by Moray, Tabby
“Because I didn’t think you’d help me and I wanted to make up for what I did to Arnie. He’s been so miserable after I got in the accident. I wanted him to have a little joy in his life. You were so beautiful and nice. I knew he’d like you. I caused him a lot of heartache, Dina.”
“That’s baloney. You’re too self-centered for that to be true. What’s any of that got to do with me anyway?”
“Despite everything, what I said to you when we first met was true. You were the only suitable woman that could see me, that could help me.”
“You used me. You used me to right a wrong you made while you were alive.” Dina felt drained and angry at the same time. “It’s not your place to make decisions for my life or his life. To manipulate us. Haven’t you done enough already?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Who knows, maybe, just maybe, the accident was the universes way of getting back at you for your screwed up decision making.” Dina regretted the words as soon as they’d come out of her mouth, but there was no taking them back.
Sam’s face crumpled as she dissolved into tears. “I’m—I’m sorry for everything. I’ll leave.”
“Sam, I--,” But she’d already disappeared, leaving Dina talking to thin air.
**
Early the next morning, after a night spent mostly tossing and turning, Dina woke up to the puppy whining in his kennel. She threw on a pair of shorts and a tee-shirt and walked into the kitchen. The puppy’s two front paws were poised on the door of the enclosure, tail wagging so hard his whole body was moving. Smiling, she unclasped the latch and the puppy shot out of the cage, dropped to his haunches and immediately peed the floor. Dina closed her eyes and groaned.
She mopped up the mess with a wad of paper towels while, bladder emptied, the puppy jumped and pranced enthusiastically around her ankles. Managing to get him under enough control to secure a harness around his body, she attached the leash, thinking it would be a simple matter of walking and he’d follow. Not so. Feeling the weight of something foreign around his body, he grew stubborn and refused to budge, his fat puppy bottom remaining on the floor despite her firm tugging. Exasperated, she finally picked him up and carried him out the front door.
She had plopped him on the walkway and was once again attempting to coax him into a walk, when a squeal emanated from the vicinity of the next door neighbor’s house.
“Mommy! Mommy, there’s the lady I told you about and she has a puppy!” Mia came barreling around the fence before Dina could make a timely escape. She got down on her haunches, smiling and talking to the puppy in a language only the two of them could understand.
“I’m sorry. Is it ok if she pets your dog?” A plump woman with Mia’s curls and pink cheeks walked over to Dina, a look of apology in her small brown eyes.
“No, it’s no trouble.”
“Where’s the floating lady?” Mia asked, looking at her as she clumsily patted the dogs head.
“Now I told you people don’t float in the air,” her mother admonished, giving Dina a little smile as if to say, ‘Kids, you gotta love their imaginations’.
“But this lady was floating in the air and she told me I shouldn’t talk to strangers just because they’re girls. Isn’t that what she said?” She gave Dina a questioning look to which she shrugged expansively.
“There is no such thing as magical floating ladies, Mia,” her mother said, her tone firm.
“But there is! There is! Tell her she’s your friend and that you saw her, too.” Mia demanded, insistently. The mother looked at Dina, shaking her head.
“Your mother’s right. There’s no such thing as magical floating ladies.” After all, it was partially true. She wasn’t magical.
“My Mommy told me it’s bad to lie and you just told a lie.” Mia had stood up, her arms crossed, her lips stuck in a mutinous pout.
“Mia! Apologize right now!” her mother said, embarrassed.
“But Mommy she’s lying!” she exclaimed, stamping one foot. “You told me every lie I tell gets me one step closer to hell. That means she’s going to hell.”
“I am so sorry about this,” the woman mumbled, her pink cheeks blooming to bright red. She began ushering her pouting daughter back over to her neighbor’s house. “Why don’t we let this lady get back to her morning walk. Have a nice day.”
She and the puppy continued on their way, or at least she attempted to as her mind considered and discarded appropriate dog names. After more than a half dozen starts and stops, the puppy finally decided the leash was more of a nuisance than a danger. Turning around, he grabbed it in his mouth, tugging and jerking at it while Dina battled him for its return.
“Need a little help? Looks like you have your hands full.”
Dina looked up into the eyes of a smiling Arnie. She smiled in return, feeling a sudden tingle happiness at seeing him unexpectedly. The feeling made her heart speed up, turning her fingers into ten clumsy appendages that couldn’t do anything but fall limply to her sides.
“What are you doing over here?” The dog tugged at the leash one good time, head whipping back and forth as he growled and the leash slipped out of her hands. He began trotting off, leash dangling from his mouth, and she had to run and grab him before he got too far.
“I was on my way to breakfast and wanted to see if you’d like to be my date.”
“A date?”
“Yeah, a date. I figure I owed you one since I turned you down the first time.”
“Didn’t we go out on a date yesterday?”
“Yeah, but that didn’t really count because I was escaping and dragged you along with me.”
“Hmm, let me see,” she said, placing a finger on her lips reflectively. “Should I go out on a date with a man who not only turned me down, but dragged me away from a plate of ribs I wasn’t even finished with?”
“Of course you should. Especially considering that he’s paying and bought you these.” He reached down in the seat, hand coming back up with a Tupperware container filled with ribs. His hand dipped back down and came up this time with a jug filled with a reddish-orange liquid.
“Rum punch?”
“Yup. Poached all of this from Nick while his back was turned.” He shook the container enticingly, wiggling his eyebrows
“I guess I can’t say no to that.”
“But, there are strings attached. You must share your bounty with the bearer of the gifts.”
“But I intend to eat some of those tonight.”
“Then I guess you won’t be getting rid of me,” he said, lightly.
**
Their day began at Barney’s, a restaurant well known for its excellent breakfast and brunch selections. She ordered an egg white omelet and turkey sausage and he defiantly ordered a Belgian waffle, two eggs over hard and bacon.
“What happened last night?” he asked when they’d finished with their breakfast and were chatting over strong cups of coffee.
“I just had a lot on my mind,” she replied, evasively.
“Just out of the blue?” he asked, frowning at her.
“What can I say? I’m a woman and a Medium to boot. Sometimes my moods change as quickly as the tide during hurricane season, detective.”
“Please, call me Arnie. Even though detective is fine depending on the occasion.” He gave her a wicked smile and she studied her coffee, pretending she didn’t get his double meaning.
After eating, they decided on a pleasant stroll in the park at the community center, Arnie feeling a guilty need to burn some calories after all that food. They eventually meandered back to his house, introducing the puppy to Buzz and Saw, an event they were less than happy to take part in. Using his gruff guard dog bark, he began yipping at the strange, hissing creatures as they sat stiffly on the backs of the couch, their body language indignant. Irritated with all the noise, the two cats finally gave up their seats and scattered to the bedrooms, the dog racing after them until Dina interrupted the chase.
They spent
a lazy afternoon on the water, the puppy falling asleep with his head on his paws as they chugged their way down the coast. They fished some more, this time managing to add grouper and red snapper to their catch. Tossing the fish in a cooler filled with ice, they drifted over to a small waterfront development of restaurants and shops on Saint Simon Sound. They indulged in a late lunch, managing to snag a table overlooking the water where they sipped cold beers and cracked into steamed crabs and shrimp.
“I still haven’t named him yet.” Dina gestured toward the puppy, a half-peeled shrimp pinched between her fingers.
“I’ve got a good name for him,” Arnie said, cracking into a crab with a pair of nut crackers.
“I’m listening.”
“Shrimp.” He popped a chunk of crab meat in his mouth with a smug expression.
“Shrimp?” She frowned, turning it over in her head. “Let me take a wild guess at your inspiration.” She shook her shrimp at him and he laughed.
“They say the greatest artists are inspired by the simplest of things.”
“So now you’re an artist?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“I don’t know. Seems a little simplistic.”
“Why’s it need to be complicated?”
She looked down at the puppy who was at the moment gazing raptly at a group of seagulls hovering near the end of the pier. Shrimp. It worked.
“From this day forward, he shall be named Shrimp.” She grinned, cementing his naming with a celebratory bumping of her shrimp against a crab leg he hastily pulled off and held up.
**
They glided to the pier behind the house just as the sun began to set, Arnie keeping his promise to spend the entire day with her. This time, he prepared the entire meal. Expertly scaling and filleting the fish, he sautéed it in a creamy lemon dill sauce, roasting potatoes and cooking sugar snap peas as sides.
“That was great,” she said, after they’d finished eating. She drowsily sipped from a glass of white wine he’d procured from a rack beneath the counter. “You’re ruining my strict diet though.”
“It’s good to live a little sometimes,” he said, his eyes mellow as he sipped the last of his beer.
“I’m living way too much though.” She reached a hand down to massage the sole of her foot. “Ahhh, my feet are so sore.”
“Is that your way of asking me to massage them?”
“If I wanted you to massage them, I’d say so.”
“Oh, you’re that kind of woman, huh?”
“I sure am.”
“Then I need to show you the type of man I am,” he said, huskily. Picking up her feet, he laid them gently in his lap. She thought about protesting. After all, massaging a woman’s feet is always the prelude to something, though what that something was should be the question she was asking herself. Filled with good food, wine and even better vibes, her defenses were down and she didn’t want to do something she’d regret in the morning.
“Maybe you shouldn’t--,” she finally opened her mouth and said.
“Relax, I’ll never do anything that you don’t want,” he soothed, reassuringly.
“My feet are very sensitive,” she said, weakly.
“You’re in good hands.”
He began rubbing her right foot with firm, sure strokes, nimble fingers paying special attention to her arch. He tenderly pressed his index finger into the tendon, touching her foot in such a way that pleasure shot up and down her spine in an undulating wave. She opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but when her eyes captured his, she found she couldn’t speak, trapped as she was by what she saw in their depths. She fell back against the pillows, wondering what she had gotten herself into. He moved on to the balls of her feet, the warm palms of his hands bearing down on her foot from either side. He pressed and pushed, moving the ache in her foot to the back of her mind as discomfort was replaced with a sensation far more erotic than her mind was prepared for. She closed her eyes, giving in to the delightful sensations lancing through her body. Her nipples hardened as he continued to gently manipulate her foot with the tips of his fingers, running them up and down and up and down the inside of her foot until her toes curled. An inadvertent sigh of pleasure escaped her lips and she shifted, arching her back the slightest bit. She couldn’t say when his touch turned from therapeutic to sensual, but as she grew damp between her thighs, she writhed a little, her inner thighs beginning to tremble as a thumb ran across the hollow on her ankle. He firmly pressed with one hand while the other was once again pushing into her arch and she gasped as his hands set her body afire. She knew she should stop him from where he was headed, but she didn’t want to. Continuing to assault her senses, his hands moved over her foot, stretching, pulling and tugging at each toe. She grew damper, a sweet sensual tension building up and making her throb between her legs. Squeezing her thighs together, she enhanced the sensation and gasped anew. Tendrils of feeling racked her lower body, building and growing, swirling as it grabbed her, dragging her under. Finally, as his hands moved on to the other foot, she moaned deep in her throat and with a final arch of her back, came in a dizzying wave of pleasure as he continued his seduction.
As she floated down from her hazy cloud of pleasure, mortification set in. Though they hadn’t had sex, she felt he’d seen her at her most intimate and was embarrassed because of it. Here she was with a virtual stranger, having an orgasm on his couch from a mere foot rub. If she could’ve kept her eyes closed forever, she would’ve.
Feeling the tension in her body, Arnie halted his massage, leaving his hands resting on her calves. She opened her eyes to find him staring at her with a strange expression that was a cross between lust and wonder.
“I—I should go.” She abruptly sat up, snatching her legs out of his lap like they were on fire. She hurriedly slipped her feet into her sandals, grabbed her purse and picked the sleepy puppy up.
“Hey—slow down,” Arnie said, his voice gentle as he stopped her before she could touch the doorknob. He turned her around, his eyes searching her hot face.
“I just—I don’t--,” She stopped, trying to get her bearings together. Plucking the puppy from her arms, he put him on the floor then gathered her in his arms. He held her against his broad chest, her head tucked beneath his chin. She gradually relaxed, enjoying the feel of the hard chest and soft tummy pressed against her own.
“That was an amazing, incredible thing and I’m just glad you let me share it with you.” As he spoke, Dina felt him growing hard against her, his arousal pressed against her stomach.
“I see.” She gave him a small smile, then impulsively pressed her lips against his. His lips were firm and confident as they kissed her back, his mouth opening hungrily and exploring hers. He pressed her against the wall next to the door, his hands roving against her hips, his lips continuing to slip and slide against her own. She knew if she didn’t leave right then, she’d end up tumbling around with him between her thighs. A thought that was very appealing.
“I really should go.” Playfully pushing him away, she walked outside, the puppy loping alongside. The night had turned slightly chilly, a low wind blowing in off the water sent the wind chimes dangling beneath the shelter of the tiny porch, into a soft flurry of jingles. The inky sky twinkled with stars and she shivered as she made her way to the car. Arnie’s warm arm draped itself around her shoulders and she leaned into its warmth as she stopped at her car door. “I had a really nice time.”
“So did I.”
“We didn’t eat those ribs you snagged for me.”
“I guess we’ll have to do that some other time this week.”
“Maybe,” she hedged.
“Definitely,” he said firmly.
She slid into her car and he closed the door behind her, leaning in the window when she rolled it down. “So I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow, Arnie.”
“Drive safe.”
He leaned in the window, stealing a quick kiss, then stood back, an impish smile on hi
s lips. A foolish smile was on her face as she drove away, watching him until she turned at the end of the street and his still figure disappeared from view.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Over the course of the next few weeks, she and Arnie spent at least every other day together. If they weren’t meeting over coffee, they were meeting for lunch and if they weren’t having lunch, he was cooking dinner at his house and spoiling her with his incredible skills in the kitchen. Shrimp always accompanied her on house visits, Buzz and Saw warily observing the proceedings from a distance.
As promised, Sam had remained a no-show. Each day that went by without seeing her, Dina’s guilt about hurting her feelings grew. Yeah, she hadn’t been as up front and honest as Dina would’ve liked. Ok, well, she’d lied. Anyway, if it hadn’t been for Sam’s bizarre matchmaking she would never have met Arnie. She had to at least thank her for that, even if she hadn’t wanted it at the time.
Hopefully, in her agitated state, Sam wasn’t going around haunting anyone else.
**
“Have your tried asking her to come back?” Dina’s mother asked one day when she stopped over at the house.
“Of course, Mom. That’s the first thing I tried. She’s not responding.”
“Have you apologized?”
“Why should I? She was wrong, after all.”
“She was misguided, Dina. But her heart was in the right place. Maybe an apology would bring her back”
“Perhaps. Maybe I should just use a Ouija board and force her to face me,” Dina mused, sipping from her glass of wine.
“Are you crazy?” her mother asked, severely. “You know better.”
“I do. But with you and Taavi here, maybe we can control any other spirits that might come through.”
“No, you know Ouija boards can’t be controlled, Dina. They let through who they let through and it may not even be Sam. She’s not a true ghost after all.
“You’re right,” she said, morosely. “It was a stupid idea.”
“Don’t worry, Dina,” her mother said, gently squeezing her shoulder. “She’ll come back when she’s ready.”