Looking for Julie (9 page)

Pam was on her cell. “Today?” she screeched. “Why today?” She glanced at Edie and calmed down. “Okay, okay. I know I said I would. I’ll be there in half.” She snapped her phone shut. “I’m sorry. I promised to help with some stuff.”

“Hey, that’s okay. I need to get home anyway.”

“I don’t have time for a personal life anymore.” Her phone buzzed and she looked at the display. “Give me a minute.”

“Sure.”

“Hi, Claire. What’s up?” A pause. “Why do you need a ride? Can’t Janine take you back to your place?” Another pause. “I can’t.”

Edie’s heart leaped and she tapped Pam on the shoulder. “I can do it.”

“Wait a minute.” Pam put her hand over the mouthpiece. “You can?” When Edie nodded, Pam’s eyes betrayed her disappointment. It had probably been the story of her life, and Edie felt badly for her but not badly enough. “Edie’s here. She says she can take you home. You want to talk to her?” She handed Edie the phone.

“I’ll need directions,” she said, thinking she was a fool to do this.

“Pam can give them to you. I’ll be out front, looking for you.” Edie handed the cell back to Pam, who closed it.

Edie had trouble meeting Pam’s gaze after Pam wrote down directions. She didn’t like herself at the moment, but Pam seemed grateful. Maybe she thought Edie would get Claire out of her system.

“Thank you for letting me stay over.”

Pam gave her a hug and said, “Good luck and, by the way, I started reading your book last night and could hardly put it down.”

Edie paused to say thanks again before going out the door.

Claire was pacing back and forth on a street a few blocks from Pam’s, which should have taken her only ten minutes to find instead of half an hour. She pulled up to the curb, and Claire slid in. Her hair was tangled and she looked mad. The tip of her nose was bright red.

“Sorry,” Edie said. “The one-way streets are confusing.”

“That’s okay. Thanks,” she said curtly. “Damn, I wish I smoked.”

Edie laughed. “Why?”

“Doesn’t it calm you down?”

“I don’t know. I don’t smoke.” She smiled, thinking she must be trying to be funny. One look told her that wasn’t the case. “Why do you need calming down anyway?”

Claire stared out the passenger window. “I should have known better than to go home with her.”

“Janine?”

Claire’s head whipped toward Edie, green eyes blazing. “Yes, Janine. I never learn.”

“I hate to ask what it is you never learn.”

“Well, don’t then,” Claire said rudely. “Sorry, I am so angry I don’t know what to do with it.”

They drove the rest of the way to Claire’s home in silence, the only spoken words the brusque directions Claire gave Edie. 

She parked in front of the duplex and was about to ask for directions out of town when Claire turned toward her. “Come on inside and have a cup of coffee.”

Edie’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “You sure?”

“Of course, I’m sure,” Claire snapped. “You gave me a ride. I owe you something.”

She followed Claire into her home. The living room was light and airy with bright prints on the walls, which she wanted to look at, but Claire headed straight for the kitchen.

“Sit,” she said and Edie sat, while she ground coffee and poured it in a basket in a four-cup coffeemaker.

“Look,” Edie began uncomfortably as Claire tapped her fingers impatiently on the counter.

Claire spun toward her. “Fuck the coffee,” she said, startling Edie. “Come with me.” With surprising strength she pulled Edie out of the chair.

“Where…” Edie began, but shut up when Claire led her to a bedroom. Clothes were strewn over every surface.

Claire began throwing the garments off the bed, muttering something about not being able to make up her goddamn mind. She took her own clothes off, adding them to the pile. In a few shocking moments, she stood naked before Edie.

A flush climbed Edie’s body, suffusing her face so that even her eyes were hot. “I can’t…”

“This is what you want. Right?”

Edie said nothing for a moment, because Claire was right. This is what she wanted, just not this way. She stared at the beautiful body and briefly imagined it entwined with Janine’s. She shook her head and when she found her voice, she said, “It’s Janine you want, not me.”

Claire gave her a knowing smile and took hold of the hem of Edie’s mock turtleneck. “You’re wrong. Take this off or I will.”

It was as if she was rooted to the floor, unable to run or resist as Claire helped her pull off the shirt and unzip her jeans. Where Claire’s body was finely boned, hers was the opposite with broad shoulders, large breasts, thighs that were muscular from years of skiing and hiking.

When Edie stood stripped of everything, red from head to toe, Claire threw back her head and laughed.

Edie looked at her long, pale neck and was overcome by lust. She buried her face in Claire’s throat, her inhibitions gone. She backed Claire to the edge of the unmade queen-size bed and laid her down. As she hovered over her, she paused to look at Claire’s face and what she saw she took to be desire. She held her weight off Claire with her strong arms and legs and asked, “Are you sure?”

Claire nodded and Edie kissed her eyes, nibbled on her brows, brushed her soft mouth with her lips, explored it with her tongue. She worked her way down Claire’s body, caressing the silken skin with her mouth and tongue, leaving behind a trail of goose bumps, until she reached the joining of Claire’s legs. Sliding onto her knees off the edge of the bed, she plunged into Claire’s depths.

She would never have thought that this one-sided lovemaking could be so exciting. Attuned to the increasingly loud moans, she held the slender legs in a gentle grip. When Claire twisted out of her grasp and lay panting on the bed, Edie lay down next to her and kissed her on the mouth.

Claire responded with a rough and hurried touch that provoked more annoyance than desire. Edie was amazed that this woman knew so little about making love. She faked a climax in order to end Claire’s half-hearted efforts.

“How was it?” Claire asked.

“Good,” she lied and smiled into the clear eyes.

“Want that coffee now?” Claire asked as she put on a large shirt that barely covered her nakedness.

Edie dressed quickly. “Sure, I’ll have a cup. Let me use the bathroom first.”

“Be my guest.” She nodded toward the open door in the bedroom.

Edie turned on the faucet before she peed. After, she washed her face and hands and left the room to find Claire coming out of a bathroom down the hall.

She drank her coffee quickly, wanting to be on her way. “I’ll never get out of Madison from here without directions,” she said with a smile, and Claire scribbled on a piece of paper.

As they said goodbye at the door, Claire shoved her fingers through her hair agitatedly before asking, “Are you coming back to town any time soon?”

“Not unless my nephew gets into trouble again.”

Claire handed her a business card. “Call me if you do. What is your phone number anyway?” Her arms were crossed, hugging the shirt.

Edie reached into her pocket for a business card with her cell number on it. She was wondering if she should kiss Claire when Claire stood on her toes and gave her a peck on the cheek. “Thanks.”

She raised her eyebrows in question. “For what?”

“You really are good in bed.”

She smiled. “Well, thanks. I try to please.”

Claire laughed and Edie stared at her throat, realizing that she could start all over again.

The drive home was a blur. She fought to stay awake and to keep her mind on the road rather than on bedding Claire. Although she was sure making love to Claire would be a one-time experience, she played and replayed the scene in her head—reliving Claire’s warm, lovely body twisting under her large hands.

Sam woke up in the dark room, disoriented.  A siren wailed nearby and someone pounded on the door. She sat up, her heart banging loudly. She could barely make out Jamie till he switched on the gooseneck lamp on the desk. He looked ghoulish.

“Who is it?” he yelled in a high-pitched voice.

“Fire drill!” somebody hollered.

“You’re shitting me. It’s probably ten degrees outside,” he screeched, but nobody answered. There was only the thrumming of feet in the hall and on the nearby stairs.

She wriggled out of her sleeping bag, wearing the sweatpants and an old T-shirt that were her pajamas. She grabbed her winter jacket and pulled on her boots. “Come on, Jamie.”

“I’m not going,” he said. “Do you smell any smoke? There’s no fire. Some asshole pulled the alarm again.”

She hesitated. “I’ll go check.” She shut the door behind her. The hall was empty. She went to the common room and saw Karen and another girl both in pajamas standing at the top of the stairs. She took a few steps toward them. “Are we going up in flames?”

Karen’s hair stood pretty much on end. Sam ran her fingers through her own, sure it was flattened with sleep. The other girl frowned. “What the hell! They got us out of bed in the middle of the night for another phony fire drill.”

Karen smiled her crooked grin. “You going outside?”

“Not until I smell smoke.” Why would anyone pull the fire alarm? “That happened before?”

“A couple times,” Karen said. “Right Lisa?”

“Yeah. I’m going back to bed. Wake me up if you see any flames.” Lisa trudged past Sam, head down.

“Are you going to the meeting Wednesday?” Karen asked, walking toward Sam.

She thought she was going to walk on by too, but she stopped a couple feet away. “Meeting?”

“LGBT. It’s at the Union.”  Karen looked Sam up and down and Sam fought a blush that was creeping up from her toes.

“If I don’t have to work.” She checked for sleep in her eyes and then dropped her hand.

Kids were coming up the stairs, surging past them, grousing about having to go out in the cold. Jamie ventured as far as the stairs. “I told you so,” he said before retreating toward his room.

“Why are you staying with Jamie?” Karen asked.

How did she explain?

“You two must be really close.”

“He’s my friend. Nita…” she started and then couldn’t finish.

“Nita what?” Karen wore pink flannel bottoms with cats on them.

She focused on the pajamas. “Those are cute.”

“Yeah?” Karen smiled her sexy smile. “My grandma gave them to me for Christmas. Now what about Nita?”

“It’s nothing.” She made a move toward Jamie’s room.

Karen took hold of her arm. “Hey, you can stay with Lisa and me anytime.” She peered into Sam’s face.

Sam looked away. Her vision blurred.  “Thanks but I’m okay. I’m going to bed now. See you.” She stumbled into Jamie’s room, literally, falling over her sleeping bag and hitting the floor.

“Jesus, Sam.” Jamie turned the light on. “Are you all right?”

“Goddamn it. Why’d you turn the light off?”

“Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.” He jumped to his feet. “Do you want to sleep in the bed?”

“No,” she snapped and, holding her elbow, slid into the bag.

“Want some ibuprofen?”

“Yeah, if you got some.”

He scrounged around in his backpack and came up with a couple. After she swallowed them, he turned off the light. “What did Karen have to say?”

“She wanted to know why I was here. I didn’t want to tell her. She asked if I was going to the LGBT meeting next Wednesday.”

“We’ll go,” he said.

She remembered Nita warning her that she’d never find anyone if she always hung around Jamie.

On Saturday she and Nita came to an agreement about the apartment. Carmen would no longer stay overnight when Sam was there.

Carmen had heavy black hair and black eyes with eyebrows that met between them. She also had a little mustache, but Sam guessed her great figure was the attraction. Nita and Carmen chatted together in bastardized Spanish that was difficult—impossible, if Sam was honest—for her to follow.

“Where did you learn to speak Spanish?” Sam asked Nita.

“My mother.”

“You should take Spanish. You’d get an A.”

“What would be the point of that?”

Already they were on the edge of a fight. “Is she going to be your roommate next year?”

“We’re talking about it,” Nita said, meeting Sam’s gaze with unnecessary defiance.

It actually hurt to breathe. Being around Nita caused her physical pain. She thought she would be glad if Carmen took her place. She could move in with Jamie and maybe spend some nights with Karen, although her hips hurt and her back ached from sleeping on Jamie’s dirty clothes. She lashed out, “Then why don’t I move out? She can take over my lease.”

A small frown appeared between Nita’s brows. “I’ll ask her.”

She turned away to hide the hurt. “You do that.” After slamming the door of her room behind her, she threw herself on the bed. The terrible part of all this was that she saw Nita at work, and they’d both be working tonight. There was no getting away from her. She picked up the text she was reading on learning disabilities. It would have put her to sleep had she not been so upset.