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I listened for a voice, for movement, for anything. Silence. My feelings of awkwardness at walking into a woman’s home as a stranger, turned on a dime into concern. The whole point of me being here in the first place is to check on her because she had a head injury. What if something was wrong? What if she wasn’t conscious? She could have complications or could have lost her balance and fallen.
Fuck.
I moved forward into the home now, no longer thinking about my discomfort. I walked past the stairs and down the short hall to the back of the house. As I turned left toward where I knew her bedroom was, I saw something appear down below in front of me. But it was too late to stop the momentum of my stride. Whatever it was caught my shin and tripped me, sending me tumbling forward onto the walnut floor below.
As I broke my fall with my hands, a shriek sounded out behind me and…
Thump.
The weight of something,someone, hit my back, flattening me against the floor. The juxtaposition of the hardwood planks below me and the decidedlysoftsomeone on top of me, had my body and brain misfiring all of this sensory information.
“What the fuck?”
“Darn it.” The form on top of my back shifted, but didn’t remove herself. “I will call the police! I have my phone ready.” Her voice, though a bit frazzled, was sweet as honey across my ear. Which I’m sure wasn’t her intention, but the fact that she couldn’t keep the sweetness out of it made me all kinds of curious. And the unmistakable feel of curves against my back had my body reacting in ways I knew were wildly inappropriate.
“Alright.” I don’t know why I replied with that, but there we were.
“I mean it!”
“I believe you. And normally, I’d say you did a great job overpowering the intruder. You got me face down. You’re on top.”Fuck.“You’re uh, the one with the power here.”Shut up.“You did very solid self-defense work.” I said, pleased I could say one thing without a double entendre sitting between us.
“I did, didn’t I?”
“Yep. Except I’m just here to check on you, Hannah. ‘Cause of the concussion and all.”
A pause.
“You know my name?”
“I do.”
“Who are you?”
“I’m your neighbor. Bobby sent me.”
“Mr. Hennessy said he’d be stopping by today.”
“Yeah, well, Bobby was worried about you, but he doesn’t do stairs so well anymore. Bum knee. And he’s like two hundred years old.”
“That’s not very nice.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy to death. But he’s old as dirt. He’s not exactly the person you turn to when you have an emergency or you need nursing.”
“I don’t need nursing.”
“Apparently not.”
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“Why would I lie about this? I was literally calling out your name when I came in here. If I was up to no good, I wouldn’t have announced myself.”
Another pause.
“I suppose that makes sense.”
“So maybe you could get off me so I can get up?”
“Oh, right.”
