by Laudat, Reon
“Alex told me it was a new radiant heat variety.”
“Well, all right then, fancy-schmancy!” Kendra removed her parka and hat to store in the nearby closet, still filled with Uncle Alex’s winter coats. “I’ll put the takeout and drinks in the fridge.”
Aunt Jackie went to the kitchen to check on her simmering stockpot. When she opened the refrigerator to remove a cabbage to chop, Kendra noticed plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. It had also been a while since Aunt Jackie kept a full fridge.
Kendra stored the drinks and takeout and then munched on tostada shells on the counter with additional garnishes for the posole. Brown grease no longer speckled the backsplash tiles near the stove. Over the last two years, when her aunt wasn’t looking, Kendra had made a habit of cleaning them, along with the dryer’s overstuffed lint shoot and bathtub’s scum-mottled mat. However, that evening, everything sparkled again, with no effort on her part. Like old times.
Kendra moved to pour herself a tall glass of the tea from the large container on an opposite counter.
“Don’t drink that!” Aunt Jackie said.
“Why? It looks like iced tea.”
“Hawaiian tea. I bought it from Sidewinder on my way home. I was about to pour it down the drain when you arrived.”
Bernie “Sidewinder” Smith, an unlicensed street vendor, conducted “business” near The Sassy Sheep. Kendra now noted the unidentified bits floating in the drink. The jar’s small hand-scrawled label required a skull and crossbones. Her kind-hearted aunt often purchased items she would neither consume nor use to help those less fortunate.
“I’ll have one of my store-bought beers,” Kendra said, moving to the drawer with the bottle opener. “So what’s Hawaiian tea exactly?”
“I think it’s just pineapple juice he fresh squeezes, mixes with Snapple, and bottles in his apartment.”
“And charges you five times what he paid for both. Two months ago it was moldy sour dough pretzels. Last month it was hot dogs swimming in dirty water. This month, foodborne bacteria by the two-gallon jar. Way to hustle, Sidewinder. Make that paper,” Kendra said cheekily. “Ka-ching!” She went to the table and the hardcover knitting book full of sweaters with elaborate color work. She sat and flipped through its glossy pages while sipping her beer. The diagrams and instructions might as well have been in Sanskrit. A yellow sticky note clung to the page with a sun-burnished male model in a cowboy hat. He resembled the Marlboro Man and wore a beautiful seamless raglan pullover sweater in rich mocha.
“Is this your next project?” Kendra asked, wondering if she’d ever learn to knit as well as her aunt. “You’re going to wear this?”
Aunt Jackie lifted a spoon to draw a sample from the stockpot. “Yes, it’s my next project, but it’s a Christmas present for Russell.”
Kendra’s head snapped back. “Russell?”
“Needs more cumin and cayenne.” Aunt Jackie smacked her lips and went to the spice rack.
“Who the heck is Russell?”
“Russell, the new mailman who delivers at the shop. I’m sure you’ve seen him a few times. Mr. Collins, the old mailman, retired.” She placed the spoon on the counter.
Of course Kendra remembered the new mailman. He looked as if he could star in one of those Cialis commercials: handsome, tall, fit, but sporting enough gray hair and wrinkles to be relatable to other men and women of a certain age.
“Such a nice personal gift for this attractive, new mailman,” Kendra said. “If I recall correctly, Mr. Collins, the old mailman, and the one who delivers here each get a twenty-dollar Starbucks gift certificate inside a coffee mug cozy. So you like this Russell, huh? You don’t make free sweaters for just any-ol’-body.”
Aunt Jackie’s cheeks flushed and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “He’s a very nice man. Divorced. And when he comes in the shop he always makes time to chat and admire my work.”
“I’ll bet your work ain’t the only thing he’s admiring,” Kendra said, checking out her aunt’s lush hair, wide smile, and shapely figure. “You’re hot, Aunt Jackie, but we really need to get you out of those culottes.” She gestured toward the dark wool pair her aunt often wore with Wallabees, suspenders, and a cream-colored shirt. When Kendra squinted, the ensemble resembled lederhosen. “Or better still, maybe Russell can get you out of those culottes,” she added with a wink.
“Oh, you!” Aunt Jackie snickered with a double-hand flap. “He hasn’t asked me on a date or anything. I don’t think he likes me like that.”
“You’ll find out soon enough. If he does ask you out, what will you say?”
“I’m not sure I’m ready for that,” Aunt Jackie said. “Moving right along, how’s your sweater project?”
“Great.”
“You haven’t asked for help. How’s it going with those circular needles?”
“I’m good, so far,” Kendra lied.
“I’m waiting.”
“To see the sweater?”
“No, for you to tell me all about this new guy of yours.”
“Um.” Though Aunt Jackie and Kendra were close, she hadn’t mentioned Dominic because a part of her had been mentally preparing for the budding relationship to fail.
“I wasn’t eavesdropping! I swear!” Jackie lifted a hand. “But I couldn’t help overhearing some of your conversation with Selena and Alyssa.”
“Nothing to report. He’s just a friend.”
“With benefits?” she asked with an impish grin.
“What do you know about ‘benefits’?”
“I’ve watched Love & Hip Hop, a time or two. Now what’s this friend’s name again?”
“Dominic.”
“And he’s in the business.”
“You accidentally heard a lot. Yes, he’s an agent, too.”
“Sounds as if you two have a lot in common. I know you like him. I heard—”
“Aunt Jackie!” Kendra gasped, though she wasn’t as put-out as she pretended to be.
“Okay, maybe I did eavesdrop a little. You like him, don’t you?”
“Yes. And true, we do have a lot in common. But I need to be extra careful with this one. He’s the type I haven’t had much long-term success with in the past,” she reiterated more for herself than her aunt. “But I’m broadening my horizons. I’ve even signed up at one of those online sites, Cupid4You. I have two Cupid’s ‘beaus’ so far. We’ve exchanged a couple of friendly messages, but I haven’t met them yet.”
“So when do you plan to meet them?”
“Soon.”
“Don’t act so excited,” Aunt Jackie said dryly.
“Just playing it cool with all candidates. It gives me the upper hand. And men love the chase.”
“I know a little something about that. And I understand your more cautious approach after those other, um, situations.”
“Engagements. With an S. You can say the word. En-gage-ments.”
“Don’t act so aloof that they never get the see the real Kendra. The warm, wonderful, loving Kendra I know.”
Kendra flipped the page and admired a beautiful convertible gloves/mittens design requiring top-notch “picture knitting” skills. Creating the elaborate orbs in cream, lemon, lime, and berry hues involved working with several separate strands of yarn at once, with no one color yarn carrying over a different color on the unseen part of a garment, also known as the “wrong side” in knitting lingo. “Hey, maybe I should make these next!”
Aunt Jackie looked at the page and nudged Kendra with an elbow. “Glittens? Intarsia technique? At your level? Go right ahead if you want to test your sanity.”
Kendra laughed. “Just kidding.”
Aunt Jackie shook her head. “What am I going to do with you?”
Chapter 27
“You didn’t have to wear the sweater,” Kendra whispered to Dominic. The pair waited for the Love Nest Ninjas concert to begin at a popular nightclub venue. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and their fingers intertwined. “That was so swe
et of you.”
Dominic sported a sweater that looked as if Kendra had knitted it in the dark—and with her feet.
He wore it with a “sunrise peach” —as Kendra described it— button-down shirt and a pair of dark fine-wale cords. The November evening was cool enough for him to hide the sweater underneath his cashmere overcoat. Instead, Dominic had carried the cover-up draped on one arm and braved the curious stares and a few unabashed snickers from passersby, not to mention the low temperature. He’d done this to show his gratitude to the woman he now officially considered his woman, though he had not revealed this upgrade to her. Yet. She’d gifted him with her first sweater project; the least he could do was wear it with pride.
“I love it,” Dominic said, meaning while it was indeed god-awful looking, he cherished what it symbolized. That evening, it wasn’t about garnering admiring gazes as a well-dressed man. For him, clothing had always been about expressing his mood and individuality. That night he wanted to show Kendra how much she’d come to mean to him.
“I made every mistake possible.” Kendra adjusted the crisp collar of his shirt to camouflage the sweater’s drooping neckline. “The gauge is off so the sizing is all wrong.”
“I like it nice and roomy.”
“I couldn’t wait to give it to you. I took it off the blocking board while it was still a little damp so some of the stitching looks a tad lumpy and bumpy.”
“The way I prefer my oatmeal.”
“I didn’t get enough hanks from the same dye lot so there are unintended variations in color.”
“I hear tie-dye is making a comeback.”
“Look. There’s a huge hole right,” she poked between his pecs, “there.” Like a meteorologist working a weather map, she pointed to various areas of the sweater. “Dropped stitches there, there, there, and there.”
“Those dropped stitches make it truly one of a kind.”
“Thank goodness for that.”
“And I’m deeply touched you thought of me, made this ‘secret project’ especially for me.”
“I know what you’re wondering. If I hated the sweater so much, why did I give it to you? Well, I didn’t think it looked so bad at first. But now, in this light, the truth is painfully obvious. And I didn’t think you’d actually wear it.”
“I have a surprise for you, too,” he said.
Her eyes went wide. “You do?”
“Yup.”
“Revenge for the sweater?”
“Nope.”
“What is it?”
“It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you now.”
Dominic smiled, now confident Kendra’s efforts to friend-zone him had been ineffective. Since returning from Maui, they’d spent as much time together as they could. He’d even talked her into accompanying him to a friend’s Halloween party and wearing coordinating costumes. (It was her idea to dress as members of an eighties hair metal band.)
She’d also joined him for taekwondo workouts at his favorite dojang gym, where he’d taught her basic self-defense moves. Her eagerness to learn more about his interests encouraged him. And she’d looked great in that white dobak she’d insisted on calling her “workout jammies.”
The more Dominic learned about Kendra, the more he wanted to know. They were alike in enough ways to be compatible, but also different enough to keep things interesting.
At first touch, he’d been steel around her because she was sexy as hell. But he’d only teased her, ultimately vowing to wait for sex. It had been challenging. He’d succeeded, alternating between taking cold showers and cranking the shank after their dates. Then there had been several phone sex sessions for which he would’ve gladly emptied his bank had she billed him. Muy caliente. The mounting anticipation could be a good thing; their first time making love would be all the sweeter.
But while physical attraction was important, she’d fascinated him in other ways:
Funny. Her wit, with just the right amount of snark, would keep him in her thrall. And she even rolled with most of his dumb-ass jokes. Triple cool points for that. And she could channel Cher with the best of them.
Smart. He’d never seriously dated anyone in the industry so unlike previous significant others, she was knowledgeable enough to go toe-to-toe on most publishing-related topics.
Successful. Her boutique agency was among the best.
Feisty! She did not hesitate to call him out on his egotistical bull when necessary. And her competitive spirit and hyper ambition rivaled his. That was saying something. Dominic could find a challenge in any situation, even his annual eye exams, in which he felt compelled to read the smallest print of any eye chart the optometrist flashed before him.
Family oriented. He admired the way she doted on her aunt. And she couldn’t pass a baby carriage or stroller without extended cooing over its tiny passenger. He’d never forget the time they’d made the impromptu one-hour trek to a New Jersey Cracker Barrel for the pancakes and the way she’d charmed the bratty boy who had challenged her to several peg game matches, which she’d obviously thrown.
Strong. Look at the directness she’d displayed while discussing her childhood without her biological mother and father.
There were so many little things. Too many to count. Such as the way she always made a point to say something uniquely nice to all waiters and waitresses, no matter how subpar the service. I worked as a waitress when I was in college. You never know what kind of day a person is having, she’d told him after encouraging him to leave a good tip anyway.
But he was most impressed by her unassuming reaction after he’d inquired about her volunteer fundraising work with Sedgemont Friends, a small local literacy group she’d co-founded with three others, that provided free reading instruction to adults. She chaired an annual book fair with all proceeds presented to the group’s center. He’d stumbled across that information in one of his many industry magazines.
Underneath that independent, tough-beer-swigging-I-don’t-believe-in-grownup-fairy-tales facade, he also sensed a vulnerability and a real deep-seated fear of opening up, giving her heart, to a man. She required the patience and compassion only Dominic could offer. Sometimes people have trouble putting what they feel into words, she’d said one night in Maui. They were discussing his parents, but she could’ve also been referring to herself.
While he’d been more expressive regarding their relationship, he didn’t need words to tell him what he saw in her beautiful brown eyes, what he felt in her tender touch. He’d dated enough. His fortieth birthday was just days away, and finally he knew exactly what he wanted in a woman. Males didn’t have the same biological ticking time bombs as females, but he longed for what his brothers had before he got too old. A wife. And lots of kids.
Kendra Porter was the One for him. He could already envision their future together.
“When do I get the surprise?” Kendra asked.
“Soon,” Dominic said as the lights went low and a comedian jogged onto the stage to warm up the crowd.
“A hint. Please!”
Dominic squeezed her hand and gave her a soft kiss on her forehead. “Sit back and enjoy the show.”
“Oooh! I can’t wait,’’ Kendra said with child-like enthusiasm.
Chapter 28
After the concert, Dominic and Kendra went to her apartment. Her determination to keep her distance flagged. And though she’d been back home for weeks, she hadn’t made definite plans to meet her Cupid4You.com beaus.
The couple stepped inside her foyer, and Dominic took her in his arms and kissed her. She greedily kissed him back and tore at his clothing as he tore at hers.
“I want you,” she said. “Tonight. Now.”
They began to undress. Kendra bent over to ditch her boots, the ones with short-inner-side-of-the-leg zippers. Their removal required angling the foot just so. The first one came off without a hitch, but the second proved trickier as she hopped around on one foot. She pogoed toward the window, nearly tangling in the curtains
before it came off. Success! With hungry eyes still on Dominic, she chucked it toward its mate.
She darted back to him and pawed at his sweater.
“Let me remove it.” Dominic took a few steps back and winked at her.
“Careful. Behind you,” she warned, when he almost toppled over her leather ottoman.
“I’ve got this.” Dominic tugged the sweater over his head and dropped it on the slip-covered sofa. He let her have her way with his shirt as she grabbed and yanked a button popped off. They started a clothing trail on her rug.
Dominic unzipped her pants to reveal her shabbiest period panties, an antiquated pair of those Fruit of the Loom Ladies, full coverage fit. Whoops! She’d had no idea tonight would be the big night. After discovering all of her sexiest (hand-wash only) undies were still drying on the towel racks in her bathroom, in haste she’d donned the pair with too-loose elastic (perfect for pre-menstrual bloating) and a utilitarian sports bra for high-impact aerobic activity that squashed the girls into an immobilized uni-boob. Then she recalled that this tube-like construction—deceptively easy slipping on, but problematic to remove—mimicked Chinese handcuffs.
Thank goodness, she’d changed the sheets that morning. And she always displayed pretty Rigaud candles, gifts from Alyssa.
Dominic made such quick work of the panties, he didn’t seem to notice how old and ugly they were before tossing them aside. He jerked her back into his arms, planting open-mouth kisses on her neck, shoulders, tattoos, and pierced belly button as his fingers fastened on her ribcage to keep her in place. One hand skimmed upward and stalled.
Would someone ever design a cinch-to-remove sports bra for the buxom gal that lifted, separated, and prevented boobs from bouncing up to sock the eyes? Kendra waited as Dominic tried to finesse the removal of her last scrap of clothing.