Moment in Time

by Lisa Mondello

  “No, I’m fine. Really.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I try to laugh it off. “I have a bathroom upstairs. I promise I won’t christen yours before you do.”

  Heather chuckles. “I appreciate that.”

  “I have your phone number so if anything comes up I’ll ring you,” Lily says as they all come down the stairs.

  “Well, now that we’re all settled here, how about a picture?” Beverly asks as she pulls a camera out of her pocket.

  “There’s no way we’re going to get out of this girls, so we might as well do it,” Heather says, hooking me around the neck with her arm and dragging me out the door to the front porch. The rest of the girls follow.

  Beverly climbs off the porch and waits for all four of us to wrap our arms around each other’s waists. It was odd and yet exciting too. These girls would be living with me for the next three and a half months.

  “Smile!” Beverly says, looking into the camera and then snapping the picture. She quickly looks at the picture she just took in the gallery on her camera. Giving a thumb up, she says, “Perfect! Now you all have my number. Call me if you need me.”

  The crunch of seashells crunching under the weight of Beverly’s feet as she walked to her bicycle was enough of a signal to me that our summer was starting. As Beverly rode away on the bike, Lily turns to us and says, “Now what?” Heather laughs. “Now the real fun starts!”

  I couldn’t help but feel giddy inside. Despite the sadness that had enveloped me since yesterday, I know I’m going to like it here. With Heather, Lily, and Penny, I can catch up on everything I’ve missed since cancer stole two years of my life. I’m here to live. Funny but the first thing that comes to my mind is Bobby.

  He’d left this morning before I even woke up. Not that I blame him. He probably thinks I’m some psycho bitch who will kill him in his sleep. There I was prancing around naked on the beach practically throwing myself at him and he didn’t even touch me. I don’t know whether it makes me like him more or hate him for not being that guy who’ll just fuck me to make me feel good when I need it.

  I’d never been the girl to sleep around. But hell, I’m not a virgin, and neither one of us is ancient or…

  Married. I hadn’t even asked him that. I’d…just assumed. Maybe he was here with a wife and just doing errands for Beverly. I was just an errand and he was just being nice and I got naked and tried to get him to fuck me after I heard the news about Sissy.

  And he’d wanted no part of me. Dammit!

  Heat singes my cheeks as I walk up the stairs to my room. I shed off the work uniform I’d been fitted for that morning and toss it on the chair next to the window. The sky blue house dress and nametag didn’t flatter me much, but I’m guessing even Katy Perry would look like a hag wearing it. No matter, it’s a job and way to stay on the island. If I have to wear a potato sack to work in order to stay on the island this summer, I will.

  The only time this afternoon I’d even thought about the island was when I walked home. I knew I was going to meet my roommates and Beverly had made a point to say that Bobby was going to be the one to pick them up at the ferry. I didn’t give a flip if my roommates saw me in the ugly blue housedress. But Bobby was another thing. But when I’d gotten home from work, my roommates were already here.

  And Bobby was long gone. Fuck!

  After quickly pulling on some shorts and a black tank top with more force than needed, I try to process what I should have figured out yesterday.

  “Hey, did you know this house was built in the 1800s?” Penny says, standing in the doorway of my bedroom.

  I slip my sandals on. “How do you know?”

  “My room had this book with info on the house. There’s even pictures of it when it was first built and then after a hurricane.”

  Lily comes up behind her. “Just about every old house in New England is ancient, Penny. Half the houses in Boston were built in the 1700s.”

  Penny laughs. “I’m showing how stupid I am. Where I come from, the old part of town was built when Elvis was still popular.”

  Lily frowns. “Who?”

  “Elvis,” Penny says. “Elvis Presley? You don’t know who Elvis Presley is?”

  Lily shakes her head.

  I chuckle. “My grandmother was a huge fan.”

  Penny lets out the breath she’d been holding. “Thank you.”

  “Where are you from?” I ask.

  Penny hesitates, as if she’s about to tell me a lie. “Everywhere and nowhere.”

  “Isn’t that a song?” Lily asks.

  “I hope not. If it's anything like my life back there, it would suck,” Penny says as she turns back to her room.

  Lily shrugs as she heads downstairs. “Is there any food in this house?”

  “Beverly said she put a few things in the cabinets, but we’re pretty much on our own for food,” I say.

  “Maybe we can call that hot guy who picked us up at the ferry to give us a ride around town.”

  “He didn’t offer?”

  She frowns. “No. But it can’t hurt to ask.”

  I feel the smile building up inside of me as I walk through the living room and step out onto the back porch. The Styrofoam boxes of food that Bobby had brought over last night still sat untouched on the Adirondack chair by the door. Two boxes. He’d brought me dinner, too. And then I’d proceeded to get naked and grab his dick.

  Feeling the humiliation of it all consume me again, I drag in a deep breath of salt air and look at all the diamond sparkles of light glistening on the ocean. A gift from this sunny day. I’d been a mess last night when Bobby had shown up. My stomach still hurts when I think of Sissy and it probably will for a long time. Sissy and I weren’t best friends by any stretch, but there had been a kinship we shared. Sissy knew what I’d gone through because she’d gone through it too. No one else in my life could say that. They didn’t get it.

  I pick up the boxes of spoiled food and then walk into the house. As I open the cabinet door where the trash can is kept, I stare at the food. He’d never eaten his food. And although I had acted like psycho bitch from hell…he’d stayed with me the whole night. And he hadn’t touched me once.

  Lily bounced into the kitchen wearing a yellow string bikini and a pair of dark sunglasses that looked too big for her face.

  “You know you’re going to get a funny tan line with those glasses,” I say.

  “Are you talking from experience?”

  I chuckle. “Yeah.”

  “So noted. Want to swim? I don’t know how much swim time I’m going to get once I start working at the restaurant.”

  “I need to find someone,” I say.

  Lily takes the glasses off her face and stares at me with a smile. “I see there was an advantage to coming in a day earlier than us. What’s his name? Is he hot?”

  Of course Bobby is hot, but I’m not going to get into it with a girl I’d met twenty minutes ago. Especially since Bobby hadn’t invited her on a tour of the island.

  “There is a whole island full of hot guys, Lily,” I say as I head to the door. “Enjoy your swim.”

  And then I head down the beach toward the Wayside Inn. I may not find Bobby Callahan there. But it’s worth a shot.

  #

  Chapter Five

  Bobby

  May on the island was always nice. The full tourist season hadn’t yet begun on Nantucket. It was still quiet enough at sunset that I didn’t have to run into any drunken vacationers on the bike trail.

  In just a few weeks, I’ll get a clean bill of health from Dr. Birch and then I’ll be able to get back to my unit overseas. The six-mile bike ride back from Sconset was brutal when the sun was still beating down hard. But I find myself enjoying this last leg back to the Inn and decide to take my time instead of pushing to get back to my room.

  My gut hurts, but it’s not from muscle fatigue. Going back to an empty place never felt good anymore. I wonder if it would ever feel like it did before
I’d met Donna.

  As I pass by homes and cottages with window boxes that had already been filled with flowers despite the warning to wait to plant until Memorial Day, I can’t help but think of The Bluffs. Jenna hadn’t been there when I’d dropped the other girls off at the house. Sticking around would have been awkward. Especially since Jenna hadn’t met her roommates yet and Aunt Beverly always made a big deal over move-in day.

  The Bluffs driveway came into view, but I keep my eyes on the road ahead. A faux antique sign points the way to the beach and Wayside Inn. I push my legs hard and bite back the hurt as my body protests with each push of the peddle. When I reach the parking lot, I pull my bike up to the back of the building and stop next to a delivery truck. The back is open and filled with restaurant supplies for the Inn. I quickly chain my bike next to Aunt Beverly’s and then make my way through the kitchen as the deliveryman is headed out the door.

  No one pays attention to me because they all know who I am even though I have no business being in the kitchen. My sweat is dripping down my back and I’m in desperate need of a shower and change of clothes before I see anyone. I head straight to the stairs and take the last few sprints to the second floor, and then down the hall to my room.

  Once inside, I see the blinking light on the room phone indicating I have a message at the front desk. It’s probably Aunt Beverly wondering why she can’t find me. I decide to call her later without calling the front desk, which I know will only alert her that I’m back from wherever I was today.

  My cell phone, which I’d left on the night stand, has four messages. I pull off my shirt and then pick up the phone and dial my voicemail, quickly putting the phone on speaker so I can continue to strip off my clothes.

  The first message is from my mother, wondering if I’ll be coming up to Cambridge for Memorial Day weekend. She’s still pissed I decided to recuperate on the island with Aunt Beverly instead of staying in Cambridge and I can hear it in her voice when she leaves the message.

  I’m sure you and Beverly are having a wonderful time together without me down there. Call me and reassure me you’re alive and I still have a son. We’re having a BBQ over Memorial Day weekend and I want to see you. Love you.

  The phone beeps and gives instructions on what to do with the message. I don’t touch the phone and just let the message go run to the next one, which is from my CO.

  I don’t want to rush you, Corporal, but I’m going to need to know your decision about your future in the military. I hope the leg is getting stronger because we’d love to have you back, especially now. I’ve had a chance to review your medical file and you’re eligible for a medical discharge if you decide to go that route. But there is certainly a place for you if you decide to stay. If not here, then we can talk about a transfer. I just need to hear from you and get the paperwork started. Give me a call when you can.

  I sit down on the bed, stopping midway from stripping off my shorts, and close my eyes as a wave of nausea hits me. I see Private Duggan in my head and then a blast of smoke and fire. And then all that remains of the private. I see my leg, dirty and bloody and filled with shards, and I feel myself go weak again just thinking about the panic that had taken over me.

  “Is my leg still there?” I ask Private Sanchez.

  “You’ve got it. We’ve got you, Callahan,” Sanchez says as he drags me behind a stone barrier that had held up to the blast. Behind the barrier, I see the blood oozing out from beneath my fatigues, bleeding all over my thigh and then my crotch.

  “Fuck! Fuck! My balls! Do I still have my—”

  “We’ll check it when we get clear,” Sanchez says.

  It was only then that I had looked at his face and realized exactly what I’d see. Duggan was gone. What I’d seen, was what was left. And that could have been me.

  The cell phone on the end table again beeped at the end of another message that I somehow didn’t hear. But the beep brings me back to the here and now. I’m on Nantucket in a room at the Wayside. I’m not in Afghanistan taking in each breath of dusty air to keep from screaming out in pain and panicking about whether or not my male organs had been blasted off my body.

  I look down at my pants that are still halfway down my leg and then look at my penis. It’s limp and pink and healthy looking. It’s funny how most of the soldiers worried more about losing their penis than losing a limb. I could live without a leg if I had to. I wouldn’t like it. But I could do it. But could I survive without a penis at the age of twenty-seven? Without ever being able to be with a woman again?

  I push the shorts off my legs with shaky hands. I was lucky on all counts. Although it had been touch and go, I didn’t lose my leg. And my male parts had been spared. I’d heard enough stories about soldiers who’d come home without them, or lost their lives, like Private Duggan.

  I walk to the shower forgetting about the cell phone and messages until I hear Jenna’s voice.

  Hey, I know I was a little crazy last night. I also know you didn’t have to stay with me, but I’m happy you did. Is that offer to show me the island still good? If it is, call the house.

  I pause at the bathroom door. Just hearing her voice makes my dick grow hard. The message is over, so I walk into the bathroom and turn on the shower. The water turns warm quickly and I step inside the tub sporting a hard-on that is aching the way it had last night when I was with Jenna and did nothing.

  I let myself feel what I didn’t allow myself to feel last night. I think of Jenna’s smooth skin and breasts that were firm and inviting. I remember looking at her, trying not to, but not being able to help myself from thinking how much I wanted to take one of her taut, pink nipples into my mouth and suckle.

  I let the water that is now hot run over my body and my erection and grab the bar of soap in my hand, twirling it in my palm to get my hands soapy. As I do, I think of what it would be like to have my hands on Jenna’s ass. To touch her clit and to taste her there.

  With my soapy hand on my dick, I begin to stroke myself as I fantasize about my mouth on her, going down her belly and tasting her at the juncture between her legs, and feeling her squirm as my tongue swirls around her clit and teases her until she cums against my mouth. My hand moves faster over my cock as I think of Jenna. I want her hands on me. I want to be in her feeling every stroke against her silky skin. Her mouth is beautiful. Her hair, her skin, her mouth. And then I think about her in front of me. Her mouth on me and it brings me to the edge. Gripping the wall of the shower with my hand for support, I cum so hard and so fast that I nearly fall over.

  With my eyes close, I wait for my breathing to be steady again. What a fucking fool. I thought this little fantasy about Jenna would curb this aching need I’d felt since I’d met her yesterday. I haven’t felt that way in… It’s been too long. But it’s only made me want Jenna more.

  * * *

  Jenna

  He didn’t call. I still can’t believe I’d foolishly walked around the Wayside yesterday afternoon, hoping I’d just accidentally bump into Bobby after not hearing from him.

  Instead of finding out more about Bobby Callahan, I’d spent the evening in front of a campfire and listened to my new roommates talk about themselves. Correction. Lily talked about herself. Heather was more concerned bitching about her ex-boyfriend who just happened to also be working on the island this summer. Where I already knew enough about Lily and her controlling parents—more controlling than mine mind you—by the end of the evening I knew nothing at all about Penny except that she was going to do some landscaping this summer.

  It had seemed odd to me that Penny hadn’t wanted to take the first floor bedroom with en suite. Lily had spent a few minutes bitching about how Heather beat her to it when Penny offered to take a room upstairs. But she had her reasons for wanting what she wanted. We all did. Right now, I wanted to see Bobby again.

  I walk to work that next morning along the beach, hoping to bump into him when he took a run. But Bobby is nowhere to be found, so I punch in at th
e time clock and get my linen cart so I can start cleaning rooms. Yesterday, I shadowed an experienced girl. Today I am on my own. But before I can get started, I need to get my room assignment. Grace, the head of the housekeeping department, meets with me and the rest of the new girls on duty to give out those assignments.

  “Despite tourist season not being in full swing, we do have a good number of guests staying at the Inn. So please be thorough. If you have a question, ask. Don’t assume anything. Make sure that when you knock on the guest room, you knock loud enough for someone who may be sleeping or in the bathroom to hear you. You don’t want to embarrass a guest by walking in on someone in a compromising position. Beverly Pickam is quite adamant that guests feel like they are in their own homes while staying here and we are to be invisible unless they need something. Understood.”

  A chorus of “understoods” resonate around the room.

  Grace closes her notebook and hugs it to her chest. “Okay, you know the drill. Anyone caught stealing or inside a guestroom with the door closed will be fired on the spot. Understood?”

  Again, all the girls nod and say, “Understood.”

  “I’ve been doing this for fifteen years,” Grace calls out as we all disperse. “There is no excuse not to get through all the rooms during your shift. Gabbing on your phone or texting or watching TV instead of working is not tolerated.”

  I grab my cart and fill it with supplies for each of the rooms on my checklist. My heart pounds as I push the cart along the carpeted hallway to the elevator leading to the third floor where my string of rooms are waiting for me to clean them up and make them pretty again. As I look at the checklist, a sense of panic hits me. What if I can’t get through all the rooms in the allotted time? Surely, all of the girls who are new to the job feel this way, right?

  Within an hour of going along the hallway, cleaning toilets, changing linens on the beds, vacuuming and dusting and everything else that needed to be done, I forget my panic and just get into the work. Whales and sea shells were the common theme of each room’s décor. It fit the location. But it didn’t do much to make the room look good. The Bluffs, now there was a nice place. Beverly had decorated the house like it was something out of a home decorating magazine.