Old Flames

by Jack Ketchum

  It crossed her mind to wonder if she was being wholly honest about this. She’d noticed that kiss. She’d decided it was simple affection, easy to ignore.

  “You fight sometimes.”

  “Sure we do. You’re damn right we do. And we make up too. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. Now, you want to go see what they’re watching out there?”

  “LAW AND ORDER reruns. Wanna bet?”

  Later in the night lying next to him she heard him moan and saw him turn away from her toward the window which was in no way unusual for him. She sat up and looked at him for a moment. Sleep and moonlight lifting out the boy from inside the man.

  The afternoon sun was comparatively gentle and her own skin tanned and well up to it but she worried about Dora who was very fair. All she had was an SPF 5 sunscreen to offer and Dora had brought none at all so she’d used that. But Karen figured she’d best keep an eye on her.

  “Poke yourself now and then, will you?” she said. “See if you’re done?”

  “I promise. I’ve had sun poisoning before. It’s not something I ’d like to try again.”

  They sat in low deck chairs by the edge of the pool sipping frozen margueritas. She realized that hers was nearly gone while Dora had barely touched hers. Was this nervous drinking? She didn’t feel particularly nervous.

  Dora sighed. “I could get used to this.”

  “Oh, you get used to it all right. You even get spoiled. I honestly don’t know if I could handle living in a city anymore. Up here isn’t Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a million miles away. Down there in all the exhaust fumes.”

  She hoped that didn’t sound like criticism. Dora had chosen a hotel down there in the middle of town. It was an expensive hotel. When for the same money she could have chosen the Bel-Air up in the hills.

  “You know you can feel free to use this any time you want, Dora. Whether we’re here or not. The house is always locked but the gate to the pool never is. Not a whole lot of crime up here. They patrol like crazy.”

  “Thanks. I might take you up on that. You’re a lucky woman, Karen.”

  “You think so? Hell, I always thought Jim was the lucky one.”

  She laughed. “That too.”

  “Your own life doesn’t seem too shabby. No bosses. Travel. I miss travel.”

  “I make a good living. For the most part I enjoy what I do and hell, I’ve always liked New York believe it or not. But I sometimes think I ’d throw it all over and trade with you in a minute, you know?”

  Karen looked at her. She was serious.

  “Really?”

  “A guy who loves you. Kids who love you. A life, clean and simple.”

  “Clean. Not so simple.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  She guessed she did.

  “You know what I think?” she said.

  “What.”

  “I think you need to meet a really nice guy.”

  “I did. Just recently. He was in love with his wife.”

  “One without a wife.”

  She took down most of her drink in one long swallow. So that now they were pretty much even.

  “They all have wives,” she said.

  “Nah. Not all.”

  An idea had occurred to her. It might be a dumb idea and it might not.

  “There’s more in the blender. You ready?”

  “Sure. But I think I’m going in.”

  “Okay. I’ll get us the drinks and you have a swim.”

  They got up out of the deck chairs and Dora handed her her glass and she had a moment to admire the flat tight body of a woman who she suspected exercised more regularly and rigorously than she did and who had borne no children before Dora stood on her toes at the edge of the pool and executed a perfect dive.

  ELEVEN

  Matthew

  I guess this wasn’t the best idea Karen’s ever had was it? he’d said and she’d smiled and said guess not, Matthew, because they’d spent more time at dinner awkwardly silent than talking. His jokes had fallen flat. His charm had fallen flat. In fact she seemed almost hostile when he tried to turn on the good old Matthew charm. She wasn’t much interested in his life here in L.A. or talking about her own life in New York. Only when they spoke of Karen and Jim did she seem much interested in what he had to say. So that he was surprised as hell when she said, you want to come on up?

  Come up and have a drink with me, she said. Maybe we can iron out some of the rough spots. You sure? he said and she nodded so he pulled up in front of the hotel and handed the keys to the parking valet and followed her through the lobby and up to room eight eleven. His flop sweat had evaporated.

  Inside she poured them each an Absolut on the rocks and they sat and she crossed those long lovely legs. Peace, she said and they drank to that though they had never really been fighting.

  He was aware of her studying him a moment and then she said tell me something Matthew. Do you think people have to actually like one another in order to have sex together? Do you think it’s important? He wasn’t a fool. It wasn’t a question. She was inviting him to dance. Even if it was coming out of nowhere the woman was still as attractive as hell.

  No, he said. Absolutely not. You absolutely do not have to like one another to have sex together. No way.

  You like top or bottom? she said and he told her he liked both which was true enough and the next thing he knew he was fucking his best buddy’s former high school girlfriend.

  And the next thing he knew she was tying him to the bedposts. With silk scarves no less. And the lady knew how to tie a knot. I’m going to fuck you till you scream, Matthew she told him and he said sounds about right and she was pretty much as good as her word. We’re not done yet she said. Tell me when you’re ready.

  He wasn’t a kid anymore and it had been a while since he’d had two erections in a row but she took him there all right. They say asphyxia adds to the fun she said and slid herself onto his cock and pulled a pillow out from under his head and held it over his face and he didn’t think it was fun at all. In fact it wasn’t long before he wilted inside her completely and thrashed his arms and legs and tried with everything he had to pull free of the knotted scarves but they held and he could hear her laughing over his own muted shouts inside the pillow while she rode him like a bronco and he simply tried to fucking breathe.

  He felt her lean in close. You going to yell if I quit? she said. He shook his head no. A definite no. She removed the pillow. He gasped for air. Want to try again? No! he said but she put the pillow over his head anyway and he tried to fight her again but she was much stronger than she looked and he was going crazy down there just trying to suck air into his lungs until finally she tossed the pillow off him and smiled and said, we’re done now. She stroked his face. He wanted to scream at her and call her the crazy bitch she sure as hell was but he was afraid that might just get him the goddamn pillow again.

  We’re done now, she said. You have nothing to worry about. You just lie there awhile and compose yourself and I’m going to shower and get dressed. I know you’re probably pretty mad at me right now. So what I’m going to do is go out for a little while and just before I go I’ll untie one of your wrists and leave you to handle the rest. Fair enough? And please don’t have any ideas about waiting around for me till I get back, okay? To have it out with me I mean? I guarantee you wouldn’t win and you wouldn’t like it.

  He asked her why. Why the hell had she done this? You were flirting with me all through dinner she said. Quite the lover-boy.

  I’m sick of that.

  TWELVE

  Jim and Karen

  “I’m telling you she damn near killed me. The woman’s a fucking lunatic!”

  Jim held his cell phone in one hand and with the other removed first the mayo, then Dijon mustard and a head of lettuce from the refrigerator and handed them to Karen who was listening to his side of all this while making them toasted Virginia ham sandwiches. One for each of them and one for Linda and her frien
ds Beth and Suzie who were sunbathing out by the pool in what he considered to be almost swimsuits.

  He gave Karen a look and laughed and she returned the look. It was Matthew after all. Another Matthew adventure.

  “I guess you did something to annoy her.”

  “Annoy her? We were having sex for chrissake!”

  “Come on, Matthew. She was playing with you. So it got out of hand, right? I mean, what’d you…”

  He shook his head. Karen rolled her eyes and slathered on the mayo.

  “…what’d you let her tie you up for in the first place?”

  “I don’t know! It seemed like a good idea at the time! Jesus! Can I get a little sympathy here? She ever do that with you?”

  “Tie me up? Hell no, of course not.”

  “Well, lucky you. I’m telling you, I ’d lose that one if I were you. She’s wacked! I mean, I don’t think you’re taking me too seriously here, James.”

  “Of course I’m taking you seriously, Matt.”

  They both nearly broke up at that one.

  “Honestly. I am. I’ll definitely take it under advisement, okay? Listen, I gotta go. I’ll see you Monday. Sorry it didn’t exactly work out, you know?”

  “Right. Yeah. Okay. Monday.”

  “Take care, Matt. Bye.”

  Karen sliced the sandwiches and smiled at him.

  “She really tied him up?”

  “She sure did. Then put a pillow over his face and held it there. I don’t get it. I mean, Dora? I knew she could be a pistol sometimes but I ’d never have thought her the type, you know? Not in a million years.”

  “To screw on the first date?”

  “No. To go in for the kinky stuff.”

  She handed him his sandwich and kissed him on the cheek.

  “Maybe everybody’s the type, Jim. Ever think of that? Right time. Right place. Right guy. Or in this case maybe, wrong guy?”

  Then she turned his head in her hand and kissed him much more thoroughly.

  “So nobody’s ever tied you to the bedposts, huh?” she said. “Damn. That’s too bad. Maybe we’ll have to fix that one of these days. Call the girls, will you? Lunch is ready.”

  And later that night they had long since gone to bed when the phone rang again and she was listening to Jim’s end of the conversation a second time.

  Hello? Oh hi. No, that’s okay. We just tend to turn in early, you know? Kids. It’s okay, honest. Of course we can. Sure. Don’t be silly. I’m free by around five. Hey. You all right? Okay. Good. G’night.

  She watched him put the phone down on its stand and turn off the light and felt his familiar weight beside her.

  “Your girlfriend?” she said.

  “Very cute, Karen.”

  “She want to confess?”

  “Something like that, I guess.”

  “I’d like to be a fly on the wall for that conversation.”

  “Ha! I ’d like to have been a fly on the wall last night. I’ll fill you in, I promise. All the gory details. All right?”

  “All right. Kiss me good night.”

  “I already did.”

  “Do it again.”

  So he did.

  In the morning as she was packing Jimmy off for his last day of school it occurred to her to wonder exactly what he’d meant by wishing he were a fly on the wall last night and for a single unsettling moment and since she’d already seen Dora stepping out of a pool in a tight wet swimsuit she was able to do just that.

  See her naked. Leaning over a man on a bed. Her breasts and shoulders gleaming.

  Pressing down on a pillow.

  It was a moment she could have done without.

  THIRTEEN

  Jim and Dora

  He was annoyed with her. Dora could see that. Though to his credit he was trying not to show it. She didn’t blame him. She was annoyed with herself truth be told. What she’d done with Matthew was stupid and not in line with the rest of her thinking about this at all. She’d told herself at first that it was that damned self-satisfied smirk of his that had gotten to her finally but men had smirked at her before. It wasn’t that.

  It was when they were talking about Jim and Karen and he’d said oh-so-sincerely that he’d thought of settling down himself one day just like they had, he was seriously considering it—and that just fucking galled her. He was the kind of man who would never settle down. Even if he married some poor silly-ass excuse for a woman he’d have his prick in his hand for every other woman he met.

  So she’d decided to prove it to him. What a hound he was. He’d even fuck Jim’s ex. And then she figured it was payback time, hence the pillow.

  In the clear light of day it was a mistake though. And even worse timing.

  Because here she was sitting in this very nice outdoor restaurant she’d picked out for them in her summery little Ralph Lauren backless two-piece ensemble fiddling with the ice in her vodka tonic and instead of feeling confident of what was about to happen between them as she’d been the day before she was annoyed with herself and not so very confident at all.

  “Dora, listen,” he told her. “Matt’s a very resilient guy. He’ll get over it. Hell, in a couple of days he’ll have forgotten all about it.”

  That wasn’t exactly true. Matt had an ego like an eigh teen-wheeler on an open highway. It was going to take him a while. In the meantime he was going to be hearing about this for days.

  “I won’t, though. I must have been drunk. I must have been crazy. I can’t believe what you and Karen must think of me.”

  “We don’t think anything. We’re adults for god’s sake. You were playing. So what? You’re making too big a deal out of this, really you are.”

  Was that exactly true? He didn’t know.

  He’d noticed the guy pull into the lot in his beat-up red Chevy, half of it covered with primer and thought how out of place it was with the rest of what was in the lot and then heard the car door slam and looked up again and saw this tall California redneck with the shaved head striding toward them scanning the tables looking for somebody and then saw him focus on Dora of all people.

  The guy walked over.

  “Well, if it ain’t Miss Lexus,” he said, smiling.

  His voice sounded like somewhere in the past he’d swallowed large quantities of broken pottery.

  “I thought that was your piece of shit out there. I wasn’t exactly sure, else I ’d have busted a couple of fuckin’ windows for you.”

  “Hey,” he said.

  “Butt out, buddy.”

  He put his hands on the table and leaned in close. The man reeked of sweat and threat. What the fuck?

  “You damn near run me off the road, you know that, lady?”

  “I didn’t…”

  “Hey,” Jim said again and pulled back and stood up from his chair as the man grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet and when he reached for them stiffarmed him back against the table so that he fell to his knees and heard glass shatter—her glass or his—and someone gasp in surprise to his left and then the man was leading her across the lot. He heard her shout leave me alone! and was up and limping after them cursing his goddamn limp and Dora resisting trying to pull out of his grasp as they crossed toward the beat-up Chevy but as he approached the man stiff-armed him again and then grabbed her head and pressed it down toward the right rear wheel.

  “Smell that, you bitch? That’s brake lining!”

  And then miracle of miracles he was able to get between them and pull her free with one hand and shove the guy hard with the other.

  “Hey, fuckhead! You weren’t in the car with this bitch, so I got no quarrel with you. But if you want I can damn well make one. You hear what I’m sayin’?”

  “That’s it. It’s over. Leave her be. Leave her alone!”

  He was amazed. The fury in his voice almost matched the guy’s own.

  “Fuck you. The fuck I will.”

  He was a big sonovabitch but the swing was high and wide thank god and he someh
ow got under it and then yet another miracle, pasted him a good one in the gut, a punch he could feel all the way up to his shoulder. The guy grunted and fell back against his trunk. But the guy wasn’t nearly finished yet. He threw open the rear door and came out with a fucking tire iron in his fist.

  Just looking at the thing scared him shitless.

  Go! he yelled to Dora and he turned to follow her and felt the tire iron slam into his arm and back up near the shoulder. He didn’t know which was worse—the suddenly nauseating pain or the shock of knowing the guy was actually capable of using the thing and had just proceeded to do so. The arm was going to be useless now and all he could do was pour it on as best he could heading for her car.

  Which was what they did.

  And he guessed the guy had had enough flesh for one day because he didn’t follow though he easily could have.

  Are you all right? she said and he nodded. He was fine.

  He wasn’t fine. He hurt like hell. When they were on the road and they were done gasping for air and the pain had diminished sufficiently to a heavy throbbing burn and he had some feeling flowing back into his arm which was both a good thing and a bad thing he was finally able to ask her…did you?

  “No, I swear! He had the wrong goddamn Lexus for chrissake.”

  “Jesus. The crazy bastard. He could have killed us. He could still kill us if you don’t slow down a bit.”

  “Sorry.”

  “We need to go back for my car,” he said.

  “Your car can wait. I want to have a look at where he hit you. You might need a doctor.”

  “I don’t need a doctor.”

  “I want to have a look at you.”

  He didn’t argue.