Authors: Jenna Payne
“I hope you don’t mind.” He held up the coffee cup and spoke in a whisper.
Cynthia padded across the room. “How did you even make it? My coffee maker is broken and has been for months.”
“I used the stove and the carafe from your old coffee maker.”
“Is that what you call the glass thing?”
“It’s what I have always called it.”
“Mom always called it a percolator.” Shaun added from the couch as he sat up. “But I did come from a very southern family.”
“Is there any more of that?” Cynthia pointed at the cup in Gerald’s hand.
“On the stove.”
Once she had poured herself a cup of the coffee, she went back to her room and got dressed for the day. She knew that she had to work at the library today, but considering the dead body that was there last night she thought that most of the day would be spent with the police.
Did that all really happen,
she asked herself as she slipped on her shoes.
Did I really see a man change into a bear and another change into a weasel?
It didn’t seem likely in the cold light of day.
When she emerged from the bedroom, no one was in her house. She hoped that maybe she was rid of the two men, but a small part of her didn’t. She stepped out onto the porch to find both men standing beside their truck deep in conversation. A sigh escaped her lips as she walked down the steps, but she wasn’t sure if it was a sigh of exasperation or relief. Inside she was conflicted about the two dangerous and interesting men she had met last night.
“We’re going to follow you to the library and make sure that you make it alright.” Shaun explained. “I know that you usually take the bus, but today I think you should take your car.”
“Okay, but how am I supposed to explain the dead body in the library?”
“We took care of that.” Gerald said as he climbed into the driver side of the pickup.
Great. They took care of it. Now I’m not only an accessory to murder, but I’m an accomplice to the cleanup job afterward. Hello prison.
She dug her keys out of her purse and pushed the button on the fob to unlock the doors. She climbed inside and turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. Again she turned the key, but all she heard was a dull thunk and nothing else. No whir of the motor. Nothing.
She was so preoccupied thinking about going to jail or worse for murder that when Shaun pecked on her window she nearly jumped out of her skin. The button wouldn’t roll down the window no matter how hard or how many times she pushed it and then she remembered that her car wouldn’t start. She opened her door and looked up at him.
“Something is wrong with it.”
“Yeah. I’d say your battery is dead. Pop your hood and we’ll give you a jump.”
“Okay.” In all the years that she had been driving she had never ‘popped the hood’ on her car and only had a vague idea of how this would work. As Shaun called to Gerald and told him to pull the truck up beside her car, she frantically searched for the button or lever that would ‘pop the hood’, but she couldn’t find it. She watched Shaun walk around to the front of her car and wait for her to do as he had asked with a growing sense of embarrassment. When Gerald pulled along beside her, she still hadn’t found what she was looking for. The weight of seeing a murder, watching men change into something straight out of the Twilight Zone before her very eyes, and the fact that one of those men was only a few feet from her was more than she could take. A sob escaped her lips as she began to cry. Her shoulders shook as the sobs grew ever stronger. This time she ignored the peck on her window and kept right on crying. The passenger’s door opened and Gerald sat down beside her. He placed a hand on her shoulder and she turned to look at him, tears streaming down her face.
“Are you alright?” He asked.
“No, no I’m not alright. I’m a normal person okay? I’m not supposed to have to deal with things like this. I can’t do it. I don’t know where the freaking thing is to pop the hood on my car is. I don’t even know what that means so just cut me some slack. Okay?”
“Hey. Hey.” Gerald spoke in a soothing voice. “It’s alright Cynthia. Here let me show you how to open the hood on your car.”
He leaned across and pointed to a small black button on the dash to the left of the steering wheel. She reached a shaking hand out and pushed the button with a finger. A clunk sounded and the hood popped up a couple of inches. Shaun gave them a thumb up through the window and pulled the release lever under the front of the hood.
“Cynthia.” Shaun called to her from outside the car. “Come out here and I’ll show you how to do this yourself if you ever have this problem again.”
She roughly wiped the tears away from her eyes and climbed out of the car. She watched without a word as Shaun and Gerald proceeded to show her how to hook the jumper cables up to the car battery and the battery on their truck. After a few moments, they instructed her to start her car. She got in and turned the key in the ignition. The small car rumbled to life.
“We’ll leave it hooked up for a moment just to make sure that it takes the charge.” Gerald explained.
Ten minutes later she pulled into the library parking lot and shut off her car. She could see the men inside their truck parked across the street. She couldn’t quite decide how she felt. Some part of her wished that they would just leave her alone, but another part was glad they were there and felt safe. No one was around this early in the morning. With her keys, she unlocked the back door and went inside. She half expected to see the man Gerald had killed the day before still laying on the floor or at least a pool of blood, but there was nothing. No evidence at all of a fight or murder or whatever it was that she had witnessed. She unlocked the front doors and sat down behind her desk for what she hoped was the start of a normal day. If there could be such a thing anymore.
*****
Gerald took a long swallow of his soda and twisted the cap back on before he sat it down on the dashboard. He eyed Shaun and wondered what his partner was thinking. They had worked together for many years now and most of the time Gerald knew what his partner was thinking, but this time it eluded him.
“She’s not like the others Gerald.” Shaun’s said.
“How so?”
“She seemed so calm this morning. I know she freaked out a little about the hood thing, but most of the people who have seen a shifter are freaked out for days. Besides she’s just different somehow.”
“You mean she’s easy on the eyes.” Gerald flashed a smile at his partner. “I’d agree with you a hundred percent there. I find her very attractive, but I don’t think she’d ever go for us Shaun. She doesn’t seem like the type of girl who would even consider two men at once. Let alone two men who can shapeshift into bears or anything for that matter.”
“You’re probably right, but I just can’t get her out of my head.”
“Take a walk. I’ll watch the library for a while to make sure that last night was just a man running scared and not something more. You can scout around a little as you walk and make sure that no one is checking out the perimeter.”
“Alright. Be back in a few.” Shaun opened the driver door and climbed out of the truck.
Gerald watched him in the rearview mirror and sighed. He had seen his partner act this way once before and he remembered how well that had gone. Shaun asked the woman if she was interested in them and she rejected them soundly. For three months afterwards Shaun had been grouchy and hard to work with.
“I hope for his sake that this woman is how he thinks she is or life is going to be hard for the next few months.” Gerald said to no one in particular.
Shaun walked down the street with thoughts of the last woman who had rejected him and Gerald on his mind.
She isn’t like that woman,
he tells himself, but he can’t be sure. As he walked, he worked his mind around possible scenarios he could use his eyes roved over everyone and everything. He didn’t think that the man they had killed the day before had any friends in the area, but one could never be too careful. Not with scum.
An elderly lady made her way toward the library from his side of the street. He flashed her his most disarming smile and continued on. She waved back at him, but he was already past her and didn’t see her hand.
For an hour, he walked and thought. Stopping only once to sit on a bench for a moment and think as he drank a soda purchased from a street vendor. By the time he had circled back around to the truck and Gerald, he had made up his mind about what he was going to do. He climbed into the passenger seat opposite Gerald, who had gotten behind the wheel in his absence. Shaun turned to his partner with a smile on his face.
“I’m going to ask her if she wants to date us.”
“What if she says no?” Gerald asked, but he knew it was useless to argue with Shaun once he had made up his mind.
“She won’t. She’s not like the others. Something about her is special. I think that she might be one of the ones that the old stories talk about.”
“The shapeshifter maidens?” Gerald never put much stock in the old stories.
“Yep. If she is a maiden, then she won’t say no. She’ll jump at the chance to be with us.”
“I hope so.” Whispered Gerald.
*****
Only a few customers entered the library throughout the day and Cynthia was glad for it. It gave her time to think. She thought of calling the police and telling them what had happened to her the night before, but she knew that it would do no good. They would think she was a crazy person if she called and told them that she saw a man morph into a bear and kill another man who had morphed into a weasel. She wasn’t so sure that she wasn’t crazy herself. At noon, she thought of going out to eat, but a look out the window that overlooked the street confirmed two things for her. She wasn’t hungry and she hadn’t made up the men from the previous night.
With money from her purse, she bought a soda from one of the machines near the front of the library. As she sipped it behind her desk, she thought about the men who had saved her life. She knew that they were both very dangerous men, but something about them made her believe that they were not dangerous to her. If they had wanted to kill her, they could have easily done so the night before.
They are handsome.
They thought came unbidden. She tried to deny it, but she knew the truth. It had been a long time since she had been with a man or even had thoughts of being with a man. The sheer strength and handsomeness of the two men made her think thoughts that she had never thought. Thoughts of a threesome. She shook her head from side to side to clear those thought out.
“I need to focus on work.” She told the empty library. For the rest of the day, she avoided thinking about the two men who waited outside for her as much as she could.
The time came for her to close up the library for the day.
She locked all the doors and windows. On her way out she grabbed her purse off the desk and headed for the back. When she opened the door, she almost screamed. Shaun stood waiting for her at the bottom of the steps. Before he could see that he had scared her she turned around and locked the door behind her. When she turned back around, he was smiling up at her.
“Would you like to go to dinner with me and Gerald tonight?”
“Yes.” She couldn’t actually believe that she had said yes to him.
“Great. We’ll pick you up in a couple hours at your place.”
He walked away and she went to her car. On the drive home, she wondered over and over what had compelled her to say yes to dinner.
It’s because you like them silly,
she told herself. She hated to admit it, but it had been a long time since a man had shown any interest in her and it felt good to have one do so now. She hurried home and changed into a nice sweater and blue jeans. She wasn’t the kind to wear a dress. Not ever.
Two hours later Shaun knocked on her door. She knew it was him because she had watched their truck pull up and seen him walk up the driveway. He handed her a bouquet of roses and walked her to the truck. Gerald smiled fondly at her and said hello. As Gerald backed out of the driveway, Shaun told her that they were going to a small Italian place around the block. She knew the place all too well. On many occasions, she had eaten there alone.
The next hour flew by and before she knew it, she had finished her meal. Gerald placed his napkin on his plate and sat back in his seat. Shaun, the lesser mannered of the two, gave a hearty belch that turned heads in the restaurant. Despite being slightly embarrassed by it, the belch made Cynthia laugh.
“Must you always behave like that?” Gerald asked.
“Hey, man. I’ve only got one life and it is too damn short to spend my days acting all snooty and well-to-do. I am who I am. Take it or leave it.”
“I should have left it.” Gerald spoke with absolute conviction and for a moment Cynthia was afraid the two men were going to get into a fight. Shaun stared Gerald down with a cold look. Gerald returned it for a moment, but a smile cracked his otherwise angry face and in seconds they were both laughing.
“You two aren’t normal.” The words escaped her mouth before she could stop them.
“Is there such a thing as normal?” Gerald asked her. “Or is there just life? No one is the same in this world. So what is normal? You? Him?” He pointed to the waiter. “Or anyone else in this restaurant?”
“You’ll have to forgive Socrates.” Shaun jabbed an elbow at Gerald, which he deftly avoided. “He likes to think that he is a master at philosophical debate, but in reality he’s just nuts.”
“No, he has a point. I...I never really thought of it like that, but he’s right. There is no such thing as normal. I’ve spent so many years living a routine day in and day out that I had begun to think that it was how life was supposed to be lived. I don’t want to die alone in my house as an old woman with books as my only friends. I want to live.” She looked up and blushed. “I’m sorry. That sort of just came out.”
“Don’t be.” Gerald gave her one of his genuine smiles. “You spoke from your heart just now and one should never be sorry for what comes from their heart.”
“There he goes again.” Shaun rolled his eyes.
As the two men argued back and forth with each other Cynthia sat back and listened. As they ribbed each other, she found that she enjoyed listening to them do so. It was almost like watching an old-school comedy like Abbot and Costello. Once more she found herself deep in thought about the two men and why she had ever agreed to go to dinner with them. Granted, she was glad she had, but she still didn’t want to admit why she had. When she was around them, she seemed to turn into a different woman.
“Cynthia!” Shaun reached across the table and laid a hand on top of one of hers. She jerked her head around and looked him in the eyes. “Where did you go?”
“I was daydreaming. I guess.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“I asked you if you were ready to go.” Gerald said.
“Yes, I am. If you guys are.”
Shaun paid for the meal and they left the restaurant. A few minutes later they pulled up in front of her house. She started to get out but stopped with one foot still in the truck. Shaun opened his mouth to ask her if something was wrong.
“I was wondering if you boys would like to come inside for a bit?” A part of her wondered what she was doing, but another part of her urged her to go further.
Shaun exchanged a glance with Gerald, who gave him a nod. “Sure. We’d love to come in for a little while.”
Inside the house, she left them in the living room for a moment. She told them that she was going to change into something more comfortable. In her room, she stripped off and went through her closet. On a hanger near the back, she found what she wanted. A see-through negligee that she’d had for years and only wore once. She slipped it on and looked at herself in the mirror.
“What are you doing?” She asked herself. “You barely know these men.”
She answered herself.
I’ve got a right to be happy just like everyone else and I think that having a one night stand with these two men would make me very happy.
The thought of both of their hands on her body made her quiver.
Very happy indeed.
*****
Cynthia walked back into the living room and struck a pose at the head of the hallway. Both men jumped up off the couch and for a moment she felt like a fool for wearing a see-through negligee until she saw the look on their faces. Shaun’s eyes lit up and he smiled hungrily at her. Gerald grinned a wicked grin and looked her over.
“Follow me.” She waggled a finger in their direction.
Shaun stepped up to her first. As Gerald stepped up beside him, she gave them her most seductive smile. She expected Shaun to make the first move, but she was wrong. Gerald grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close. His lips met hers and she melted into his strong arms as they kissed one another. Hands touched her body from behind. They moved down her spine over the curve of her butt and gave it a squeeze. She pulled back from Gerald and spun around. Shaun’s mouth was ready and waiting as she turned. His tongue worked past her lips and probed her mouth. On his breath, she could taste stale tobacco smoke and whiskey.
She pulled back from the kiss and motioned for them to follow her into the bedroom. They both complied. She swished her hips as she walked down the hallway. At her door, she gave a little yelp and a jump when one of them smacked her butt from behind. Inside the bedroom, she sat back on the bed and crossed her legs.
“Now for a little fun if you boys are up for it.” She liked the way they looked at each other and nodded. “I want each of you to strip for me and the winner gets to have me first.”
“Got any tunes?” Asked Shaun.
She pushed play on the stereo beside her bed and a thumping rap beat issued from the speakers. Gerald stepped back and let Shaun have room to do his dance and strip first. He started with his shirt. He grabbed it at the bottom with his hands and pulled it slowly over his ripped body as he gyrated his hips. As he undid his belt, Cynthia felt like she was in a dream. In one smooth motion, he ripped his belt from his pant loops and threw it across the room. It smacked the wall hard and fell to the floor. His boots landed on top of it seconds later. Then he went to work on his pants. He pulled them off and she let out a gasp when she saw that he didn’t have on any underwear. He danced around the room for a moment as she took in the contours of his body and ended in a pose with his arms flexed in the air.
She clapped her hands and whistled.
“My turn.” Gerald proclaimed from the corner.
Cynthia turned and watched as he began his dance. His shirt came first as well, but she was unprepared for how ripped he was. Shaun was huge and muscled, but Gerald was ripped like no other man she had ever seen. His abs were no mere six-pack. She counted them as he danced and ended up with ten. He fell to the floor, but caught himself in pushup position and arched his back before he leapt back to his feet. His pants came next and just like Shaun he wore no underwear. She had gasped at Shaun’s member, but Gerald’s was much bigger. Bigger than any she had seen outside of porn. He struck a pose and she clapped as she shut off the stereo.