall off the ladder, did he?"

  "No," Katina said, tugging on her hand to urge faster movement. "He fell off a...a..." Her tiny face wrinkled with perplexion.

  When Shauna saw Miles, she decided the situation was indeed serious, and said good-bye to Celeste. "Miles, what happened?"

  "Fell off a pole," he said. He continued to work with shaky hands. His shirt front was destroyed, the shredded cloth accordion-bunched just below his collar. Where the ragged opening exposed him, his stomach and chest were striped with blood. The insides of his arms were even worse--the hide peeled right off of him.

  She brought him inside and did what she could for him. He was in a state of mild shock, she decided: deathly pale, with cold, clammy skin everywhere but his forehead, which burned like a stove. He looked dazed, and he slurred a bit when he spoke.

  Katina was a great little helper. Also, she seemed to have taken a liking to Miles. Understandable: the man radiated strength and intelligence in a way that even a child could sense.

  The strength wasn't just physical, as evidenced by his lean, muscular arms and torso, his hard, powerful hands, or his tolerance for pain. The strength came from inside him. As he recovered from the shock Shauna could almost feel it, like a cloud, settling around them.

  She noticed other things as he recovered, too. The way he looked at her made her feel warm and anxious. When in close proximity, her pulse raced and sometimes she had to fight urges to touch him.

  When both of them grabbed for his boots and their hands closed on each other's, the electricity was more powerful than before. She felt faint. Something had to happen. There had to be some kind of resolution, or she would go insane.

  Their eyes met, and the raw hunger in his countenance scared her a little. More than
that, it thrilled her. With weak knees, she stood up.

  Maybe he wasn't attracted to her. Maybe she was deluding herself the way Celeste had years ago.

  He gazed up into her face, his blue eyes burning right through to her soul. The sexual tension was palpable.

  He stood, facing her.

  She stepped back.

  He stepped forward.

  This was the primordial dance men and women had engaged in since the dawn of the human race, and he did want to dance it, after all. She willed him to touch her, and he did. The abrasive feel of his rough hands on her sides did not bother her. Quite the opposite. She wanted more of it; to be manhandled by those powerful hands, even if the scraping calluses caused a little discomfort.

  This is it, she thought: the moment I've been hoping for. He wants me, after all. There's no denying he wants me. And I want him.

  Passion had her dizzy. She wanted to taste his lips on hers, but forbid herself to initiate it. She touched his chest, as if she might push him away, though she had no such intention. She felt for his temperature, which was closer to normal, now, and found something to say. The words she came up with were masks for what was really in her heart right then: how hot he had made her; how hotter she wanted to get with him; how they could heal each other from the oppression of loneliness.

  Finally, he kissed her. She wanted to play hard-to-get, even then, but betrayed herself by crying out from her pent-up feelings.

  The kisses grew longer, and deeper. She held on for dear life.

  Had it ever been this good before? If so, she had forgotten how exilherating it was to be kissed by someone throwing their heart and soul into the effort. And kissing back someone who enjoyed being kissed.

  They held each other tighter and tighter. Then she noticed the hard bulge against her lower abdomen. She felt it pulsating through the clothing between them. She broke off the kiss and stepped away, holding one hand up to her tingling lips.

  "Katina might walk in at any second," she said, the words coming out somewhere between a gasp and a whisper.

  Miles' eyes widened, pupils huge, irises dark. His mouth hung open. He looked as if someone had stolen his lunch just as he was getting started eating it. "Let her walk in," he said.

  "She might not understand what I'm doing with you."

  "I think it's self-explanatory," he said, softly, and pulled her back to him. He kissed her, and for a moment she lost herself in it once again, wrapping her arms around him, plunging her fingers through his hair.

  Then she remembered to pull away.

  "She's very impressionable," Shauna said, turning, striding for the garage door. She opened it and saw Katina rummaging through a box, having already selected several polo shirts.

  Katina looked up and grinned proudly. "I found some nice ones, Mommy."

  "You sure did, Baby. Let me help you decide on the best one." She joined her daughter and picked out a red one, thinking it would be the least likely to stain if Miles' blood seeped through the bandages onto it.

  Miles was putting his boots back on when they presented the shirt to him. His expression was blank. He donned it quickly with a grunt of thanks. Then, moving so fast that he caused a small wind in his wake, he went outside again.

  Shauna collapsed on the couch, closed her eyes and fanned herself with the TV Guide. She quivered and tingled all over. Her thoughts came too quickly and thickly to occur in complete sentences. Katina hovered for a moment, then went outside.

  That was even better than I imagined, she thought. She and Dwayne experienced some hot petting sessions back in the day, but the memories were dulled by time and stained by the anticlimactic quickies which followed.

  She decided to freshen up a bit. When she emerged from the bathroom, Katina burst inside again.

  "Miles is finished," she announced. "He says we can turn the TVs back on."

  "I tell you what," Shauna said. "Do Mommy a favor: get Grandma's step stool, take it to the laundry room, then take all of the clothes out of the washer and put them in the dryer. Then you can go turn on the TVs and make sure all the channels work. OK?"

  Katina, as usual, was happy to oblige.

  Shauna went outside, and found Miles packing tools and material back into his van.

  "Hey, Cable Man," she said. "Are you hoping to get a signature?"

  He turned and his eyes lit up as if it had been years since he'd seen her. She caressed his face, then craned her neck up as her hands pulled his head down to meet hers. This kiss was luxuriously slow and thorough, as if they needed to memorize every square millimeter of each others' mouths by feel.

  When they separated far enough for some air to pass between them, their hands connected them on both sides, fingers intertwined. He gazed at her with a crooked smile and a glow in his eyes. She felt young, beautiful and happy.

  "You'll probably need to change those bandages several times in the next few days," she said. "Keep putting iodine on the boo-boos."

  "Yes, Nurse," he said. "I'll get this shirt washed and back to you right away, too."

  "I don't think Daddy will miss it," she said.

  Speaking of the devil, her father's Lincoln turned into the driveway. Mile's van blocked them from view below the shoulders, but Shauna let go of Miles' hands and backed away before the moving car provided her parents a better angle.

  Quickly grasping that what had happened between them should be kept on the down-low, Miles played it cool, got his paperwork signed, and left with a polite, professional farewell while her parents were unloading the trunk in the garage.

  Driving Katina to the apartment, Shauna's dreamlike reverie was tainted by the fear that her behavior toward the end might have seemed like a rude brush-off. She called Miles' Nextel.

  He didn't answer. She tried again, later, from her apartment. Relief and excitement coursed through her when she heard his voice on the other end.

  "I called you earlier," she said. "But you didn't answer."

  "Sorry. Must have been when I was in the drug store. Left my phone in the van."

  "What were you doing at the drug store?"

  "Pain killers."

  "You didn't get more bandages? You need tape; iodine; peroxide." "I'm bandaged already. You used all that."

  "You have to change your dressing, Miles."

  "Well, for now I'm gonna just rest."

  "Miles, are you all right with what happened?"

  "What? Falling off a pole?"

  "No. The other thing that happened--between you and me." "Yeah. Why? Are you?"

  She closed her eyes and sighed. "Yes. I'm fine with it. So fine. I was worried, for a while, that it wasn't going to happen."

  "Really?"

  "Yes."

  After a pause, he said, "Well, it did."

  "Were you worried?" she asked.

  "Yup."

  She waited for more, but he didn't elaborate. "I was scared," she said.

  "Why?"

  "I don't know," she said, stepping out on her balcony. "There's always the fear of rejection."

  "You? Afraid of rejection?"

  "Of course," she said, surprised at his surprise. "Why do you say it like that?"

  He cleared his throat. "I can't imagine anybody rejecting you, Shauna."

  She chuckled. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

  "That's too bad."

  "Why is it too bad?"

  "'Cause there's more where that came from," he said.

  "Well, let's hear some more, then."

  "Not if it's gonna get me nowhere."

  She laughed, and he snickered along with her.

  "Anyway," she said, "there's the whole skin color thing, too. I've never dated outside my race before."

  "Yeah," he said. "There's that."

  "Have you?" she asked.

  "No."

  "Why not?"

  He exhaled heavily into the receiver. "Different reasons, I guess. I told you about how things were where I grew up. Plus, I just haven't dated that much
for a few years. Why haven't you?"

  "It just never occurred to me," she said. "I mean, I can recognize value in someone of any color, but I guess it's just safe to stick with your own kind, you know?"

  "Or so we assume," he said.

  "Exactly. And then, when you look around, most people do stick to their own kind. So if you're attracted to somebody outside your race, the odds are against it being mutual."

  "You said a lot, right there," he said. "So that increases your risk of rejection."

  "So you were afraid I might reject you?" she asked.

  "Yup."

  "Didn't you feel anything, though?"

  "What do you mean?"

  She shifted her weight from one leg to the other, and grimaced up at the moon. "Couldn't you tell that I liked you?"

  "I wasn't sure. I kind of thought so sometimes, but then that might have been just my wishful thinking."

  She found this admission especially endearing. "It wasn't your wishful thinking."

  "I'm glad. When did you start liking me?"

  She smiled to herself, remembering. "When we talked on the phone. But what really did it was when you touched me."

  "When I touched you?"

  "In your van, after I damaged that man's ceiling. You touched my cheek."

  "That? Really?" He sounded astonished.

  "Really."

  "I thought I offended you."

  "No," she said. "Your touch is wonderful. When did you start liking me?"

  "On the phone."

  She smiled. "So that was mutual. But when did you know you were attracted to more than my voice?"

  He exhaled heavily. "When I saw you. When you brought me a bottle of water on that one job. When you offered to stay and keep me company. When you 'fixed my boo-boo'."

  "Which one?"

  "All of them. Any one of those would have got my attention, but put them all together and I was a goner."

  "I'm glad I stayed to keep you company," she said.

  "So tell me: now that the ice is pretty much broken--"

  She guffawed.

  "It is broken, right?"

  "Yes. It's broken," Shauna said, still laughing. "I have your tongue print on my tonsils to prove it."

  "OK, then. Since we've got that established, when can I see you again? And I don't mean at work."