She heard a slightly husky but unmistakably female voice call out.
“Billy, are you home?”
Cynthia bolted upright, moving so quickly she almost knocked Billy off of the bed. He clearly hadn’t heard the woman. She called out again.
“Big Bill, are you around?”
Billy heard her that time. He looked over at Cynthia sheepishly. There was the sharp sound of a knock on the door. Billy smiled at her.
“Just a sec. . “
The woman didn’t want to wait a sec, the door knob creaked and a very pretty face with red curling hair peered around the door.
“Oh, Billy, you are home.”
Cynthia scrambled around with the sheets trying to cover herself up.
“Oh hi, I’m Billy’s roommate. You must be Cara.” Cynthia was too embarrassed to say anything. Billy was pulling on some clothes as the roommate continued.
“I can’t believe we haven’t met before. Billy just goes on and on about you.”
By this time, Billy was dressed and almost to the door. Cynthia stood up and scooped up her clothes. Keeping the blanket wrapped tightly around her she went to the bathroom and said in as dignified a voice she could muster she said, “I don’t know why you haven’t met Cara. I’m Cynthia.” Billy pushed the roommate out of the room. Cynthia heard murmurs of varying tones and volume.
She dressed as quickly as possible and left the bathroom. She walked purposefully through the apartment and got her purse. She walked out the door without saying a word to either of them. She heard Billy’s footsteps behind her and she closed the door between them.
She didn’t even bother talking to her friends who knew Billy. What would be the use of knowing the back-story? It was pointless and more than a little embarrassing. She was disappointed but she wanted to keep it to herself. The best way to forget about something like that was to find a new project that wasn’t remotely related to carnivals or zombies or men in general.
With that in mind, she volunteered to help Emily with her Girl Scout project. It seemed safe enough, lots of pre-adolescent girls working on camping skills or merit badges or something. She was unlikely to run into anyone who had dating potential, or even worse, Billy.
Of course, that’s exactly who she ran into. She didn’t think shopping for marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers would be dangerous, but it was. She was trying to reach the crackers when a familiar hand reached over her head and effortlessly plucked them from the shelf and handed them to her. She remembered why she knew that hand so well and blushed trying to shove the memory of that hand dancing across her body.
“Cynthia, I. . ”
“Billy, don’t. Please don’t. We hardly know each other. You don’t owe me an explanation about your hot roommate or why she thinks my name is Cara.”
“So you probably don’t want to hear that my roommate is a flight attendant and I’m gone a lot so that’s the first time we’ve been at the apartment at the same time in months and that the last time she was here, I was leaving to go on a date with Cara. One date. That didn’t work out. I haven’t seen her since and that was almost six months ago.”
“Oh, that’s the oldest story in the book”
“C’mon, would I lie to you in front of the marshmallows?”
“I don’t know. Men have been known to be insincere in front of desserts.”
He started to laugh and against her better judgment she did too.
“Let’s go on a real date. Are you busy this weekend?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, I’m sorry; I just assumed. . are you seeing someone?”
“Yes, about twelve of them. I’m chaperoning a Girl Scout sleepover this weekend.”
Billy looked relieved. Cynthia couldn’t help but smile.
“I would invite you to come by, but half of the girls are still scared of boys.”
It didn’t take long for them to decide on a place and time.
Cynthia was surprised that she was so nervous. After all, she knew that they were at least physically compatible and that heinous misunderstanding aside, they got along very well. He had a quirky sense of humor and most important of all, he seemed to genuinely like her. He was a lot of fun. She had to admit that it had been a long time since she had relaxed and had fun. And the sex was incredible. Would it be too much to hope that this date would end the same way the last one had? Or was she dooming herself to failure by hoping?
What was wrong with her? She had an actual date with an actual guy, no wait a man, who was genuinely interested in being with her. And here she was second guessing the whole affair. Maybe affair was the wrong word to use. That would be presuming a lot before a second date.
Effortless.
That’s why she liked being with Billy. The fun was effortless. He was just as exciting and unpredictable and funny as the kids she loved so much and he was smart and interesting and charming. And then she decided to talk.
“Um, if you don’t mind me asking, what happened with Cara?”
“I don’t mind you asking.”
He hesitated and she began to panic. Was he trying to think of a way out of talking about his past? Or was there something wrong with Cara that was also wrong with her? Her panic must have been visible because he reached out and took her hand.
“I don’t mind telling you. I’m just trying to figure out the best way to say this.” Oh god, what could it be?
“It’s not anything dark and mysterious or dangerous. It’s just the same thing that happens to me every time I meet someone. Or get set up with someone. It’s hard for me to meet people. I travel so much and I don’t really meet anyone on the job.”
Cynthia nodded in assent. He began stroking her hand with his thumb. She felt tingles shoot up her arm.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining. I love my job, but I’m starting to get tired of being alone. I know I don’t have to be alone if I don’t want to. I just haven’t found anyone who I can see myself with in the long term.”
Was this it, was this where he was going to try and let her down easy? He gripped her hand a little tighter. There were the tingles again.
“I don’t want to scare you away or anything.”
“We just met. You haven’t done anything particularly scary.”
Cynthia thought her voice sounded shrill and panicky. She didn’t trust herself to look up because she didn’t want him to see the fear that she knew was running across her face.
“You don’t remember meeting me the first time. I don’t blame you; it was just for a second. You were with your friend Anna and this little kid came running up to you and jumped on you and you just laughed and picked him up. You didn’t mind that he completely disrupted whatever you were doing. You just picked him up and looked absolutely delighted to see him. I came over to get Anna to introduce us and you were so focused on this kid, I didn’t think you would remember meeting me. Then I saw you again at the carnival with those kids and it just made me think. It made me think that I could see myself having a long and happy life with a beautiful girl who would take the time to be nice to a kid and to go out and have some fun.”
He reached over and took her other hand and she felt the tingles go up both arms. She dared to look up at him. He looked so sweet and sincere that the part of her mind that wanted to say it might be a line that he said to everyone decided it didn’t care. She smiled at him.
“So that’s what happened with Cara. It only took one date to see that she would rather spend her time and money buying expensive shoes that make her feet hurt. But you made me realize that there are beautiful girls who are nice to kids and know how to dress to go to a carnival.”
She took her hand away and took a sip of her drink.
“Did I scare you away?”
“We should go to my place.”
A broad grin spread across his face and she trembled a bit. She no longer cared at how quickly things were moving, in fact, she wanted them to go faster so she could be alone with him.