"These are cute."
"You want some for yourself?" I asked, trying to ignore the fact that my face was most likely bright red.
"I don't look good in pink," he said, tossing them back into the cart.
The woman he was with walked over, absorbed in her phone. I didn't remember her real name, but my friend Kit and I called her Fast Fingers Freddy. I never saw her
not
texting.
"Well, don't let me keep you from...whatever it is you're doing," I said, eyeing the girl.
"You know my cousin Muriel?" Rhys said, gesturing to FFF.
I felt relief to know that FFF was only Rhys's cousin, but I was annoyed with her name. What was her mother thinking? It doesn't matter, she'll always be Freddy to me.
"I've seen her around," I said, wondering if I should try to talk to her or not. She seemed oblivious to us.
"Sup," Muriel said without looking up.
"Sup," I replied with raised eyebrows.
"Why are you changing your locks?" Rhys picked up a knob.
"I'm trying to keep out unwanted guests."
"Huh," he said thoughtfully. "You know how to install this stuff?"
"Not a clue," I admitted. "Not even sure if I have the right tools. Maybe I should buy a tool set."
Rhys laughed and shook his head again. He did that a lot around me.
"I can help you out, after I drop Muriel off. It's not a problem and I have my own tools."
Oh, I'm so sure you do
.
"That's nice of you, but I don't want you wasting your Friday night."
"It won't be a waste," he smiled and started to walk away. "I'll be by in an hour."
"You don't know where I live," I objected.
"I know a lot of things." He disappeared around the corner.
I didn't count on seeing him in an hour. I didn't count on seeing him until Monday morning.
I didn't know if I was relieved or disappointed.
Chapter Four
I was standing at my open front door, holding a hammer and a screw driver, thinking about how to beat the doorknob into submission, when a black Audi pulled into my driveway. I was frozen in place, with an idiotic look on my face when Rhys walked up the steps, and onto the porch. He carried a toolbox in his right hand and a six pack of beer in his other.
He stopped in the doorway next to me and looked at my choice of tools. Laugh, shake of the head.
"Give me those before you hurt yourself," he took the hammer and screw driver from me.
"I didn't think you were really coming," I said, backing up to let him in.
"I told you I would. It's getting dark though, I'll need some light, or I can do this for you in the morning."
"No way." I turned on the outside light and the living room lights.
"So, who's the unwanted guest?" Rhys glanced up at me a few minutes later.
"My ex-husband, Gary. I see him more now than I did through our entire marriage."
"Maybe you should have changed your locks sooner."
"Maybe I should have. He took my cookware yesterday, and my shower curtain. While I was in the shower."
He laughed and looked at me again.
"You're shitting me."
"I shit you not."
He laughed again and stood up.
"Next door."
He followed me through the living room into the kitchen. It felt weird having Rhys walking through my house. We occasionally had lunch together, and drinks after work with a group of coworkers, but I never imagined him inside of my house, with just the two of us, alone.
Rhys flipped the switch for my back light, but nothing happened. He looked at me and I looked back.
"It needs a new bulb."
"Did your ex take the light bulb, too?"
"No, smartass. I can't get the globe off."
Laugh. Shaking of the head.
He grabbed a kitchen chair from the table.
"Is there anything else you need me to fix?" He asked with amusement.
I bit my lip and rocked from foot to foot.
"Well, since you're asking..."
After replacing the outside bulb and the locks for the back door, Rhys put up my new shower curtain, stopped a drippy faucet, and hung a painting I had been meaning to hang for months.
"You owe me," Rhys said when all was done. We were standing in the kitchen drinking beer.
"Like what?"
If he said sex, I would pretend to be appalled as I tore my clothes off and laid myself out on the kitchen table like a Christmas turkey waiting to get stuffed.
"Like dinner."
"Sure. What do you want?" I yanked open a drawer and pulled out several take-out menus.
He moved in close to me so we could view the menus together. I tried not to squirm as his arm touched mine while we each held an end of a menu.
Wow he smells good.
We settled on cheesesteaks and fries. While I was on the phone with the restaurant, Rhys wandered into my living room and started looking through my movie collection.
"How about a movie?" He asked when I joined him.
I stood there dumbfounded. Rhys wanted to watch a movie with me, and eat food, all at once, in my living room.
"What's wrong with you?"
"Uhh..." I said. "Nothing. I just thought you would have better things to do on a Friday night than to hang out with me."
"Maybe it's you that has something better to do. Maybe you have a hot date."
"Hardly."
"You want me to leave?" He asked with a smile, and moved closer to me.
"Umm..." I was again frozen to the floor as he got so close to me I thought he was going to kiss me, but that's ridiculous right? I mean, this was Rhys, and Rhys was the guy I not-so-secretly stare at and wished that he would kiss me.
And then he kissed me.
Whoa. Holy cannoli.
Rhys's lips were soft, but not too soft. They were a nice manly kind of soft, great for kissing. When his tongue teased at mine, I gripped onto his shirt, not because I was trying to get closer, but because I thought I was going to fall.
When he pulled away, I was breathless and he was smiling. I didn't immediately release him, because I was still unsteady in the legs.
"Here's a good movie," he said, plucking one off of the shelf. Carefully, he unraveled my fingers from his shirt and walked over to the television.
"What...was...that?" I asked, still rooted to the spot where he kissed me.
"Ten Things I Hate About You."
"Not the movie. I mean the kiss."
"It was a kiss."
"Yeah, got that, but why?"
"Did you not enjoy it?" He asked.
"I enjoyed it, but why did you kiss me?"
"You don't kiss people you like?"
"I like a lot of people."
"But you don't like a lot of people the way that you like me," he smiled.
I thought about that for a few seconds.
"Okay," I said. "We both know I stalk you from afar."
"And not so far."
"Yeah, okay, but I've never seen you stalking me. I mean, you're cool about my own embarrassing behavior, and you're nice to me, but...I would have never foreseen a kiss."
Before he could respond, my doorbell rang. I finally moved to go answer the door. When I reached into my pocket for money for the delivery guy, Rhys appeared next to me and handed him a twenty.
"Keep the change," he told the guy and closed the door. He took the food from me and carried it to the coffee table.
"What was
that
?" I asked, following him.
"You keep asking that."
"I thought I was paying for dinner?"
"I didn't say that."
"You said I owed you dinner."
"I didn't say you had to pay for it."
I put a hand to my forehead.
"Oh boy," I said. "I'm so confused."
"You're a little tense tonight," he said with his awesome smile.
"Yeah, I am!"
"We need to address that."
He put his hands on my waist and lowered me to the couch. He kissed me again, but more intensely than before. I felt my nipples harden and I probably should have changed my panties long ago, but I was pretty sure he caused an instant orgasm with this newer kiss.
He had one hand on my hip and the other on the back of my neck. I felt like an idiot because I didn't know what to do with my own hands at first, but then I wrapped my arms around his neck. This move shifted our positions and I found myself lying on the couch, with Rhys on top of me.
Oh boy!
Chapter Five
I was awoken the next morning by my doorbell going nuts. I rolled out of bed and looked out of the window. Gary's car was parked at the curb. He was ringing the bell because he could no longer let himself in.
"Booyah!" I yelled to myself before going downstairs.
"What do you want, jackass?" I asked Gary. I only held the door open a little bit.
"You changed the locks."
"I told you I would."
"I didn't believe you. You've been saying that for months. Besides, you're not exactly mechanically inclined."
"What do you
want
, Gary?"
"I have a few more things I want to get."
"Make a list. If anything truly belongs to you, I'll bring it to you."
"Are you serious?"
"Do I look serious?" I asked, looking thoroughly serious.
"You can't be serious."
"That word is losing its meaning. Let me prove it to you." I slammed the door in his face, and then locked it.
"Booyah!" I yelled at the door. "Serious as a mofo!"
I don't know how long he stood there before driving away. I went into the kitchen to get some breakfast and when I was done he was already gone.
Gary and I got married four years ago, when I was twenty-three and he was twenty-seven. Everything was fine until Gary thought it was okay to hit his wife at the end of a bad day, or if his football team didn't get into the super bowl, or if he didn't like his dinner. When I went to his mother for help, Maura told me if I were a better wife, Gary wouldn't feel the need to behave that way.
While I blamed my husband for his own actions, I ultimately blamed Maura for raising her boy to think it was okay to ever hit a woman. When Gary was served with divorce papers, Maura cursed me out and told me I was never good enough for her son anyway.
I handled my divorce and the fallout from it with humor, good beer, and creative gardening. Life was too short to take that seriously, and I wasn't going to be anyone's victim.
I knew Gary would be back later to try and take more shit, but I couldn't worry about it. I had to get on with my day.
I changed my clothes and went out my back door to my shed. I may not have been mechanically inclined, but I was excellent at landscaping. My back yard was well on its way to looking like a tropical retreat, with furniture meant for lounging, a tiki bar, colorful sub-tropical plants and flowers, tiki lamps and solar lights and a small pond with a waterfall. All I needed was a pool, but pools cost more money than I wanted to spend.