Stranger Things Have Happened, I Know

Ch 33 & 34

Chapter 33

From Dave’s Point of View

                Sometimes, I wonder to myself how I can be 43 years old when I still feel and act like I’m 23 years old. You would think that after 43 years of living the life I have led, I would be done making mistakes. It pisses me off that I’m not.

                Kate was gone for two weeks, after living here for only a month. I would walk through my house and feel totally baffled. I had lived here, alone, for a year before I met Kate. Even after we started dating, I was still, in this house alone a majority of the time. So why did the emptiness feel so crushing? Shouldn’t I be used to it? It just took one month for her to turn this house into a home again and without her, I wanted to burn it down.

                She was right, of course. After she left, I went back upstairs and sat on the floor in the guest room and eyed the piles of her clothes, neatly folded and stacked on the bed, on the floor or still in suitcases. I picked myself up off the floor and went into the mater bedroom’s closet. It wasn’t even as if I had a ton of shit in there. I had just spread out over the year since Jordyn left. I picked up a stack of jeans and moved them over to one side of the closet. I looked down at my many pairs of Vans and Converse sneakers and began to consolidate them to one side as well. I shifted through my clothes, tossing out stuff I didn’t really wear or that were too ripped and torn to continue wearing and in no time, I had more than half the closet freed up. It was so easy to do, I cursed myself for being so thick headed. I wandered back to the guestroom and gathered up several piles of Kate’s clothing and brought them back to the closet, setting them on the shelf. I made trip after trip and began to hang up her shirts. I dragged her suitcase down the hall and began to pull clothes out if it. Something crinkled, sounded like plastic. I lifted it out and looked at it; a shirt covered in drycleaners plastic. It was the top she had worn the first night I had met her. We had left the hotel bar and gone to her room so that she could change out of her suit and she had emerged from the bathroom, wearing this. She was so cute and nervous, I wanted to hug her and tell her to relax. Flashes of memories from that night hit me. That annoying assistant from the tour – what was her name Carrie? Corey? –had made me spill my beer all over her. I had taken Kate back to my room to give her a T-shirt. I made what’s-her-name get it dry cleaned. I remembered the way Kate had brazenly changed out of her wet shirt right in front of me. I remembered the quick glimpse of her black, lacey bra, her flat stomach and the barely controllable urge I had to touch her bare skin.

                I clutched the shirt, plastic and all, to my chest and let the memories was over me. What had I done? I asked myself as I finally hung up the shirt.

                She’s back now, though. I will never forget the feeling of relief when I looked up and saw her standing in the doorway of my daughters’ room. I’d been given a second chance. I looked across the crowded patio at her. It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and a bunch of us were at Taylor’s. She was sitting with Pat, who was talking animatedly and making her laugh hysterically. She shook her head, making her reddish-gold hair shimmer in the sunlight. She must have felt me staring at her, somehow, because she suddenly looked over at me. We smiled at each other for a moment, then I flicked my head slightly towards the house. She tilted her head, then nodded. She finished her drink and leaned into say something to Pat before standing up and walking inside. I waited a few moments, then followed her. By the time I made it into the kitchen, I caught a glimpse of her rounding a corner and heading down a hallway that led to the laundry room. I quickly followed. She was there, waiting for me, biting her lip, eyes full of desire. She pulled me in and shut the door. I immediately pinned her up against it.

                “Oh my,” she purred as I kissed her. She ran her delicate hands through my hair then moved them down to my shorts. “What do we have here?” she giggled as she caressed me through the fabric.