Falling in Love (14 page)

“
Oh, come on. They’re
good. Try one.” He pitched another one, this time a little more
gently, over the display, and this time she caught it
perfectly.

He winked and then, spinning on a
dime, he went back the other way. His neck was a little red, his
head was down and yet he was whistling cheerfully. His eye kept
rolling up to look back at her, humorously enough, but he was
finally going away. That’s all she really cared at that exact
moment in time.

“
Idiot.”

She unwrapped it, still shaking her
head.

“
Crazy.
Weirdo.”

Yeah, she knew what
he
wanted.

Inside was a small square of milk
chocolate, which she popped into her mouth.

With a rising sense of mirth, and some
element of disbelief, she saw something scrawled on the inside of
the wrapper. His phone number! The nerve of some people’s kids. She
almost spit the chocolate out in her surprise, but it was already
half melted and partly chewed and it tasted all right. It tasted
okay—no poison or nothing.

At least she didn’t think
so. No one could be
that
crazy, right?

But then again, no one
could be
that
stupid, to actually put it in her mouth. It tasted all right.
In fact, it was very good chocolate. So the knucklehead had good
taste in chocolate.

How hard was that? Chocolate was
chocolate.

Big deal.

Stamping her foot a little, still sort
of mystified, she crumpled up the wrapper and with a quick glance
around, tossed it in behind a pile of candied apples, which by the
way were awesome here—she had occasionally dreamed of them, during
the long watches of the night, and she really wasn’t a heavy girl
or anything. They were just that good.

“
Kind of figured you’d do
that.” As she turned, he was right there and she drew up
suddenly.

He’d gone all the way around the outer
fringes of the store and come up from behind in the one and only
cross-aisle.

He pressed another candy into her
hand. She grinned in spite of herself, amused at his persistence.
He was a fairly nice-looking guy…but.

“
That’s for later.” He
stuck his hand in a brown paper bag and came up with a
handful.

She laughed and tried to duck around
him.

“
Stop. It. Oh,
Honey,
you’re making a
scene.”

She squealed and giggled and tried to
evade him, but he gently hip-checked her up against the display
shelf. They were both laughing now. When she tried to go first one
way, and then the other, he just blocked her. To the impatience and
disapproval of store staff, who were only now becoming aware of the
pair, a grinning Steve Parker stuffed as many chocolate candies
into as many of her pockets, as they dashed back and forth, from
side to side in the aisle, as he possibly could in the brief time
allotted.

“
Fuck off!”

The guy nodded, ever so humbly, in
mock surrender.

“
I’m sorry. I just can’t
help myself.” With one final wave and an insouciant grin, Parker
dropped her hand and she fled in precipitation, face all red with
embarrassment. “You have my humble apologies!”

He was backing off, bowing and
scraping, hands raised in surrender.

She was still giggling and at the same
time uttering dire imprecations—whatever the hell that means. There
was room so she bolted for the opening.

His theatrically loud
‘bwa-ha-ha…ha…ha’ followed Vicki out the big front archway and down
the mall as she strode off to the left, fighting the urge to look
back. She just couldn’t do it, ultimately. She had to know if he
was following her.

She risked a quick look
back.

He was standing in front of the store,
the now seriously depleted bag of goodies in one hand, looking
pointedly down at a small trail of colorful objects.

“
Hey, Vicki! You dropped
something!” He raised his arms like paws or something and bent his
knees, bobbing his head and made as if to sniff her trail, like a
bloodhound.

God, what a bad
actor.

“
Go to hell!”

How did he know my name?

That was weird.

Scene Two

Steven had been asking her friend at
work, Melanie, about her. Apparently he’d seen them together on
lunch and he knew Mel from somewhere.

So, he already had her phone number.
He’d been laying in wait, tipped off, most likely. The Aunt
Myrna-elderly-lady dental visit, for which she had taken time off
to drive her, coincided with his days off, or they might never have
met.

At least she had
some
idea of who was
calling.

She was going to kill Melanie. She was
going to slice Mel’s throat. Vicki pictured it in her
head.

Mel!

How could you.

Slice.

That was a bit harsh, but
really.

His voice on the phone was warm and
kind.

Her low-life boyfriend of three
months, Enrico, had latched onto some big-busted red-haired girl
and dumped Vicki with a heartless cruelty that said much about him.
It was in fact a synopsis of their short, brief and ultimately
nasty relationship. That was six weeks ago. She was still getting
over him, which was an irrational response, but one that was not
exactly unheard-of.

Yes, at one time she had found Enrico
attractive. Perhaps that could be put down to her own insecurity or
something, plus the fact that he was
not-overly-repulsively-ugly.

They should name a syndrome after it
or something.

The well-known, and fairly
common,
not-overly-repulsively-ugly
syndrome.

A lot of girls had it, or so she told
herself.

“
So, anyway, I was
wondering if you would maybe like to go out. I’d love to take you
out to dinner, or something like that. You know. Something
romantic. Maybe we could go to a movie, or a dance club,
whatever.”

“
Dance club?”

“
Well, yeah. You know.
Places where people go to dance, I mean,
really dance.
There are one or two
non-alcoholic places we could go, and I know at least one little
after-hours place. It’s not dry, but it’s not a tough crowd.
Nothing like that…I wouldn’t want to take you someplace that’s not
real nice.”

Sure beats pitchers of
watery draft beer, and peanut shells on the floor, while you sit
with a bunch of other hardened bimbos and our boyfriend plays pool
and tries to act tough, which he wasn’t, particularly.

Incidentally, your man is
flirting with anything that moves…

“
Ah, what the hell. Sure.
Why not.”

“
Really?” Steven seemed to
sort of sit up, if that was possible on the other end of the
phone.

It probably was, she
thought.

“
You really mean
that?”

“
Yes. I will go out with
you.”

What the hell. Any man who threw
chocolate at a girl couldn’t be all bad.

It wasn’t a bad approach, when you got
right down to it, and much more thoughtful than Enrico’s ‘yo-yo,
bitch,’ style of approach.

How she ever managed to fall for
someone like Enrico was a very good question.

Scene Three

Ten years had gone by, and, oh, how
those years had flown.

Steve was working the night shift down
at the refinery.

Vicki and the girls, Melissa, nine
years old, and Danae, who was just turning seven, were having a fun
sleepover. At least until they dropped off, at which point she’d
tiptoe off to the master bedroom.

“…
and so that’s how your
father and I met.”

“…
eeeeuuuwww. But, I guess
it is kind of romantic.” That was Melissa’s verdict. “I’ve often
wondered what you saw in him.”

Wise before her time, Melissa was, and
Vicki colored slightly, reaching out and patting her on the back of
the hand.

That’s a good
girl.

Danae looked at her mother with solemn
eyes, unwavering in their serious regard. They were on the bed
sitting cross-legged and Vicki sat sideways on the end.

They’d been telling each other all
kinds of mad stories.

“
And so that’s why you
love him, Mommy?” Danae’s logic was impeccable these
days.

Moisture filled Vicki’s eyes for some
reason.

“
Aw, yeesh.” Melissa
rolled her eyes.

“
Yes. That’s why Mommy and
Daddy love each other.”

Danae looked at Melissa. Some of the
heroine-worship for her older sister was already fading.

She looked back at her
mother.

They would soon be rivals, they would
almost certainly become squabbling teenagers, spoiled and neurotic
adults possibly, but one never knew. Although, she really didn’t
think so. Not with these two. They were a couple of well-balanced
maniacs, and Danae was about as precocious as all get
out.

That would, at least partially, be the
influence of her older sister, and one or two crazy aunts, no
doubt.

“
That doesn’t seem very
logical.” Danae shook her head firmly and Melissa
snickered.

Melissa looked at her mom.

“
All right, all
right.
Wise guys, eh.
What else ya got for us?”

Vicki threw her head back and laughed
out loud.

She had no regrets, not at all, and as
for that Enrico guy—what a slime-bucket he turned out to be. He was
reputed to be into crime, (it was in the papers) and he had been
sent away for armed robbery, not too long after she met Steve. She
had no idea of what happened to the busty girl. From time to time
she saw someone around town, someone who was getting a little older
now, but one who clearly resembled the girl she remembered. It
might have been her. They never gave each other a passing glance,
but it was a small town and people figured things out after a
while.

Things might have turned out a whole
lot different. Some folks just have no idea, but luckily for her
she did.

She had a very good idea of how things
might have gone.

“
I’ve got an idea.” It was
still early yet. “Who wants chocolate?”

“
Yay!”

The girls clapped and cheered in
agreement.

She’d hit the nail right on the head
with that one.

End

About the Author

Constance ‘Dusty’ Miller has written
fiction, non-fiction and worked for newspapers and magazines, even
working for a brief stint as sports editor of a small-town weekly.
She likes to make people laugh as well as think. Her erotica has
strong qualities of literary romance. Out of work and recovering
from a life-threatening illness, someone suggested writing erotica
which she initially rejected for lack of confidence. But love makes
the world go around, and Dusty can no longer deny its pull. Dusty
squeezes a little writing in between raising a daughter and
building up her business.

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Dusty
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