Limping slightly, she made her way to the closet and hung up her coat. When that was done, she leaned back against the closet door and closed her eyes. She thumped her head repeatedly against the door. What had she done? Not only had she almost had sex with a stranger, that stranger had turned out to be the elusive client she’d been chasing for weeks now. “Way to make a professional impression, Candy,” she muttered. “What were you thinking anyway? Okay, so actual thinking had very little to do with it. It’s all Missy’s fault anyway for putting the idea that I needed to get laid into my brain.” Sighing, she realized there was no one to blame for this debacle but herself. Nobody had made her do anything and she was responsible for her own actions.
Finished berating herself for the moment, she opened her eyes, pushed away from the door and headed to the kitchen. After the day she’d put in, she deserved a glass of wine and a long, hot bath. She turned up the heater as she passed through the living room, rubbing her hands over her arms. It was cold, but she was always trying to save money, and that meant lowering the heat when she wasn’t home. Still, she hated times like this when she felt so cold. Well, a hot bath and her flannel nightgown would warm her up in no time.
Opening the refrigerator door, she pulled out a bottle of white wine she’d opened last weekend when Missy had joined her for a girls’ night of pizza and “chick flicks”. There was just enough left in the bottle for her to have a glass. Perfect. Yanking open the cabinet door, she pulled down a wineglass, uncorked the wine and poured it all into the glass. Thumping the bottle onto the counter, she started to reach for the glass and then stopped.
“How dare he?” Practically quivering with anger, her hands fisted at her sides, she began to pace the tiny kitchen. Five steps one way, turn and five back in the other direction. Every step she took emphasized the fact that she wasn’t wearing any underwear at all. He had her panties and her bra was in her purse. She could feel the sticky wetness between her thighs and her breasts still ached.
How dare he give her the best sexual experience of her life and then turn out to be her nemesis! Coming to a dead stop in the center of the room, she realized that was the crux of the problem.
For once in her life, she’d done something wild and crazy and it had come back to kick her in the teeth. How was she ever going to face the man again? How was she ever going to face her new friend, Katie? Candy bit her lip as she mulled over those questions, but right now she couldn’t come up with any answers.
“I told Missy I was no good at this kind of thing,” she muttered. As if in answer, the phone began to ring. Snagging her wineglass off the counter, she padded back into the living room and slumped down on the sofa, grabbing the phone. “Hello.”
“Hey, little sugarplum.”
The glass of wine slipped out of her nerveless fingers. It hit the edge of the coffee table on the way down, shattering and sending wine and shards of glass showering to the carpet. It was a voice she’d never thought she’d hear again. One she’d hoped she’d never hear again.
“You there, Sis?” The voice, low and deep, now held a hint of concern.
Candy swallowed hard. “Justin?” She hadn’t heard her brother’s voice in more than a decade. Two years her senior, he’d spent his younger years in and out of trouble, having minor brushes with the law and spending time in juvenile detention before finally disappearing just before his seventeenth birthday.
“Yeah, Candy. It’s me.” He paused. “I know it’s been a long time.”
“A long time?” she practically yelled into the receiver. “It’s been years.”
“Fifteen. It’s been fifteen years,” he quietly replied.
She thought she detected sadness in his voice, but she couldn’t be sure. Nor was she willing to fall into the same pattern her mother had lived by for years. Candy’s father had been a petty criminal, in and out of jail his entire life until he’d finally died there, caught in a prison riot and stabbed to death. Her mother had always taken her father back the moment he was released from prison, always believing his empty promises that “this time will be different”. Candy was afraid that Justin had followed in their father’s footsteps. “So where have you been? Prison?”
The silence on the other end was almost deafening. Then came a sharp bark of laughter. “I guess I deserve that.”
Candy said nothing. She really didn’t know what to say to the virtual stranger on the other end. He might be her brother, but she really didn’t know him. He sighed deeply and she could practically picture him running his fingers though his shoulderlength hair. It was a habit he’d had, something he’d always done when he was frustrated.
“Look, Candy, I want to talk to you.”
She couldn’t think. As horrible as it sounded, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see her older brother. “I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.”
“I’ve already talked to Mom.”
“When?”
“A week ago.”
Those three words made her stomach clench and she grabbed a pillow and held it tight to her belly. Her mother had talked to Justin and hadn’t told her. Candy felt betrayed right to her very core. While her father had disappointed them and Justin had abandoned them, Candy was the one who had stood by her mother. It was Candy who’d taken extra years to finish college, not only because she had to pay her own way, but because she’d always given her mother money to help her get by. In fact, she still sent her mother money every month to help make things easier, skimping and doing without things herself. And this is what she got for it.
She felt sick to her stomach. “I have to go.”
“Just think about it, okay? I’ll call you again in a few days.”
She closed her eyes to try to push back the tears that threatened. Part of her wanted to tell him to come over now just so she could see him. She’d loved her older brother. Desperately. The lonely child she’d been had soaked up all the casual care and concern he’d lavished on her when they’d been growing up. Justin had always slipped her extra lunch money, taken her places like the museum and the movies and always made sure she had something special for her birthday. His leaving had cut her to the core and the betrayal that she’d felt then was once again bubbling to the surface.
“I can’t talk anymore.” She pushed the words past her tight throat, barely swallowing back a sob.
She heard his whispered “I love you” as she hung up the phone.
Candy didn’t know how long she just sat there staring at the phone, but gradually she became aware of the shivers racking her body. She was so cold. Dragging herself off the sofa, she jerked and cursed as she stepped on a shard of glass. She’d forgotten all about the shattered wineglass. She lifted her foot, grateful that the glass hadn’t been driven in. Instead, she had a half-inch cut that was seeping blood.
Feeling much older than her thirty years, she got some paper towels from the kitchen and went back to clean up the mess. Gathering as many pieces as she could, she sopped up the wine and deposited the mess in the garbage. That was the best she could do for now. She’d vacuum and scrub the carpet tomorrow.