Who was I kidding? They were al my favorites.
“Be good,” he said against my mouth.
I sighed again.
“I’l try.”
He was laughing when he put me back into bed.
It was only when he was gone that I realized I stil had fear lodged in my throat. It wasn’t fear of men with guns and knives and rape on their mind, it was a whole other kind of fear that, cal me crazy, was far worse.
* * * * *
The alarm went off and I hit the snooze, thanking God for one smal favor, that the snooze button was always the biggest one. The alarm went off again, and again I hit the snooze.
This happened two more times.
At 7:15, I stared bleary-eyed at the clock, let out a little scream and jumped from the bed.
I was in my underwear and one of Eddie’s flannel shirts, hair wet from a fast shower and in a complete tizzy, when there came a pounding at the door.
It was Bobby.
Bobby was built like a tree and he looked like a member of the Tex Family, except younger and before the crazy kicked in. Just before.
He did a body scan and his eyebrows went up.
“I’m running late, can you wait?” I said to him.
He shrugged, sat down on the couch, grabbed a remote and found a bal game.
“How can there be a bal game on at 7:30?” I said, exasperated, staring at the screen.
“English footbal , it’s later there. Man U vs. Arsenal, a friendly.”
It was like he was speaking in code but I wasn’t real y listening, I was staring at the screen.
These guys didn’t wear pads and helmets that hid their faces, these guys didn’t wear sil y pants with gathers at the ankles.
These guys wore shorts and shirts, no hats or helmets and you could see, straight out, they were hot.
I sat down on the arm of the couch and watched.
Some official looking guy threw a yel ow flag.
“What’s that mean?” I asked.
Bobby explained someone did something bad but I wasn’t listening, al the players were pissed off and getting in each other’s faces.
I pushed Bobby over and sat down ful y on the couch.
Twenty minutes later, Bobby looked at me. “Don’t you need to get to work?” he asked.
Shit!
“Shit!” I said, jumped up and ran to the coffeepot. I made Bobby a coffee, made one for me and did the getting ready business.
It was nippy and not the normal, bright, sunshiny Colorado day. I put on a fitted heathered gray t-shirt, a wool, aubergine, ribbon cardigan, jeans and my high-heeled black boots. Hair back in a ponytail, minimum makeup, spritz of fancy perfume and ready to rol .