Pretty Young Thing: a new adult romance box set

by Coleman, Eileen Cruz

  “No, I’m closed on Saturdays, and Sundays.”

  “Isn’t that when most people have time to bring their bikes in or pick them up?”

  “They know I close on the weekends. It’s fine. So, what do you think? Want me to show you around town?”

  Maggie finds it strange that a store owner would close on the weekends, but she concedes that maybe that’s the way they do things in tiny riverside towns.

  “I’ll look pretty silly wearing your clothes. And even sillier wearing sweatpants in June.”

  “I have shorts you can try, but you’ll need a belt and they’ll come down to your knees. You might be better off with my sweatpants. We have a washer and dryer in the building you can use. If you want, you can wash your clothes and we can go out later,” he says.

  She looks herself up and down. She feels completely ridiculous in his clothes.

  “But, I already told you, you look really cute wearing my clothes.”

  Her cheeks go hot and she knows she’s blushing. “Can I use your bathroom?”

  “You don’t have to ask. Also, I left a new tooth brush on the sink for you.”

  “Thank you.”

  She brushes her teeth and cleans her armpits. She wants to use his deodorant, but she doesn’t. Wearing his clothes is enough. She doesn’t need to also smell like him.

  “So, are we washing clothes first?” he asks when she returns from the bathroom.

  “Yes, if you don’t mind.”

  “Let’s do it,” he says.

  In the small laundry room on the first floor of the four-story building, he says, “Sometimes, the washing machine stops mid-cycle. All we need to do is move it around a little and then it gets going again. Oh, and the dryer’s door doesn’t always stay shut. I guess what I’m saying is that we can’t just set it and forget it. We’ll need to come down and check or stay here.”

  There are pictures on the walls, all of them have writing on them, Smile often, Life is an Adventure, Small Towns do it Best, When in Doubt, Eat Some Crabs. The walls are painted cherry red and the one window is decorated with decals.

  “Why are there decals on the window?” Maggie asks.

  “Oh, that. Mrs. Finley from the second floor put those up. She says that a cardinal is always crashing into the window because he sees his reflection and thinks it’s another cardinal trying to take his territory from him. So, she put up a bunch of decals, hoping to distract him and make him realize no other bird is after his territory. She’s kooky, but harmless.”

  At this, Maggie smiles. It occurs to her that she has been smiling a lot lately. Not fake smiles, but real smiles, smiles from the heart. And Dustin has everything to do with it.

  She hops onto the washing machine. He jumps onto the dryer.

  He tells her how he painted the laundry room blue once, but Mrs. Finley had a fit because her favorite color is red so the next day he went and bought red paint and the next time she did her laundry, the room was painted red and she knocked on his door and gave him a hug. Ever since then, they’ve been best friends and if she ever needs anything fixed in her apartment, he’s her guy.

  She asks him if he ever thinks about leaving, maybe going to a bigger town or even a city and he frowns at this question and asks her why he would ever want to leave his home, especially when all of his friends and family are here, except for the one brother who lives in Florida and he’s actually thinking about moving back home because Florida is too hot and humid and buggy.

  He asks her again why she was on her way to Florida and she reminds him that she already told him, but she tells him again that she has a sister there who she was going to visit for the summer. She doesn’t offer any more details. And she doesn’t think he believes her story, either.

  They sit quietly and she stares at the decals. The washing machine makes a loud noise and then stops.

  Dustin jumps off the dryer and tells her they need to move the washer around. She leaps off of it. He moves it side to side and gets it going again.

  “Do you think it will stop again?” she asks.

  “Nope and even if it does, we’ll be here to get it moving again.”

  “Why doesn’t the landlord replace it?” she asks.

  He laughs. “Because he’s cheap!”

  “Maybe all the tenants can chip in for a new one,” she says.

  “We’ve thought about it, but we chose to put our money together for a nice, gas grill, instead. There’s a communal terrace in the back of the building and sometimes on nice nights we all gather there. Mrs. Finley has a little garden there. Mostly plants and flowers in pots, but she’s grown a few vegetables, too. Anyway, quite a few of the residents are old, you know, and hanging out on the terrace is a real treat for them.”

  “Did you already get the grill?” she asks.

  His face lights up. “Oh, yeah, I went and bought it three weeks ago. I’ll show it to you, if you want.”

  “Who does the grilling?”

  “Me, of course!”

  The laundry room door opens.

  “Sorry, I didn’t know anyone was in here. I’ll come back later,” says a guy, carrying a green basket full of clothes.

  “We’re almost done,” Dustin says.

  “No rush,” the guy says and leaves.

  “That’s Ash, our newest resident. He’s not from Solomon’s. He’s only been here a few months. Keeps to himself, mostly. Although, Lindsey, the town’s cling monster, is obsessed with him. I think he may have a girlfriend, but I’m not sure. I’ve seen another girl come and go from his apartment. Anyway, he seems like a nice guy.”

  “What’s a cling monster?”

  “Oh, that’s how we describe Lindsey. When she likes a guy, she clings to him like you would not believe. She’s really jealous. She used to work for Holly, but that didn’t last long. The girl could not figure out how to work the cash register.”

  “Is Holly hiring?” she blurts out.

  His eyes grow big. “Why? Are you thinking about staying here?”

  She looks at the window, embarrassed that she asked him such an idiotic question.

  “I don’t know why I asked that. I need to get to Raleigh.”

  The washing machine stops again.

  “Time to put your clothes in the dryer,” he says.

  She opens the washer’s door and takes out her clothes, careful not to let him see her bra and underwear. She makes sure they are hidden in between her shorts and shirt. He opens the dryer’s door.

  “Twenty minutes and you’ll have clean clothes,” he says, shutting the dryer’s door, after she drops her wet clothes in it.

  “You don’t have to wait with me,” she says.

  “I know, but I want to. So, what’s in Raleigh, if you don’t mind me asking? Earlier you said you were going to Florida.”

  She can’t believe her mistake. And she does mind him asking. The truth is nothing is really in Raleigh. There is no one waiting for her there. No job. No new life. She’s going there because she read about it in an article. The article named it one of the best places to live. There were other places, too, but Raleigh caught her attention the most. Maybe it was the name she liked. Maybe it was that it was in the south and therefore not likely to be as cold as upstate New York. She’s not sure why she settled on Raleigh, but that’s the place she decided would be her new home. An immature, half-baked plan, but a plan, just the same.

  “I’m not going to Florida. I was going to Raleigh. I only told you I was going to Florida because I didn’t know you. I don’t know you,” she confesses.

  “I get it. So, do you have family in Raleigh?”

  “No. I don’t have anyone anywhere.”

  “Are you running from someone?” he asks.

  She can feel tears forming.

  “Did someone hurt you?”

  He takes her hand. Her spine stiffens and she feels sick. But, she lets him hold her hand.

  “You can stay here, if you want. My sister will give you a job. I kn
ow she will. And until you can get your own place, you can stay with me.”

  “Why are you being so nice to me? I’m a stranger.”

  “I was raised to be kind, even to strangers, and especially ones that look like they are in real need of help.”

  “Being kind could get you in trouble,” she says.

  “If being kind to you gets me in trouble, so be it.”

  He hugs her and she melts into his arms. She shouldn’t trust him, she knows this. She shouldn’t trust anyone. Everyone she’s ever loved, except for her little brother, has disappointed her, and betrayed her trust. But, she so desperately needs to feel safe. She’s young and damaged and alone and at this moment, she just wants to feel like someone, even if he is a stranger, gives a damn about her.

  They head back up to his apartment, clean clothes in her hands. Her spirit feels a little lighter. Maybe she was meant to miss the bus.

  Moments later, they are on the Riverwalk and he asks her if she wants an ice cream cone. She does and they sit on a bench eating ice cream and watching birds dive into the river. They don’t talk, just sit together as if they are an old couple who have been together for fifty years and know everything there is to know about each other.

  After they finish their ice cream, he takes her to the Marine Museum where he laughs at her because she’s afraid to walk in front of a big whale skull, which is looking down at her as if it wants to eat her. Dustin takes her hand and laughing, they run past it. Then they see jelly fish, sea horses, sting rays, turtles and fish of all kinds.

  She thinks they are done seeing all there is to see in the small museum.

  “Come on, you have to see the otters and then we’re going up into the light house,” he says, nudging her through a door which leads outside.

  “Look at them,” he points to two otters swimming in a tank, “Aren’t they cute?”

  “Yes, they are,” she says.

  Children get in front of them to get a closer look at the otters. They clap and giggle as the otters put on a show for them.

  Maggie can’t help but join the children in their clapping.

  Next, Dustin leads her to the light house.

  “It’s not an operating light house anymore,” he says as they walk on the boardwalk toward it.

  “Can you go inside of it?” she asks.

  “Of course! That’s what we’re going to do.”

  “It looks so small.”

  “There once was a family of seven living in it, two parents and five children. Can you imagine?”

  “I don’t believe you,” she says.

  “It’s true, I swear. The lighthouse keeper and his wife had five children.”

  “Do you have tickets?” says a man standing at the bottom of a staircase that leads up to the light house platform from which they will have to climb a ladder to get into the actual light house.

  The light house is a hexagon-shaped cottage painted white with an orange-red roof.

  Dustin digs in his pocket. “Here you go.”

  The man takes the tickets. “Be careful going up the ladder.”

  They get to the platform. A few people have already started going up the ladder.

  “You go in front of me,” Dustin says.

  Maggie hesitates.

  “I’m right behind you. If you get scared and want to come down, just let me know, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Slowly, she starts going up the ladder. Her hands are sweating and she feels a panic attack coming on. She once fell from a tree and that was the end of her climbing days, until now. She carries on because she doesn’t want to be embarrassed. There are already other people behind Dustin and if she throws a fit and wants to get down, everyone will have to backtrack in order to let her off.

  “You’re doing great,” Dustin says.

  “I’m not sure about this,” she says.

  “Do you want to come down?”

  “No.”

  She makes it to the top and steps into the light house. Dustin is right behind her.

  “People actually lived here?” she asks.

  “Yes. Crazy, right?”

  There is a tiny living space, an even tinier kitchen and eating area and a small bedroom. There isn’t much more to explore and all Maggie can think about is the climb down and how nervous she is about it, but she puts on a brave face.

  “Do you want to go outside?” Dustin asks.

  A deck wraps around the light house.

  “I’d rather not,” she says.

  “Why not? You can see the Chesapeake Bay from the deck. It’s beautiful.”

  “I’m afraid of heights,” she confesses.

  “Oh, you should have said something. I wouldn’t have insisted we come up here.”

  “You were so excited about it,” she says.

  “Let’s head down. Do you think you can go down the ladder?”

  “I don’t have much of a choice, do I? Not unless, there is a job opening for a light keeper?”

  At this, he grins.

  “We’ll go slowly. I’ll go first.”

  When it’s her turn to start going down, she takes a deep breath and says a prayer even though she’s not very religious. Her heart is pounding and she wants the whole thing over with.

  “I’m right here. Don’t be scared,” he says to her.

  His voice comforts her. His everything comforts her.

  She moves one foot onto the next step, but misses the step and she falls into Dustin who goes flying down onto the platform with her on top of him.

  She wants to disappear. As quickly as she can, she gets off of him and hopes he isn’t hurt.

  “I’m so sorry, are you hurt?” she asks.

  He’s lying on his back. “I’m not hurt, are you?”

  “No.”

  He stands up and stretches his back. “I think you should maybe be on your way again to Raleigh.”

  “Why?”

  “Because staying here is hazardous to your health.”

  At this, they both start laughing.

  Once back at his apartment, he asks her if she had a good time, despite the light house incident. She tells him she did.

  There’s a knock on his door.

  “Hi, Mrs. Finley,” he says.

  “I went to look for you at the shop, but the closed sign was on the door.”

  “Oh yeah, I was closed today.”

  “You never close on Saturdays.”

  “I did, today.”

  “Are you going to be closed every Saturday and what about Sundays?”

  “No, just today and maybe tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Anyway, my grandson’s bike needs new tires. Can I leave it here with you?”

  “Yes, that’s fine. I’ll look at it on Monday.”

  “I still don’t know why you’re closed today.”

  “Anything else, Mrs. Finley?”

  “Yes, we’re getting together tonight on the terrace. It’s my birthday. I’m turning twenty-two again.”

  “Happy Birthday!”

  “Will you come?”

  “Of course. Do you want me to grill?”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “You know I don’t.”

  “Wonderful! We’re all bringing food. You don’t have to since you will be grilling!”

  “See you tonight.”

  “Six thirty. Oh and feel free to bring that cute girl I saw you with on the Riverwalk. I’m guessing she’s the reason you closed your store today.”

  When he comes back into the living room, Maggie is waiting for him, arms crossed.

  “You closed because of me?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you’re closing again tomorrow?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Can I tell you something?” he says.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve wanted to kiss you since the moment I saw you.”

  His lips are close to hers.

  “Can I kiss you?” he
says.

  “Yes.”

  He kisses her and she trembles because she wants more than his soft lips. She wants all of him. Almost as if he senses her desire for him, he kisses her harder and moves his hands under her shirt.

  She wants him to pick her up and take her to his bed and do whatever he wants to her. She’s never felt like this. Jacob was harsh with her, brutal at times, never gentle, never soft.

  “Do you want to go to my room,” Dustin whispers into her ear.

  “Yes.”

  “Are you sure? We don’t have to.”

  “I’m sure.”

  They enter his room. He closes the door. They fall into his bed and she’s happier than she has been in a long time.

  Hours later, they are on the terrace at Mrs. Finley’s birthday party. Dustin can’t take his eyes off Maggie and she can’t take her eyes off him.

  He’s grilling burgers and hot dogs and chicken. Mrs. Finley and the other residents surround her. None of them ask her where she’s from or why she’s in Solomon’s. And for this, she loves them, already.

  They tell her Dustin is a good kid, always helping with whatever needs fixing. They tell her they can tell he’s crazy about her. And they tell her, they can tell she’s crazy about him, seeing as how all she’s done the whole evening is stare at him and smile.

  Mrs. Finley offers her a soda. “I think you are going to like living here. Dustin says Holly is going to give you a job. Oh, look, there she is now.”

  “Happy Birthday, Mrs. Finley,” Holly says, giving her a wrapped box.

  Mrs. Finley kisses her on the cheek. “Thank you, my love.”

  Holly glances at Dustin. “How’s he doing?”

  “Good. He’s only burned one burger so far, and that’s only because he was too busy looking at other things, other someone’s.”

  Holly smiles at Maggie. “So, you’re Helen? Dustin called me earlier and told me you’re looking for a job.”

  He must have called her when she was in the shower after their afternoon fun in his bed.

  “Yes, I’m willing to do whatever you need.”

  “What I need is someone to work the cash register. It’s quirky and kind of a pain in the ass and well, I’m attached to it and not ready to replace it. Think you want to give it a try?”

  “Absolutely,” Maggie says.

  “Good, you start on Monday at seven in the morning.”