a girl scout. And seeing the sweet Cammie? That may happen tomorrow after some sleep…and coffee.” She stood by the front door, patiently waiting for him to unlock the door.
Suddenly he was glad that it was dark. It helped him hide his embarrassment. “I don’t have a key. The key was on my key ring that Sam stole…”
“Fuck. You really didn’t think this through, did you? Is it any wonder that I call you ‘genius?’” She dropped her bag and stomped around on the front stoop for a moment.
By the time her tantrum ended, he was already over near the tree. “I used to climb this and follow that branch right there over to the roof. Then I’d enter through the attic window. To the right near the center beam is the garage access. The stairs will just drop down. And I can go through the garage door to get into the house.” He patted the tree, walking around the trunk. The wooden bench was gone. That would make it more difficult. And then there was his leg. He had noticed that it seemed stiffer and achier when it was cold ever since the accident.
Soon he was back around the side of the tree he had started on. Adam had expected to run into Cammie, but she wasn’t there. She also wasn’t at the front door any longer. She wasn’t in her car. He looked around the tree. She was nowhere to be found. “Ummm, hello?” He called out tentatively.
“Up here!” She called down in a loud whisper.
Sure enough, when he peered up into the bare branches, he found her making her way across one of the larger sturdier ones, heading toward the house. He was gripped with fear. “What are you doing? Get down here this minute.” And the minute the words escaped his lips, he froze. “Dammit, you made me channel my father!” He shivered.
“Stop distracting me. This isn’t as easy as it looks. There’s frost on the tree.” She held her arms out from her side.
“It’s dangerous! You could crack your skull!” He was following her progress, standing directly below her.
She glanced down and halted. “What? Are you planning on catching me?”
“Of course. What? I’m going to let you fall? You’d probably sue the hell out of us!” He tried to joke, but really, his voice was strained. Just then she dropped. He held his arms out. He closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
“Seriously?” She sounded annoyed. “You thought you were going to catch me with your eyes closed?”
His arms were outstretched. His eyes were squeezed shut and because his arms were still empty, he was truly afraid to open them.
“You are just this side of useless, you know that?” She laughed to punctuate the end of that sentence.
He laughed and his eyes flew open. Only one other woman had ever dared speak to him like that and now she was living with his brother. Then there was Cammie, hanging upside down from the branch, dangling just in front of him. Without thinking, without considering how she might react, he simply leaned in and kissed her full lips. It was just a peck really. The briefest touch. Even though he hadn’t thought that through, hadn’t planned for that moment at all, countless images came to mind. Pictures of a future he wanted to have, a future with Cammie in it, were assaulting him. They were impossible thoughts, impossible ideas, completely unattainable. Despite the fact that they’d never slept together, something told him they were never going to. She hated him. That much was obvious from their conversations and interactions thus far. And if that wasn’t enough, the look of utter revulsion on her face following the kiss was enough.
Now he had no idea how to react. He blurted out the first thought that came to mind. “Are you a lesbian?”
She righted herself on the branch and seemed to be preparing to continue her journey across it to the house, but his words had jarred her. “Did you really just ask me that?”
He could feel her gearing up to give him a tongue lashing, and after that experience, not the good kind. “No one has every looked so disgusted by my kiss before.” He continued to walk under her towards the house. “Is it my breath?” He breathed into his cupped palm. “No. It’s not that.” And yet even as he spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out some Tic Tacs, dumped a few