Unforgettable (9 page)

David was my third, and I loved the
feel of him, the sound of him, the taste…

I played with the tuft of chest hair
popping out of his Brooks Brother’s shirt.

“
Perhaps we should go
upstairs, take our clothes off,” he kissed my fingers, “and explore
the existential concept of reality… Some of my anatomy appears
quite real at the moment.”

Jack was suddenly behind
him.

“
Down you beast. She’s
leaving her clothes on.”

“
Jack, they’re my clothes.”
I winked at David and left.

He walked toward Jack. I heard him as I
walked away…

“’
Need to talk to you…that
is if I can stand upright, and walk. Lord what a woman…That
apartment building on the west side…”

I sat by the pool. Roger sat next to
me. “You’re staring at the pool.”

I smiled. He was incredibly
cute.

“
Go in.”

“
I don’t have a bathing
suit.”

“
That doesn’t seem to be an
issue for most people here.”

“
They don’t have pentagrams
on their bellies.”

He took his tee shirt off and slipped
it over my head.

“
Take your top and your
jeans off, little girl, and wear my shirt. I’ll go in with
you.”

He helped me untie my top and slip my
clothes off under the tent of his shirt.

“
Come on.”

I was afraid to move. He picked me up,
threw me on his shoulder, and carried me in.

I splashed him and a pool-wide water
fight ensued.

I noticed Jack had his arms around a
tall woman with long, dramatic red hair. I felt a twinge, a little
jealous stab. I tried to let it go.

After swimming I went upstairs and got
a shower.

Someone knocked.

“
Come in.”

It was David looking very mellow. He
played with my towel. He sat on the bed and watched me.

“
You had fun
tonight.”

“
Yes. For the first time in
a very long time.”

“
I’m glad.”

“
I’ll just be a
minute.

I closed the bathroom door and put a
tee shirt and shorts on.

“
There. Much
better.”

I sat on the bed next to
him.

“
What’s up?”

“
Lord, you smell edible. I
want to take you out tomorrow night.”

“
Can’t.”

“
Oh?”

“
I can’t leave the
compound.”

“
Says…

“
The police and
Jack.”

“
House arrest?”

“
No, more like house
protection.”

He nodded.

“
Jack told me about the
Terminator. Why don’t you let me take care of the protection part.”
He held my hand. “Where would you like to go?”

“
I have no idea. Maybe the
ocean. The beach.”

“
Done.”

“
David. How…”

“
Don’t worry about how. I’ll
talk to Jack and I’ll work it out with Roger.”

I smiled.

“
What should I
wear?”

“
Whatever you
like.”

I lay down on the bed and he followed
facing me.

“
David, there’s something
you should know before this goes too far. And you can’t tell
Jack.”

“
Tell me.”

I told him about Welsh. I raised my
shirt and showed him the pentagram.

He ran his finger over it, his eyes
sad.

“
Sammy…I’m so
sorry.”

I nodded.

“
What no one knows is that I
can’t have sex.”

“
I don’t understand. A
physical problem…”

“
No. Mental. I panic. I
can’t do it. I tried. With this guy named Pete. I couldn’t do it
and he was really pissed. I never heard from him again. And because
it was so awful it’s just heightened the problem.”

“
I see. And how old was this
caring gentleman?”

“
Young.”

“
You see, Sammy, most young
men are like wind-up toys. They get charged up and can’t stop. They
haven’t learned what us more mature men have mastered.”

“
Which is…”

“
Enjoying the moment.
Knowing that one hard-on that doesn’t end in an orgasm is not the
last hard-on you’ll ever have. Knowing that the richness of
intimacy is much more than slam/bam. It’s a touch, a word.” He
touched my face with such tenderness I thought I would
melt.

Questions were darting through my mind.
I wanted to trust him. I wanted his help, but, the thought was so
scary.

“
I had therapy for a long
time to deal with all of this and my therapist suggested a
surrogate lover. I’ve thought about asking Jack or Fritz but…it’s
so tangled up with everything else right now I just didn’t think it
would work.”

“
So…” He moved
closer.

“
This is very
difficult.”

“
I know,” he rested his hand
on my inner thigh. It wasn’t too scary.

“
But I do know a bit about
panic attacks. I lived with a woman who had them. Crowds were a
real problem. I took her to a Lakers’ game and we ended up calling
an ambulance for her. So we worked on smaller crowds, working our
way up to big, pushy crowds. Took a while, but she made
it.”

I stared into his crystalline green
eyes for a long time, thinking, wondering.

“
So, if you would be this
sort of ‘healing’ lover for me we would start…”

“
Maybe just spending time
together, time in bed, time in various states of clothing. But
agreeing no sex until you feel you want to start some foreplay…See,
you and this unfortunate fellow were like throwing a kid in the
deep end who’s terrified of the water. You were breathing in water
and he simply pushed you further down. You and I, dear lady, will
start together with just a touch of the water while on the safety
of land.”

“
No one could know. And, no
promises about any long term relationship. No promises.”

“
You’re getting scared now.
No need to think that far ahead. But…no promises. Just our very
special secret.”

“
Why would you do this for
me? We just met.”

He laughed and lay on his back. “Oh, my
naive young woman…Number one, I can’t stop thinking of you. Number
two, I can’t stand the thought that you’ve been through hell and
you’re still going through hell. And number three, men are fixers.
I want to fix this. And, to be honest, once you make it through
this I’m going to enjoy the hell out of celebrating with
you.”

He grinned.

I kissed him and we kissed for a long
time.

“
Trust you?”I
whispered.

“
Trust me. Completely. I
would never hurt you. Tomorrow night. Seven. Dinner. The
beach.”

He took my hand.

“
Where are we
going?”

“
To drive Jack
crazy.”

He laughed.

George approached Martha
McMorris with a smile.

"Good evening, I'm working
with the Girls and Boys Club and we're asking for donations to put
in a new basketball court."

He handed her an official
looking flyer.

"Oh, that's
wonderful."

He leaned heavily on the
cane he'd just purchased from the thrift store.

"It's a great program. Ever
since I got back from Afghanistan it's been my focus. Really a life
saver for me..."

"My son was there. He won't
talk about it... would you like to come in for some iced
tea?"

George smiled.

"Thank you. That's so kind.
My leg is hurting a bit..."

He put the bug in their
phone while she was in the kitchen.

Easy. So fucking
easy.

Sunday

I woke in Jack’s bedroom. And then I
remembered that “my” room had been occupied with partiers when I
went to bed. The room was huge, with deep brown carpeting, an old,
weathered wooden gate hanging over the bed.

Above the fireplace was a drawing, a
striking woman with a beckoning face, full breasts and long
hair…and wings.

I stared at the signature. It was J
Nolan.

“
Jack’s an artist. ‘Didn’t
know that.”

Jack was sleeping in the den. The red
head was gone.

Silverman had just walked
in.

“
Do you have good news for
me?”

He hesitated and then shook his
head.

“
We’re fairly certain he’s
hanging around your apartment. In fact we almost caught him
yesterday.”

“
You want me to go back to
the apartment.”

“
Your good friend Roger has
volunteered to go with you. You might have to hang out a while.
We’d have the place staked out like crazy. But, there’s always
risk.”

“
No.” Jack was leaning
against the wall.

I looked at Roger.

“
You don’t have to do this.
It’s a risk. He’s a big man. An evil man. More evil than you will
ever meet again.”

“
I know, Sam. I insisted. I
volunteered. Marines are always first.” he whispered.

I walked into the house but Jack
grabbed me.

“
Don’t do this, baby. One
stab. One shot. That’s all it will take.”

Silverman stood up.

“
What she knows, Mr. Nolan,
is that he won’t kill her quickly. He’ll take his time to kill
her…but we won’t let him.”

Roger, Jack and Fritz were all
downstairs waiting for me.

“
Gloria and three more of
our team are already over there.”

I nodded.

“
You and I are a couple,”
Roger told me. “I’m wired. Gloria will be close, the police will be
there but undercover. We need to make a lot of noise. See what
happens. You ready for this?”

“
Yes.”

Roger walked out but Jack took my hand.
He walked me into the dining room, sat on the table and pulled me
to him.

“
I have to go…they’re all
waiting.”

He nodded.

“
What’s your favorite
dessert?”

“
Chocolate chip mint ice
cream.”

He played with the ruffle on my blouse,
barely touching my breasts.

“
That’s mine, too. Better
come back real soon or I’ll eat it all.”

I patted his chest, kissed his nose,
and grinned.

Roger and I drove Jack’s SUV. I felt
small and cold.

We seemed to get there much too
fast.

“
Happy, happy,” he smiled.
He was such a cute little soldier.

Roger walked around the car and hugged
me, giving me a big kiss.

“
Smile,” he whispered. “I
hear we’re going on a picnic.”

“
Picnic. Right. Just put
some clothes…just a few…in a bag and pack a lunch. Then we’ll
leave. And no thread in the door.”

“
You knew about the thread
in the door?”

“
Absolutely. Good technique
but you were a bit obvious with it.”

I opened the door. The apartment was
hot so I turned on the small unit in the wall.

“
In about an hour it’ll be a
few degrees cooler.”

He laughed.

“
I don’t care sweetie,” he
slapped me on the ass, “as long as I’m here with you. Can’t wait to
get to the beach.”

I gave him a boy-am-I-going-to-get-you
look and nodded.

The frig was almost empty but I made
sandwiches out of very old cheese and moldy bread.

“
HideeHo
neighbor.”

The short blonde man from last week
came in carrying a heavy metal tray with cupcakes.

“
Sandra, right? Julio made
these last night—I cook and clean and he bakes. Aren’t they
wonderful? He never gains an ounce. I like the pink
ones.”

He had a shrill, annoying
laugh.

“
The blue and yellow are
good, too. But I just can’t gain one more pound so I saw you and
this gorgeous hunk of meat… You work fast, honey. Where’d you get
him?”

The man brushed against Roger, saw his
weapon, and smashed the tray of cupcakes in Roger’s face. He pulled
an ice pick out of his pocket and stabbed Roger in the upper thigh.
Roger screamed.

I jumped on the man’s back and squeezed
his throat, pulling back as hard as I could. The man collapsed,
choking and gasping. Before I knew what was happening Roger punched
him in the side of the head. He dropped like a fat
raindrop.

“
Move in!” Roger
screamed.