No More Box, Friday the 1st

The Calm Before The Storm

            “Hey, how was your trip?” Alana her friend asked concerned.
           “Not bad,” came Hanna’s reply and Alana heard her yawn.
           “How’s grandma? Do the doctors think she’ll be okay after falling out of the bed like that? Do they know why she fell out of bed?”
           Hanna laughed, “She’s doing fine, even the doctors say so,” Hanna paused and then continued quietly as if Grandma Hattie were right there. “All they seem to have about what could have caused it is numerous theories,” Hanna said and Alana could hear the worry and concern in her friends voice, “but don’t worry about us, she’ll be fine, you go out and have fun tonight,” Hanna said and then yawned again. Alana knew that Hanna was just saying this to make her feel better. It didn’t work, but there was little that she could do about it now except for kick herself for not going with her.
           Alana smiled, “Don’t even try that placating tone of voice with me. I know better. Listen, I’ll have my cell phone on me, just in case, and before you object, I know you too well, so don’t even bother. I know she’s not as well as you’re saying so I’ll make you this deal. I’ll go out tonight as long as you promise to call me if anything happens.”
           Hanna hesitated but said, “Agreed,” reluctantly and then added, “You drive a hard bargain.”
           “Yeah, well if I hadn’t been so out of it last night and then so busy today I would have seen what you were all about and been right there next to you instead of letting you drive that four hour trip all by yourself.” Alana paused briefly
           “I’m not alone. Vincent caught me on the way out the door,” Hanna said defensively.
           Then Alana heard Grandma from the background, “Who’s already asleep.”
           “Well good,” Alana said before going on, “But when you get back here you and I are going to have a nice long talk about this taking off on a road trip with little notice to me so I can’t go with you.”
            “Alana I’m fine,” Hanna tried to object.
            “No, Hanna. You listen to me. You’re upset about your grandmother and her health, you shouldn’t have attempted to make that trip alone. I know you’re fine now, but what about tomorrow when your even more tired from staying up all night with your grandmother trying to nurse her back to perfect health in one night, and what about the fact that I think of her as a grandmother too?”
            Hanna gave in and sighed, “I know,” and then added, “I promise to get some sleep tonight.”
            “More than just sitting at her bedside with your head by her hand that you’re holding.”
            Hanna started to laugh, “Alana, you know me too well.”
            “Yes, I do,” she said smiling, “I’m glad you can still laugh,” Alana said.
            “Yes, I can, though I don’t find reason enough anymore.”
            “Make Grandma feel better and she’ll make you laugh with some bawdy old joke.”
            Hanna laughed again, “That is true,” she said. “I promise to get some sleep in an actual bed tonight. Will that make you stop badgering me so I can get back to Grandma now?”
            “Yeah, I guess,” Alana replied, “Just remember, I’ll be calling Grandma tomorrow when you get home so I’ll hear if you follow thru on those promises,” Alana threatened.
            “Yes, I know you will,” Hanna said and then she heard Grandma in the background yelling,
            “I’ll make sure she gets some rest before she leaves tomorrow, and I’ve already threatened to move back in if she does this to you again,” Alana heard Grandma Hattie say from what sounded like a few feet away and couldn’t help but laugh.
            “Tell her I’m glad to hear it and that I’m sorry I failed her this time,” Alana said.
            After Hanna had relayed the message Alana again heard Grandma’s voice in the background, “I know how Hanna can be, just as you do, she never gave you a chance because she was trying to look out for you, too. Don’t you worry about us though, go out and have a good time tonight!”
            “Tell her I will, and that it’s good to hear her voice again. I miss her so much,” Alana said.
            “I’ll let her know,” Hanna said with a sigh, “now that you two are done using me as an operator in the phone game.”
            “Oh, you know we love you so behave,” came Grandma’s voice again.
            “Ditto,” Alana said.
            “Well, I love you both, too,” she said and Alana smiled, “and I should let you get going so you can get ready for tonight.”
            It was Alana’s turn to sigh, “Yeah, I guess so.”
            “Now, Alana, I want you to wear my ear rings and that necklace that you love, and you can wear that new shirt that I just bought.”
            “But you haven’t even worn it, yet,” Alana objected.
            “It’s my payment for being so devious to you last night and today,” Hanna said.
            “If you think that’s all you owe me you’ve got another thing coming,” Alana laughed.
            “I know,” Hanna replied, “but it’s all I can do from here.”
            “I know, and thank you, I’ll consider those items and the rest of your closet if I chose,” Alana replied with a smile. Hanna hated it when Alana went thru her closet because Hanna was such a neat freak while Alana had a tendency to put things anywhere there was room which was usually not where Hanna thought that it should go. It was a constant battle that some days made them laugh and others made them squabble like true sisters even though they were only best friends as they had been since high school.
            “Alana,” Hanna said, “be careful,” she said quietly.
            “I will, don’t you worry about me,” Alana said reassuringly and then they said good bye and hung up.
            Hanna sat there for a moment staring off into space as her thoughts wandered back to the reason that she dated so little and only guys that she knew that she could take should it come down to the fact that she need to. She thought back to that night she had been over powered and betrayed. She had trusted CJ and he had used the first opportunity he’d had found to take advantage of her and then he’d apologized for hurting her and she had believed him. Then he’d hurt her again because she’d been a fool to trust him again. Never again.
            She just hoped that nothing like that would ever happen to Alana. If it did she didn’t know what she’d do.
            “Well, I’m going to go to bed,” Grandma Hattie said getting to her feet.
            Hanna rushed to help her get to her feet and then down the hall to her room.
            “Thank you Hanna,” Grandma Hattie said once she was settled in, “Now you go get some rest, too.”
            “I will grandma,” she said as she turned the light off and left the room.
            Slowly Hanna walked down the hall to the guest room where Vincent was already sleeping. Quietly she crept into the room and changed cloths, never once worrying about him. He’d sleep thru anything if he was tired enough and after the trip up here, he’d been tired enough to collapse into bed fully clothed, but a few hours ago Hanna had come in and removed his shoes and socks waking him up enough that he stood up strip down to his boxers before he’d fallen right back to sleep without a word. Now she sat, in her pajamas and stared at the floor.
            What was she going to do if she lost her grandma?
            She turned and looked at Vincent, sleeping peacefully as if he didn’t have a care in the world and she was envious. He was such a quiet man. He never made any demands on her and he didn’t mind that Hanna liked to keep their lives separate, for the most part, and that she liked to keep everything very basic between them. In fact most people, who didn’t know that they were together thought that they were just really good friends. This bothered Vincent, but Hanna didn’t really mind. That was only one of many differences between them, and only one of the things that bothered him that she didn’t mind. Some days she wondered why he even put up with her, and since the only reason that she could come up with was that he loved her, she stayed with him. Mostly because at the end of the day she loved him, sleeping next to him, and being with him, too, but tonight she needed a different kind of love.
            She slowly got to her feet and left the room. There would be no way that she would be able to sleep next to Vincent tonight, so she made her way back down the hall to Grandma Hattie’s room and climbed in bed next to her. She was asleep only moments later.

Kristine calls Unity

            Unity answered her phone on the fourth ring, just before it switched over to the answering machine and Kristine was thankful for small favors, “Hello?” Unity said sounding out of breath.
            “Unity? Are you okay? You sound all out of breath?” she said rapidly before she paused long enough for Unity to answer.
            “Yeah,” she said with a sigh as she caught her breath, “I was doing laundry and Emerson has his toys all over the garage floor, right in the way as I made a mad dash for the phone.” Kristine smiled knowing that the laundry room was on the other side of the garage not to mention how many times she had done that exact same sprint as she had been in the deep freezer that was kept out there with all the ice cream, and other goodies.
            “So what’s up?” Unity asked.
            “Well,” Kristine began and then taking a deep breath before she went on, “I was at the mall the other day and this guy over heard my friends and I talking about modeling and he gave us his business card,” she said as she looked down at the card that she had in her hands now, “and he set up a meeting with this photographer that he knows but he could only do it for tomorrow night.”
            “I see,” Unity said and Kristine could already here the disapproval in her voice but she went on knowing that she could smooth things over with a little effort on her part.
            “Listen, I know this is very last minute and all, but I was have given you more notice if I could, but he just called me and told me about it right before I called you,” she explained and she knew that she was starting to sound a little desperate but she couldn’t help herself.
            “I know you would,” Unity said sounding both understanding and annoyed.
            “So will you help me out?” Kristine asked.
            “I’ll do what I can, but I can’t afford to take any time off work,” Unity told her and Kristine smiled.
            “I know that. What I was thinking was, you know all those numbers you have on your refrigerator of people that can help out in an emergency, well if you give me some of those numbers I’ll call them and see if they can help me out.”
            “And what if they all say no?” Unity asked.
            “Well, I know that you would prefer someone that you know, but the only other thing that I can think of, besides canceling is to try one of my friends,” Kristine said but she really didn’t want to have to do either of those last two, she was putting all her money on one of the people that Unity gave her would be able to do it.
            “You know me well,” Unity said with a sigh before she asked, “Do you have a pen and paper?”
            “Yeah,” Kristine said and then frantically started writing names and numbers down before she said good bye and started calling the numbers that Unity had given her. She didn’t have to go far before the neighbors, Scott and Scott said that they would be happy to help out for one night. She hung up with them and then called Unity back to let her know what had been decided.

Getting ready to go out

            Alana sat and stared at the phone for a moment envious of Hanna being with Grandma Hattie while Alana was at home getting ready to go out with a guy she wasn’t entirely sure about. She could just picture Hanna sitting in the old broke down recliner that had once belonged to Hanna’s Grandfather, Duke. Grandma Hattie had never been to bring herself to get rid of it. Hanna had spent so many nights in that chair while her Grandma had been sick, just as Grandma Hattie had spent nights in it when Hanna had been sick as Hanna always slept in Grandma Hattie’s bed when she was sick.
            Alana could see Hanna now, curled up under the sky blue afghan Grandma Hattie had made last winter, she’d said to match the shade of Hanna’s eyes. Her five foot six inch frame hardly noticeable under the bulk of the king size afghan folded down to fit over Hanna and not hang down to the floor. Her blond head just barley visible as she’d tuck it up and around her ears as her long hair was usually pulled back into a French braid. Alana had once mused out loud to Grandma Hattie that she looked as if she were only three or four all wrapped up and asleep like that making Grandma Hattie laugh, waking Hanna. Oh how Alana wanted to be there now, to take care of two of the four most important people in her life. The others being her mother and father.
            Alana stood and walked to the mirror in the bathroom and after putting on her make up and smiled. She was glad that she’d been badgered into going out tonight by that guy at the movie store the other night. All she wanted to do now was drink, have a good time and just spend time forgetting about the last week and how she’d forgotten rule one: never forget who you’re working for.
            She was looking forward to tonight because she hadn’t gone out at all for over a month. She’d either been working or recovering from working, and as usual she had been neglecting herself in the process. This last week her neglect had been particularly bad as she hadn’t eaten much, if anything, all week long making her temperamental and moody not to mention tired all week long. Today at lunch she had been so tired, hungry and not functioning properly because of her lack of eating. When she had realized this, she’d taken a two hour break and gone not only out to lunch, but to the grocery story and spent about three hundred dollars on food for her apartment so she wouldn’t have to worry about it.
            It was days like today when she loved being the boss of a site and not the owner of the interior design company that she worked for. After she’d returned from lunch she’d cracked the whip so hard at some of her hired help, they had walked out because they said she was working them too hard. When she told them that she was tired of looking around to see everyone else working hard while they had been having, another cigarette break. One of the employees that Alana’s hadn’t minded before. Alana responded saying that she had been too tired and weak to care from lack of food until now. The argument went on for a few more minutes until they threatened to walk out and she’d responded, “Fine, I don’t want someone working for me that’s going to take advantage of me just because I’m not feeling well.”
            The argument had stimulated her to her former glory and the rest of the day the employees and even Alana worked harder than before and accomplished three times the work than they had that morning. When she’d left for the day she felt as though her office had truly accomplished something and that things were heading toward being back on track even with the major set back of forgetting rule number one.
            She looked herself over in the mirror and smiled. Her jeans were old, worn and comfortable, not to mention they fit her like a glove, but weren’t really all that tight, and they made her butt look like that of a goddess. Her top was the one Hanna had told her to wear and it was cute but practical with short sleeves, and a low cut neckline that wasn’t too low. She knew she’d be comfortable no matter what sort of people would be at the party tonight with the top half of her top fitting her snuggly around her chest the bottom half billowing out like a bell starting just below her breasts. Not to mention the shade of brown matched her dark chocolate colored eyes which only added to the effect she’d done with her make up making them standout just a little bit more.
            Her hair she had decided to pull back and keep out of her face for the night. Still wet she knew it would stay up all night in the French twist that she had it in and a barrette that held it in place and out of her face. Most nights when and if she went out she’d just leave her shoulder length hair down to frame her face, but all day long her hair had been getting on her nerves, getting into her face and not laying right.
            She walked out of the bathroom, hitting the switch to kill the lights as she headed to the living room as there was a knock. “Here we go,” she said smiling to herself and headed to the door.
            She peeped thru the peep hole only to see blackness and knew that it was Cary, her date for the night, who had his finger to it like he always did. Cary had his own business that his father had left to him when he’d died almost eight years ago. He seemed the ruthless business type so she had a feeling that it had doubled in size since he’d taken over
            When she opened the door she was confronted with a man that looked more like he was on his way to work instead of out to a party so she hoped what she was wearing was okay. If it hadn’t been for his hair she would have been worried, but she knew that when he went to work he slicked it all back. Tonight his hair reminded her of how a lot of men wear their hair these days with so much gunk in it that it couldn’t help but stay in place, the sides cut short but the top was left to go every which way. It looked like he’d just woke up and left his hair to do what it pleased. She’d always thought the look was a bit stupid on most guys, but on Cary it was almost cute.
            For a second she saw a look in his narrow eyes that made her want to call the whole thing off, but it had disappeared as quick as it had came. Then she thought of the week she’d had and how she really needed to get out, so she said, “Let me grab my purse,” and then felt his eyes on her butt as she walked away. It made her feel like she was a piece of meat and it gave her the creeps so to distract whatever train of thought his mind was taking she asked, “So where are we going again?”
            “Some friends of mine are having a party just South of here. It’s about a twenty minute drive once we hit the highway,” he said stepping inside to check his reflection in the mirror that hung on the wall just inside the door. When she turned and saw what he was doing she rolled her eyes. Any man that was that worried about what he looked like was bound to be a handful at some point in the night, she just hoped that he would wait until there were more people around before he tried anything on her.
            Twenty minutes, she thought to herself, and then prayed that it would go fast as she stepped out the door.

Worries of a Mother

            Unity had hung up with Kristine feeling very uneasy, and she couldn’t figure out why, but it was really starting to bother her. She was about to give up and try and focus on all the laundry she still had to fold when she figured it out. Years ago, when she’d been raped she’d met Emerson’s sperm donor because he had said that he could get her a modeling contract. She was almost to the phone when she realized how paranoid she was being and told herself to go back to the laundry.
            Less than an hour later she ended up calling Kristine back just to make sure she was doing things the smart way, unlike she had years ago, but Kristine was smart. They were meeting at a restaurant, one that Kristine had worked at the previous summer so she knew the place well, as well as some of it’s staff, and her parents knew where she was going. Unity had hung up the phone and tried to breath a sigh of relief but she couldn’t. That uneasy feeling was still there.
            Unity forced herself to go back to the laundry, but she couldn’t focus. After finding three towels on hangers like they were a pair of pants she gave up and went to play with Emerson. If anything could distract her from her worries, it was her son. It didn’t matter that he was the product of rape, or the fact that it was because of him that she slept alone each night, too fearful to let a man in only for him to hurt not only herself, but her son, too, he was the light of her life and her reason for living. It didn’t matter what was going wrong in her life, she could spend an hour with him and feel as right as rain.
            The only other person that she had ever met that had a similar effect on her had been Brock, but that was before he’d shown her his true colors and she had left him behind. He was the true reason that her nights felt so empty and her days felt so long, but she knew that it was for the best. He had a bad temper on him and she knew that one day he would turn it on her or her son and she couldn’t live like that again.
            She had grown up with abusive parents, and once she had gotten out she refused to go back, so now here she was a twenty something with no high school diploma, or GED, living in a run down house and working in a dinner for peanuts. She couldn’t complain though. She had managed to keep Emerson, but then his sperm donor hadn’t fought very hard for him and she still, to his day didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but then again you had to be thankful for all your blessings, big or small, she thought later that night as she put her son to bed before she returned to her laundry.

The Car Ride

            As they rode, Cary had the radio on to a familiar station but not the one that Alana preferred to listen to, but it could have been worse, she thought to herself as she looked out the passenger window. Things were starting to feel creepier and creepier as she sat there. It hadn’t occurred to her until this very moment that Cary might have been the type of man Grandma Hattie had always warned her against. Then the words of her father came back to her and she forced herself to relax, “Alana, don’t ever judge a person by what they look like, and don’t ever judge them by what others tell you about them. Judge them by who they are to you.” She didn’t know how many times her father had used those exact words, ‘Judge them by who they are to you,’ but she knew that she’d never forget them.
            It had been those words that had made her say that she would go out tonight with Cary in the first place. She had been at the movie store this last Wednesday night, just like every Wednesday before when she’d run into him. They’d asked the two different clerks on staff about the same movie but there had been only one copy left. He had been the gentleman and let her take the copy of the movie while he’d gone home with nothing, but as he’d followed her out the wind had caught the hat that she’d borrowed from Hattie just the weekend before and blown it off her head with one strong gust. Cary had chased it half a dozen cars down, only to refuse to return it until she’d given not only her agreement to go out tonight, but her name, address and phone number as well.
            It had taken Cary weeks to figure out how to ask Alana out without running into Hanna, so when he’d seen her at the movie store this week alone as opposed to all the weeks before he’d seized the moment and found success. Then when he’d heard that she’d gone out of town this morning, he knew that tonight would be his chance. But he’d always known it was only a matter of time.
            Tonight he’d take her to a party that his old friend and coworker Dom was having at his sisters house. Once Alana was drunk he would take her home to his bed where he would have his way with her. He hoped that she’d fight. He liked it when they fought, and Alana seemed like the type that would fight. She had spirit just like her roommate Hanna had, but they didn’t know that they both knew him. That had been the biggest pain in the ass. Trying to get to know Alana without getting so close that Hanna would come into the picture and ruin everything, but he’d gotten lucky when Alana had told him that Hanna had gone out of town for the night.
            As they drove Cary thought back to the night that he’d taken Hanna and smiled. It had been her birthday and he’d taken her out for a night that she would never forget, and he knew, even now that she never would forget that night. Hanna had looked so hot in her short little black and white skirt and her red top. He had started taking karate with her so he knew all her moves. When it came down to, he would know what she would try to do to defend herself. He found out everything that there was to know about Hanna. The type of soap she used, her favorite place to go for take out, and he knew about her mother.
            It had taken some work and some time, but for her he’d decided to go the extra mile and find out more then usual about this woman. He earned her trust and found that he’d enjoyed it more, but the wait had been trying. To trying. He’d had his way with her three times, one right after another and then twice more on their way home and each time she had struggled so beautifully that his cock still ached when he thought about her. Yet she’d never said a word, not to Alana, not to any of her co-workers, not even to her grandmother and this had happened almost three years ago.
            He had taken her out to dinner and then to a carnival. They had ridden every ride and he’d even been able to win her a little stuffed dog before they had gone into the fun house. He knew there was a little corner where they wouldn’t be disturbed and where even when she screamed, like he knew she would, no one would think anything of it because there was a tape of a scream that ran in a loop so everyone would tune it out and think it was just part of the show.
            Hanna had been one of his top three. One of the other two had been Natty, Dom’s little sister. She was now so afraid of her own shadow that she couldn’t even sleep without dreaming of the night he’d taken her, so many years ago that she’d been his first ever. And then there was the wench that had bore him a son and drug him thru court to take his son away from him. So far she’d succeeded, but she was about to loose, and more than just her son as soon as he worked out a few more details and gathered a little bit more information thanks to the baby sitter. He’d bribed her to let him in when the wench wasn’t at home.
            Now he was dreaming of all the things that he would do to Alana before the night was over and he could hardly wait. Some how he had managed to keep his speed down on the highway, so far. He had a long night ahead of him before he would get to even touch her. Oh, but he knew how she would fight him and he was having trouble keeping control of himself with her so close and the time when he’d get to touch her so far away, so he turned up the radio a little and added a little more weight to the peddle. It had been so long, since he had a woman the way that he likes but he could wait. It would be better when they were on their way home and she was slightly drunk, completely unsuspecting of what he had planed, being the trusting fool she was.
            He smiled to himself as he moved his Cherry Red Dodge Stealth onto the exit ramp and slowed down to make the turn that would take him to Natty’s house. Oh, yeah, tonight was going to be fun.

What is he doing here?

            Natty had been sitting on the couch when she’d heard the door open and close as it had countless times before, but this time for some reason she turned to see who had come thru the door and her heart had dropped into her stomach. There stood the root of all her problems. Cary James Esters, the man that had raped her at the end of her high school senior year and nearly destroyed her life.
            She had thought that Dom had told him to stay away, but that really didn’t mean much to Cary, that much she knew to be a fact. Cary had always thought the world was his to do with as he pleased. She knew that because if he didn’t think that way he never would have touched the little sister of his high school best friend, let alone rape her, but he had.
            It had tore Dom up for years, and just when Dom had started getting back on his feet, buying a house for himself and his pregnant fiancée, she had dropped a bomb and torn his world apart. The child wasn’t his and she was leaving Dom to go and be with the child’s true father, leaving Dom with all the bills of the house they had just bought. Dom had almost lost the house until he found a job making extremely good money working for Cary’s father, a respectable man. Then a short two years later Cary’s father had died leaving Cary to run the family architecture business. Dom’s life had started to slowly spiral out of control until he had an appendicitis and ended up in the hospital next to Blaise. Now eight years later, Dom was just starting to get to a point where he was putting his life back together but because he still worked for Cary, Cary used that against Dom however he could.
            Natty had told Dom back in high school that she didn’t like Cary, that he made her feel uncomfortable with the way that he had looked at her. Dom had said not to worry about it, that because she was his little sister that she had nothing to worry about. He had been wrong.
            She had been closing the clothing store where she worked and she had been working alone, like she often did. He had come in just before she’d locked the door telling her that he needed to wait for Dom and asked if could he wait inside with her. It had been a cold night so she had agreed and then when he’d asked if there was anything he could do to help, she had put him to work. It was better than having him stand there leaning against the counter leering at her while he watched her do all the work. She realized her mistake the instant that he had followed her back into the store room.
            She quickly put the boxes down that she had in her hands and headed back out to the selling floor, but he’d stopped her before she could get to the door. She had guessed what he was going to do about two seconds before his facial expression changed from the slow easy grin that he wore most of the time, to what Natty could only describe as evil.
            Once that happened it hadn’t taken him long to over power her and push her up against the wall behind the door. In those days she’d wore pants to work so she thought she was safe, until he’d held up his pocket knife and put it to her throat. Then he had made her undress. When she had refused, he had pressed the knife against her throat just enough cut through the top layer of her skin. Just enough that when he took his knife away from her throat she could see her blood on the knife so she had done the only thing that she could think of. She started to undress, but she still had fight in her, so she had tried to elbow him in the rib cage and he’d knocked her head against the wall, breaking her nose in retaliation. It had also left her dazed just long enough that he was able to get her pants down and rip her button up shirt open and off. She wasn’t done fighting yet, not that it did her any good because he had had her right where he’d wanted her.
            Once she’d realized that there was no way for her to win she’d gone still and just started crying as he had done that horrible thing to her. It had hurt her so bad both emotionally and physically. Even now, years later she could look back and feel how debilitating the experience had been, how humiliated she had felt, and how horrible it had made her feel, but the psychologist that she had been seeing ever since kept telling her that she was making progress, even though it didn’t feel like it to her.
            When Cary had finished, he had just let her go. Letting her sink down to the floor while he pulled up his own pants and then left her bleeding, battered and bruised on the cold floor of that store room. She didn’t know how long she had laid there but somehow she had managed to get her shirt on. She had tried to pull her pants up, but she was sore from what Cary had done to her. She hadn’t moved far when Dom had walked in and found her still on the floor with Brock close on his heals.
            She didn’t know that they had met outside as Cary was leaving, but that had been the one thing that had allowed Dom to put two and two together. Had Brock not been there Dom probably would have ended up in jail for assault if not murder, and Cary probably would have eventually gotten what he had deserved, but that wasn’t what had happened.
            Cary was still a minor at the time, not to mention that he’d been the star football player, and his father had some influence with the court system because his grandfather was one of the judges in their fairly small town. As a result he’d been sent to counseling, and given community service, but that was it. Which just made everything so horrible for Natty, making it look like she’d made the whole thing up or it had been consensual, and had never been rape.
            Natty had some how managed to make it thru the rest of her school year but everyone knew what she had said Cary had done to her. That she had accused their star football player of being a rapist and they all seemed to hate her for it. Cary was a great actor and had been able to get just about anyone to believe anything he said. If it hadn’t been for the police that had shown up to collect the evidence, the doctors that had done the examinations, but mostly had it not been for Brock and Dom, she probably would have believed what Cary had tried to tell her about how she’d just been drunk and upset because she’d given him her virginity. Dom and Brock helped her see what he was doing and if it hadn’t been for those two she wouldn’t have made it thru almost her entire senior year not to mention her Christmas. They had truly been her saviors.
            While the rest of the school was calling her names and trying to trip her as she walked down the hall, the two biggest guys, who had been the main contributing factor to the wrestling team going to state for the last four years, were at her back, flexing their muscles and scaring everyone away from her. They also were two of the best blockers on the football team, and there were a three times during the remaining four football games that year when they’d let the opposing team get thru to Cary. He had gotten hurt, so bad the last time that it had taken Cary out of the game for the last three games and lost him his scholarship. Dom and Brock had almost gotten in trouble too, but the coach knew what had happened so they were just suspended for one game. Thankfully, most of the taunting the other students had been doing had stopped after that. She loved both Dom and Brock dearly for what they had done for her and she had knew that she would never be able to pay them back for what they’d done that year.
            Now here she was, years later, still jumping from her own shadow and still having nightmares about what had happened that night. Here he was walking into her house as proud as could be, like nothing had ever happened. Like Dom hadn’t threatened his life if Cary ever came within one hundred yards of her, like she didn’t have a restraining order against him, and like he belonged there. She guessed that since Dom worked for the despicable pile of crap, and had for a couple of years now, Cary had figured that he’d been forgiven, so she shouldn’t be too surprised.
            She got to her feet quickly and went in search of Jarren, he would know what to do, and he would make her feel safe again in her own house, even with Cary in the next room. Besides, what else could she really do?

The Party

            Alana had arrived at the party with Cary. It didn’t take ten minutes for him to walk off and leaver her when she refused to be his arm candy. He’d told her that he was going to go find them something to drink and that he’d be back, but she was still waiting for him to return. She was just starting to wonder if he’d gotten lost when she saw him out on the dance floor dancing with two other woman, his hands all over them as they bumped and grinded to some ninety’s rock tune. When he’d looked over to her and saluted her with the beer he’d held in his hand and then gone back to dancing like they hadn’t arrived together she got pissed off. She’d never been treated so horribly in her life.
            After an hour she was ready to go home. If it wasn’t for the constant supply of Rum and coke that she’d found in the kitchen, she would have been miserable she thought to herself sarcastically. If it hadn’t been for being laughed at every time she opened her mouth she probably would have been bored out of her mind. What had she been thinking? She so far had run into no one that she knew and, as far as she could tell, that could only mean that she didn't get out enough. Everyone here seemed like a lot of fun to hang out with, except for the facts that she was on the outside. She’d come with a total looser, which seemed to be the fact that everyone held against her and used to make her feel like an idiot.
            As Alana tired to mix and mingle she found that no one really wanted to talk with her and she got the feeling that it had to do with Cary more than it had to do with her. As soon as she’d walked into the house she’d heard the hush fall over the crowd. It wasn’t really noticeable over the noise of the music and the other partiers that either had their back to the door or were in the other rooms. She’d noticed, or maybe she was just being paranoid, trying to think about what she’d done wrong. At first she’d gone into the bathroom to double check her appearance only to find herself just as she’d last seen herself in the mirror back at her apartment. Then she had started to notice how people would poke others to get their attention and then motion to her and Cary or more or less Cary as it was, so she started to relax, deciding to keep her distance from Cary for the evening.
            She sighed and was turning to refill her drink when she thought she’d spotted someone that she knew from high school. She tried to make her way over to them only to be waylaid by the sea of people between them as a fast past dancing song came on and made the people start to move as if they were the waves of the sea itself during a storm. She was not a dancer, unless she was drunk which she wasn’t, yet, and then only when she was in the mood to laugh at herself, which she was far from being tonight. Which had more to do with how her last week had gone and not the party or the people she was around, even though they were treating her like she had the plague.
            This last week, she had completely redesigned three out of five rooms for her current client only to find out that the person she thought was the one paying her to do the job, was not. The person that was paying her had a completely different feel they wanted for the rooms. Now she had to start all over from scratch and eat what she’d already spent in supplies, time and items for the rooms, if she couldn’t return them. Her head started to pound every time she started to think about it, so she did her best not to and started she watching this older guy dance out on the dance floor.
            He seemed to be the life of the party and was surrounded by at least two dozen other women who ranged in age from early twenties on up to late forties or early fifties. Alana was surprised to see that the man was old enough to be her own father, and rather good looking with his silver hair, friendly eyes and sincere smile it was clear that he was the life of the party. All the women seemed to be waving money in the air. Just when she was wondering what they were going to do with the money she saw one of the woman, probably one of the oldest ones there, get behind him, wrap her arms around his waist and stuff the money down the front of his pants.
            She watched enthralled as each of the women, one by one, danced up to the guy and put their money down his pants or in his shirt as they each tried to get him to kiss her. He only laughed at their antics and the women would laugh at the way that he defected them. Some even left there hands down his pants long enough to make Alana wonder what exactly they were doing, leaving some money behind and she couldn’t be sure, but it looked to be possible by the length of time their hands were out of sight, they might be trying to raise something else. Each one though, he was able to talk out of what ever they were trying to do. Some he tickled, some he would pick up and throw over his shoulder before handing them to some other guy that was standing there shouting and carrying on at the scene. Others were too short and he’d grab their hands from around his neck only to hold them away before he would crack a joke, something Alana couldn’t hear, but everyone that was within hearing distance would crack up as the current girl would admit defeat willingly.
            When each of them had danced up to him at least once, some two or three times, and stashed money somewhere inside his cloths, the first woman that she’d seen stuff the money down his pants while she stood behind him, danced up in front of him, put her hands on his shoulders. When he’d grabbed her waist and tried to push her away she jumped into his arms wrapping her legs around him and kissed him full on the lips.
            Well, at least someone was having fun, she thought as she glanced around and saw Cary heading her way from across the room. She looked around to see if she could find someplace else to be, but was stuck by three rather large and obnoxious groups of people. One group was laughing so hard at a joke someone just told that she’d thought several of them were going to fall over. Another group was standing around two people, one giving and another receiving a tattoo, and the third group stood around the keg just talking about what ever came to mind. She was trapped.
            “Hey, babe, you having any fun yet being a little wall flower?” Cary asked as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to him with a seductive look on his face. She pulled back pushing him away. He moved to her side and put his arm around her shoulders and then looked around the room as if proud to be with this group of people that he called friends. As far as she could see they all tried to run when they saw him coming and were relieved when he walked away.
            “Sure, I’m having a blast,” she said her tone dripping with sarcasm as his hand slipped off her shoulder, and down her back to her butt.
            “Good for you,” he said before turning his body so he could rub against her like he’d been doing to the women on the dance floor but again she pushed him away only for him to grab her chest with his free hand. She in turn grabbed his ear and twisted it like a mother catching her child with it hand in the cookie jar just before dinner, which made him stop so she could push him away. “Ouch,” he said letting her go as she did the same, “Alright you can play hard to get a little bit longer,” he told her looking around at the people that were near as he rubbing his sore ear.
            “I’m not playing any games with you,” she told him honestly.
            “Oh, there’s Reed,” he said ignoring her comment, “and man, does he look smashed. I’m going to go say hi.” He said already moving away and calling back over his shoulder, “Have fun, but don’t worry I’ll be back to play some more later,” and then disappeared into the crowd. For the second time tonight her jaw dropped as he walked away from her in a house full of strangers.
            All night she’d just been wandering around trying to join in on a conversation but mostly she just wanted to get drunk. Either one would be appreciated as she had too many bad thoughts going about inside her head from her stress filled week to be left to her own thoughts without some sort of numbing agent. Right now her cup was running low on alcohol, so she headed back to the breakfast bar in the kitchen to refill her drink.
            As she stood mixing her drink at the kitchen counter, she listened to a group of people talk behind her about some movie that she had heard of but had no desire to see. She was about to turn and try and cut thru them before they made her sick talking about what had happened to the main character at the end of the movie. She heard someone behind her say, “Hey, Cary. Just the man I was looking for. We were just having a discussion that I think you could help with.” She decided, hearing who was behind her, to just stay where she was and drink where the alcohol was in great abundance. Then she wouldn’t have to go and search it out, and if she felt the urge to, she could make it stronger. She had all the supplies that she could ever need at her fingertips and that was the only thing that was making her smile right now.
            “Hey Reed, always a pleasure to help out my friends, what’s up?” she heard Cary ask.
            “Well, we were just discussing how everything that’s in this world can be related back to sex,” and she rolled her eyes barely able to contain the moan from dreading what she would hear next. She decided to make her drink a little stronger so she added a little bit more rum. She could only pray that if anyone did see her they wouldn’t recognize her as the one that had walked in the front door with Cary.
            She suddenly had a thought of what would happen if they did see and recognize her. She saw herself quickly being pushed into Cary’s ‘Russian hands and Roman fingers’ as Grandma Hattie would refer to men that couldn’t keep their hands to them selves around an attractive woman. Her stomach almost turned over at the thought. She was forced to set her drink down until she got her stomach under control again, as she went on listening to the group behind her.
            “And I,” came another voice, this one deeper than the other almost reminding her of her grandfathers’ deep voice, “say that you can’t relate a door knob to sex.”
            “Sure you can Luke,” she heard Cary say, “I mean how else would you open and close doors, not everyone is an exhibitionist like Reed and his woman here,” he replied. She glanced back over her shoulder and watched as Cary wrapped his arms around a woman, pulling her to him as she resisted.
            “Or ‘Peeping Toms’ like yourself,” replied the captured woman as she pushed Cary away and reached out for the man on the other side of her who stepped closer.
            “Exactly,” came Cary’s reply as if he were proud of being called a ‘Peeping Tom,’ as the woman was taken from his arms.
            “I’ve told you before Cary, hands off,” said the man that had taken the woman away from Cary and she recognized his voice as the one that had started the conversation, “You can say whatever you like but leave her be. She’s mine,” he said in a threatening tone.
            “Alright, spoil sport,” Cary said sounding almost reluctant as he looked the woman up and down, “I do see why you keep her all to yourself,” he concluded still leering at the woman, mainly at her large chest, and for once Alana was happy to not have been blessed in that department, “but it could be fun to share,” he summed up wiggling his eye brows up and down.
            “So back to the subject,” another person said and Alana looked over to see the back of a head with curly blond hair. “How would you associate a picture on the wall with sex?” he asked, as if not believing that anyone could really associate anything and everything with sex.
            “Let’s start with the portraits that have their eyes cut out so that you can pull away the eyes from the next room over and replace them with your own and watch the room beyond. With the advancements in technology, we have two way mirrors. Then let’s think about the Cisteen Chapel and all the naked people that are on the walls and ceiling of that church. You can’t tell me that Leonardo wasn’t a perverted old man.”
            “Well, for starters,” came a third voice that had a slight accent to it that she couldn’t place, “it was Michelangelo that painted the Cisteen Chapel, and there was nothing perverted about the subjects that he painted. They were considered angelic, not perverted.”
            “Come on, Brock, you can’t tell me that he wasn’t up there playing with his sausage as he painted those larger than life breasts.”
            It was with this statement and the stunned silence that followed, that convinced Alana that she would not be letting this man drive her home anytime soon. She needed to keep her wits about her until she was able to get home without him, so reluctantly she dumped her drink in the nearby sink and filled her cup with water. Time to sober up, she thought to herself, before she started inching her way out to the deck for some fresh air.
            When she was finally outside she stood with her back to the house and looked out over the backyard and tried to ignore the sounds of the party. It had been a while since she’d been out in the country like this and she was beginning to realize that she had been missing the calm and peacefulness that it offered. Too bad she couldn’t enjoy it away from all the noise of the party and the large group of people that were talking behind her. At least she could still enjoy the fresh air the thought with a deep sigh as she looked up to the stars.

Watching and Waiting

            Cary stood watching from the shadows as Natty got to her feet and left the room with that sad little girl face that she always had when she knew that he was around and he smiled to himself. That little tart had almost cost him his grandfathers trust, but he’d convinced his father that she’d asked for it and then changed her mind after it was too late, so she’d done the only thing that she could to keep face with her family and cried rape. That had been the night that his grandfather had told him that if he ever did anything to take the respect that his grandfather had worked so hard to gain, that his grandfather would disown Cary without question and without remorse. It was one of two threats that his grandfather had ever made to Cary. The other involved Cary staying away from alcohol.
            His grandfather, Beck, was the only person in his life that Cary respected, and feared. Cary respected him because he always kept his word, no matter what it cost his grandfather, and he feared him for that same reason. His grandfather had not had it easy growing up, and even he will admit when among the right people, that he didn’t make all of the money that he used to start the family business thru legal channels. Not to mention the fact that Cary’s Great Grandfather had been an alcoholic, had a gambling problem and been very abusive when he’d been drinking. He’d lost nearly everything before his grandfather had stood up to him, kicking him out.
            Beck’s grandmother, he’d been told, had died a few weeks later so Beck took over the family and found that the tighter the reign of control that he had on his siblings, the better things went, so that was what he did. He controlled them all, from the time they woke up until the time they brushed their teeth and went to bed.
            Years later, when Beck had finally received word that his father had died and had been dead for quite some time, Beck had got so drunk that as he’d celibrated he’d gambled away the family business. For the second time in his life, Cary’s grandfather started from scratch, but this time he refused to let anyone in the family drink any alcohol. A few years later he’d handed the company over to Cary’s dad who’d run the business until he’d died almost eight years ago. Which had been about the same time that Cary had started to pursue his women before he even made contact only to find that the hunt made it that much more enjoyable.
            Now here he was standing in the home of the first woman that he’d ever conquered. A thrill went up his spine as he looked around the room and found Alana looking board out of her mind and he smiled. Twenty more minutes of this and she’d be on her way to being just drunk enough. Then he’d step up and start watching her more closely so she wouldn’t bee too drunk to enjoy what he had planed once they left the party or rather so that he would enjoy what he had planned.
            Cary closed his eyes as he let the vivid images and sounds roll thru his body and awaken his senses. He could smell three different perfumes and cologne around him that he recognized. One of them smelled like the one that Natty had been wearing that night so long ago in that dark storeroom and he smiled as he replayed it in his head from the time he’d walked into the store until he’d met Dom in the parking lot. He’d even remembered a few months later when he’d found out that Dom and his buddy Brock had stolen a few cars to help pay for some of Natty’s bills. Oh yeah, that had been one satisfying night and it had been well worth all the fancy footwork that it had caused him with his father and grandfather the next few weeks. No night had ever topped that one, they’d come close but he was patient and he had all the time in the world.
            He opened his mind as he heard someone say his name in the kitchen before he headed in that direction to investigate feeling like nothing could touch him. How could anything touch him as long as he had his grandfather in his back pocket?

Dom’s thoughts on Cary’s arrival

            Dom had seen Cary walk in and then seen red. It had been months since Cary had tried anything like this. The last time he had Dom had threatened to tell Cary’s grandfather Beck about all the woman that Dom knew that Cary had rapped. Only day’s before Cary had pulled a stunt like this before Dom had been in the office when Beck had told Cary that if Beck ever found out that Cary had disgraced him, the family or the family business then he would disown his only grand son. Then he left mumbling something about how he couldn’t stand weak minded idiots that couldn’t keep themselves in check. That one statement had sent Dom’s mind in motion.
            A week later, Dom found his chance when Cary had walked into Natty’s house as if the restraining order wasn’t there, and as if he belonged. Dom had called the cops, who had come, put an end to the party, and then said that there was nothing that could be done because Cary had left with the rest of the party goers before anyone could stop him so the cops could arrest him. The next day Dom had walked into work fully ready to quit, his hand was on the door to Beck’s office when he’d heard Cary’s voice say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
            “Good thing I’m not you,” Dom had replied.
            “No, then that would mean that I’m you and then I could have Natty all to myself.”
            That had gotten Dom’s attention, “What do you want?” Dom had asked, not too politely.
            “If you do then I’ll go and let it slip to your family what job you worked so hard in order to help them pay Natty’s hospital bills after she and I played that night.”
            Dom looked at him, and read his face. He’d known Cary for more than fifteen years now, and could read him as well as he could read the English language. He wasn’t lying. Cary knew that he and Brock had gone out and stolen some cars, taken them to a chop shop and gotten paid rather well for it.
            Dom hadn’t said another word at that moment as Cary knew him too well for Dom to lie about how his family already knew and that just pissed him off even more, but he quickly got himself under control before he turned and walked right into Beck’s office.
            At that point Dom had no intention of telling Beck anything, the relationship that he shared with his family was too important and he knew that something like that would divide him from his family something that he’d worked to keep from happening for years. He’d be damned if he’d let a weasel like Cary destroy his family now.
            Two minutes later when Dom had walked out of Beck’s office caring three other files on projects he was to start on as well as Natty’s file, Cary was still standing where he’d left him. White as a ghost.
            Dom had smiled, nodded and then walked past him without another word. That had been enough that day, but not today. Beck would find out, and Dom would be the one to tell him. It may not happen for a few days, or even a few weeks until he was able to find some way to tell both his father and Natty, but once they knew the truth, nothing would stop him. Cary had been holding too much over Dom and Natty for too long. It was time to get out from under that sick excuse for a man’s thumb, Dom thought as he saw Natty head toward where he’d last seen Jarren before he headed out to the deck.

Time to Release Some Stress

            Cary frowned as he looked around. He was too keyed up to keep his control with Alana. If he didn’t find a way to calm himself down soon it would be over all too quickly for Cary’s liking. He turned and moved upstairs, pausing at each of the doors where he would open them and peek in to see if there was some drunk or passed out woman alone in one of the rooms.
            On the third door, the one that had at one time been Dom’s bedroom, he got lucky. There was a single female in the room lying on the bed, moaning. He walked in and closed the door behind him. Silently he crept up to the edge of the bed and started to pull her to her feet. There was a bathroom that connected this room to the one that had been Natty’s when they’d all been in high school. Slowly he moved her toward the bathroom as he started to kiss her neck and untie the strings to her top that wrapped around her neck and under her arms. When she started to question what he was doing he asked gently, “You don’t want your cloths to get all wet in the shower, do you? A shower will make you feel all better,” he told her not wanting her to start fighting until they were in the bathroom putting one more closed door between them and everyone else.
            She moaned softly as she surrendered to him. He was almost disappointed until she realized that he was undressing too. Then she started to freak out a bit, but he calmed her again by saying, “You don’t want to slip and fall do you?”
            Once they were in the shower he stood behind her as she let the water run over her head, before he moved her against the wall and hit the spigot with his foot so the water stopped coming out of the shower head. He couldn’t have anyone know that he’d played in the shower tonight. He quickly pinned her hands above her head with one hand and then spread her legs with one leg and his other hand. She started to fight then, and she tried to scream, but he knew the music was too loud for anyone to hear her from behind two closed doors.
            She tried to bit his shoulder, but he was too quick for her and in a flash he had her on one hand and her knees with one hand pinned behind her back, so he could control her almost completely. It was one of his favorite positions when he didn’t have anything handy to tie them down with. It was just what he needed to get his control back so that he could last for a while with Alana and really make it good.
            When he was down with her several minutes later he quickly got out of the shower, dressed himself and then left the room, leaving the door closed so no one would disturb her. He also, intentionally turned all the lights out just to add to her fear that he might still be there or come back. He made a mental note to come bake to the room after an hour or two and smell the fear in the air. Oh, yeah, tonight would be a great night with Alana.

The Boys Out On The Deck

            Blaise had been standing outside for almost an hour other than grabbing a drink every now and then and the conversations he’d gotten pulled into at those times, but right now he just wanted to be alone with his thoughts. Ever since Cary had walked in with his date, Blaise knew that she was a woman that clearly did not belong next to Cary, made even clearer by the fact that she had pretty much refused to be a trophy and be controlled by Cary. Most of the girls that Cary came with were little mindless, twits that acted like lost puppies, but this woman had shown that she wouldn’t be led around as if on a leash by a man that wanted to control her.
            His thoughts were interrupted by someone walking out onto the deck with him, but it was too dark to see who. All he could tell was that they were female. She walked over to the railing and stood looking out into the night and the moonless sky. They were followed shortly by another and from the silhouette it could only be one of his good and long time friends, and Blaise smiled as he set his drink on the railing of he deck.
            “Brock, how long have you been here?” he asked greeting his friend with a friendly handshake and a thump on his back.
            “Not long. I just got held up by Cary making a fool of his self in the kitchen on my way to get my drink,” came Brocks reply. He’d grown up in the heart of New York City until just before his freshman year and never completely lost his accent, but he had lost most of his rough edges thanks to his family and the friends he’d made.
            “What was it this time?” Blaise asked.
            “Reed was egging him on,” said Brock, and then after a brief pause, “again.”
            “Where was Cary’s date?” another friend theirs, Dom, asked as he walked up and joined them.
            “I didn’t see him with anyone,” Brocks replied.
            “Yeah, he showed up with this chick,” Blaise said with a shrug of his shoulders, “She’s doesn’t seem his type though.”
            “She does seem too classy for him,” agreed Dom.
            “Yeah, but she’s drinking like one of his girls,” Blaise said referring to the countless other woman that have shown up with Cary and proved to be either a lush or way to easy for this crowd, “so she’ll probably love this group and not remember it tomorrow.”
            “The rate she’d drinking could be the way we treat all of Cary’s dates,” Brock said defending her.
            “She’s probably a lush like that one red head he brought a few months back,” said Dom.
            “From what I hear, this one hasn’t any brains,” said Blaise.
            “Who did you hear that from?” Brock asked.
            “Just some girls talking,” said Blaise.
            “Come on Blaise,” Brock said, “most the girls here would say anything about anyone if they thought it would make her more likeable in your eyes. Save for Natty and Melinda and maybe one or two others.”
            “Yeah, okay,” Blaise said dismissing the reference Brock made to Blaise being popular with the ladies.
            “I don’t know why they try so hard,” Dom said, “If you haven’t said yes to one of them by now, then you ain’t gonna.” Dom shook his head, “I still don’t know why you said no to May or Anna.”
            “Let’s not forget Melinda,” Brock added with a roll of his eyes, “Way back before she and Reed hooked up.”
            “Man that was a couple of years ago,” Blaise said shaking his head, “and May and Anna were last year at my birthday.”
            “I still don’t see how Melinda puts up with Reed most days,” Dom said changing the subject.
            “You know what they say,” said Brock with a sigh.
            “Don’t give me that old line about love being blind,” replied Dom, “the only thing Reed sees in Melinda is her large breasts, long legs and her inhibitions when it comes to sex.”
            “But what does Melinda see in Reed besides a paycheck?” Brock asked.
            They were all silent for a moment before Blaise spoke, “Makes you wonder what that chick that came with Cary sees in him.”
            “All I can tell you, is that I’d do her,” was the reply from Dom before he finished off the beer in his hand.
            “Dom, you’d do any woman if she’d hold still long enough,” Blaise retorted.
            “This from Saint Blaise, patron Saint of the virtue of all women,” said Dom defensively, “when was the last time you even got laid?”
            “When was the last time you turned a woman down?” Blaise asked defensively.
            “When have you ever not turned a woman down?” Dom asked just as defensively.
            “Alright guys, enough,” Brocks said like so many times before, “you’re starting to sound jealous of each other.”
            “Shut up,” Dom replied with annoyance.
            “Fine, I won’t ever stop you two again. I’ll just stand back and wait for one of you to bitch slap the other and really start fighting like little girls,” he said and then added, “Just like Cary.”
            “Brock!” came a woman’s voice behind him and from the look on his face he was relieved for the interruption and when Blaise looked over to see the scowl on Dom’s face he knew why. Dom hated being compared to Cary and when he was drinking it was always easy to make him mad if you didn’t play your cards right. Doms sister, Natty, had been Brocks saving grace tonight and they all knew it.
            “Natty, how are you?” Brock asked putting his arm around her shoulders.
            “Not bad,” she replied and then looked at Dom and Blaise, “hey guys, did Jarren come with any of you?” she asked all of them looking around. She looked uneasy and they all knew why. Cary was here and she had seen him. He was kind of hard to miss with his loud annoying ways. Not to mention the fact that he would make all that much more noise just to push Dom’s buttons to see how far he could push Dom before Dom would go off and tell him to get the hell out of his sisters house. The only reason that Dom hadn’t done it yet was that Dom worked for the ass and Cary was the kind of guy that would fire Dom over something stupid and completely not work related, so Dom was forced to hold his tongue. The only thing that every one wondered was why he didn’t up and quit.
            Blaise knew that it wouldn’t be much longer that Dom put up with Cary and his bull. Blaise had heard that he’d been trying to find another job, but was having difficulties because if they ever called Cary for a reference, then Cary would sabotage everything. Cary couldn’t stand loosing and right now it was all he could do to keep Dom under his thumb, but Blaise knew that it wouldn’t take long for Dom to figure something out. He was a smart guy and he didn’t let too much hold him back, especially when it made him as unhappy as working for Cary made him.
            “I came alone, unfortunately,” Brock said, “but I think I saw him wandering around here somewhere.”
            “I know he’s here,” Blaise said, “I haven’t seen him but he wouldn’t miss Uncle Luke’s celebration of being alive another year,” he said referring to a heart attack that had left Luke clinically dead for nearly one minute one year ago tonight.
            “I saw him right before I came out here. He was headed for the garage, I thought,” Dom said.
            “Shall we go find him?” Brock asked before they walked away together his arm around her shoulders in a brotherly manner that they all used with Natty, everyone except Jarren that is.
            “I still wonder what Cary’s date sees in him,” Doms wondered out loud bringing Blaise out of his thoughts and back to what they had been discussing before they had started fighting.
            “You’re just wondering if you have a chance with her,” Blaise said turning to look at Dom.
            “Yeah, and what’s your point,” Dom said as they started heading into the house.
            “I just say she’s too classy,” Blaise said as they paused at the door and adding, “for either of you,” he said including Cary in his statement.
            “That’s only because she’s the first woman in a long time to make you start thinking about how much fun it could be to roll in the hay again.”
            “Ha, ha,” Blaise said dryly as he opened the sliding glass door and headed into the house.
            “Lord knows it’s been a while,” Dom said as he followed him inside.

Out On the Deck

            Alana stood with her back to the door until she heard it slide shut not wanting to be recognized if by chance they turned to look at her and see that she’d heard the whole conversation. She hated being stereotyped just because no one knew her and she’d shown up with the wrong person. It made her feel like she was back in high school, but she didn’t really blame anyone at the party, as she probably should have done. She blamed Cary, who she was starting to see as the biggest loser that Alana had ever met. He took everything she or anyone else said as a sexual comment even if they weren't even trying and the original meaning wasn’t anything remotely close to sexual. At first it had been kind of cute, but now it was starting to annoy her.
            She headed to the door to follow the others inside only to see that they were all standing right inside the door with Cary and a few others. It was seeing Cary that made her hold back. She didn’t care that they all talked about her, or what they said, in fact she would love to walk in behind those two and look them straight in the eye letting them know what she’d heard, but she didn’t wanted to be seen with Cary.
            Everyone teased him about the things he said, talking about him behind his back and then they would turn around and egg him on trying to see how far he would take it and she had realized tonight that he would take it farther than they were willing. After she had realized this she had decided that she would be perfectly willing to spend the rest of her life in prison for killing her friend that had put her here just to avoid this guy, because, she had come to the conclusion that he would be in a psyche ward in a mental hospital and never follow her to prison if something bad befell him and he was forced to commit some horrible crime for what ever insane reason he could come up with.
            Alana moved away from the door to take her spot by the balcony back up and look at the starts some more when she heard the door slide open and then close behind her as someone came out onto the deck with her. She silently prayed that they would leaver her alone, or at the very least not realize who she’d come with.
            “I thought I saw someone out here,” came a deep masculine voice from behind her.
            She turned and watched as he walked up to her and leaned on the railing next to her. It was the older gentleman that she’d seen from earlier. He still wore the baseball cap and she could now see a little bit better that he had beautiful shoulder length silver hair and, he had tattoos on both of his forearms, as the sleeves on his button up shirt were rolled up, but it was too dark to see what they were.
            She just hadn’t realized how good looking he was, even for his age. She remembered thinking that when she gets to be closer to his age that if she could find a man that looked that good at that age she would consider herself lucky, especially one that seemed to be the life of the party. He had been her primary source of entertainment earlier as she had admired how much of a wild gentleman he was. Woman had been hanging all over him, and he had loved every second of it, but she could tell in his eyes when he’d look at the only woman that he’d kissed how much he’d loved her, and she him.
            “I just came out here to get some fresh air,” she said.
            “No, you didn’t,” he said and then laughed, “but I can’t blame you for trying to say so.”
            She laughed, “Actually I did come out here to get some fresh air earlier,” she replied, “I had come to the conclusion that I should get drunk, and I was pretty much there, until I realized that I shouldn’t go home that way.”
            “Don’t worry, I wouldn’t let that perverted ass take you home if you were drunk, so don’t let that stop you.”
            “What makes you think that it has anything to do with a man?”
            “You came with Cary didn’t you?”
            “How’d you know?” she asked and her tone dripped of sarcasm.
            He chuckled softly, “I was standing right inside the door when he abandon you within ten minutes of arriving,” he said taking a drink out of his cup.
            “Ahh, I see,” she said with a smile.
            “I almost turned around and told him to take his date and get the hell out, but then I saw you.”
            She was quite as she thought about what he’d said, “Why did seeing me stop you?”
            “I’m still trying to figure that one out,” he said look at Alana, “I’m the one everyone calls Uncle Luke, by the way.”
            “Nice to meet you, Luke, I’m the one that they all refer to as ‘Cary’s date,” she said sarcastically motioning to the house behind them, “but my real friends call me Alana,” she added like it was some big secret.
            “Alana,” he said to himself, “I like that name, I like the way it just rolls off your tongue.”
            “I’ve always thought so, too,” she said thinking to herself that this was the best time, not to mention the best conversation, she’d had all night.
            “You have every right to feel that way.”
            She smiled and nodded, “You’re the only person in this house that’s on my good side tonight so I’d suggest that you call me Alana if you want to stay that way.”
            “Should I be afraid if I slip?”
            She could tell that he was joking so she went on, “Only when you pass out, that is unless you like wearing makeup and having your nails painted.”
            “Oh, you’re not nice,” he said with a chuckle, “I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t drink anymore.”
            “Fine then I’ll lock you in a room with Cary,” she threatened.
            “Make it a dark ally somewhere and I’ll be more than happy to pass several hours with him,” he joked, “He’s one of few people I would love to beat the living daylights out of.”
            She just laughed, “Is that why you wanted to kick him out when he arrived?”
            “He just has a knack of stirring up trouble,” he said.
            “What’s wrong with trouble?” she asked trying to change the subject.
            “Nothing, but with him it usually involves lots of innuendos and very little listening to the protests of the woman. To me, it’s too close to a rapist personality to be tolerated,” he concluded.
            She paused to think for a moment, “Has he ever raped anyone?”
            “I’ve heard that a couple have said that he has but he always seems to weasel his way out of it with his money and fancy lawyers, not to mention his grandfather, and fathers influence.”
            “I think I can understand what you’re saying. My best friend and roommate had just left her Karate class one night last year when this guy came up behind her so she defended herself and he ended up in the hospital with a shredded knee. He pressed charges of assault so she pressed charges for attempted rape.”
            “What happened?”
            “She found out that she wasn’t the first and now he’s on parole and on the national sex offenders list.”
            “Did you ever meet the guy?”
            “No, I just saw him as we sat in the court room a few months later.”
            “Do you like Cary?”
            “He was okay at first, but now that I’ve seen how two faced he is, not really,” she admitted without thinking.
            “So why did you come here with him if you don’t like him?”
            “I didn’t see how two faced he was until we were already here,” she hated admitting.
            “Does Cary know this?”
            “Does Cary know anything?” she joked.
            Uncle Luke chuckled good naturedly, “You better be careful, because Cary won’t care, even if you dive bomb the date.”
            “Yeah he doesn’t seem to have much common sense unless he has reason to fear you.”
            “Actually he’s a very smart man, but he puts on this act to let everyone think he’s a putts so they let their defenses down around him.”
            “And so now I’m back to square one, because no one inside that house will come to my rescue should I need them to.”
            “I will.”
            She smiled, “Thanks,” she replied quietly.
            “I think that it’s safe to go back inside and rejoin the festivities,” he said looking back over his shoulder and checking to see that the kitchen was now fairly empty, “Shall we?”
            “I think I’ll stay out here for a little while.”
            “They’re not all bad,” he said turning to look at the house.
            “I know,” she said keeping her back to the house, “they’re just close minded and judgmental about any woman that would be seen in public with Cary.”
            Luke chuckled, “Yeah, you’re right, but if you’d seen some of the girls he’d shown up with before you, I think you’d be the same way. They were bound to be wrong sooner or later though, and it’s only a matter of time before they see it, too.”
            “Thank you,” she said feeling welcome for the first time all evening.
            “Give them time. They’ll see that you’re not like the rest. You know what would help?”
            “What’s that?”
            “Coming inside with me and letting them get to know you like you let me get to know you. And staying away from Cary would help too. He doesn’t hear too well and unless someone else steps between you two, he won’t hear a word you say and, for the most part everyone else will just think that you’re playing hard to get.”
            “Let me guess, that’s what others have done before me?” she asked rolling her eyes.
            “Yep,” he said and she thought to her self that it was no wonder Cary had thought that she was playing with him earlier, “but something tells me that you have staying power,” Luke concluded.
            “But staying where, is the question.”
            “I think you’ll figure that one out.”
            “Why do I get the feeling that you already know where I’ll end up?” she asked just as the doors slid open behind her and several people came out.
            “We’re kindred spirits?” he asked trying to sound confounded but sounding sarcastic instead.
            She laughed, “Should I be afraid?”
            “Naw, you’re no where near as shallow as any of the girls that he’s shown up with before.”
            “Oh, be nice. I’m sure they have their good qualities somewhere too,” she said seriously, and then added with a smile, “the only question is where?” she asked again.
            He was quiet for a moment as he thought and then answered, “Must have locked them away in the closet along with their manners, because their skeletons are their best friends.”
            “Oh you are trouble,” she said laughing.
            “That’s why people love me,” he said with a satisfied sigh.
            “And here I thought it was just your good looks,” she said.
            “I saw you checking me out from across the room. Too bad I’m happily married, but I can introduce you to some good men.”
            “Better than Cary?”
            “Cary is not a man,” he said seriously.
            She laughed, “True. He’s a rat. So who are these men?”
            “Well there’s my nephew Dom,” Uncle Luke said, and she was glad it was dark or she was sure he would have seen the telling look on her face as she remembered what Dom had said to Blaise about her before they’d gone inside, “and his best friend Blaise. I could introduce you to Jarren but I’m still holding out that he and Natty will get past the shadows of the past, and then there’s Brock but I don’t think you two would hit it off all that great. Besides, I think he’s hung up on the one that got away.”
            “Anyone else?”
            “Maybe a few others.”
            “Yeah, well I’m not impressed. I heard three out of the four talking about me earlier out here and they were the ones that really made me see how much of a fool I am for even staying after the way that Cary treated me when I walked in the door.”
            “So why are you still here after the way he treated you?”
            “I told you, I wanted to get drunk, and maybe have a little fun. I don’t need Cary to do either of those things.” Luke was silent for a moment as he thought.
            “I’m going to have to have a talk with those boys. They should know better than to talk about people behind their backs. They were raised better, to say the least.”
            “Oh, let them be. They didn’t say much other than they’d like to screw me.”
            “That sounds like Dom talking.”
            “Well from what Dom said, Blaise is the one who was really thinking about it.”
            “Good, it’s about time that boy started thinking about having some fun.”
            “Too bad he doesn’t have a chance.”
            “Now who’s the pot calling the kettle black?” he asked as she heard the door behind them open and close again as someone came out onto the deck with them. “Ah, my lovely wife,” he said as the woman Alana had seen him kiss earlier came up and wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Alana smiled and turned to head inside knowing that she would get no more conversation out of ‘Uncle Luke’ as he now had his hands full with the woman he clearly loved.

Time to move Forward

            She watched her Uncle Luke walk up, “You know that boy loves you don’t you?” he asked her.
            “Does he?” she asked even though she knew that he did.
            “You know he does girl, don’t even try and play games with me,” he chided.
            “Luke, stay out of it, please,” she said and went to walk away but he caught her arm.
            “Listen girl, I love Jarren like he’s my own, and he doesn’t deserve this. Never once has he laid a hand on you, everyone knows that, even though he practically lives here and still pays for his own apartment. Don’t play him like a fool, woman. He knows what happened to you and he treats you with kid gloves without you even asking because he knows that’s what you need, but mostly because he loves you. You love him too, I know it. Either take it to the next level already or let him go. He deserves that much,” Luke concluded in earnest.
           She looked him in the eye and tried to smile as a tear slipped down her cheek. He wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know, and she’d been telling herself the same thing for a while now, but there was something that kept holding her back, “But what is the next level?” she returned.
            “Maybe you should ask him,” Luke replied before he turned and walked outside to see if he could help the guys any and leaving her, stunned, in his wake.

Party Time!!!

            Brock and Natty had no more than walked inside the kitchen then he’d spotted Jarren, so Brock had waved at him over every ones heads only for Natty and Jarren to wander off together after only a few words of hello to Brock. Brock didn’t blame him, it showed in his eyes how concerned he was for Natty knowing Cary was in the house, and no one wanted to upset Cary or he’d take it out on Dom come Monday morning and Dom had been thru enough. If truth be told, Brock was envious of what Jarren and Natty shared and the respect that Dom had from both of them even though he had some part in what Natty was going thru now. Something that Natty forgave Dom for without thinking about it, or questioning whether she should trust, not only him, but one of his best friends. The closeness that Natty shared with not only Dom, her brother but with Jarren on a slightly more intimate level, it blew his mind sometimes. Then there was the fact that Jarren was lucky enough to have a warm body to hold most every night, even after a fight, and someone that you didn’t have to wine and dine just to get them into bed where some nights they wanted to just to curl up and go to sleep while other nights they wanted passion, tenderness and ecstasy.
            Not that Brock minded giving his woman his all, hell he loved getting laid just as much as every other man, not that he had in the last year, but he’d tried but couldn’t ever bring himself to play the field. He just wasn’t into casual sex any more, he wanted more. Hell, at the end of most days all he wanted was to curl up and pass out. What he envied Natty and Jarren most was for were the mornings that Natty and Jarren shared. They would wake up next to each other, knowing that they’d still be there and if they weren’t that they’d be back and why they had to leave without waking the other up, or the conversations on those lazy mornings where you talk about your dreams before you wander down to raid the kitchen before you return to bed for another hour or two. Yeah, Brock missed being half of a couple.
            He walked out into the living room and was immediately surrounded by four women he’d known for years that wanted him to dance but it was the unknown woman that was across the room looking him up and down that had caught his eye. She was tall, blond, and he couldn’t be sure but her eyes looked green. He started moving to the music with the four women that had surrounded him and before the song was over he was across the room and had the blond in his arms bumping, grinding and having a good time, but something wasn’t right.
            When that song was over a slower song came on and she looked him in the eye, and his stomach tied in knots. Yeah, her eyes were green alright, a dark shade of green, but they weren’t right, because he could see the contacts that were in her eye that changed her eye color from brown to green. His heart sank and it took him a second to realize why. She wasn’t Unity.
            When the song was over he lied to the woman and told her that he’d be back after he used the bathroom. He really didn’t feel like dancing anymore so he headed to his favorite hiding spot at Natty’s, the pool table in her garage.
            As he walked he stopped by the kitchen to refresh his drink, and make it a little stronger. Maybe tonight he’d be able to get drunk enough to forget about Her. It had been almost a year and she was still in his blood, but he had no clue how to find her short of showing up at her house, and he had a feeling that if he did that, she’d just slam the door in his face. Not that he’d blame her for it, though. After what he’d done, he deserved nothing less.
            When he left the kitchen he ran into Luke’s wife, Kathy, “Hey, sweetie,” she said.
            “Hey,” he said grimly.
            “Well, don’t you look like you just lost your best friend,” she said stopping him in his tracks.
            “It didn’t just happen,” he told her honestly.
            “Still missing her aren’t you?” she asked referring to Unity. She’d been the one that he’d talked to after losing Unity last year, so she knew more than most.
            He nodded.
            “Have you thought about stopping by?” she asked.
            He nodded.
            “Still think she’ll slam the door in your face?” she asked.
            Again he just nodded.
            She looked him in the eye, “You underestimate yourself,” she told him honestly. “She’s probably just as lovesick as you are,” she said and then put her finger to his lips when he tried to say that he wasn’t love sick, “Yes you are and the sooner you admit it and swallow your pride the sooner you’ll be standing in front of her and thinking, ‘Damn it Kathy was right I should have done this months ago,’” she replied with a knowing smile. “Now go play some pool and have a few drinks. I’ll go find the guys and send them out to keep you company,” she said before she left without giving him time to protest. He shook his head and moved on not really caring if she did find them or not. Right now he really just needed to hit the balls around. Anything that would get his mind off of Unity and her eyes.
            When he reached the pool table, he didn’t even look around, he just challenged the winner of the game and then sat down to wait for the game to end as Dom, Blaise, Natty and Jarren showed up. Maybe tonight wouldn’t be as bad as he thought it was going to be, he thought as he racked up the balls for a game where he knew he’d stomp the other guy so he and Dom could play. At least Dom would make him smile and maybe even laugh tonight.

Meeting the Gang

            An hour later Alana had become an expert at avoiding Cary, she still hadn’t had one decent conversation other than with Luke, and now the temperature had dropped and it had started to sleet. All Alana could think about was how she had to get out of here, after the evening she'd had she knew that all she needed was to just curl up on the couch with a pint of Ben & Jerry's and watch some movie laughing at the bad acting and not think about this last week or tonight, instead of laugh off the insanity of it all, like she would be able to do if she didn’t have so many things on her mind.
            Alana decided that it was time to go and was starting to look for her ‘date,’ fully ready to claim a migraine and offer to catch a cab so he didn't have to leave his ‘friends’ when he was obviously having such a good time humiliating himself. She’d been searching for him for about ten minutes when she started to wonder, why it was that when she didn’t want to find him he was everywhere but when she wanted to find him he was no where to be found? She was just about to give up and head for the door when she found herself out in the garage. It too was full of people, mostly girls, sitting about on any number of couches talking, a few were even dancing to the music that could be heard from the main part of the house. With all the bodies moving about and all the hot air from their discussion it was rather warm even with the cold temperatures outside. On thing was for sure, it was definitely a garage complete with oil stains from cars to garage doors and tools that lined three of the four walls. The only things that seemed out of place were the several couches that outlined where the two cars would go if their had been room for cars with all the furniture.
            When she had realized where she was she had turned to head back to the front door when a fight broke out in the hall right outside the garage door leading into the house. She watched as some people went to watch from the doorway, leaving a few empty seats behind so she headed to one of the empty couches against the far wall to wait out the storm. As she walked she saw a keg sitting next to a utility sink and some shelves that made a partial wall between the rest of the garage and an area that had been somewhat decorated around a pool table. It was from this area that five or six guys had gone rushing to the door to try and bring them out into the garage, she guessed it was so that the ones that were fighting wouldn’t get hurt, but all they did was make things worse as far as she could tell.
            Two of the guys had been playing pool with two women before the fight had started, but now the two women were just standing by the end of the shelves talking, and watching what they could see of the fight. Alana laughed when she realized that they were placing bet’s on who would get injured, and who would do the injuring, but she couldn’t hear much of their conversation she just heard them disagreeing before she heard one of them say, “Ten bucks says your wrong, Brock will do all the damage.”
            After several minutes the guys were able to move the fight out into the garage and Alana smiled when Luke came into the garage behind them and headed straight for her when he’d seen her sitting alone, but as he passed the two girls that had been placing bets he stopped to give brief hugs.
            “I was hoping you were out here,” he said as he walked up with the girls following, “Cary’s been looking for you, but if you stay out here, you should be okay. With Dom, Brock, Jarren, Blaise and now me out here he won’t step foot out here unless he’s drunk or feeling particularly brave,” then after a brief pause he added, “and stupid,” and she couldn’t help smile at the thought that Luke really seemed to care and want her to feel welcome. He had been the first one all night and by the looks on the faces of the two girls, she was about to have more fighting in her corner.
            “I take it Blaise, Dom, Jarren and Brock are all fighting?” she asked looking back at the fight seeing that there were only really four guys fighting, while five others watched from the sidelines making sure they didn’t damage anything.
            “Actually,” he said with a smile, “they’re the ones that are acting as referees, with their buddy Reed.”
            “Do they always play referee in fights?” she asked remembering how most guys that she’d ever seen around a fight, usually join in if a punch gets thrown in their direction, no matter how accidental the punch was, but there were a few times when she’d seen a punch came close to one of the guys but they just backed the crowd up more to keep them out of harms way.
            “Only when the party is here. Natty would skin them alive if they allowed any of her stuff to get damaged. As it is she’s going to have a fit because of the four holes in her walls right outside here where the fight broke out.”
            “Does anyone know why the fight started?” she asked looking back to see that one of the guys was pinned to the floor and all bloody. She shivered at the sight. Blood always did make her leery.
            “With this bunch, who knows,” Luke said.
            “It probably has something to do with Charlie’s girlfriend,” came a female voice from the other side of Luke.
            “Amanda?” Luke asked, “That’s her little brother over there pinned to the floor isn’t it?”
            “Yeah,” said the same woman, “from what I hear Amanda has started sleeping with Grant while Charlie’s been at work.”
            “That would cause a fight like this,” Luke said with a nod as he too watched the fight.
            “That and Cary trying to touch me,” said the woman under her breath but not low enough that Alana and Luke didn’t hear her, and this made Alana wonder who this woman was, but she pretended not to hear what she said.
            “You have nothing to fear as long as one of us is near, Natty, you know that,” Luke said answering her unspoken question.
            “I hate that I have to hide in my own house,” she said sounding almost discussed, and both Luke and Alana looked at her as she appeared to be watching the fight.
            “You could always take your brother up on his offer to teach you karate,” Luke said soothingly, “Or, if you don’t want to learn from him, I’m sure Brock would be willing.”
            “I’ve been thinking about it, but I really don’t have much time with all that I’m doing now.”
            “When you want to bad enough you’ll make the time,” Luke said as he returned to watching the fight.
            Alana looked over and saw that two of the guys were done fighting and one was limping into the house with a couple of others, she assumed it was to go and get doctored, while the others stood and watched the other two fight including the one that had moments before been pinned his opponent to the floor. She saw that he tried to jump in but one of the guys stopped him.
            “This should be good,” Luke said, “Brock won’t stand for that two against one bullshit,” and Alana smiled when, one of the men, she assumed it was Brock punched the guy once in the gut and sent him to his knees gasping for breath.
            “Be careful Brock,” Luke said getting to his feet confirming that it was Brock who’d stepped in, but Luke’s warning wasn’t really needed as one of the other guys immediately had his back.
            The man she assumed was Brock glanced over his shoulder with a smile and a nod at Luke, reassuring him that he’d be careful.
            Alana had hardly noticed the rest of the fight as she was thinking about what Natty had said. She felt bad and partly responsible for Natty being afraid in her own home. She’d just started thinking that had it not been for her that he probably wouldn’t have come tonight, and then she came to her senses. Cary would just have found some other woman to bring had she not agreed, probably one that would have been his arm candy, and who wouldn’t have minded him pawing her like she was a porn star or something.
            She shook her head in disgust as the fight broke up and the ones that had been fighting started to stumble back into the main part of the house. It was as she was watching the last one leave that she saw Cary lurking in the shadow of the doorway. When he saw that she was looking at him he stepped into the light and motioned for her to go over to him quickly before he stepped back into the shadows looking around nervously as if he didn’t want to be seen. She pretended like she hadn’t seen him got up to went over and talk with Natty. Only as soon as Alana got around Luke, Natty had gone over to one of the guys, Alana could only assume that it was Jarren, that had been refereeing and gave him a hug like she’d been worried that he would get hurt.
            She watched as the man smiled and held her close, whispering into her ear and then kissing her cheek so she would look up at him. She couldn’t hear the words that they were saying but she could tell that they both cared for each other and that they were a couple, so she was more than a little surprised that he didn’t kiss her, even though she could see that he clearly wanted to as his eyes were focused on her lips the entire time that they talked.
            “That boy is so good for Natty,” Luke told her.
            “Is that Jarren?” she asked thinking back to the conversation from earlier.
            “Yep,” he said, “don’t be fooled by what you don’t see, he stays with her every night and when what Cary did to her really gets to her, he is the only one who knows how to calm her down anymore.”
            She frowned, “What did Cary do to her?” she asked in almost a whisper.
            Luke looked at her with a serious look on his face, “She was one of the ones to report it and all he got was a slap on the wrist because he was the star football player and had family in high places.”
            It took a moment for her to remember what he’d said out on the deck about how a few women had said that he’d raped them, and when she did, she looked back over to the door where she’d seen Cary standing a few minutes before. He was still there and again he stepped out of the shadows and motioned for her to go to him.
            She turned back to Luke, “Do you know why Cary was looking for me?” she asked.
            “Probably wants to try and take you home,” he said and her stomach tied into a rather large knot.
            “Do you know he’s hiding over by the door?” she asked.
            Luke smiled grimly, “So you’ve seen him too?”
            “He keeps waving me over like I’m a dog or something,” she said half joking and half angry.
            Luke smiled, “I like you more and more with each thing that comes out of your mouth,” he said as two guys walked up and blocked her view of the door.
            “Alana, let me introduce, Blaise and Dom,” he said motioning to the two men and then went on, “Boy’s I’d like you to meet Alana,” and then he took a step back and crossed his arms across his chest like he was waiting for the show to begin.
            “Nice to meet you,” Blaise said holding out his hand, which she took more out of habit than a desire to be polite as she nodded in agreement but refused to say anything just yet.
            Dom, who looked slightly familiar to Alana, also held out his hand to be shook, which again she took more out of habit, as he brought it up to his lips and said, “It a pleasure to meet you,” to which she only nodded again.
            There was a moment of awkward silence before she looked back over her shoulder to Luke who nodded and said, “Don’t be shy, show them who you are.”
            She smiled and looked back at the boys, “So do you guys want to flip for me, or do I get any say so in any of this?” she asked bluntly. They both looked at her confused and she smiled sweetly before she let them in on her secret, “I was out on the deck earlier when you were discussing who wanted me more.”
            She watched amused as Blaise blushed and stammered a little bit, while Dom’s mouth dropped to the floor and Luke roared with laughter, “That’s my girl,” he said before giving her a platonic kiss on the cheek and telling the boys, “That should teach you not to talk about people behind their backs,” and then walked away.
            Blaise didn’t seem to know what to think about what had just happened but Dom was smiling now as he said motioning to the pool table, “How about a game of Cut Throat to decide,” and she could tell that he was at least half joking.
            She watched Blaise look at him like he was insane and then she couldn’t help but laugh, “Let me guess, whoever wins gets to decide who gets to go to bed with who?” she asked as Blaise looked at her and realized that she wasn’t really all that upset by what had been said and started to smile.
            “You really think that when I win I’m going to let Dom have you?” Blaise said getting in on the joke now, “You must be dreaming.”
            “Would that be a good dream or a bad dream?” Dom asked coyly.
            “You tell me,” Alana said as Dom moved next to her and started pulling her toward the table.
            She pretended to think about it, “That all depends,” she said, “on who likes to wear panties before they take mine off me,” she said still joking but sounding serious at the same time.
            The look on Blaise’s face was one of deep thought as he tried to figure out if she really was serious and almost made her laugh, but the look on Dom’s face of complete horror, did make her laugh and give herself away.
            “As long as I don’t have to wear the French Maid costume,” Dom joked realizing she’d been joking as he moved to rack the balls.
            Alana looked him up and down, “But your legs would look great shaved baby soft and in fish net stockings and a garter belt,” she said and Blaise just started laughing so hard that he had to wipe his tears away and sit down on a nearby couch. The sight and sound of someone laughing that hard always made Alana laugh, until she realized what had made him laugh as she got a visual of Dom in fish net stockings like she’d said. Then she’d had to join Blaise on the couch or she was going to hurt herself falling to the floor because she was laughing so hard.
            When they’d finally gotten themselves under control Dom was in the middle of a pool game with Jarren, Natty and Brock, so Blaise and Alana were left to watch, as they talked amongst themselves and laughed at the look that had been on Dom’s face and the mental picture they had all shared of Dom. The other couple and Luke had disappeared.
            “So do you guys hang out here often, or is this only set up like this when there’s a party going on?” she asked once they’d been able to get themselves under control.
            “Usually,” Blaise said, “most of the couches are piled up over here,” he said motioning to the side of the garage with the pool table in it, “with just enough room for us to still play pool and for Natty’s car to fit in the other half, but when there’s a party then we make it comfortable just for the extra space.”
            “I see,” she said looking around at the six couches, two love seats and two recliners that littered the garage now. Some of them were matching to others while others stood alone but most were empty of people now that the fight was over. “Where did they all come from?” she asked.
            “Most of them were given to me by the guys and their families,” Natty spoke up having just taken her turn, “but if you know anyone that needs a couch, by all means, send them on over. To be honest, I think I’ve got about two or three too many,” she said.
            “Well, if you’re serious, we need one for our living room. All we have are three loveseats and my roommate, Hanna, and I both think they’re uncomfortable to relax on, or stretch out on to watch TV,” she explained.
            “You can have any of them except for the blue and green striped set. I’m holding those for Blaise until his house gets done,” Natty said as Alana looked around.
            “When is that going to be done anyway?” Dom asked.
            “Hopefully by the end of the month, but the weather’s been really hard on getting things done outside of the house.”
            “It’s suppose to warm up this week,” Alana said still looking around.
            “And then they’re calling for more rain for next weekend,” he said.
            “Only a twenty percent chance though,” Alana said getting to her feet.
            “Yeah, but I think Reed and Melinda are moving next weekend, so it’s really going to come down,” Blaise said shaking his head, “It’s Murphy’s Law.”
            “Ah, I see your point,” Alana said as she walked over to one of the couches and sat down in it. It was one that had a dark gray with soft fabric that made it cozy and comfortable and had a matching loveseat and recliner. She loved it immediately.
            “You want that one?” Natty asked.
            “Yes,” she said feeling the fabric on the seat next to her.
            “Do you have a truck to move it in?” Blaise asked walking over to sit down with her.
            Alana’s smile fell as she remembered why they hadn’t gotten a couch before now, “No, we don’t.”
            “Well,” Blaise said, “you take me out to dinner next Friday night and I’ll bring it over later this week.”
            The grin that spread across her face was one that she was sure wouldn’t leave for days to come, but she couldn’t help herself. She’d never been out on a date with one guy and had another ask her out. If she could really call this a date with Cary, the slime ball. “You drive a tough bargain,” she said, “but I like the terms.”
            Blaise smiled and sat down next to her, “So what’s a good night for you?”
            “You’re not moving it all by yourself are you?” she asked.
            He smiled, “I’m flattered that you think that I could, but I couldn’t even if I wanted to hurt myself,” he said and then added, “Both ends are recliners. There are buttons on the side,” he said leaning across her and leading her searching hand to where the button was and she caught a whiff of him cologne that had her drooling.
            Her feet popped out on the foot rest and she reclined, “I must say these are well broke in,” she commented.
            “It was Dom that got rid of it because he wanted a second recliner to match for in his huge living room, but he couldn’t find one he liked so he just bought a whole new set,” Blaise said with a smile.
            “Must be nice,” she said enjoying the comfortable couch.
            “Tell me about it,” Blaise said.
            “This from a man that’s building his own house,” she said with an ornery tone.
            “Well if you don’t want my help,” he said getting to his feet.
            “How about Tuesday?” she asked thinking that she’d better give in before he got serious about not helping her. Then thinking that she’d better get it over but yet give her time to make sure Hanna was okay with what she was planning to do and where she was planning on putting them. Monday, after Hanna had rested, they could clean and make room for it.
            He made a face before he asked, “Is there any way that we can do it another night? The guys and I kind of have a standing thing on Tuesday nights. I was thinking a knock out like you would have plans or something the first part of the week.”
            She gave him a funny look and smiled, “Okay, how about Wednesday?” she asked.
            “Jarren, are you free Wednesday?” Blaise yelled across the garage.
            “Yeah,” he said, “I’ll help you move them.”
            “What about you Brock?”
            “Yeah, I’m free too,” Brock replied as he took his shot at the game he was playing.
            “Dom?” Blaise asked.
            He sighed and just looked at Blaise as he thought for a minute, “Yeah, I’m free, but are you sure you want those?” Dom asked Alana.
            “Oh, stop you whining, and leave the woman alone,” Blaise said before he turned back to her, “Sounds good to me,” he said with a smile.
            “You have a good group of friends there,” she said with a smile.
            “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he said with a knowing smile as she sat up putting the footrest back down and then they headed back over to the pool table and everyone else.
            “You don’t need to get rid of one,” Dom almost whined to Natty about all the couches, “I mean look they’re almost all full now.”
            Alana looked around as Natty did and saw that they had filled up while in the length of time that Alana and Blaise had been making arrangements for later in the week so he was telling the truth, as Natty responded, “Yeah, but I bet that the ones that are actually in the house are completely empty.”
            Alana hadn’t seen the couple walk up behind her, so she’d jumped when the woman said, “She’s right, I just came from in there and the place is practically empty. That fight really put a damper on the party goers moods and most of them left.”
            “Naw, it’s only one o’clock. The party usually thins out about this time. Give it fifteen minutes and things will be swinging again,” Dom said confidently.
            “Yeah,” Brock said after taking his shot and sinking the four ball, “he’s right. It’ll pick up in twenty minutes tops and then go until three or four in the morning.”
            “So when are you moving again?” Dom asked looking over Alana’s shoulder to the couple that had just joined them.
            “Next weekend,” replied the man telling her that this was Reed and probably Melinda that Blaise had spoke of earlier.
            “I should have my truck back by then,” Dom said with a smile.
            “What are you having done this time?” Reed asked.
            “I’m having that hail damage popped out, a spot light installed and a front tow cable,” he replied as the talk turned to cars. Natty was tucked safely under Jarren’s arm with the other woman that had shown up with Reed standing next to her in Reeds arms talking about the up and coming move. Alana tuned them all out until Blaise brought her out of her thoughts a few minutes later.
            “Hey, Alana, where do you live?”
            “What? Why?” she asked mildly confused, and then she remembered before he answered, “Oh, you mean for the couch.”
            He nodded in agreement.
            “I’m about twenty minutes south of here on 55 highway.”
            “Where at?” Dom asked as if he knew the area well.
            “151st and Cross,” she replied joining the group of people that stood in a circle by the pool table.
            “The Loan Elm apartments or the Baker Street apartments?” Dom asked with a knowing smile from across the circle between Reed and Brock.
            “Loan Elm,” she replied.
            “Kari used to live there,” he said and although she’d only met Dom she saw that he grinned with one of those grins that made her wonder what Kari had done to be remembered so well by Dom while the rest of the group groaned.
            “Who was Kari?” Alana asked looking at around the circle at every one starting with Blaise on her right next to Brock, “Or do I want to know?”
            Natty was the one to answer before Dom could tell her to shut up, “One of the girls he had a threesome with.”
            “You know you’re just all jealous,” Dom said confidently.
            Blaise cleared his throat as Brock and Reed started to object, but Blaise ignored them as he turned back to Alana, “Well I don’t know that area very well,” he said changing the subject, “I was thinking that maybe I could drive you home tonight so I could see where you live.”
            “Oh I could give you directions,” she said with a wave of her hand.
            Dom spoke up then, “Yeah well, Blaise is one of those visual people. He needs to be able to see it. I can give him perfect directions complete with a map, but if he hasn’t at least been in the vehicle on that route once he’ll get so lost it ain’t funny,” Dom said with a good hearted chuckle, “He doesn’t even have to be sober or paying attention to remember the route.”
            She smiled, “Well, I’m sure that Cary wouldn’t mind too much,” she said almost relieved that she didn’t have to go home with Cary.
            The conversation went on and she was laughing with them and they were explaining the inside jokes so she didn’t feel like an outsider, and just having a great time, until she got distracted. Blaise squeezed her arm before he head over to the keg that sat on the other side of the shelf-wall, as she’d come to think of it. Deciding that a beer sounded good now that she wasn’t going to be going home with Cary, she followed Blaise over to the keg, but he’d refilled his cup, winked at her, and was headed back to the pool table before she’d been able to get the last cup out of the bag.
            The conversation continued back at the pool table and she heard them talking shop about this car and that car and some fun times that they’d had. She was listening to a particularly funny story about Dom getting his four wheel drive stuck in a mud pit when she felt a hand on her back. At first she’s thought it was Blaise waiting for her and she smiled and then she heard someone else’s voice in her ear as a strong hand clamped down on her upper arm, “Why didn’t you come when I called you?” demanded the voice that Alana recognized as Cary.
            “Why didn’t you come in and get me?” she asked politely.
            “Because I’m ready to go,” he said trying to pull her toward the door but because of the crowd between them and the door she was able to pull out of his grasp and turn to confront him.
            She gave him a funny look, “What does that have to do with treating me like a dog?” she asked defensively. She was extremely leery of Cary after what Luke had pretty much told her that he’d done to Natty, but at the same time she wondered if there was more to that story that Luke didn’t know, or wasn’t willing to admit. So far Cary hadn’t done anything to make her think that he was a rapist, and in her book that meant that he was innocent until proven guilty. It probably had something to do with her father who’d always told her that there were people out there that refused to see the truth because the bad stuff was always easier to believe. As a result as she’d grown up, she’d tried not to believe the bad stuff unless she’d had a good reason and tonight she didn’t have a good reason.
            Cary sighed in frustration as he looked almost nervously in the direction Blaise and everyone was standing, “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to get pulled into yet another conversation,” he said.
            “Well, I actually just inherited a couch and Blaise is going to bring it over for me, so I don’t need a ride home. I’ll just ride with him,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders as she failed to mention that Blaise would be bringing it over later in the week.
            She saw anger in his eyes before he took a deep breath and said calmly, “When were you planning on telling me this?”
            “We really only discussed it a few minutes ago. I didn’t think you would be that upset by it. I mean, you’ve hardly spent any time with me all night long,” she said mustering every once of sugar that she could.
            “I was hoping for you to come and find me,” he said like she’d hurt him.
            “Well, I’m sorry if I upset you, but I’m a bit old fashioned.”
            “What’s that suppose to mean?” he asked.
            “I like men to court me, not the other way around,” she said pointedly.
            “Ah, I see, so I should have followed you around like a lost puppy dog?” he asked disgusted.
            “I never said anything about a puppy dog,” she said defensively, “I said court, as in spending time sweet talking me and introducing me to people when I’m brought to a house full of strangers. Not left to fend for myself,” she said getting angry.
            “Is that what’s got you so upset?” he asked with a satisfied smile, “and here I thought you were the independent type,” he said arrogantly.
            She scoffed at him, “Just because I’m a strong independent woman, doesn’t mean that I don’t want a gentleman with manners. It doesn’t mean that I want to be left to fend for my self all of the time!” she nearly yelled.
            “Okay, okay, I made a mistake, I’m sorry,” he said putting his hands on her shoulders, “How about I make it up to you tomorrow for lunch? I’ll take you to a nice restaurant and open doors for you, order for you, the whole nine yards.”
            “You went too far when you said you’d order for me. I can make up my mind for myself, thank you though for the thought,” she said calmly, “and lunch tomorrow does sound good, but Hanna will be getting back in town tomorrow and she and I usually rent a movie or two and spend the afternoon and evening lounging around after one or both of us has been away on a long trip. It’s kind of a tradition for us to make it a girls night,” she explained.
            “Oh,” he said sounding disappointed, “well how about Sunday afternoon,” he said, “I should be able to free up an hour or two if you don’t mind meeting me at the restaurant,” he said casually.
            “Sunday,” she said think of the plans she had for Sunday, “my mom will be in town Sunday and she and I are suppose to go shopping,” she said, “and usually that’s an all day affair.”
            “There’s no way for you to get away for a few hours?” he asked sounding slightly frustrated.
            She smiled, “Honestly, I could tell you that I could try, but Mom and I have tried before. There have been doctors appointments, and family gatherings, and parties, and so many other things, but we’ve kind of learned that when we’re shopping there’s nothing but our own exhaustion and hunger that will pull us away from it. We’re horrible shop-aholics when were shopping together,” she said laughing at her own joke.
            Cary frowned, “What if I called you?” he asked.
            “Trust me, we’ve tried that too,” she said trying not to grin at the memory of her fathers frustration that turned to laughing when he saw how full the van was when they’d gotten home that day.
            Cary chuckled, “Wow, that must be some habit.”
            “You have no idea,” she said honestly and then added, “the good news is that neither of us are that bad when we go shopping without the other.”
            “Are you like this at the grocery store?” he asked joking with her.
            “Afraid so,” she said, “One year the night before Thanksgiving, Mom and I ran to the store for more butter and flour, and walked back into the house hours later with at least a dozen bags of food.”
            “Wow,” Cary said raising his eyebrows.
            “Yeah, especially considering the only reason that we left was that the store was closing,” she said and then decided to fess up to the rest of it, “What’s really bad is that we forgot the butter,” she said and Cary smiled, “and the flour,” she said and he laughed which only made her laugh too.
            “You’re father must be a very special man to put up with all that,” he said.
            “No, he’s just very creative to keep us apart when he knows one of us is going shopping,” she said honestly. Cary just stared at her for a moment as if trying to think about the possibilities, so she told him, “I think I’ll save some of those stories for,” she paused thinking about when she’d have time for another date with Cary, “either Thursday night or Saturday night,” she finally said.
            “What happened to Friday?” he asked and if she’d known him better then she would have known he wasn’t happy that he was getting pushed to next weekend.
            “I already have plans for Friday night,” she said simply not wanting to tell him that she had another date with another man. She didn’t like dating two men at once, but she felt bad not giving Cary a second chance, and she really wanted to get to know Blaise, he seemed like a nice guy. She promised herself that she wouldn’t let it go on more than a week or two at most, and that was if she didn’t pull her hair out before then.
            “What kind of plans?” he asked.
            “Oh, it’s a boring work related dinner,” she said waving him off.
            “Do you need an escort?” he asked adjusting his collar.
            She smiled, “I usually go to the work dinners with one of my co-workers. I like to keep business and pleasure completely separate,” she said honestly then she joked, “I don’t like it when I take my date somewhere and they fall asleep.”
            “Oh, I don’t know,” he said putting one of his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him, “sometimes it’s nice when they fall asleep, when it’s at the end of the night,” he said almost sweetly, but there was something in the tone of his voice that made the hair on the back of her neck stand up, so she put her hands on his chest and held him away.
            “Now, behave,” she said gently, “I’m not so sure you’ve done anything to warrant a goodnight kiss,” she said trying to sound teasing, but being completely honest at the same time.
            The look that crossed his face was of complete anger, “What do you mean?” he asked thru his teeth.
            “Don’t get so upset, I told you that I’m old fashioned,” she said calmly.
            Quickly he got himself under control and smiled, “So does that mean that I’ll be lucky to get a kiss at the end of the night Thursday night?” he asked gently.
            She nodded as she said, “Sorry to be the one to burst your bubble,” she said matter of factly.
            “That’s okay,” he said and then added, “There’s always time to talk you into changing your mind.”
            “Many have tried, and failed,” she said trying to discourage him again, but she realized only too late that he liked the idea of a challenge and that she had only encouraged him to try that much harder.
            She saw a sparkle in his eye as he said, “They weren’t me,” before he tried to pull her closer which made her all that much more leery of what she was doing at all with Cary. There was something about him that made her wonder if he was telling her everything.
            “Where’s Alana?” came the sound of Dom’s voice from the other side of the shelves and where she could hear the distinct sound of a game of pool being played.
            “I think she went to get a beer,” Blaise said, and then Cary released her quickly and headed for the door.
            “I’ll see you Thursday,” over his shoulder, “and I’ll call you sometime this week to set up what time,” he said and then he was gone before Blaise came around the corner and found her alone.
            “You need any help?” he asked.
            “No, I was telling Cary that I didn’t need a ride home,” she told him as she started to fill her cup.
            “Oh,” he said as he leaned against the shelves and looked around, “he went running as soon as he heard us looking for you didn’t he?”
            She laughed as she realized that he had, “Yeah, he did,” she said and then wondered out loud, “I wonder why.”
            “He probably didn’t want to start a confrontation with anyone. He’s hoping that you don’t know and don’t realize that he’s not welcome here,” Blaise explained.
            “So I’ve heard,” she said under her breath but Blaise didn’t hear, and if he did, he didn’t let on that he had.
            “So how did he take it?” Blaise asked seeing that the beer was coming out in a trickle so he moved to pump more air into the keg for her so it would come out faster.
            “He was upset,” she said as she watched him work, “but it was understandable, except for the part where he left me to fend for myself in a house full of strangers,” she said, “again.”
            Blaise chuckled, “You have a mouth that’s going to get you into trouble someday,” he said as he stopped pumping before he took her cup and finished filling it for her.
            “I’m able to be more subtle and a lot nicer when I need to be, or want to be,” she said sweetly.
            “Uh huh, sure you are,” he said teasing her.
            “I’m sure I could be worse,” she said teasing, “besides did any of you hear him yell at me? Did he hurt me or anything?” she asked thinking that she doubted that he would even try.
            “No,” Blaise said as they walked around the shelves to the rest of the group, “because he knew we were only a scream away, and there were too many people in the rest of the garage to be able to get you out the door without one of them seeing you fighting him and getting our attention,” Blaise said confidently.
            “What if I had gone willingly?” she asked.
            “I would have seen you,” came a voice from behind her and she turned to see Luke who looked directly at Natty and said, “he’s gone. I watched him drive away.”
            Natty nodded and smiled, “Good,” she said as she took Jarren’s beer out of his hand as he’d been raising it to take a drink and she chugged it down.
            “Feel better?” Jarren asked with a chuckle.
            “Ask me again in five minutes,” she said as she headed over to the keg and the rest of the group laughed.
            “One things for sure,” Jarren commented as she disappeared around the corner, “she’ll sleep well tonight if she keeps that up.”
            Alana looked at Blaise, who took one look at her and asked, “What’s wrong?”
            She shook her head and walked over to the love seat that paralleled the pool table and sat with it’s back to half of the garage.
            Blaise followed her, “I don’t believe you,” he said as he sat down next to her.
            “It’s just,” she said trying to think how she could explain how she felt. How she knew it wasn’t her fault, but also how she felt in some way responsible for Cary being there tonight, “I don’t,” she said and then decided a different route would be better so she started again, “I guess I just feel bad,” she said honestly.
            “Why?” he asked and then answered his own question, “because you came with Cary.”
            She nodded.
            “How could you have known?” Blaise asked, “and besides, if it wasn’t you it probably would have been someone else,” Blaise said mirroring her own thoughts from earlier.
            “I know,” she said as Natty walked up.
            “Move Blaise,” she commanded in a nice tone as she set her already half empty glass down on the pool table. He stood up and she sat down.
            “Listen, you being here has been a good thing all the way around, and has nothing to do with Cary being here,” she said.
            “Except for the fact that it was his idea and his car that got me here,” she said honestly.
            “Details, details, details,” Natty said with a wave of her hand almost drunkenly, “you must deal with lots of details in your life,” she concluded correctly, “What do you do for a living?”
            “I’m an Interior Designer,” Alana replied.
            “Oh,” and Alana couldn’t help laugh at the look on her face as she asked “so if I make you my new best friend can I pick your brain for a while?” It was one of those excited little girl looks when they got what they wanted on their birthday.
            “Sure,” she said still laughing.
            “Now, don’t say yes, because of this whole Cary thing, because I’ll probably be calling you for weeks asking you questions about this or that.”
            Alana just nodded as she said, “I’ll give you my cell number.”
            “I have a new best friend!” Natty practically shouted looking over at Jarren as she gave Alana a hug and Alana wondered if she was drunk already after just that one beer she’d chugged because the glass she’d set down was practically full still.
            She looked past Natty to Blaise and Jarren who stood watching and talking, and silently asked Blaise her question as Natty drank on her beer.
            “Yes, she is,” he told her and Alana smiled.
            “What?” Jarren asked as Natty jumped up and ran back to the keg as she downed the rest of her beer.
            “Natty’s drunk already,” Blaise said making Jarren nod in agreement, as they went back to talking about cars again.
            Alana leaned back smiling as she watched her new friends feeling like she belonged here with them. She didn’t get time to think about what that meant as Natty came bounding back around the corner with her cup full, “One of you need’s to go pump it up,” she told the guys who stood on the other side of the pool table talking, before she sat back down next to Alana.
            “So what are you redecorating?” Alana asked as Luke headed to do as she asked.
            “The living room, the master bedroom and then Dom’s old room I want to turn it into a study,” she explained.
            “Any ideas on what you want it to look like when you’re done?” Alana asked and then sat there and listened to a drunk Natty ramble on and on for almost an hour before she got up and went over to Jarren to give him a hard time about something.
            “Are you having fun?” Blaise asked as he came over and sat back down next to her.
            “Yeah, Natty’s a sweetheart,” she said fondly.
            “We all treat her like she’s our little sister, except for Jarren.”
            “Is she someone’s little sister?” she asked.
            “Yeah, Dom’s her older brother,” Blaise said and Alana looked around to see that it was only Dom, Brock, Jarren and Natty besides herself and Blaise. Everyone else had left the area around the pool table.
            “He looks familiar for some reason,” she said, “but I can’t quite put my finger on where I know his face from.”
            “Well, I’ve known him since right after high school and he’s lived in the house he’s living in now since about that time. Other than that, he’s lived in this house and then the house he grew up in over on Carlton Avenue.”
            “I moved into a house on Carlton Avenue just before High School,” she said.
            “When did you graduate?” Blaise asked.
            “Ninety eight.”
            “So did the rest of us, for the most part. Even Natty because she skipped a grade, so if he left that house just before High School and you moved into it just before High School then you probably missed each other.”
            “Yeah, probably,” she said.
            “What was your address?” Dom asked from the other side of the pool table.
            “1533,” she answered without thinking, “my parents still live there,” she told him, “Why?”
            “I knew the neighborhood fairly well,” he said as he looked over at Natty but she had disappeared to go get another beer, “It was a red brick house with a huge back yard and a tree house in a tree in the back yard,” Dom said describing the house well.
            “Yeah, how did you know?” she asked.
            “I knew a kid that lived there before you,” he said casually.
            “Did you know the girl that lived next door?” she asked.
            Dom look lost in thought for a moment and then said, “I don’t remember any girl living next door,” he said shaking his head, “Why?” he asked
            “My roommate, Hanna, she grew up in the house next door until her mom passed away just after we graduated,” she explained.
            “You two look out for each other don’t you?” Blaise asked.
            “Yeah, we do,” she said fondly, “Neither of us have any siblings, so we just kind of hit it off.”
            She just sat there and thought about what fun she’d been having once she’d meet Luke as she finished her beer and watched the pool game. She was going to have to thank him the next time that she saw him.
            When the game was over Alana looked at the clock on the wall and was surprised to see that it was close to three in the morning and she was just starting to feel tired as she yawned for the first time that night. Then she yawned again, and then again a couple of minutes later so she wasn’t surprised with Blaise came over and asked if she was ready for him to take her home.
            She readily agreed and with a few promises from Blaise to Natty to come over and help clean up after he got some rest, they were out the door and he was driving her home. Almost exactly twenty minutes later she was getting out of Blaise’s truck and Blaise was walking her to her door. She was still glowing from the beer and from the many hugs, most of which were Natty just hugging everyone, but each time that she went to Blaise he would hug her and then kiss her on her forehead before she would move on to Alana. Alana smiled as she remembered Jarren struggling to pull Natty away from them as they headed out the door.

The Real First Night

            “Do you want to come in for a minute?” she asked politely as she dug her keys out of her pocket.
            “Actually, I do need to use your bathroom, if you don’t mind,” he told her as she unlocked her door.
            “Sure, no problem,” she said opening the door and turned on the light, “The bathroom is right there,” she said motioning to a door that was to the right of the front door as soon as you walked into her apartment.
            “Thanks,” he said before he disappeared into the bathroom.
            When he came out he found her in the kitchen where she was making coffee for in the morning.
            “Ah, a coffee drinker,” he said almost excitedly.
            “Did you want some?” she asked.
            “No, I’m good. It’s just only Brock and I drink coffee. The rest of them drink Coke or Pepsi all day long,” he told her, “It’ll be good to have another coffee drinker in the group,” he said and she couldn’t help smiling.
            “So does this mean I’m invited to the next party?” she asked smiling.
            “Of course,” he said with a friendly smile, “You and Hanna are both welcome,” he said turning his attention to the few pictures that were stuck to the refrigerator with magnets, “Is this Hanna?”
            “Yep,” she said as she came up next to him.
            “You know she looks kind of familiar to me,” he said trying to think where he’d seen Hanna before.
            “Well she’s grew up in that one house and then she and I moved into this apartment together several years ago, and Grandma Hattie likes to tell everyone that she and I are as ‘thick as thieves,’ so I don’t know how you would have met her and not me unless it was just in passing or something,” Alana said.
            “You don’t have any pictures of her when she was a kid do you?” he asked remembering how Dom had acted earlier. Usually he loved to reminisce with someone from his old neighborhood. Mostly Dom would ask about a girl that lived next door to him growing up, someone who he had a picture of sitting on his nightstand in his bedroom to this day but for some reason Dom hadn’t asked about her and that was not like him.
            “Actually, she has one hanging in the living room of her and the kid next door before I moved in,” she said before she lead him into the living room flipping on the lights and pointed out the picture on the wall that Blaise could recognize from across the room, as he’d seen it so many times at Dom’s, but he still walked over to it polity and looked at it. Dom hadn’t said anything earlier so Blaise wouldn’t give him away now, but Dom would have to give him answers if Dom expected him to not say anything, especially with the way that he went on an on about Hanna.
            “Hum,” he said looking at it, but choosing not to comment on it, instead he looked to the other pictures on the wall. “Is this you?” he asked pointing to one of a little girl in pig tails, a huge smile on her face as she held up a fish on a line as if she’d caught it.
            “Guilty,” she said, “My grandfather loved to fish, so he and I used to go all the time. That was our first trip, and that was the first fish I ever caught,” she said proudly.
            “I never would have pegged you for the out door type,” he said looking back over his shoulder at her.
            “There are lots of things you don’t know about me,” she said as he turned back to the pictures on the wall, and saw another one of her standing next to a full size van that was full of shopping bags.
            Blaise pointed at the picture, “Do I even what to know?” he asked.
            She smiled and said, “That was one of Mom and my infamous shopping trips.”
            “One of?” he asked.
            “There have been two others that have topped this particular one,” she said nodding.
            “By topped you mean…”
            “Dollar wise,” she explained seriously, “but this one we had more bags than any other.”
            “How much was this one?” he asked not sure that he wanted to know.
            “Oh, about six thousand between the two of us,” she said seriously.
            Blaise closed his eyes in disbelief, “Six thousand dollars?”
            “Yep,” she said, “The top one was just under seventy two hundred.”
            “Wow, I’d hate to pay your credit card bills,” he said as he turned away from the pictures hanging on the wall.
            Alana laughed, “Mom and I save up for months before we go shopping so we don’t use our credit cards.”
            “There’s only two of you?” he asked stunned.
            “Yep,” she said and then went on, “Mom and I are notorious for it, Dad laughs about it with us anymore, and Mom and I are careful not to go shopping together unless we’ve planed and saved up,” she told him.
            “Well, at least you plan and save,” he said looking back at the picture, “When is the next shopping trip?”
            “Sunday,” she said with a smile on her face.
            “How mush do you have saved up?” he asked.
            “Almost five thousand, but I doubt I use it all. That reminds me, do you have Natty’s phone number? She was a little too drunk to tell me and I wanted to call her and ask her if she wanted anything for the couch.”
            “Don’t worry about it, she won’t,” he said knowingly.
            “Well, I was also going to invite her over for dinner some night soon,” she said almost insisting that he give her Natty’s number.
            He smiled at her willfulness, “I’ll give you her number, I was just saying that she won’t want anything in return, well except for decorating tips, of course,” he said almost joking.
            “I was going to ask you,” she said as she sat down on one of the loveseats and picked up a pen and paper, “does she really want to redecorate?”
            Blaise smiled, “Honestly, this is the first time that I’ve heard about it, but I’ve been busy at work so I haven’t been over to see her much. Jarren didn’t seem too surprised by the thought though, so I’m sure she’s talked to him about it.”
            “So she doesn’t say things she doesn’t mean when she’s drunk?”
            Blaise understood, “No, she doesn’t,” he said sitting down next to her, “How much do you think it will cost?”
            “Form the little bit that she was saying, she wasn’t new everything, from carpet to walls to furniture, so it’ll be a pretty penny, I’m sure, but not as bad as it could be with the discounts I’ll get for her,” Alana said with a wave of her hand.
            “So you’re not going to treat them like a client?” he asked.
            “Well, I will, just not with the pricing,” she said and then added, “I’ve never really had any friends that I could do this for, other than Hanna, and you can see how much she and I use it,” she motioned around the room.
            It was well decorated, in darker earth tones, except for the couches that were a floral print, and heavy on the pink, “So how did you end up with these couches?” he asked curious seeing how he knew them not to be broke.
            She smiled, “They were in Hanna’s living room growing up. It’s taken me years to talk her into getting rid of them. The only way I was able to do it was to promise to save the fabric and make her some pillows for in her room.”
            Blaise smiled, “You really do love her don’t you?”
            “You have no idea,” Alana said as she handed him the pen and paper.
            He quickly wrote down Natty’s home number and then wrote down his own, before he handed it back to her and told her, “You’re turn.”
            She just smiled and went to the next page where she wrote down her cell number and handed it to him, “Happy?”
            “For now,” he said before he got to his feet and stretched with his hands over his head, “Oh, man, I should get going before I pass out on your couch,” he said.
            “Yeah and wake up with a stiff neck,” she said as she too stood up, “I’ll walk you to the door,” she told him.
            They walked the short distance in silence and when she went to open the door he stopped her with his hand over hers, “I’m glad you ended up at Natty’s tonight.”
            She smiled, “So am I.”
            “Good,” he said giving her a hug and a brief kiss on her forehead like he’d done to Natty earlier that night, and then he opened the door and waved goodbye before he shut the door behind him, and she watched out the peep hole but he didn’t walk away until after she’d turned the lock as if that was what he was waiting for before he walked away. The thought made her smile as she got ready for bed, climbed into bed, and then drifted off to sleep.

A Quiet Night

            “Well, I guess it’s time for bed,” Jarren said as he closed the door after some of the party goers had left. The party was over and the few people that were staying the night were already passed out, while Luke said good bye to the remainder of his friends out front before he’d too head for home.
            “Yeah,” she said with a yawn, “I guess so,” she said even as she sat down on one of the bottom stairs.
            “What’s wrong?” he asked seeing that she was fairly deep in thought.
            “I was just wondering,” she said and then yawned again, “If I’d ever be able to sleep without the bad dreams,” she confessed.
            Jarren sat down next to her and placed his arm gently around his shoulder, “It will happen, Natty,” he told her. “Someday you will be able to sleep without nightmares that wake you up two or three times a night,” he said not realizing that the tired tone he used sounded more like he didn’t want that day to ever come.
            “Don’t sound so hopeful,” Natty said as she pulled away from him and drunkenly got to her feet before she headed up the stairs.
            “If I did sound hopeful it’s just me being tired,” he said quickly getting to his feet to follow her up the stairs. She was tipsy so he followed closely to make sure that he would be able to catch her if she stumbled or fell.
            “Which would make me think that you would want a nice sound sleep,” she said. He could hear that she was angry with him and Jarren knew that her moodiness was from the beer.
            “It does,” he said as they reached the top of the stairs.
            “Well, no one said you had to stay with me every night trying to keep my nightmares away,” she said as she headed down the hall to her bed room. He realized only to late that she was intending to leave him outside of her room tonight so he could do just that. He needed to end this quick so he hurried up and caught her around the waist pulling her back to him, but still moving them slowly down the hall to her bedroom, moving with her backwards.
            “Did you ever think about what I think about when it comes to the day you stop dreaming those bad dreams,” he said softly in her ear.
            “No,” she said trying to pull away, but he held her close with ease, as she was tired and she was drunk.
            “Well, I have,” he said, “When that day comes, I wonder, am I still going to be welcome to share your bed each night as we’ve been doing for almost two years now?” he asked realizing only now that he’d asked the question out loud how much a negative answer would hurt him.
            “But, why else would you want to stay?” she asked.
            “If I could stay on sharing your bed, if only to hold you while I slept, I would be a very happy man,” he told her.
            “But,” she said and he heard her swallow, “don’t you want to find a girlfriend?” she asked.
            “I’d have you as my girlfriend if you’d let me,” he told her point blank. He was just drunk enough to speak his mind where sober he would have not said a word. That and the fact he’d wanted to so much for so long now that he hadn’t been able to stop himself.
            He heard her swallow again as he realized that she’d tensed up in his arms after what he’d just told her and he cursed to himself, “Shit, I’m sorry,” he told her, “I never meant to put you in this situation. I’m a little drunk sweetie, otherwise I wouldn’t have said it,” he told her as he still held her to him and moved them down the hall to her bedroom. “I’ll pass out as soon as my head hits the pillow, I promise you that, and you know it too, so relax,” he told her and when he felt her relax some he stopped talking. He didn’t want to mess up again. They had reached the door to her bedroom and he waited for her to open the door for them.
            “Natty,” he said softly.
            “What?”
            “Are you going to open the door so we can go climb in bed or are we sleeping in the hall tonight?” he asked playfully.
            “It’s just,” she said, “you’ve never said anything before,” she told him.
            “I know and my timing is horrible, but just remember, I’ll be asleep soon, so you have nothing to fear,” he said soothingly as he reached for the door knob, but she beat him to it and opened the door.
            Once they were inside Jarren gave her a quick kiss on her cheek before he headed for his side of the bed, removing his shirt on the way. He threw his shirt in the dirty cloths basket as he set on the edge of the bed to remove his shoes and socks, before he stood up and removed his jeans. He’d started sleeping in only his boxer shorts this last summer when her air conditioner had broke and the house had become a sweat box, eventually driving them to his cool air conditioned apartment for almost a week before it was fixed.
            He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that Natty still stood when he’d left her, watching him, “What’s wrong?” he asked gently.
            “Nothing,” she said before she turned to go into the walk in closet to change into the shorts and tank top that she slept in. He didn’t believe her, so he went to the bathroom while he waited for her to come back out. When he walked out of the bathroom she was just climbing into bed.
            “Natty,” he said walking around the bed, “are you sure everything is okay?”
            “Just drank too much,” she said as he climbed into bed next to her. Jarren got comfortable on his back as Natty reached over and turned off the light on the nightstand. Usually she would curl up with her back to him for a while before she would turn over and curl up in his arms, and that’s when Jarren would be able to drift off to sleep, but tonight Natty surprised him by rolling over and curling up next to him as soon as she’d turned out the light.
            He smiled to himself as he lay there and enjoyed the feeling of her trust and faith in him wash over him yet again. Those two things meant more to him than anything else in this world and had ever since the night that Dom had first asked him to help him out with his sister and her nightmares. While he hadn’t been able to keep them away completely she did sleep better and have fewer nightmares when he was there. He just hopped that she wouldn’t push him away too quickly if they did stop, he didn’t know what he’d do if he didn’t have her to hold as he fell asleep.
            He was almost asleep when Natty asked, “You really don’t mind being here with me?”
            “There’s no place I’d rather be,” he said with a sleepy sigh, “and if you ever did feel comfortable enough to kick me out I don’t know what I’d do,” he almost whispered.
            “You wouldn’t know what party to go to first,” she filled in trying to joke with him but he knew better.
            He had just enough energy to pull her on top of him so she’d look him in the eye as he said, “Don’t you ever think like that again,” before giving her a kiss on her forehead. “When I’m with you I feel like I’m home,” Jarren whispered before he both passed out.
            She realized that he had passed out so she moved down a few inches so she could put her head down on his chest before she closed her eyes and allowed herself to pass out.

The Ride Home

            Blaise walked down the stairs suddenly feeling very awake even though his body felt like it was ready to fall over dead. He was just climbing into his truck thinking about all the things that he had to do the next day when his phone rang.
            “Hello,” he said not even bothering to look and see who the caller ID.
            “Have you dropped her off yet?” came the sound of his best friends voice.
            Blaise shut his door, “I just left her,” Blaise said.
            “Aw, you walked her to her door,” Dom said giving him a hard time, “but I bet you never even thought to try and give her a goodnight kiss,” Dom said.
            Blaise smiled. He had thought about it, not that he would tell Dom anything about it, but he had thought about a nice long, hard, wet kiss as he found out just how uncomfortable one of the loveseats were in her living room.
            “Or did you?” Dom asked when Blaise didn’t say anything in response.
            “Why didn’t you start pumping Alana for more information when you heard where she lived?” Blaise asked point blank as he changed the subject.
            The silence that followed made Blaise smile, “Hanna has that same picture that sits on your night stand, on her living room wall.”
            Blaise waited as the silence continued, “Shit,” Dom said finally.
            Blaise chuckled, “You never thought you’d find her again, did you?”
            “No,” Dom said almost sounding angry, but knowing Dom as he did, Blaise knew that he was just deep in thought, wondering about what it could possibly mean. For as long as Blaise had known Dom, he’d always been fascinated by any woman named Hanna, to the point that he’d dated three of them, and the picture that sat on his nightstand had always had a tendency to cause problems with any girl he’d dated. From what Blaise had told him over the years some of the women that he’d dated had tried all sorts of things to get him to take it down. One of them had even tried to hide the picture from him completely and had Brock, Blaise and Natty not been there, Blaise was sure that it wouldn’t have been a very pretty sight. That had been the only day that Blaise had seen a true look of anger in his face.
            Most of the time Dom was an easy going, laid back kind of guy, easy to play with and always ready with a joke. He’d even been known to hand out a good piece of advice every now and then, but that usually came with an off handed remark as well, but that was Dom. Always good for a laugh.
            “So are you finally going to tell me what’s so important about Hanna?” Blaise asked. If Blaise had asked for this same information Dom would always tell him that it wasn’t important.
            “It’s not important,” Dom said, trying yet again, to brush him off, “Are you coming over to help me clean up Natty’s house tomorrow?” he asked trying to change the subject again.
            Blaise wasn’t going to go for it this time, “No, I’ve got plans,” Blaise said casually.
            “What?” Dom said and Blaise could hear the surprise in his voice. “What are you doing?”
            “I’m going to go over to Alana’s tomorrow,” Blaise said.
            “Oh, really?” Dom said, “And what are the two of you going to do?” Dom asked as if he didn’t need to be told.
            “She, Hanna and I are going to have a nice long conversation,” Blaise said bluffing, and Dom knew he was, but Blaise didn’t care.
            He heard Dom sigh into the phone, “Blaise, not now,” he said and Blaise could hear a tired and almost defeated tone in his voice.
            Blaise sighed, “I’ll be over when I get around to getting up,” he told Dom admitting defeat.
            “I’ll see you sometime tomorrow afternoon,” Dom said before the line went dead.
            Blaise dug his keys out of his pocket and headed for home.

All Keyed Up

            Dom had been laying on his bed still fully dressed when he’d called Blaise and now he was too awake to sleep. He’d found Hanna, she still had the picture that they’d taken on his last trip to visit her, and he had a feeling that Blaise wouldn’t let go of this until he gave Blaise something to play with.
            Dom sat up and walked to his kitchen, he was hungry. He always needed something to eat when he had something on his mind. He pulled out the leftover pizza from the night before and took the box to the dinning room table. Cold pizza, in his book, was the best thing to prevent a hang over.
            He picked up a piece of pizza and started to think back to that last day that he’d seen Hanna all those years ago. He’d been gone for two months and it had been his second visit. Grandma Hattie wasn’t letting them out of her sight, so he knew that his father had said something to her about what he’d suspected had gone on between Dom and Hanna, but somehow they had managed to sneak out of the house and down to the creek where they’d gone for a swim and then he’d held her as they’d drifted off to sleep beneath the old weeping willow tree.
            That had been their spot. It was dark, cool, and hidden away from everyone else and if anyone did come Dom had built a platform up in the branches where they could climb up and no one would ever find them. That day they had stayed on the ground because it was starting to rain. He hadn’t been able to sleep, but she’d passed out at soon as she’d put her head on his shoulder, so he’d just held her until she’d woke up.
            He remembered her waking up like it was yesterday. She’d stirred and then realizing she’d looked up at him only to smile. He’d kissed her forehead then and then pulled her on top of him. He’d wanted to make love to her again, like he had the last two times that he’d seen her, but there was something in her eyes that told him that she wasn’t going to let him this time.
            “What’s wrong?” he’d asked as he’d caressed her face and moved her hair away from her face.
            She shook her head and tried to tell him that nothing was wrong, but he knew that she wasn’t telling the truth. She’d never been able to lie to him. Never. He knew it, she knew it, his parents knew it, and her grandma knew it, so he just looked her in the eye and waited for her to come clean.
            Even now he could remember her exact words as she’d broken his heart.
            “Dominic,” she’d called him, and she’d been the only one ever to use his full name, “This is it, isn’t it?” she’d asked.
            “What do you mean?” he’d asked.
            “You start school next week and I start the day after tomorrow,” she’d said, “so you won’t be able to come and visit me until next summer, and if you really think about it we haven’t really been keeping up on our writing to each other, and your parents don’t like it when I call,” she said and he knew that every word of what she’d said was true, but he refused to believe any of it.
            “Hanna, it’s not over,” he’d insisted.
            “Yes, it is, Dominic,” she’d said.
            “No,” he’d said rolling her over so he was on top of her, “With school starting I will write to you more, as I’ll be think about you everyday, just like I do now, but in school I’ll have paper and pen right there, so I’ll start writing you more,” he told her.
            “Come on, let’s be realistic,” she’d said.
            “I am,” he’d told her honestly, “I am being realistic,” he’d said before he’d kissed her with ever ounce of what he’d felt. At first he’d pinned her hands down so she couldn’t push him away, but then the need to pull her closer had been too much and he’d released her hands to pull her closer to him. When she too pulled him closer, his kisses became less frenzied and gentler until they were both naked and he was inside of her again but when it had been all over, it hadn’t changed Hanna’s mind about what was coming, and when she’d stood fully dressed once again next to him, she’d looked him straight in the eye and broke his heart before running back into her house.
            She’d said, “Thank you for that lovely goodbye. Look me up in ten years and we’ll see where we stand then, but until then, I don’t expect anything from you.
            It had taken him two full days to realize why she’d done it, but by then it was too late. He’d written her everyday for the next school year, and once summer hit he’d started trying to call her so he could some visit, even though he’d never received a single letter back from her, but every time he’d called Grandma Hattie had told him that she was out with the girl next door and that she’d have Hanna call when she got in, but she never did.
            After that summer he’d stopped calling and he sent one final letter promising that he would find her again. It had been more than ten years, but he’d never doubted that he’d find her again. He’d really only been waiting to find another job before he’d started looking for her again. Right after what had happened to Natty he’d needed the friendship that they had shared all those years ago, and he’d found Grandma Hattie, but when they moment had come he’d asked Grandma Hattie not to tell Hanna that he’d found her, that he had to take care of something first.
            He’d never said it out loud, but he’d feared, and he still did fear that Cary would hurt her the same way that he’d hurt Natty, and that was one thing that he wouldn’t be able to handle. That was the one thing that would make him lose his temper and probably end up killing Cary like he’d thought about doing for so long.
            Dom looked down at the empty pizza box and got to his feet. Maybe he’d be able to sleep now, he thought at he left the pizza box sitting on the table and headed into bed where he fell once again fully dressed into bed, but this time he passed out as soon as his head hit the pillow.



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"No More Box, Saturday the 2nd"