Chapter 7: Friends
After going to the school and waiting for them for a few minutes, she takes the kids home and makes dinner. Later in the night, Samantha asks her quietly, so the girls don’t hear, “So, how’s Grayson doing?” with a smirk on her face.
She looks at Samantha curiously and replies sweetly, “We had lunch together and it was wonderful. Matter of fact, he gave me this.” before pointing out the beautiful necklace.
Immediately rushing over, Samantha stares at it in envy, “It’s gorgeous. I am so jealous.”
Stopping, Kelly stares at her and then announces softly, “Samantha, I told him I love him. I don’t have a clue why I did it. I guess it just came out of my mouth without even thinking. I certainly didn’t mean to this early on.”
Pausing for a minute, Samantha thinks before asking thoughtfully, “What did he say when you told him that?”
Smiling Kelly replies quickly, “He loves me too. I was so shocked that it took me a couple minutes to say anything, and then afterwards it was awkward.”
Samantha shakes her head in disbelief before she asks hesitantly, “So, do you? I mean, how many times have you seen each other?”
Kelly shrugs and then answers after a short pause, “Well, technically today was our first date, but you might as well say we have been in a relationship for about a week.”
Samantha looks around quickly to make sure the girls aren’t anywhere close by and then says jokingly, “Is the sex so good he made you fall in love with him? Tell me everything.” while she grabs her forearm and then rubs it when she realizes that she had held it so tight.
She giggles and then states almost in a whisper, “The sex is wonderful, but I didn’t say it because of that. If anything, I had been attracted to him since the first time I met him. He is just so caring, and you usually do not find that in a man. The first time we had sex, I hadn’t eaten anything that morning, so I got lightheaded. When I almost fainted, he picked me up, carried me to the bed and then made me a sandwich. I mean don’t get me wrong. He’s so hot and he knows how to make me melt, but he cares about me too. That is just not a quality you normally find in a man.”
Looking towards the living room, Kelly adds as an afterthought, “Before he went on a trip, he even gave me chocolates so that I would have something to snack on while he was gone. He didn’t want me fainting again, then today was our first date and he took me to Rodin’s. He even knows the chef, so he made us a special dinner just for the two of us.”
Thinking for a minute and then continuing, she says, “It was so wonderful, the dinner was a lobster tail and noodles. After dessert was served, he gave me the necklace and then we went back to his place. I was so appreciative that I did a strip tease for him and a lap dance. Of course, afterwards we made love.”
Pausing, she sighs and then states quietly, “I say love because it felt different this time. It felt like we were connected. Samantha, he made me go off so many times I lost count. I cried after and he told me that when we are together it feels like we are the only two people in the world.”
After a few minutes, Samantha looks at her, smiles and then announces happily, “Okay, he’s a keeper. Does he have a brother?”
Laughing, Kelly replies, “No, sorry he doesn’t. He does have a couple of friends though. Maybe you would be interested.”
Just then the girls rush in and ask Kelly if they can go to the movies with Samantha. As she stares at Samantha, she asks, “Do you mind?”
“No, of course not! I love you guys.” Samantha adds before she stands and hugs them both.
Happily, Kelly hugs them both and realizes that would be a great idea because she could really use this time to unwind from the day and absorb what has all happened. So, as she watches them walk out the door, she sighs before deciding what to do next.
Walking into the bathroom, she deposits a towel next to the bathtub and then turns the water on. Not too hot of course, and then when it is filled up, she gets in the tub, relaxes and unwinds as she lets her mind wander to when they were making love.
After a bit, she feels something under the water. It caresses her leg, and then her thigh. She feels something penetrate her sensitive folds and a warm feeling surrounds her with pleasure, then she hears his inviting voice.
Carlos whispers, “Did you miss me? I feel empty without you near me. Not alive, but when you are here, I feel whole. I need you, my love.”
Doing her best to shake off the warm inviting feeling she has spreading around her, she snaps out of it quickly before asking hesitantly, “What do you want?”
“Let me make love to you. It gives me strength and I feel human again. Does it not feel good for you?” He says as his voice sounds so delicious that it weaves a cocoon around her.
Blushing, she cannot deny the fact that it feels so good when a ghost touches her. However, she needs to find out something so she asks softly, “There must be something keeping you in this world? Why have you not moved on? Why are you haunting this house?”
Feeling a rush of cold air brush past her face suddenly, the room grows silent and then there is nothing but the warm inviting water that surrounds her. Getting out of the tub, she calls out, “Carlos, are you still here?”
Pausing, she waits but no answer follows. Wondering, she thinks to herself, “Maybe the ghost does not want to deal with his death? What did he mean by it gives him strength when he makes love to me?”
She is so confused about this whole thing. It is bad enough that a ghost keeps showing up, but that he is making love to her is completely different. The whole thing just does not feel right.
While she dries off, she glances down and notices that she had left the necklace on as it shimmers in the light. So beautiful. Suddenly feeling disheartened, she murmurs under her breath, “Oh, what am I going to do? Grayson loves me, but we barely know each other. We clearly are going way too fast. It is time to slow down before I get hurt. Maybe we should go out some more before we become intimate again, so the sex does not cloud my judgement.”
As she eventually gets dressed, she waits for her children to come home patiently while she stares out the window towards Grayson’s house. A little bit later, they arrive and tell her all about the movie. Listening patiently, she thinks about him and wonders what he is doing? However, when the girls finally get tired and go to bed, she still sits there, wondering.
Seeing that Kelly is not paying much attention to anything, Samantha begins joking with Kelly, “You should go see him. Maybe you can just talk for a while and see if you can be friends, without the sex.” Thinking this is a good idea, she decides to go knock on his door. When he answers the door in his pajamas, she is surprised. Kelly looks at him innocently, “Hi, can I come in neighbor?”
He opens the door more and motions for her to come in before saying replying softly, “Sure. Make yourself at home.”
Finding a spot on the couch, right away she notices that he is watching a zombie movie and says hesitantly, “Did I interrupt something?” as she looks at the couch.
As his eyes wander over her face, he states nonchalantly, “No, nothing special. I was just watching a zombie movie and eating some popcorn. The typical bachelor thing to do during a long evening alone.”
Sitting down next to her, he smiles and then asks curiously, “Why did you come over?”.
She pauses for a minute before answering flatly, “I just wanted to see if we could just hang out. I want to be your friend. So, what do you do with your friends?”
Looking into her eyes, he seriously doubts they could ever be just friends, but says anyways, “Um, I am pretty sure we are well past friends, but if that is what you need then I will try.”
He leans over and passes her the popcorn as he says softly, “Well, here you go. This will work for a start.”
Grinning at her, he presses play on the remote and then they proceed to watch the rest of the movie. By the end, they are both laughing and mutually agree to go get something to eat. After disappearing for a minute and getting dressed, he comes back out and is ready to go in a pair of old, holy blue jeans and a white t-shirt that has seen better days as well.
Smiling, Kelly gets in the car and then they decide to go to an all-night diner. Running his hands through his hair, he asks her flatly, “Did you know that Joe’s diner has been around since 1932? As it turns out, they passed it from one family member to another.”
While listening to him, she stares out the window before turning to glance at him curiously before answering automatically, “No, I didn’t. I’m not from this area. I used to live in Greenfield, over on the east side. So, this is all new to me.”
Because she is so interested in finding out more, she pauses and then asks, “How about you? How long have you lived here?”
Turning to her, he smiles again and then states, “I have lived in this area my whole life. My parents live about 15 minutes away on the west side of town. However, they are in Florida in their time share for another month or so.”
As soon as they arrive at the restaurant, they find a booth and talk for the rest of the night over coffee. Kelly is extremely tired and has learned a lot about him, so she feels that they have become friends and hopes that it will continue, inspite of their past.
Smiling, he takes her hand and asks, “You ready to go? The sun is coming up. It’s a good thing you don’t have to take the kids to school today.”
Nodding, she says, “Yup.” before they drive home and pull in front of the house.
She can tell that this morning is going to be awkward, but she doesn’t know quite what to do about it so she asks quietly, in almost a murmur. “How am I going to explain this one to my girls?”
He laughs uncontrollably before finally answering thoughtfully, “Just tell them we were hanging out.”
“Hey, thanks. That might work!” She exclaims as she waves and heads home. While walking across the road, she reflects on the night and the great time they had together. It makes her feel toasty warm for once and extremely happy as she realizes she learned a lot about him and they are becoming friends after all.
