I could still remember the feeling of his lips on mine. The sweet taste of his tongue as it entered and searched with mine. It was hard to think about anything else than that night I had with Chris. How was a girl supposed to move on when a guy just totally disappeared on her? I didn’t know anything about Chris. Not his last name or what he did for work and certainly I didn’t know where he had gone. I felt like a teenager again, the rejection of a boy not calling. It was all-consuming for me.
While developing some pictures one afternoon I decided I had to go snoop around his house a little more. He hadn’t come or gone for at least a week and I didn’t feel nervous at all that he would come home. I had woken up at all hours of the night to look and see if he was coming home, but he never did. As I walked over to his house, I looked into the front window. There was the same furniture as before and nothing looked lived in at all. In fact, the whole house looked pretty empty. Or at least as empty as it had before Chris had come.
Suddenly, it hit me. What if he never came back?
The thought of never getting to see Chris again made my stomach churn. I don’t know why I had become attached to him so quickly; it wasn’t something I normally did. But then again, I didn’t normally sleep with guys I had just met either. I was a one man kind of gal and this fling had me feeling like I had made a big mistake.
I was starting to understand why my friends got so crazy when men didn’t call them back. It was horrible to be second guessing how smart I was or how beautiful…all over a guy who didn’t call after having sex. I felt absolutely ridiculous.
As I made my way around Chris’s house, I kept peering into the windows to see if there was anything unusual going on in there. For all I knew he could be dead in there for the past week and I was getting mad at him for not calling me. I didn’t really know if he had left the house and I figured I should at least check to see if his Jeep was still around.
The garage seemed a good place to go check next. The last time I had looked in there it was totally empty and Chris had just moved into the house. I let my hand slowly twist the door handle to the garage and I pushed the door all the way open without going inside. It was difficult to see in there and I knew I was going to have to turn the light on. I thrust my hand into the doorway and felt around on the wall until I ran into the light switch.
The garage looked empty, except there was one box on a shelf in the corner.
I walked over to the box and took a deep breath. It would look pretty bad if Chris happened to come home right as I was going through the things in his garage. I ran over to the door and looked around one last time. There were no cars and no one even near the house.
The box was loosely shut without any tape or anything over it. I certainly wouldn’t have cut through the tape to look inside, or at least that’s what I told myself as I started to open the box. I had never been a super curious person. I let mysteries remain and often figured that if something was important enough I would be told about it eventually. But that was for silly small town secrets. This felt like a bigger secret that I needed to get to the bottom of.
I don’t know what exactly I was expecting to see in the box, but I felt disappointed when I opened it and just found clothes. I pulled out a shirt and some pants, both black. In fact most of the clothing in the box was black. The fact that all the clothing was black seemed odd since I don’t think I had seen Chris where any black at all since he had moved in.
As I closed the box up there was a noise outside the garage.
My heart sank and I froze. I stood still and waited to see what the noise was from. My heart pounded in my chest and I could feel my mouth getting dry as I tried to swallow. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.
I listened intently as I walked toward the doorway and peered outside.
Then out of nowhere a cat ran away from the side of the garage. I breathed a sigh of relief and shut the garage door behind me. I had to get back to my own garage and finish developing my pictures for my big gallery show. It didn’t matter if Chris ever returned; I still had a life and I needed to continue living.
I had to stop worrying about this guy that I hardly knew. My show was right around the corner and I absolutely had to make some decisions on the pictures that I would be using. I had changed my mind at least a dozen times in the last few weeks, but it was finally time to make the decisions so they could prepare the gallery for my pictures.
Chapter 12
As the days continued to pass I had to just give up on Chris. He was a nice guy and I did have feelings for him, but any guy who would disappear like this wasn’t right for me. I needed more than this.
I felt like an independent woman and waiting on a guy to show back up just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I was starting to feel desperate. I made the decision to stop thinking about Chris. Of course, that quickly turned into trying to stop thinking about him, then thinking about him a little and then all the way back to thinking about him all the time again.
I settled in with my preparations for my photography exhibit. Every time I thought I had my list of pictures complete, I kept changing my mind and looking through more and more pictures. This was my first big show and I didn’t want anything to mess it up. Not even a broken heart over a one night stand could distract me from my objective.
Then, at about midnight a week later; I was developing pictures in my garage again and I heard someone pull up outside. I ran to my garage window and looked to see who it was. Sure enough it was Chris.
He pulled his Jeep into the driveway and then got out and went into his house. He was dressed in black. I could hardly see him in the dark but he looked different. There was no smile and nothing about his demeanor seemed pleasant at all. He looked scary.
Even though I was mad as hell at him for disappearing and not calling me, my heart still raced as I watched him. He had some power over my body that I just couldn’t put my finger on.
After about thirty minutes, I went quietly back into my house. Surely now that he was home he would reach out to me again. Perhaps he would stop by in the morning and tell me some elaborate reason why he couldn’t call me?
Wait! What was I doing? I was already trying to give him excuses for why he wasn’t able to call me. How pitiful was I? I shook my head and tried to think about something else. When did I become this girl that cared so much about what a guy thought?
I was doing so well at building myself up to be more independent. But then I found myself sitting in the dark of my kitchen waiting to see if Chris would come over. Even though it was the middle of the night, my brain actually thought he might come running over to say hello and apologize. I sat for about twenty minutes before finally deciding sleep was more important than staring out my window in the middle of the night.
When morning came, the first thing I thought of when I opened my eyes was what Chris was doing. I hurried and got dressed and went outside to do yard work that I absolutely didn’t need to do. I’ll be honest; I don’t know what came over me. I don’t know what internal urge drove me to want Chris to come over; but I did. I desperately wanted him to come and find me and tell me a fabulous reason why he had been unable to talk to me. After about an hour working in my yard, I heard Chris leave his house and make his way over toward me.
“Have you been behaving yourself?” he said as he slapped my ass.
I slowly turned around and there he was in all of his handsome glory. His hard muscles tugged on the blue shirt he was wearing and his gray shorts hugged him in all the right places. I tried not to take in every piece of him, but I couldn’t stop myself. He smiled at me with that mischievous grin and my body reacted with excitement to every last nerve ending.
“Yep, you know it!”
I turned back to work on the weed pulling in my yard. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me ogle him.
“Well I’m going for a run, enjoy your day.”
With that, he was gone. Off and running down the street like the la
st two weeks had not even happened. But there was awkwardness between us. He had to have felt that, there was no way around it. I threw my gardening tools down and stormed back into my house. How dare he just pretend like nothing was off? What an arrogant ass! He seriously just slapped my ass like nothing was wrong. It was amazing to me that he could even have a conversation with me and not mention that he had been gone for almost two weeks. It didn’t matter how hot he was. Any guy who wouldn’t try to at least make up some sort of excuse was too full of himself for me to worry about him.
I went back into my house and tried to get rid of some of my anger. But the more I cleaned and organized the house, the angrier I got. In this day and age, how could any guy still be such a jerk? I just had to call Rebecca.
“Hey girl what are you up to?” Rebecca said when she answered.
“Guy trouble. I need you ASAP.”
It didn’t matter what day of the week it was or even what time of day. The fact that I had a guy and there was trouble was so exciting to Rebecca that she was over to my house in less than ten minutes. She was practically in a full blown sprint when I watched her get out of her car and make her way up to my door. We were long past knocking in our friendship and she thrust the door open with a force of excitement.
“Who is he? How long have you known him? Have you had sex?” Rebecca said breathlessly as she fell onto the couch.
“His name is Chris, it’s that neighbor who moved into the house next door, known him about three weeks, although he’s been gone for the last two…and yes we did…right where you are sitting.”
“Katelyn! Eww!” Rebecca said as she jumped up off the couch and moved over to a chair.
Chapter 13
“So let me get this straight. You fell down a mountain, he rescued you, you had sex, he disappeared, and now he’s back.”
“Yep.”
“So what’s the issue?”
“He left for two weeks without even a call. You don’t think that’s a bit weird?”
“I think the whole situation is weird. But I think you need to step back and stop worrying so much about it. Really what’s the worst thing that could happen here?”
I thought about it. There wasn’t really a bad result. I mean the worst that would happen would be that we didn’t have sex again. But I surely would still try to be friends with Chris. We were neighbors and all.
“I don’t mind being friends with him. My issue is that he is acting like it is perfectly normal for someone to sleep with a girl and then disappear for two weeks. It’s not like he told me ahead of time that he would be gone. And why couldn’t he have at least called and just told me he was on a business trip or something. That’s what is bothering me the most, He didn’t even call.”
Rebecca sat and pondered my dilemma for a moment.
“Rob. That’s what we will do. Rob.”
I sat there and looked at her with an obvious inquisitive look. I had no idea what she was talking about, but this wasn’t so unusual. Many of our conversations ended with me staring at her and trying to figure out just what she was trying to say.
“You know. Rob…the guy from my work that I told you would be perfect for you.”
Rebecca was constantly telling me she met someone who would be perfect for me. It wasn’t unusual that I couldn’t remember this particular man. She had such a big heart and was just trying to help me find the happiness like I use to have. She and Robert were so great together, and it did give me hope that someday I would find a man that was my equal. Someday I would be able to follow my dreams and have someone right by my side urging me on.
“What exactly do you propose I do with this Rob?” I laughed.
“Do him.”
I stared at her in disbelief.
“I’m not going to have sex with some stranger.”
But the second that sentence left my mouth I realized that was exactly what I had done with Chris. I didn’t really know him. Yeah we had talked a little bit, but he wasn’t anyone I could say I knew. I really knew nothing about him. Well, except that he had the body of a Greek god. And speaking of that body…it looked like someone finished their morning run…
Rebecca slowly stood and went to the window. Her mouth was slightly opened as she watched Chris stretching on his lawn. I watched as Rebecca devoured Chris with her eyes. It was clear she was having the same physical response to the man as I was. I doubt there was a woman alive that wouldn’t find Chris attractive. He was movie star pretty and delightful to watch.
“You see what I’m talking about?” I said as I sat back down on the couch.
“Oh yeah, I can see how you gave into that. I’m married and my body is telling me to give this guy a try.”
Rebecca continued to look out the window and watch Chris. She licked her lips several times subconsciously as she watched him out the window. It made me laugh to see her get so excited. She had spent most of her life without too much excitement; she kind of needed a little something interesting to add to her dreams.
“So remind me who this Rob guy was again?” I said as I cringed at the thought of going on a blind date.
“Remember, I work with him. He’s about your age and super nice. You should totally just go out on a date with him. You never know.” Rebecca said as a smile came across her face.
I never did know who Rebecca was going to think was the perfect guy for me. She didn’t seem to have any criteria for choosing these men. Often, simply the fact that they were single was the only thing she looked for.
“Alright. Give him my number. I’ll go out with him. I need to get my mind off Chris.”
Rebecca’s face instantly turned to delight as she looked just like a kid in a candy story. I could tell she really wanted to fix me up with this guy. She ran to her purse and pulled out her phone.
“I’m going to text him your number right now. You are going to love him.”
I raised one eyebrow at her and laughed. She said the same thing about every single guy she tried to match me up with. She always thought I would love them.
“Love. That’s a bit much,” I said.
“Oh, you know what I mean. You will have a great date with him. He’s super nice.”
“You know that’s the second time you’ve said he’s super nice. Does that mean he’s really ugly and you’re trying to distract me from that?”
“No. He’s cute. He is the total package. Just wait. It will be great.”
I took a deep breath and tried to forget about all the previous, perfect, guys that Rebecca had tried to fix me up with. She and her husband certainly meant well, but their idea of perfect and my idea of perfect just weren’t the same thing.
I hugged Rebecca goodbye and promised to keep her in the loop of anything and everything that involved my dating life. There was no turning back now; she was going to want to know all the details of everything about my date.
Only a few minutes after Rebecca left my house, I received a text message from this Rob guy. He sent a picture and a sweet hello message. He was cute with blonde hair and blue eyes. His tan skin made him look like a surfer, although Rebecca said he worked with her at the insurance agency. He seemed too young to be in the insurance field. Although Rebecca was also in that field, she had an old soul and insurance seemed to fit how much she worried about everything all the time.
We made plans to have dinner the following night. He asked to come pick me up for our date and although I initial refused, I finally had to cave into him when he sent me a picture of Fred Flintstones car and said I deserved a ride in that. It made me laugh and I needed a good laugh right about then.
Chapter 14
I felt like an old pro at going on first dates. In the last couple years I had certainly had my fair share of them. Unfortunately, first dates never seemed to correlate into second or third dates for me. Often there just was no chemistry between me and the guy.
Rob and I had a great date though. He was funny and made me laugh. He was very handsome. His surfe
r boy looks certainly could get the ladies. Unfortunately there just was no chemistry between the two of us. Or at least, I didn’t feel the chemistry. Rob certainly felt fine about the two of us. He spent much of the evening flirtatiously setting his hand on different parts of my body.
When he arrived at my door and walked me out to his car, his hand was on my lower back. When he pulled my chair out for me at the restaurant, he let his hand sit on my shoulder after he pushed my chair in. Then on the drive back to my house he let out a bellowing laugh at one of my jokes and just happened to let his hand land on my thigh as he finished laughing.
I didn’t really mind. He was cute and really funny. I just didn’t feel a passion or spark for him. There was no burning desire to take him to bed and certainly no feeling of lust toward him; even with his hand perched on my thigh I couldn’t feel any excitement. All in all it was a good date though. We got along great and made each other laugh. It was better than most of my other dates and I could see myself actually being friends with this guy. Although, I could not see myself dating him. It would be hard to tell him no if he asked me on a second date though. I’d probably just have to say yes at first and then blow him off after he was gone.
When we pulled up outside my house, Rob jumped up out of his sports car and ran over to open my door. His car was hot and I was really glad he didn’t have an old junk car like he had joked about in the picture he sent earlier. The black Chevy Camaro was a delicious piece of machinery.
His hand quickly went to my lower back as he guided me to my front door.
Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) Page 4