Nobody Girl (4 page)

“Sorry kids, I
gotta
kick you out,” Jim said as he reached for Delia’s still half full martini glass.

Delia looked at her watch and felt completely embarrassed that she had just spent four and a half hours talking to a complete stranger in a bar. She just couldn’t believe how easy it was to talk to him. She had been married to Jason for four years yet couldn’t recall a time when they had spent more than thirty minutes talking. And the conversation was usually about him.

Chase, on the other hand, rarely spoke about himself. Instead, he just listened to Delia and even seemed interested in what she had to say. He found her former job with the National Science Institute fascinating and even asked questions about it.  He laughed at her stories about Donna Lee, and the best part, he didn’t stare at her breasts. Of course, with the shirt she had buttoned up to her neck, he wouldn’t have seen much anyway.

“May I escort you to your room?” he asked, standing and reaching for her hand.

Feeling as if she were being courted by a gentleman, she felt herself flush. That simple question and the tiny gesture of him taking her hand nearly made her cry. For the first time in her life she felt … special.

He never relinquished her hand. She noted the unique way he held hands with her. It wasn’t static or stationary. His hands continuously moved over and caressed hers as if he was a blind man trying to memorize the outline of her fingers and palms.

They walked hand in hand along the deck of the Golden Swan, staring out into the sea enjoying the warm summer breeze drifting from the coast of Barbados. They took the long route back to the cabins and even stopped along the way to play an impromptu moonlight game of shuffle board.

“How are you so good at this?” Delia squealed after missing her mark for the third time.

“Years of practice. I told you I’m on this boat every summer. Not only can I spank you in shuffle board, but I can also whip you in bridge, mahjong, and horseshoes.” He smiled then said, “By the end of this cruise, you’ll be able to hold your own. And by next year, I bet you’ll be giving me a run for my money.”

When they stopped in front of Delia’s cabin to part ways, she realized she didn’t want to part. Just the idea that she was attracted to a man other than Jason excited her. Not only was she attracted to him, but he seemed to like her as well. Maybe she wasn’t as worthless as she thought.

***

Chase’s heart nearly stopped when they reached Delia’s door. He didn’t want to leave her, but he also didn’t want her to invite him in. Though he wanted her badly, he couldn’t afford a relationship at this point in his life. But maybe it didn’t have to be a relationship, maybe just a … He shook that thought away. There was no way he could use her like that. After the night they’d had, the conversation, the long looks into her emerald eyes, he thought he might be …well, he wasn’t going to use the L word yet, but he did know that something very special had happened to him.

“Well, this is me,” Delia said, nodding to the door.

“Right, of course,” Chase jammed his hands into his creased black pants in order to resist the urge to scoop her up into his arms. “So, will I see you again?”

“Yeah, sure, do you want to do breakfast?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Chase looked down at his shoes and kicked at an invisible stone like a shy teenager on his first date.

After Chase had kicked the invisible stone to death, he began to awkwardly pick the paint off the door frame as he waited for his confidence to surge and give him the needed boost to make a move. Finally, he took in a deep breath and said, “Can I kiss you now?”

After a cute, demure smile crept across her face, she nodded her head and he leaned in to claim his prize.

Chase teased her lips with two or three soft, endearing pecks before pressing his mouth firmly to hers. Then he wrapped his arm around her and brought her body so close to him that he could feel her heart racing. A warm, velvety tongue parted her full lips and began to slowly, tenderly and erotically probe the depths of her mouth. Delia moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned the passion of his kiss.

They stood there, lips and bodies locked, until they were both hot and breathless. Then, Chase remembered his position. This was not the time, he said to himself as he pulled away. For God’s sake, she lived in D.C. What would happen if they met after the cruise?

“I better go,” he breathed.

“Yeah, you better go,” she repeated as if delirious.

He tasted her lips one more time before relinquishing his hold. Even after she’d closed the door behind her, he couldn’t escape the image of her eyes, her smile and her lips.  Chase rested his forehead on her door.
What have I done?
he
thought.

“Honestly, I think I was born in the wrong decade,” Chase said two days later at lunch. “I mean, how cool would it be to live in a time when people got dressed up to go to the supermarket? Men wore suits and ties and hats and just looked sharp all the time.”

Chase took a bag of nacho cheese Doritos and crumpled them all over his shrimp salad. Delia noticed he added Doritos to nearly every meal. At first she thought it was odd; now she thought it was one of his many adorable quirks.

“And the music.
Don’t get me started on the music. Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, Perry Como, music that is timeless and just plain … beautiful.”

He smiled and looked at Delia when he said the word ‘beautiful’ as if he was referring to her as well. Then he continued with endearing child-like exuberance as he said, “I mean, think about the music today. Are we going to be talking about it like
this
fifty years from now?
Probably not.
Young people today don’t listen to music with such simple, pure, yet honest, relevant, and poetic lyrics.”

Then suddenly, he was out of his seat and singing the lyrics to “Embraceable You”. He took Delia’s hand, stood her up and started swaying to the imaginary music and continued singing the incredibly romantic lyrics. He actually had a pretty good voice. Other people in the restaurant began to smile and stare at the two young lovers dancing around the tables to no music at all. Then someone sat at the piano and began musical accompaniment.

 
Chase wrapped his arms around her and dipped her. Normally, Delia would have been mortified with this sort of display. She would have needed to bring out her allergy medication for the fit of sneezes it would have caused, but something about Chase put her at ease. She just let herself relax and enjoy the moment.
When he finished, the restaurant erupted in applause.

“There are two fatal flaws in your desire to return to the fifties and sixties,” Delia said once they had sat back down to their lunch.

“Really, what?”

“Well, in the fifties, our relationship would not be accepted.”

Chase knew she referred to their different races, but what struck him more was that fact that she thought they were in a relationship. He had already let it go too far.

“Do you have a problem with my race?” she asked, noticing a change in his demeanor.

“What? Oh, no, of course not. I couldn’t care less that you’re … Actually, I don’t even know what race you are.”

“Honestly, neither do
I
. Since I’ve never met my parents, there’s no way I can be sure.”

“Have you ever thought about trying to find them?”

“I wouldn’t even know where to start. Besides, I wouldn’t want to upset the only mother I’ve known. I don’t want her to think she wasn’t enough for me.”

“I can’t imagine how hard it
is for you not knowing
where you come from.”

Delia looked down at her plate and started pushing around the pasta noodles as she had suddenly lost her appetite.

“So what was the other fatal flaw?” he asked cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood.

“What? Oh, well,” Delia reached across the table, grabbed the half-empty bag of chips and dumped the rest of the contents on top of her pasta.
“In the fifties, no Doritos.”

***

After lunch they went for a swim together in one of the ship’s outdoor pools. Completely self-conscious of her body, including her freakishly large boobs, Delia sat on the edge of the pool still wearing her bathrobe as Chase splashed around her trying to convince her to jump in.

Now
he
had a great body, Delia thought. He was built kind of like a soccer player with well-defined muscles, but nothing over the top. His muscles were natural, long, and lean. Not like Jason, who would spend hours a week in the gym, tanning beds, and waxing salons searching for that hunky look. It was a look that was attractive to the majority of women. Jason could take off his shirt and women would faint. For Delia, however, his beauty rituals wore her thin and made her feel even more inadequate about her body. Somehow Chase’s body turned her on even more than Jason’s did.

Looking around the pool didn’t help her self-consciousness. She felt she stuck out too much. There were sixty and seventy-year-old women strutting around in bikinis letting their wrinkles hang in all their glory. Meanwhile she was sitting there with a 34D bust and a 26 inch waist afraid to show her modest one piece for fear she’d look like a cartoon character.

After pleading with her several times to join him in the water, Chase decided to take matters into his own hands. He swam up to her innocently then grabbed her by the legs and dunked her underwater, bathrobe and all. Delia squealed and tried to kick herself free.

Her kicking and squirming proved fruitless as he was much too strong for her. After a few moments, she relaxed in the water and let him hold her.

“You’re beautiful,” he whispered in her ear.

The weight of the bathrobe soon tired her so she took it off and laid it by the side of the pool.

***

Even though they had spent every waking moment together —even a few non-waking moments —for the past few days, he had never seen her in anything revealing. He loved her modesty. She reminded him of the classy women of the forties and fifties. But when she took off her robe and he got a glimpse of her true figure, he gasped. She was simply breathtaking. He had to control his manly urge to grope her right there in public.

***

Feeling a little guilty for monopolizing all of Chase’s time, Delia suggested he spend the afternoon with his grandmother. Well, the real reason for the suggestion was that she wanted some time alone to shop for the perfect dress for their last night on the ship. She wished she had taken Donna Lee up on her offer to go shopping before she left DC. But she hadn’t anticipated meeting someone like Chase. He was absolutely the right guy at the right time. She didn’t feel insecure or invisible when she was with him. She just felt … alive.

While looking through the clothing racks at Becky’s, the ship’s dress boutique, she tried to imagine what Donna Lee would want her to wear. In fact, she wondered what Donna Lee would do if she were about to go dancing possibly for the last time with a handsome perfect stranger.  She didn’t have to wonder too hard. Delia had memories of detailed Donna Lee exploits and one night stands. She never remembered her beautiful, confident sister ever crying over a guy. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad way to live, she thought.