Cold Outside

17 - Comfortable

Bethany spent all day with snowflakes. She returned home to find Lucas very excited. "Hey Baby, the gala is officially sold out."

"That's wonderful. We have some decent auction items too. It'll be a huge success." Her excitement. matched his.

"Thanks to you." He reached out to her.

She walked into his embrace. She could smell his aftershave. It differed from what Oliver used, but was familiar to her too.

Would smelling it someday bring nostalgic tears to her eyes?

His mouth sought hers. She waited for the familiar stirring, but lately it required far more coaxing than just a passionate kiss.

She pulled away. "I'm tired and hungry." Walking to the refrigerator, she said, "There are plenty of leftovers. It's freezing. I'm not going out again."

Lucas agreed, so they watched a stupid comedy movie. Bethany was in bed, when the text came from Oliver. She didn't respond, because she knew they'd start a conversation. Suddenly texting Oliver while lying in bed with Lucas just didn't seem right. Lately she had been spending more time thinking of Oliver than Lucas.

Her Monday crawled, and she repeatedly told herself that it had nothing to do with seeing Oliver later. One of the bright spots was the patient that she'd been seeing for close to six months. Karen started with plantar fasciitis that was so bad she could hardly walk, but once she fixed her feet, the pain moved up to her knees, then her hips and back. Bethany was sure once they got her back in good shape she'd be ready to walk for miles without pain. Because of their time together, Karen knew her too well.

"Why are you so quiet? Trouble with your handsome boyfriend?"

"What? We've had trouble for a while. We want different things and I need to move on."

"It's not easy after how many years?"

She was just old enough to be Beth's mother with perhaps eighteen years between them.

"Too many, over three, it's comfortable."

"Listen." She whispered, "You don't want comfortable. Comfortable ends up being too many nights ignoring each other in front of the TV, not wanting to hear another of his same stories, and lusting after the gorgeous specimen across the room who is much too young for you."

Bethany smiled. "Do you mean Alec? He's married with two of the cutest kids ever."

"You need someone who will keep you warm all over, and who you can talk to forever and lastly who can give you the cutest kids ever."

Karen wasn't far off with that list.

"Do you know someone who fits that bill? Do you?" She laughed as Bethany tried to hide a smirk.

"Maybe. An old boyfriend is back in town, but he hurt me. I mean really hurt me when he left."

"Perhaps he's sorry and looking to make amends."

Perhaps, Bethany said to herself.

Her other bright spot was a new patient evaluation on a teen. When she asked how he injured his shoulder, he said that he felt it rip when he was moving furniture. "We had to move again."

"Again?"

"Well, the last dump we got kicked out of because of code violations. Landlord was a jerk, and we lost our home. Now we got a new place with a fire escape and everything."

Bethany was glad the gala would help support social services for children like him. "I'm glad to hear that."

"Now I can't shoot hoops at the teen center for a while." His voice was laced with disappointment.

"My boyfriend plays basketball at the center."

"Oh the chef, he's a nice guy. The other one, the really old one, helped us get our new place. Do you know him too?"

Beth smiled. "Actually, the old one, Lucas is my boyfriend."

"He's like ancient! You're so young. You should dump him for the chef. The girls who hang around all think he's hot."

"Do they? I bet he loves that."

"He doesn't even notice. He's busy calling Lucas, an old man."

Bethany laughed. She liked this kid. She couldn't help feeling good about Lucas helping the boy's family. That side of Lucas was why Beth loved him.

After work, she went straight to the beach house. She had only had a yogurt and a tangerine for lunch and hoped that Oliver would make something for her. That morning, she reminded Lucas she wouldn't be home until late. Some flakes were flying, but she had seen the weather on Sunday and it reported the typical ocean storm that would stay out to sea, except for a dusting to an inch. She didn't change out of her work clothes, but packed some old clothes that were better suited for paint and glitter.

When she took her coat off, he said, "You look very professional."

"Don't tease." She wore tan chino style pants and a button-down shirt with the clinic logo on it. In the warmer weather she wore a short-sleeved golf style shirt. The men and women dressed the same. "I have to bend and model exercises. I move around all day long. Oh, I met one of your teen center friends today."

"Which one?"

"I can't say, but he thinks Lucas is ancient and you're..." She couldn't say hot, so she said, "not!"

"That could be any of them."

"I was hoping you'd feed me."

"You know me too well. I made a nice hearty soup. I honestly wasn't sure you'd come with the snow." He hollered through her bedroom door where she was changing.

She poked her head out of her room. "It's just a dusting."

"They changed the forecast. It's tracking closer to shore."

Bethany looked out the window, and the snow was coming down fast. "I need to get these done. I can't leave now." She had an arm full of snowflakes.

"If you're sure, I've got nothing better to do."