Page 7 of Little Etheldreda Riding Hood

“So,” I smile back.

“I’m usually way cooler about this, probably because I’m usually a little drunk at this point, but you wouldn’t be interested in…” he trails off and I can’t help myself.

“Another round of Uno? Milk and cookies at your house?”

He laughs. “Well it would involve my place, seeing as you’re traveling through.”

I may not be a knot thot, but I have yet to get a hook-up phase.

“I don’t normally…Am I going to have to fight you to use a condom?” I ask, not sure where this bluntness comes from.

He shakes his head. “Never. And I have a clean bill of health.”

I bite my lip and he turns those eyes on me again. That decides it. I stand up and pull my jacket on. “I’ll follow you in my car.”

Chapter Three

In Which We Make Mrs. James Proud

Snow turns to large drops of ice cold rain on my windshield as I follow behind Zach’s fancy pickup in the dark. He pulls into an apartment complex near the highway and backs his giant pickup into a spot. The apartments are more like a large group of plain white duplexes than what I’d consider apartments, but they’re nice and the grounds are well maintained. They’re also tiny–one, maybe two bedrooms, max.

He meets me at my car door with an umbrella and holds it over me as I step out, a mischievous grin on his face.

“Still here?” he says, his voice teasing, but still making me wonder if he thought I’d drive off into the night. Maybe I should have. Maybe I still should.

He smiles and extends a hand.

“My apartment is on this side,” he says, and I take his hand, making yet another tiny decision that’s probably stupid, but I’m twenty-five. I’ve only ever been with one man my whole life. I should get to “see the world” before I settle into spinsterhood. Mrs. James would definitely approve.

Zach leads me across the parking lot to a building with doors all marked with numbers in the two hundreds. He unlocks his front door and pushes it open for me, motioning for me to go ahead of him. I step inside and strip my soaked boots and socks off.

A low trilling meow echoes in the dark. Zach flips the light in time for me to see a small black cat rubbing against my leg.

“You have a cat?” I ask, as I reach down to run a hand over her silky black fur. “I thought all wolves were allergic.”

He looks at me strangely. “No more so than anybody else. That’s Dolly Purrton. Consider yourself one of the chosen ones. She doesn’t come out for most people.”

“You named your cat named Dolly Purrton?” I ask, not sure if he is joking with me or not.

“You have a problem with Dolly? That woman is a saint.” Zach picks up the cat and rubs her head as he turns to look at me defiantly.

I shake my head and smile. “She is a saint, for sure.”

He takes my jacket and hangs it on a hook for me by the door, then heads towards the small kitchen. Dolly and I follow.

“I’m going to feed Dolly really quick. Do you need anything? Water? A snack?”

Sanity.

The ability to not make this awkward.

I’m probably not going to get either in the next few minutes, so I shake my head and smile. “No, I’m good.”

He fills up Dolly’s food and water, turns out the light and takes my hand. “I’m usually a lot smoother than this.”

That makes me laugh. “That’s one of us. I’m never smooth. Honestly, I’ve never done this before.”

That stops him. “Had sex?” Even in the dim light of the hallway I can see how that thought terrifies him a bit.

---