~ TWENTY THREE ~
442 Words
Car wasn’t sure how he felt about staying the night with Karen. After his divorce, he spent about three years dedicated to the bottle. The next five were dedicated to the job. Sure, he was like any other person out there, he enjoyed the company of another now and then, but this was different than taking someone home from the bar. She wasn’t asking him to be there for s*x. To be there as a friend, of course, he wanted to be there for her. He also wanted to lounge around in his boxers eating delivered pizza and watching the baseball game. Somehow he didn’t think that was a good way to spend his first night with her. No, it meant, wearing jeans and a shirt all night, sleeping on the couch (at least it was a comfortable couch), and remembering to put the toilet seat down. Any other night he probably would have politely said no.
She seemed comfortable with him being around. Both were having a difficult time keeping a conversation rolling, but her ease with him while quiet helped. He didn’t feel a need to escape. The need he did have was for clean clothes, a shave, and a shower. Karen said he could do that there, so they wouldn’t have to leave. Well, not the clean clothes part. Car didn’t want it to seem like an errand-running for her. He didn’t want her to embrace staying at home and reliving her memories either. So, when they got into his car they drove around the neighborhood she lived in. He told her that he was interested in relocating to an area like this. It seemed homier than the tenement he called home. This wasn’t a lie, maybe more of a daydream if he thought of his bank account.
So, that’s what they did for a little while, just let the car crawl down one street and up the next, commenting on the paint and trim on one place or the little flower garden at the next. Before long it seemed to the man that Karen’s mood had lifted a little bit. Finding a way to laugh isn’t always difficult, sometimes all it takes is a look at the people around you...and knowing they can’t hear you when you do laugh.
They were cruising through the edges of town head for Car’s place when the police radio crackled. “Anyone not busy breaking up fights currently, and maybe near the 400 blocks of Willow have time to check something out?”
Lockley grinned, “Don’t you love how formal we are?”
That caused Karen to giggle a little bit.
- Writer
