Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set

by Maddie James

  Geoff dropped his arms. “What are you talking about? Who’s bullying you?”

  “You or your parents. Larry Preston was pulling a Godfather act with me trying to get me to move in.”

  “An offer you couldn’t refuse, huh? He did call me yesterday wanting to meet with us. I told him I was here. He said, ‘My business is really with your wife anyway. Can I have her number?’ I gave it to him. I’m sorry about that. I should have asked you first. As far as Mom and Dad are concerned, I don’t think they’ve spoken with him since the party. Mom’s not a big fan of his.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. He divorced one of her friends and married a much younger woman.”

  Cheris ducked beneath the rim supporting the iron beams and strolled toward a large circle paved with white rocks. As she neared the display, she studied the neatly painted numbers on the stones.

  “This looks like a clock.”

  “It is.”

  “What happened to the hands?”

  “We’re the hands.” Geoff who had joined her caught her fingers and tugged her toward the middle of the circle. “It’s a sun dial actually, and luckily it’s a sunny day.” Sliding his hands to her shoulders, he nudged her to the left and pointed to the ground.

  Cheris’s skin tingled where he touched her. She watched their melded shadow where he pointed. Behind her his breath stirred her hair as he spoke.

  “We’re nearing eleven now. See?”

  Eleven o’clock on the rock.

  “This is really neat. Did you do this too?”

  “Not exactly.” His shadow broke away from hers. “I give most of my classes a group project assignment to benefit the community.”

  Cheris turned to watch him stride over to rock seven. He knelt down and repositioned it.

  “Who will take care of this after you leave?”

  Straightening, he stepped back as he studied the rock then approached it again to move it. He nodded briefly. “All of this belongs to the Institute so they’ll mow the grass, and there’s a pretty active astronomy club here so they’ll keep it up at least for a while.”

  Cheris covered her mouth as she yawned.

  “Tired or bored?”

  “Tired. Sorry. Janie drove the whole way, but it’s hard to get good sleep in the car.”

  “Come on then.” Geoff stood with hands in pockets. The sun glinted on his glasses making it hard to see his expression. “We’ll go by the office and get Janie, then you two can go on to the house and take a nap if you want.”

  “I’m sorry,” Cheris said as they walked toward the science building.

  “Don’t be. I’m glad you’re here. Both of you.”

  ****

  Geoff treated Janie and Cheris to a quick lunch before they headed to his house. The modern one story gray shuttered house barely registered as Cheris climbed the five stairs to the front porch. She followed Janie into what the woman had deemed ‘my room’, a neat space with a double bed, a cabinet, and an easel propped in the corner. Wild, colorful pictures of people on a main street setting dominated one wall of the room with another wall depicting a graphic scene of corpses in various states of decay.

  Cheris didn’t think she could sleep in here with the grotesque figures, but Janie pointed her to the other side of the bed which faced a blank wall with the cabinet and a window. They lay down, and to her surprise, Cheris fell asleep almost immediately.

  When she awoke later that afternoon, Janie was gone. Cheris sat on the edge of the bed orienting herself to where she was.

  Oh, right. Georgia. Geoff’s house. Janie’s room.

  Cheris glanced back at the skeleton wall.

  Ick.

  She stood and walked out of the room closing the door softly behind her. Hearing jazzy music, she followed the sound to Geoff’s living room where Janie sprawled across a leather recliner and Geoff sat at an oak desk in the corner typing at a computer.

  She was about to speak when a framed painting on the wall caught her eye. Drawn to the yellow and golden hues she approached the picture.

  Her jaw dropped as she recognized the woman lying in a suggestive pose on the wheat-painted field.

  She turned accusing eyes to Janie who had risen from her chair and shifted from one foot to the other refusing to meet her stare. Beyond her Geoff had joined them as well. With crossed arms he gazed at the framed print with a satisfied smile on his face.

  “What is this, Janie?” Cheris demanded.

  “It’s just a picture I did last year.”

  “Of me asleep?”

  “It’s not exactly you. The face is—”

  “Geoff, do you think this looks like me?”

  “Yes.”

  Janie glared at her brother. “How about helping me out here, Bro?”

  Geoff shrugged. “I’m not going to lie. It looks exactly like her.”

  “I’ve never been asleep in a field. When did you do it?”

  “It…it…” Janie sighed. “You were at the apartment one night, and you fell asleep on the couch. You were so cute all curled up that I took a few pictures then converted them in this painting program I was fooling around with. Geoff saw it at the studio and really liked it so I gave it to him for Christmas.”

  “How could you?”

  “Well, I didn’t mean for anybody to really have it. I just needed a subject, and it’s your fault for falling asleep with that yellow shirt on and your red hair. The colors were too good, and the curves of your boobs against the—

  “Janie!”

  “Well, not like that. The curves and lines worked really well. It’s not like a painted you naked or anything. If I’d done that, it really wouldn’t have been you since I’ve never seen—”

  Cheris smacked her friend on the arm. “Don’t you even think about painting me without clothes on. I will kill you.”

  “Oww.”

  “It is beautiful.”

  Cheris’ face burned at Geoff’s comment. “Didn’t you think you should have told me, asked me for permission?”

  “It’s not you. Not really.” Janie placed her hand over the eyes and nose of the picture. “See? Your face is not this narrow. And that mouth? So not yours. I had to redo it because you were drooling in your sleep.”

  “It’s my mouth only closed.”

  “You think?” Janie squinted at the painting then shook her head. Turning to Cheris, she grasped the woman’s face between her fingers. “Relax your mouth and let me see.”

  Cheris shook off her friends hands. “Stop it. I am so mad at you right now.”

  “And you.” She turned to Geoff. “Why didn’t you tell me Janie… Wait a minute. Last Christmas? You’ve had this since last Christmas?”

  Geoff nodded.

  “But you…you didn’t even know me then.”

  “It’s one of Janie’s best, I think. I didn’t really know it was a real person until I recognized you on Hip Granny.”

  Cheris shook her head in astonishment. “But it just seems too much of a coincidence.”

  “It is too much of one. She was always talking about Cheris this and Cheris that. One day Janie was bragging about you being a computer guru, that Hip Granny had just posted a podcast of you. I got on there, watched it, and there was Woman in Gold.”

  “Woman in Gold?”

  “The name of the painting,” Janie supplied.

  “Oh.” Cheris sighed. “When you saw me at the gala, you knew exactly who I was.”

  “Yes.”

  She waved her arm at the wall before turning her back on it and glared at Janie. “You set me up.”

  “I didn’t make you eat that Alice in Wonderland crap then twist your arm to go all wedding bell crazy with my brother. That was your doing.”

  “Promise me you’ll never use my likeness again without asking me.”

  “Okay.”

  “Really promise. Pinky swear.”

  “What are we in fourth grade?”

  Cheris held out her hand. “Do it.�
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  Janie huffed but hooked her finger through her friend’s. “Okay. Pinky swear.”

  ****

  The light clicked on waking Cheris up with its brightness.

  “What are you doing?” Cheris groused as she squinted at her wrist watch. “It’s the middle of the night.”

  “Sorry. I needed the light,” Janie said without a smidgeon of repentance as she stood in the room and stared at the door.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m going to paint.” She opened the cabinet revealing shelves of tubes of paint, brushes, and jars.

  “Right now?”

  “Yeah.” Taking a charcoal pencil, she sketched a long flowing line across the white wall.

  “How am I supposed to sleep?”

  “Get in Geoff’s bed.” Sitting on the floor, Janie quickly drew a clawed foot resting on the baseboard.

  “I’m not sleeping with him.”

  “He’s not here. He left about an hour ago.”

  Cheris sat up. “Why?”

  “He’s a geek. He spends most nights with his eye stuck to a telescope. He’ll never know you’re using his bed.” Another claw and a reptilian leg.

  “What if he comes back?”

  “Then keep it down when you jump him. I don’t want any distractions.” A second leg with a disturbingly large dewclaw.

  Cheris threw back the covers. Why couldn’t Geoff have a couch? Who owns a house and not a couch? It was absurd. She could stretch out on his recliner, she supposed.

  “Do you know where he keeps his blankets?”

  Janie exhaled in exasperation. She stomped over to the bed, grabbed the comforter and a pillow and shoved it in Cheris’ hands. “Here, though I don’t know why you need it. Geoff’s bed is plenty warm, I bet.” She returned to the wall scraping the charcoal up in a graceful mark against the white paint.

  “Why am I friends with you?”

  “Because you’ve got very bad taste in friends. Now quit bugging me before I lose this picture.”

  Cheris trudged to the living room to settle herself in one of the two recliners. Though it was dark, she could still make out most of her picture. She sighed as she stared at it. Janie had done a beautiful job.

  Still.

  It bothered Cheris to think about Janie painting it on the sly and it hanging on Geoff’s wall all this time.

  Minutes or hours later she awoke when the sound of the garage door opened then shut. Shortly thereafter Geoff walked into the dark room from the kitchen paused, then continued on into the hallway. Low voices and silence. Cheris shifted and slept until the aroma of coffee beckoned her.

  When she entered the kitchen, Geoff leaned against the counter sipping from a mug. He set it down when she approached.

  “Good morning. I see Janie’s midnight inspiration drove you out of the bedroom. Want some coffee?”

  “Sure. What time did you get in?”

  “Just before two. Want to come to work with me? Janie’s not going to be much company today.” Geoff poured her a cup of coffee and added some creamer from the refrigerator. He set it on the counter and gestured for her to take it.

  So when had he learned how she drank her coffee?

  “What do you mean?”

  “She’s in OCA mode.” At Cheris’ questioning look, he continued. “Obsessive Compulsive Artist. She’ll paint and sleep until she’s done with the wall. I’ve been through this several times with her. After she painted a scene of Auschwitz in the living room, I made her paint over it and relegated her to the guest bedroom for any future tormented artist inspirations.”

  Cheris grimaced. “I thought sleeping in there would give me nightmares.”

  “Yeah. The skeleton pile was after Dad had his heart attack. The people on the street is nice enough. She painted it when she came down for our twenty-fifth birthday.”

  “What about Auschwitz?”

  Geoff took a sip of his coffee before he answered. “She had some difficult things to happen around the time of her college graduation.”

  Oh.

  Once Cheris had commented on a dark scene Janie had painted in black, red, and gray which hung in Janie’s apartment. Janie had told her she’d named the picture Kaylis, in memory of a classmate that had been murdered a week before they graduated. Deciding Geoff’s vague answer was a cue not to pry, Cheris changed the subject.

  “I can hang out in the library at the Institute so I wouldn’t be in your way.”

  Geoff set his coffee cup on the counter and crossed his arms as he regarded her. “You’re welcome to stay in my office or sit in on any of my classes. We have an impressive media center and computer work-up station on campus.”

  Cheris brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “Do I have time to take a shower and get ready?”

  Geoff checked his watch. “I leave in forty-five minutes. If you need more time, I can meet you over there.”

  “That’s enough time.”

  ****

  Geoff exhaled the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding when he heard the bathroom door close down the hall.

  When Cheris had walked in the kitchen looking all rumpled and sexy, it had taken all Geoff had not to take her in his arms and kiss her. Instead, he’d played it cool and poured her coffee. He’d taken deep breaths and thought about chemical compositions instead of oogling the length of legs exposed past the cotton shorts she wore.

  Knowing she was in the bedroom down the hall had been enough to keep him awake until he’d thrown on some clothes and gone out to the observatory until he could barely keep his eyes open. Now that Janie was in full artist mode, she was going to be little help as a chaperone. And if she kept to her M.O. she’d up and disappear as soon as the wall was done without a word leaving Cheris here with him.

  On their honeymoon.

  How was he supposed to give her space to fall in love with him when she was sleeping in his front room and wandering around the house in shorts showing her killer legs?

  Driving with Cheris to Newbie River had Geoff so distracted he ran a red light. She’d worn a skirt which came mid-thigh when she sat next to him in the car.

  Plowing into another car because he couldn’t keep his attention on the road was not an option.

  He decided to mentally plot star courses until they got to the college.

  Once there he parked and they walked across campus to the math and science building. His basic physics class met first, and Cheris found a chair in the back row amid whispers, Geoff had no doubt, concerning her presence.

  To his surprise he made no mistakes during the lecture and went through a third of a bag of dum-dum suckers as he quizzed the students over the content of their reading and notes.

  All with his glasses on.

  And only a few glances to her legs.

  When all the students had gone, Cheris strolled to the front of the room. “How come you use a chalkboard?”

  “Because I like a chalkboard.”

  “But there’s a Smartboard in this room.” She sat down at the computer on the desk and began typing. The light on the smart projector illuminated the smooth surface on the screen.

  Yeah. He’d had the same gripe from the department chair, not to mention unearthing the portable chalkboard from the furnace room at the beginning of each semester.

  “A chalkboard is more efficient, and I’m not limited by the Smartboard programmers.”

  She clicked her tongue in disapproval. “You’re missing some great opportunities by refusing to use the technology readily available to you.” Coming around the desk, she picked up the marker from its holder.

  Janie was right. Cheris looked beautiful in yellow. Her shirt skimmed her curves and rested at her hip. She reached up and touched the pen icon then turned to him.

  “Whatever you write will be more attractive in color.”

  Geoff smiled. Exactly what he had been thinking though he’d have a little more color with her hair not pinned up.

/>   “And you can easily pull up a picture to illustrate your point.”

  She touched another icon, and a keyboard appeared. She pecked out the word molecule, then chose a model from a list.

  “See?”

  “I can draw that in less time than it takes you to find it. And besides.” Geoff picked up another marker. “This is wrong. The proportions are off.” He drew a similar model. “This is more accurate.”

  Cheris studied the two models then touched another icon at the top of the board. She moved her marker over the first picture and changed the size of the nucleus. “There. They’re the same now.”

  “Why would I want to go to all of that trouble when I can draw my own accurate model in the first place?”

  “Because it’s more interesting in color. And you can’t draw a photograph of Jupiter on a chalkboard.”

  “True enough. But unless you need to show a photograph or a complex picture, a chalkboard is the better choice. It’s simple and unpretentious. If the electricity or the wireless goes out, that Smartboard is useless.”

  “If the electricity goes out, your students won’t be able to see the chalkboard to take notes.”

  Geoff walked over to the window and opened the blinds. “Sure they can.”

  Cheris blinked at him. “You’d continue with class even with the electricity out?”

  “Why wouldn’t I? Unless it’s a night class, there’s no reason not to.”

  “There won’t be any air conditioning or heat.”

  Geoff shrugged. “It’ll take a good half-hour for there to be a noticeable temperature change in most of the classrooms. And anyway, if the students are a little uncomfortable, they’re more likely to stay awake and listen.”

  “They’re not going to listen to you. They’re going to be thinking how cold or hot they are.”

  Geoff tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Hmm. That might be a good experiment to have one of the study groups to undertake. If they learn better all warm and cozy with their blankies or in a straight chair with their feet in ice buckets.”

  Cheris giggled. “I hope you’re kidding.”

  “Sort of. The Institutional Review Board frowns on the professors performing experiments on their students. However I have found my classes learn better when food is involved as a reward.”

  “So that’s what the candy is about?”