Page 26 of August Heat
“Five?” Krys leaned against the door. “You’re including me in those estimates? Since when am I a stranger, huh?”
“Sorry. Four.” Siobhan glanced down the darkened sidewalk. One car with its high beams lit ambled down the residential street. After that momentary blindness, Siobhan asked, “Are you walking home?”
“I usually do.”
“It’s good exercise, I guess. You don’t live too far, do you?”
Krys shrugged. “Over at sixth and Colorado. Not a big deal.”
“Still a little ways away…” Siobhan motioned to her car. “You want a ride?”
Although it was dark out, there was enough light from the streetlamps for Siobhan to catch the widening of Krys’s eyes. “You’re offering me to get in your car and drive me a whole five blocks to my house? A distance that I could easily walk in fewer than ten minutes at a leisurely pace?”
“Fine.” Siobhan sat down in her driver’s seat. “See you around.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Krys quickly rounded the front of the car and latched onto the passenger side handle. “Let’s not get hasty there, hon. I always accept free rides. I practically do it for a living.”
“This isn’t a fire truck.” Siobhan almost caught herself sayingain’t.Sheesh. She had been around Krys and her friends too much already. If Siobhan had one thing going for her, it was proper grammar. Most of the time. “I don’t have any sirens to set off.”
Krys snapped the seatbelt and shut the passenger side door. “Hate to break it to ya, but you already have.” She smashed her hand against her chest. “Right here.”
Siobhan started the car. “Are you always this cheesy?”
“Only if it’s working for you. Otherwise… yeah. I am. Sorry.”
“At least you’re honest.” After a cursory look up and down the street, Siobhan changed gears and pulled out onto Idaho Street.
She needed a few directions in the dark, when it was more difficult to read the road signs. She already had being an out-of-towner working against her, since people who had lived in town for more than a year could walk around the blocks with their eyes closed. Never mind people who were from around there.I can’t imagine growing up here.Siobhan left that thought in the dust as she turned the corner between Colorado and Arizona. Or was it Colorado and Sixth?
“This is it.” Krys was true to her word when she said she lived on the corner. A humble ranch house, like many of the others around it. Siobhan knew that the town was mostly divided by manufactured architecture styles, but it was rather hilarious how quickly things changed from cottage, to ranch, to Victorian-inspired in two blocks.That’s before you hit the trailer park or the two-story craftsmen they built a few years ago.Emily had wanted to purchase one that had recently hit the market when they moved to town. Siobhan needed the countryside to keep her sanity. “Thanks for dropping me off. Hope you had somewhat of a good time tonight. I kinda worry I keep showing you the most boring sides of myself.”
“We both have stressful jobs,” Siobhan said, allowing the car to idle. “I figure you’re much like me, in that you don’t have the patience for more stress in your after hours. I’m all about ‘boring’ in the evening.”
“I mean… hopefully not super boring?”
“Is there something wrong with dinner and TV?”
“I mean, there’s stuff to doafterthe talk shows, right?”
Yes, I get your meaning. Sex. Sex, sex, sex.That’s where Krys’s mind went, apparently. Siobhan didn’t blame her, but it wasn’t ideal for a second date conversation.
Or was it?
Pull yourself together. People have sex. You used to like it, remember? Yeah, you and Emily would watch the early viewing of Jay Leno and go to bed earlier. You guys weren’t in there to read or catch up on your sleep.Since Emily cheated on her, however, Siobhan’s libido had taken a hit. She chalked it up to aging and isolation. The few times she got the urge, she took care of it herself, and often wondered why she bothered afterward.
For every part of her that hated what Krys did to her, there was another part grateful to feel that way again. Yet there wasn’t any point to it if it only brought more pain.
“I’m not as big of a prude as you might think I am.” Siobhan said.
“Didn’t say I thought you were a prude.”
“You were thinking it.”
“Was I?”
Siobhan cleared her throat. “Maybe on the tenth date.”
“You an all or nothing kind of gal?”
