AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Juggling her backpack, purse and empty lunch bag, she got the door unlocked and threw everything inside, then came back for the flowers. They were unwieldy, long stemmed, in a monumental vase of white hobnail.
With her heart pounding, she removed the purple cellophane to reveal beautiful roses, a dozen fragrant blooms. Most of them were completely open, and the effect was heady and breathtaking. With shaking hands, she reached for the card. The patient wouldn’t have sent her flowers like this.
Slowly pulling the card out of the envelope, she read the printed message on the outside.
Can’t get you out of my mind.
Savoring the sensation of joy, she waited to open the flap. Who’d write such a thing? She could only think of one man. With her eyes closed, she remembered, inappropriately perhaps, undressing him in the emergency room, his body like a Greek statue but youthful, until the pants came off and then, yikes! She’d quickly covered him with a blanket before anyone came in and saw, knowing the comments that might ensue. Shaking her head—why was she thinking about his naked body? The flowers might not have come from him.
Opening up the card, she read the words out loud. “I don’t think I can wait until after Thanksgiving. Let’s do FaceTime tonight. Please text me when you get home.”
While Wendy Adams prepared to see Oliver on the screen of her phone, Joanne was fixing a salad for dinner. Todd McGee, her boyfriend and theater group colleague, sat on a barstool, listening to her speech about Oliver Saint. When she’d arrived home after seeing him that afternoon, Todd was waiting on the porch of her apartment.
“What are you doing here?”
“I was worried about you. That’s all. Worried he’d take advantage of you.”
“You needn’t have wasted your energy. He wasn’t vaguely interested, as usual. He agreed we should part ways while it was still amicable. I told him about you.”
“What did he say?”
“He claims to be glad. He even said he hoped we could remain friends because we’ve known each other for so long.”
“That’s unlikely,” Todd replied. “As soon as he finds someone else, you won’t want to have anything to do with him.”
“Todd, I’m not interested in pursuing any kind of relationship with him. It would be pointless. His focus all along has been on football, not me. When we were kids, all we ever did was watch football at his parents’ house on the weekend. I don’t think we ever went to a party or hung out with other kids. I should have known he wasn’t going to change.”
“Were you ever alone?”
“Clare Saint was a jackass. She let us go back into his bedroom, and we would horse around for hours. I was lucky I didn’t get pregnant. But it was just sport to him. He didn’t love me.”
“I’m so sorry, Joanne. If it’s any consolation, I love you.”
“Aw, baby, thank you. I love you, too.”
“Are you okay that our social life revolves around the theater group?” Todd asked.
“I am because they’re my friends, too. And they do more than plays. His friends were so one-dimensional. Football, football, football. Oh, add weightlifting in there somewhere. Can’t forget that. And the women hangers-on, oh my God, they were just as bad as the guys. I felt like Olive Oyl from Popeye.”
Todd bit his tongue to keep from laughing so she didn’t misinterpret his response. But he felt the same way when he saw Oliver Saint’s picture or watched him play football.
“You know I can’t compete with those guys,” he said. “I’m shorter than you are.”
She grinned at him, thinking of the ways his height made certain aspects of lovemaking so much easier than having sex with a huge guy like Oliver.
“I don’t know how tall you are when you’re inside me,” she drawled.
“Do I measure up?” he asked, a worried look on his face.
“You’re perfect.”
Another thing she’d avoid telling him: she couldn’t get on top of Oliver because he was too big.
“I felt like histhingwas going to pierce myhooha,” she’d told her girlfriends, who were then all jealous of her. She’d heard more than once that they’d gladly trade places with her.
It wasn’t a problem she’d have with Todd. They ate dinner together, and she shared more about her disappointment in the time she felt she’d wasted with Oliver.
When they were finished eating, Todd took her hand and kissed it. “Do you know what I’d really like to do right about now?”
