Life After Love

by K. G. MacGregor

  “No, I meant our friend, somebody we’d go out with or have over. Melody never wanted to do anything with people unless they were her friends first.”

  Because Melody was a selfish bitch, Bea thought. “I’m not like that. I’m happy to hang out with you and Candace if you want me to, but you should have your own friends too. I don’t have to be part of everything you do. You probably don’t want that with me either.”

  By the look on Allyn’s face, she wasn’t happy with that idea.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The last time I let somebody have her own private life, it didn’t work out so well.”

  “You’re borrowing trouble. I’m not going to have the kind of secrets Melody had and neither are you, but we shouldn’t let our lives get sucked inside each other. Bad things happen. If anyone knows that, it’s us. If it does, it’s a whole lot easier when you have friends of your own you can lean on.”

  “And you’re not just saying that because you don’t want to be around any of the women I know?”

  Bea laughed and moved close enough to cup Allyn’s cheek. “Listen, lady. Save yourself all this worrying. Just take me at my word because I’m not going to lie to you. I’m happy to do things with your friends whenever you want me to, but I want you to be your own person too. That’s who you were when I met you, and that’s who I’ve started falling in love with.”

  Allyn’s cheeks reddened as a smile spread across her face.

  “I said that out loud, didn’t I?”

  “Yes, and you aren’t taking it back.”

  “Oh, I have no intention of taking it back.”

  Dexter collapsed at her feet, his tongue hanging to the ground. Candace was holding the tennis ball in her fingertips with her arm outstretched so the slobber wouldn’t get on her clothes.

  “You look like someone who needs a good hand-washing,” Bea said, relieving her of the slimy mess. She pointed toward the parking lot. “There’s a restroom over there.”

  Allyn attached Dexter’s leash to walk him back as Candace hurried away. “Picnics are fun but I’m ready for this one to be over.”

  “Why’s that?” Bea asked.

  “Because I want to take you home and devour you.”

  “Deflower me?”

  “That too.”

  *

  At the last second, Allyn slid two fingers into Bea and spread them wide. When the rapid clenching started inside, she flattened her tongue to cover as much of the slickness as she could.

  Bea gasped sharply and thrust her hips upward so hard Allyn nearly lost contact. “God, you’re so good,” she murmured as she eased herself back down to the bed.

  “We’re good together,” Allyn whispered.

  In this room they were uninhibited and focused on learning how to please each other. Across three days, their lovemaking had been alternately tender, fun, heartfelt and adventurous. Today it was passionate. Because Bea had confessed to falling in love with her.

  Bea Lawson, the cute woman who ran the Pak & Ship. With a perfect smile that set off her beautiful green eyes and thick hair the color of coal. Even-tempered with a sense of humor. Pensive and philosophical. Morally grounded. Sweet.

  All those words came so easily to describe her, but she had something else, something intangible. It was the flint that had sparked, that told Allyn to pay attention to her. Now the spark was growing into love.

  Now that she had Bea, she could let Melody go.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Poor Dexter. Bea had left him at home the night before while she squeezed in a couple of hours after work to be with Allyn. Now she’d dropped him off at home and run off again, this time to her softball game. Too bad Ballard Park didn’t allow dogs around the ball fields. He’d be all right though. He was easygoing and forgiving, though not accustomed to spending so much time alone.

  A line of customers at closing time kept her in the shop later than usual, and she barely had enough time to change into her softball clothes and get to the park in time to warm up. As she leaned on the trunk of her car to change from her sneakers to her cleats, she spotted Allyn running from the dugout to meet her.

  “What took you so long? Kit’s been stalling the umpire over her lineup card until she saw you pull in.”

  Bea answered first with a quick kiss, not caring who saw them together. After holding hands for most of the day at their picnic two days ago, it was hardly a secret they were seeing each other. “Those damn customers. Always bothering me with their business,” she joked.

  Allyn’s bouncing ponytail made her look like a teenager, especially when she snapped her bubblegum, which they all chewed during their games. “I went crazy after you left last night. Took me forever to get to sleep.”

  “Tell me about it. I had to ride home with the air conditioner on full blast.” An hour of making out on the couch had left her in a frenzy.

  “You can come back tomorrow for dinner if you want.”

  Allyn surprised her by taking her hand as they walked toward the dugout, and Bea made note of several people looking their way. She knew lots of the women who hung out at the ball field for the women’s league on Wednesday night, and so did Wendy. “About tomorrow…I think I should go up and talk to Wendy about this before somebody else does.” She raised their joined hands to indicate what she meant by this .

  “You’re going to drive all the way to Vancouver and back after work? You won’t get home till midnight.”

  Probably closer to one or two, depending on how long she and Wendy talked, but the urgency was growing every day. She could do it during their regular Thursday night Skype session, but that seemed cold and impersonal. “Wendy still has a lot of friends here. One of them could be watching us right now, and I don’t want her to hear about us from anyone but me. You understand that, don’t you?”

  “Of course. I just hate to think of you working all day and driving all night. I wish I could go with you—not to see Wendy. Just to ride in the car and keep you awake.”

  “I’ll have Dexter for that. He’s pretty good company.” She found an errant ball in the grass behind the dugout. “Let’s throw a few. I need to warm up.”

  After each toss, they took a small step backward, with Allyn tossing grounders and Bea hurling them back as if throwing to first base.

  “Candace came out to cheer us on,” Allyn said, waving toward the bleachers.

  “Is she coming with us to JoJo’s?”

  Allyn held the ball and stared into the stands, her cheery demeanor fading. “Shit. Guess who’s sitting right in front of her.”

  Bea turned and peered into the distance, recognizing the woman Allyn had run into at their first game. “Is that Melody’s friend?”

  “Jillian and her wife Tiffany. What the hell are they doing here?”

  It wasn’t unusual for players to hang around and watch other teams, but Jillian’s team wasn’t playing tonight. Most likely they had come to watch Allyn, a realization that made Bea feel both protective and possessive. Turning her back to the bleachers, she walked toward Allyn. “Are they looking this way?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good.” She rose up on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on Allyn’s lips. “I sure hope they saw that.”

  *

  Allyn counted out seventeen dollars and added it to the pile in the center of the table. Over Bea’s and Marta’s objections, she gladly shared the cost of two pitchers of beer she didn’t help drink. That’s what it meant to be part of a team, and tonight was special because they’d won their final game of the season.

  Most of the women had gone already, but she was stretching out every moment with Bea, knowing they wouldn’t see each other again until the weekend.

  Bea held up the small plaque that commemorated the season and thanked Pak & Ship for sponsoring the team. “After such a miserable start, I can’t believe we finished the season tied for third.”

  “I finished undefeated,” Allyn added haughtily.

  “Som
ething tells me they’re going to miss us here at JoJo’s,” Kit said, flipping through the stack of cash. “We should get up a team for the volleyball league. That starts in about three weeks.”

  “Let me know what the sponsor’s fee is. I’m game,” Bea said, looking toward Allyn for her response.

  “Me too. I haven’t played in forever though. I might not be good enough.”

  Marta laughed and slapped the table as she stood. “That didn’t stop any of you from playing softball.”

  On that disparaging note, they filed out to the parking lot. Bea hung back until the others left and followed Allyn to her car. “You weren’t upset about me kissing you in front of Jillian and Tiffany, were you?”

  As the game had worn on, Allyn worried about the ramifications, especially when she noticed Jillian and Tiffany taking photos, which they would likely send to Melody. The more she thought about it, the more unsettled it made her, so she’d kept her distance from Bea for the rest of the game. “No, but I didn’t like that we were putting on a show for their benefit. You can kiss me anytime you want when you really mean it.”

  “I did mean it, but I got a little carried away. I figured they’d run back to Melody and I wanted to rub her nose in it. I won’t do anything like that again if it bothers you.”

  “It’s okay. I didn’t mind it when you did it, but when I saw them taking pictures of you over on third base, it made me wish we hadn’t. Melody doesn’t need to know my business.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

  The solemn look on Bea’s face made her feel guilty for coming down too hard. “It’s not that big a deal. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Bea checked around to be sure no one was watching. Then she tugged on Allyn’s neck for another kiss. “You’re such a sweetheart.”

  The words melted her inside and she pulled Bea into a bear hug. “What I am is lucky. You came into my life right when I needed you most.”

  “I need you just as much, Allyn.”

  Even after all the hours they’d spent making love, this felt like their sweetest moment yet. “I’ll miss you tomorrow night. Be safe.”

  They turned in opposite directions coming out of the parking lot, leaving Allyn to face her feelings alone. She understood now what Bea had meant when she said she started looking forward to their next time together the moment she walked away. The weekend couldn’t come soon enough.

  Seven years ago, she and Melody had privately laughed at Jillian, who’d just met Tiffany and was frantic to be with her every minute of every day. It was silly, or so they thought, for someone to be so crazy over a woman she’d known only a week or two.

  And now she was fighting the urge to turn the car around and follow Bea home.

  *

  Dexter had slept most of the way in the passenger seat, oblivious to her nervousness about breaking the news to Wendy. His annoyance over her recent absences was unmistakable in his cool demeanor. He’d greeted her at the door the night before, but couldn’t be bothered to run through the house no matter how much she coaxed him.

  “Almost there, baby.” It was nearly nine o’clock, and she envied him his nap.

  The Huangs weren’t happy about her impromptu visit, but they accommodated it for Wendy’s sake. Joseph Huang answered the door with his usual air of detachment and cast a scornful look at Dexter.

  “I wiped his feet,” she said, holding up the cloth she carried in her car for just that purpose. Wendy had made it clear to her parents that she enjoyed seeing Dexter, but Bea still felt obliged to be a considerate guest.

  He stood aside to let her enter. “Wendy is already in bed, but I believe she’s still awake.”

  “Thank you.”

  Bea held Dexter close to her side as she walked past him into what once was a formal living room but had been converted for Wendy because the house lacked a bedroom on the ground floor. She was situated in a poorly disguised hospital bed, its head tipped at an angle to make the respirator’s work easier. A bedside lamp was the only light in the room.

  “Hey, sweetie.” Bea leaned over to kiss her while Dexter put his paws on the edge of the bed.

  “Can’t wait to hear this.” The respirator puffed for another breath. “Must be important for you to come so late.”

  “Yeah, I had to work all day. Your dad wasn’t exactly thrilled to see me. I considered letting Dexter pee on his leg.”

  “Turn off the monitor.”

  “Oh, shit!” She’d forgotten the Huangs left a baby monitor in Wendy’s room at night while they were sleeping upstairs. “Oh, well…it’s not as if they used to like me and now they won’t.”

  “You met somebody.”

  Bea sighed and smiled weakly. “I guess some big mouth got to you before I could. I was afraid of that.”

  “Nobody told me. It was the only reason I could think of…why you’d come all this way on a weeknight.”

  She took Wendy’s hand and raised it to her lips, hoping she could see the love even if she couldn’t feel it. “Yeah, I met somebody, and I think she might be special enough that I should come up here and tell you about her before someone else beat me to it.”

  Even after the last two years of Wendy imploring her to find someone else, Bea hardly expected a joyous reaction if and when she finally did. To her, it marked the definitive end to their romantic relationship, perhaps more than the accident because it meant giving her heart to another woman.

  “I’m happy for you.”

  “I can tell by the way you’re jumping up and down.” Bea knew she had questions, and it would be easier to tell the whole story rather than force her to ask for details. “Her name is Allyn Teague. I told you a little about her before. She used to be one of my regulars, but she and her wife split up last year and she moved up to Broadview. I ran into her about a month ago and we went out—just friends, that’s all. But then we hit it off, and I knew I needed to tell you because it has a certain feel to it. The kind that makes me think it might turn into something serious one of these days.”

  “What makes it feel that way?”

  Bea laughed softly and shook her head. Though she knew Wendy didn’t mean any of her questions as a challenge, they forced her to articulate things that hadn’t yet taken form. “I could tell you all the little things. She’s fun, she’s sweet. I think she’s very pretty. But the main thing is something I can’t even put my finger on. We clicked.”

  “That’s the best part.” Wendy closed her eyes and smiled. “Tell me more.”

  “For starters, she’s about a foot taller than you are. I never appreciated how much your neck must have hurt from looking up all the time.”

  “I always liked looking up to you…in more ways than one.”

  The idea that Wendy, who’d graduated near the top of her class in medical school, could look up to someone whose greatest accomplishment was owning a postal franchise, never failed to amaze her. Wendy said her success came easier because she had parents who pushed her and paid her way through school, while Bea had been forced to make it on her own.

  “Allyn works at home. She’s a headhunter for tech companies. Oh, and she’s left-handed like you. Plays first base on our softball team.”

  “Do you have a picture?”

  “As a matter of fact…” She scrolled through her smartphone to the download from the newspaper’s website. “You can’t really see her face though. This was in the paper.”

  Wendy studied it for a moment before pronouncing, “Nice butt.”

  Bea chuckled awkwardly at the absurdity, remembering how she’d thought the same thing.

  “Would I like her?”

  “I think so. Dexter does.” She described the circumstances of Allyn’s divorce and how she’d struggled to get back on her feet. “Bottom line is we’re just a couple of rejects who happened to find each other.”

  “You’re not a reject.” Wendy said more with her eyes than most people did with their speech, and at that moment, she was showing lo
ve and sorrow so deep it made Bea want to cry. “I want you to be happy, Bea.”

  “I know, honey. If you tell me right now there’s a chance for you and me to be happy together, I’ll end this with Allyn tomorrow. We can still find a way to be together.”

  “I love you, but what I really want…is for you to stop thinking that way.” An unusually scolding tone for Wendy. “Choose to be with someone else.”

  After years of pleading her case, Bea would have been shocked by any other response. But she’d never asked when the answer meant so much. “I don’t know for sure this is going to work out. There’s always the chance her old girlfriend will come back one of these days and she’ll leave me on the side of the road.”

  “Or maybe she’ll pick you. I know I would. Will I get to meet her?”

  “I hope so. We need a little time to see where it’s all going.” She also had to be sure Allyn could handle the depth of her feelings for Wendy without feeling threatened, and Bea had to know for certain Allyn was over Melody for good. “One thing’s for sure. We’re not going to rush into anything.”

  “When will you come back?”

  “A week from Sunday, I guess. Same as usual.” She nodded toward the baby monitor. “Assuming your folks let me. Can’t believe I did that.”

  “It was funny.”

  “I’ll never be out of your life, Wendy. Even if I fall madly in love with someone and get married again. No matter who it is, she has to understand that.”

  This was where Wendy sometimes retorted that she might not want that once Bea moved on. Now faced with the real possibility, she wasn’t so flippant. “So I’m stuck with you.”

  “That’s right.”

  Dexter, who’d been sitting quietly at their feet, stood up on the edge of the bed and whimpered.

  “I think he’s telling you it’s time to go,” Wendy rasped.

  “Probably a good idea. It’s been a long day.” She clutched Wendy’s hand again and kissed her goodbye. “I love you, you know. If I’m lucky enough in this lifetime for lightning to strike me twice, I’ll have you to thank for both of them.”