A Breath Until Forever (15 page)

“I really like your sandals.” Joshua complimented.

“Thanks.”

For a couple of minutes, Joshua stayed in the bathroom with her. Meredith only smiled, wondering when he was going to leave so that she may jump in the shower. Joshua stood there, looking up at the ceiling, at the shower, at the mirror, then all around and back again. Joshua finally got the hint. “Oh yeah, I-I better let you go so you can take your shower.” Stammered Joshua.

Meredith replied with a lower, whisper kind of voice. “Yeah.”

Joshua left the bathroom.

Joshua headed back towards the kitchen, where he would begin preparing tonight's meal. He would make savory pork chops with glazed carrots and garlic mashed potatoes. A simple meal, but hearty and worthy of an appetite that he was surely going to bring. He had always been a meat and potato guy a long as he could remember, and he didn't know how to make anything else without incorporating an animal and a spud. As he started to fry up some pork chops on the stove, he heard the spitting pressure of the shower come on. She's naked now, he thought, and he instantly felt a hard on rise in his jeans. He could only just imagine how she looked in the shower now, soapy bubbly suds in her hair, soapy bubbly suds bubbling there way down her bare-skinned body, soapy bubbly suds gathering in that nestling hairy bush and femininity he wanted to so desperately touch in between her thighs. 

Earlier in the the day after she had called he had driven the 40 miles into Raleigh and went to the biggest liquor store in the “City of Oaks”.  He had wanted to buy the sweetest, the most intoxicating wine ever made. However, more experienced in beer then he was with wine, he didn't know anything about it and thought it was best to go to a place who knew their wine like they know their name. He wanted to impress Meredith, and he didn't want her thinking that he was some kind of redneck who wasn't cultured. Meredith was very cultured, and he wanted to facilitate her with skills that he could be cultured too. So he looked through the rows of bottles that lined up throughout the giant store as if it were the China Wall made out of glass, until a nice label came up that read Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. “Oh yes,” A stocky clerk with curly hair and big thick glasses said. “Very good with pork.” “Good.” Replied Joshua. “We are having pork chops.” “Compliments chops very well.” The clerk replied back. “Very well. You must know your wine.” Joshua, who hadn't a clue about wine flew high with the compliment and just went with it. “Yeah.” The bottle was very sensual looking, tinted a very dark brown with an elegant label decorated with grapes and gold etching. It cost $5.68, which was almost everything he had left in his savings, but a beautiful woman like Meredith was worth it. While there, he also bought a bottle of hard liquor himself, some whiskey in a fading blue glass decanter, to replenish is empty stock of intoxicating spirits. A house without whiskey was a house without love, and he always wanted his house to be full of love.

In between of all of her travels to different hot spots of beautiful inspiration, Meredith had managed to go clothes shopping looking for a new summer dress to not only bring back to Seattle. She found one, lighter then white, with thin spaghetti straps and a floral flower that hugged at her side waist. It scooped low in the front, dramatically top of her breasts, and it had a small belt that gathered her waist in order to cinch it small. She bought a pair of new white sandals to match. They had a little heel with delicate handiwork, and she thought had pretty and feminine they were to much her equally pretty and feminine dress. She had brought three other dresses with her, but they were old and already worn, and being that this was a new adventure, with a new perspective, she had wanted a dress to match that and wanted something as fresh as her new attitude was and what was to be.

In the afternoon Joshua had gone shopping for the pork chops for dinner. He had even bought parsley so he may use it on the plate for decoration. He would have a simple spinach salad with a robust Italian dressing. They would eat an apple pie for dessert. Everything had gone into the refrigerator except for the whiskey and the wine.

The dress when she wore it had been too long, so Meredith had ripped it off, leaving a frayed edge on the bottom. On any other dress, it would have looked ratty, but on this particular dress, it looked more romantic, more sensual. In the heat, she much preferred a shorter length, like the younger girls back home in Seattle. Meredith was older, but when it came to fashion, she preferred more youthful modifications. And why not? She was very beautiful for her age, and had very nice legs for a woman of 40, lanky limbs that were well suited for such fashion of blooming adolescence. When other woman of her age if they wore such fashion would look more like a call girl, Meredith, looked like she had taken a ride back in time.

The wine was an Italian wine and Joshua thought back of a time when he had visited Italy to meet Adrienne’s godmother. It wasn't very warm and friendly visitation, as her godmother had been very rude and arrogant towards him. He had wanted to win her family over, but he wasn't good enough for her family, who had come from wealth and social stature. He remembered, however, that wine is best kept in the cold, preferably in the cellar, at 10 degrees Celsius against the wall. He wondered if Adrienne if she was still alive in spirit, if she would have been mad at him for purchasing wine for another woman. Wine was something very Italian, in which she was, and was only meant for her.

Meredith shut off the shower. She reached for a towel, and dried herself off. The warmth of the shower had made her feel alive again. Invigorated. Refreshed. It was almost as if she had washed all of her past sins away.

The phone suddenly rang. Joshua wondered who it could possibly be, considering that he wasn't expecting phone call from anyone and he clearly didn't want a phone call now, and not many people called him especially in evening. He hoped it wasn't some damn telemarketer and if it was, he would surely give them an earful or two.

To his surprise, it was the gravelly voice of an older, more mature man than himself, and he was asking for Meredith. It was Benjamin.

“Hello? Is Meredith there?” Asked Benjamin.

“Meredith?” Joshua repeated like a parrot, appearing rather rattled and shaken up the request. He didn't know it was Benjamin, Meredith's husband, and so his startling was more complex, wondering who would be asking for Meredith at a number that was clearly only meant for him.

“Yes, Meredith, Meredith Hurley.” Benjamin confirmed.

“Yeah, she's here.” Joshua replied, still perplexed as to who would be calling Meredith here, personally, at his own house of residency. “May I ask who's calling?”
 

“
Benjamin.” Was the reply.

It was as if the world stood still. There was a hesitation between the phone lines, and the electronic wires that pulled between them rested in a lumbering steadiness. Meredith had only mentioned Benjamin once, and that she was married, however it didn't seem to bother him at much as it did now, knowing that this husband wasn't just a fact, rather it was more then that – that it was a reality.

Joshua walked over to the bathroom door, and knocked on it.

“Meredith?” Joshua called out through the old wood. His voice was still strong, but more than anything, ached for recognition.

“Yeah?” Meredith replied back as she continued to dry herself off, barely collecting all the drops of the shower within the absorbency of an old towel that was ratted at the edges, and very thin.

“Phone call for you.” Stated Joshua.

Meredith suddenly stopped.

Meredith seemed rather confused. She flashed Joshua a puzzled look through the solidarity of the bathroom door, the lines between her eyebrows pushing in together into a fleshy squint.

“Who is it?” Asked Meredith.

Joshua didn't answer at first. He didn't want to answer, for he didn't want to receive back the response he was going to get back from her. Her husband was on the line, on the other end of his phone, while here she was, probably still naked, only inches thick away of an old door, from him. It wasn't something exactly of morality, a value that he most adhered too at all times, and Joshua felt that this lust, this eroticism for an older woman by the name of Meredith Hurley, confuse him even more so than ever. 

When Joshua didn't respond, Meredith took it to her liking, to pursue it even further. “Joshua, who is it?”

Joshua swallowed hard. A large lump sunk low in his throat. “It's, it's,” He stammered, finding it difficult to even say her husband's name. “Benjamin. It's Benjamin, Meredith.”

Meredith's nerves instantly went wild. Her stomach dropped. “Here?”

Meredith had clumsily forgotten that she had given out Joshua's number, in case of an emergency. She hadn't known Joshua very well, but it was the only phone around that she knew where the receiver would give her such news, as Joshua was a modern day knight, and she took advantage of that. She had not told Joshua that she had forwarded the number to her husband, in the slight repercussions that he may have been upset, although she didn't know why he should have been, as there was nothing physical going on between them. They were just friends, right? Friends who lightly flirted, and friends who had some lust in their hearts, but nothing more serious than that had happened, or could ever happen, and so Meredith had felt safe enough to share a number of a young hot guy that she was attracted to, but had not slept with, to her husband, in case of an emergency.

Meredith immediately wrapped the towel she was drying herself off with, and rushed out the bathroom door.

“Oh my god!” She screamed as she began to run towards the phone in the kitchen. She immediately thought bad thoughts. “Daniel!” Was her first thought, about her son and she instantly thought something terrible had happened to him. Why else would Benjamin have been calling?

“Meredith?” Benjamin's voice asked.

“Yes, .. yes?” Meredith's voice was breathless from running into the kitchen so fast so that she may grab the phone. She tried hard to keep her towel wrapped up and together, but it was too hard to keep the towel closed completely and the phone in her hand at the same time, so the towel slightly came off, exposing her right breast a little, her hardened nipple and peach colored aureola to show off a bit as Joshua walked past the kitchen and into the living-room. He was walking into the living room to give Meredith her her privacy, but it was her privacy, that she had unfolded to him. Joshua, seeing what he saw, instantly put his head down, quite embarrassed, and walked even faster until he was in the depth of the living room. He felt ashamed. Ashamed of seeing Meredith's breasts, while talking on the phone with her husband. He felt dirty.

“Is something wrong with Daniel?” Her words were quick, and foxy.

“No.”  Was Benjamin's monotone answer. It was good to hear that Daniel wasn't into any kind of trouble, but she felt even more sick to her stomach to know that Benjamin was calling her out of the blue. Why was he calling? Was he checking up on her? Perhaps he felt something through the miles that gave him the feeling that something wasn't quite right. Her curiosities would be answered soon.

“There are some things that I wanted to share with you. I won that case.” Said Benjamin.

“That's great Benjamin.” Replied Meredith dryly, caring more about what Joshua thought about Benjamin calling her in the early evening randomly, than her own husband winning a case that would strengthen his career even more.

Benjamin had noticed Meredith's lack of enthusiasm, and it instantly sprung him to think that perhaps not everything was alright with Meredith. “Everything okay?” He asked.

“Yes, yes it's fine.” She answered giddy, her voice like a see saw, going up and down as if it was trying very hard to prove that everything was okay, when it was nothing but. She was taking a strong liking to Joshua, and was feeling feelings that she shouldn't have, and she now, more than any other time of her life since driving here to Thunder Valley, was feeling guilty about it.  

Even though Meredith had done a poor job of covering up her true feelings, Benjamin, through the static line, and the distance, was convinced.

“How's the painting?”

“Good.” Replied Meredith. She lightly smiled, and although Benjamin couldn't see that she did, he felt that warmth through the phone line.

“All right, I do not want to bother you while you are working. Have a good time and drive safe when you come back, okay?” Said Benjamin.