The Loverboy (4 page)

her face.
“Where are my clothes?” she demanded.
“I washed them. They are in the dryer” her mom said.
Kim rushed out of the apartment and to the basement.
Her mom yelled after her “I just started the dryer. They
won‟t be dry yet.”
But Kim did not stop. She got to the basement were two sets
of washers and dryers were positioned. They were for the use of
all the tenants and she noticed that one was running. She opened
it and pulled out the jeans. They were still soaked and in one
of the pockets she found Jake‟s card. Or what was left of it.
She could still make out the name but the smaller print phone
and pager numbers were illegible. She curse and then sat down
with her head in her hands. How could this have happened? How
was she going find him now?
Then the man from apartment four walked in which startled
her, partly because she had never thought he cared much about
personal hygiene. He was in his forties and had lived in number
four with his wife up until 3 months ago. Then she left him for
someone she thought she would be happier with. If she would only
fight with her new man twice a day that would have been an
improvement. The last three months had been nice and quiet. She
would have preferred that he would have left; he had always
given her the willies. Nothing he had said or anything but he
had always seemed to have given her these looks. Like he was
thinking of how it would be to have sex with her. The only thing
that was missing from the look was him licking his lips while he
stared. He might do that also as she always averted her eyes
from him immediately. Sure Kim had longed for male attention but
not this dirty old man. Then she remembered she was alone in
this basement with this creep while all she was wearing was her
bathrobe. She got up and hurried back upstairs.
When she walked back into the apartment she stormed back
into her room leaving Ally and her mom in the living room with a
puzzled look on their faces. She got dressed and grabbed her
coat.
“What‟s wrong?” her mom asked.
“Nothing” she sneered and walked out the door.
“Don‟t you need breakfast…… or lunch?” her mom yelled after
her but no reaction from Kim.
“Make sure you are home by four thirty she said. I have a
shift at the dinner at five” Her mom yelled.
“OK” Kim responded short not turning and letting the door
to the apartment building slam behind her.
Her mom and Ally looked at each other and shrugged. It was
cold today and Kim walked to the bus stop. As she turned the
corner she saw the bus pull away from the bus stop.
“Damn” she cursed, her mood getting fouler by the minute.
No point in sitting in the cold. She might as well walk.
That would keep her warmer. She walked to the mall having no
feeling in her toes anymore when she got there. It was not too
busy for a Saturday. She liked the busy mall usually since it
was easier to go unnoticed but she wasn‟t there to just pass
time though. She was there to find him. Surely he would come
here more often and with a semi busy mall it would be easier to
spot him. She walked the length of the mall but no Jake. The
only positive was that she didn‟t see anyone from school either.
If one of them would give her a hard time she was in a foul
enough mood to take their heads off. She walked the length of
the mall several more times, her mood shifting from foul to
disappointed to sad. She would never find him again she thought
as she noticed it was four o‟clock. She left scanning the mall
on her way out for Jake and the parking lot for the silver
Porsche, nothing.
She walked home in a brisk pace trying not to be late. The
cold wasn‟t bothering her anymore; she was too disappointed and
sad. After about ten minutes she sensed like she was being
followed which made her feel very uncomfortable and she didn‟t
dare to look back fearing that it would cause a reaction from
whoever was following her. After another block she noticed a
car creeping up on her. Her curiosity got the better of her and
she looked over her shoulder.
It was a silver Porsche convertible; it couldn‟t be Jake‟s
car? Could it? She had to look again. It was the same car and
she recognized him as he just pulled alongside her. He rolled
the window down and said “Hi” as he pulled to a stop next to
her. Her mood had never shifted so much so fast. She stopped and
looked through the window.
“Hi” she said.
“It is way too cold to walk, get in and I‟ll drive you
home” he said with a big smile on his face.
Her heart was telling her to jump in the car through the
open window but she had to play it cool. She had to play a
little hard to get and not seem too eager. That would be a major
turn-off.
As cool as she could be she responded “It‟s ok, it‟s not
that far. I can walk. I don‟t want to take you out of your way.”
He smiled and said “Actually I am not offering to do you a
favor but more because it would be a favor to me if you would
ride with me.”
“Well, in that case I guess I should as I owe you one” she
said.
She opened the door and slid into the warm luxurious
interior of the car. She closed the door and he rolled up the
window.
“I had hoped to see you again” he said, “Why didn‟t you
call?”
“I lost the number” she confessed sheepishly.
“Well then it‟s a good thing I spotted you” he said.
She smiled and looked away. He looked just like she
remembered him, tall and handsome. They chatter for what seemed
like a few minutes while she stroked the soft, warm leather of
the heated seat. Next thing she knew she noticed the clock on
the dashboard and it said five o‟clock. He noticed her shock and
put the car in gear.
“Where to?” he asked.
She directed him and made him stop around the corner of her
apartment afraid her mom might see her. She was late and surely
she was looking out for her. She had to go she explained and
opened the door.
“Wait” he said, “Can I see you again?”
She thought.
“How about Friday afternoon?” he asked.
“Sure, she said with a smile “I‟ll see you at the mall at
four by the food court.”
He said good bye and handed her a new card. She grabbed it
and quickly secured it in her pocket. As she hurried away she
looked around and waved. He just sat there waving back. When she
turned the corner and headed to the door of the apartment
building she heard him pull away. This had been a great day!
Chapter 5:
She opened the door to the apartment building; her mom was
waiting in the door of their apartment. She had seen her walk up
and she was furious.
“Do you know what time it is? You were supposed to be home
forty minutes ago. My shift started 10 minutes ago and I already
called that I was running late!!!” she yelled.
Kim pushed by her into the living room and snarled a quick
“Sorry, I missed the bus!”
“I don‟t have time to fight” her mom said as she grabbed
her coat and left, slamming the door.
Kim‟s mood had shifted again. Sure she was late but so
what? It could happen to anyone, she hadn‟t done it on purpose
and it wasn‟t her fault that her mom had to work all the time.
She had expressed her gratitude to Kim for being so helpful last
night and but apparently that didn‟t mean anything. One small
misstep and she got yelled at. She fell in the couch and was
pissed. She had been in such a good mood not ten minutes ago and
now that was gone and she really resented her mom for that.
Ally got the message and stayed clear keeping herself busy
with a jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table, even though the
kitchen and the living room were more the same room. Kim tried
to set her mind off the fight with her mom and flow back to Jake
but it had been hard. Finally she thought about meeting him on
Friday. That helped but was also frustrating as she would have
to wait another 6 days, but she had his card again and she could
call him if she really couldn‟t wait. Or could she? She still
didn‟t want to seem too eager and turn him off. But he hadn‟t
seemed put off by anything about her. Kids at school never seem
to have a problem to find something to harass her about but Jake
had been all smiles and she even had gotten the impression that
he liked her. Hell, if anything he had seemed as coming on
pretty strong. She hadn‟t minded though, it had made things easy
for her. He had made her feel more comfortable and less afraid
to say the wrong thing. She couldn‟t wait and her mood got
better and better and she had all but forgotten about the fight
half an hour later.
She walked into her room and her mom had put her clean
clothes on the bed. Quickly she grabbed the new outfit and stuck
it in her dresser. She was initially going to wear it
immediately on Monday again but now though better of that.
“I‟ll leave this for Friday” she thought.
After putting the rest of her clothes away she moved back
into the main room and opened the fridge. Ally was still working
on the jigsaw and with five hundred pieces she was not making
much progress. Kim grabbed the dish her mom had left for them
from the fridge and stuck it in the oven. Then she sat down and
helped Ally with the jigsaw. Ally looked up as Kim sat down and
smiled. She had feared a long evening but Kim seemed in a much
better mood now.
They worked on the jigsaw until the oven timer went off and
Kim got the dish out and dished up two plates. They worked on
the jigsaw while playing and neither said much but it felt close
and they both seemed in a good mood. When they were done with
dinner the jigsaw was almost done as well. They finished it and
left it on the table; not because they didn‟t feel like cleaning
it up but more like a trophy. At least until their mom saw it.
They did the dishes and played another game of monopoly. This
time Kim was on it. With the next meeting with Jake setup she
didn‟t have to dream about him. Six long days and she would see
him again, no more wondering.
Ally unfortunately was the victim of this as Kim was
relentless in the game and Ally soon had lost. After the game
they watched the TV for a bit. When Kim noticed it was nine
thirty she realized her mom would be back soon. She didn‟t feel
like going on where they had left off and told Ally that they
should get in bed. Ally protested that it was a Saturday and
they didn‟t have to get up early in the morning.
“I‟ll read to you for a bit” she offered as a bribe.
Ally agreed. They went to bed and she started reading. Ally
started dozing off in no time. She loved being read to and it
relaxed her but at night it put her right to sleep. Kim had
counted on this. After she was sure Ally was asleep Kim put the
book away and turned the light off. Not ten seconds later she
heard the door to the apartment open and her mom calling out for
Kim and Ally. Then she saw the bedroom door open and she
pretended to be asleep. Her mom frowned in surprise and some
disappointment that they were asleep already and closed the
door. She had wanted to apologize to Kim for flying off the
handle like that earlier.
The next few days things seemed to be back to normal.
Neither she nor her mom had mentioned the fight again and both
considered it done with. Kim seemed to drift off in her day
dreams more and more and her mom had asked her if she was ok
several times. She just responded that she was fine and tried to
shake it off. Sometimes successful and sometimes she would drift
right off again. Her mom had started joking around about it.
“You better not go out alone anymore, you‟ll get hit by a
bus” she had joked.
Kim just ignored it. Most of the time she didn‟t even have
to ignore it since she didn‟t register it anyway. At school she
had told everything to Annie who had listened with great
enthusiasm and she was very excited for her. Kim confessed that
she had used Annie as her alibi to which Annie had frowned but
finally said “Anything for love.” Time went way too slow. It
couldn‟t be Friday fast enough.
Friday finally arrived and she had gotten in a better mood
every day leading up to it. She was almost high now even though
she had not reference to how that would feel, or at least she
didn‟t ever remember feeling this good. She got up an hour
before her alarm went off and when she walked into the living
room, her mom had just gotten out of the shower. She had a
surprised look on her face to see Kim up and awake this early.
Kim wasn‟t an early riser and when she had to get up early it
took her a long time to transform from a zombie on autopilot to
a conscious human being, but today Kim was very much awake and
pleasant.
They had breakfast together and her mom asked her what was
up with her. She was off in lala-land all the time and now
getting up this early.
“Is it a boy?” Her mom had asked.
Kim nodded carefully with a sheepish smile on her face
which felt as if it was red hot. Her mom‟s face lit up. She was
actually excited for her.
“Someone at school?” she inquired further.
Kim nodded again. That wasn‟t true but if she would admit
that it wasn‟t someone from school it would trigger a lot of
questions that would make her mom suspicious and she surely was
not likely to approve of Jake, he was too old for her. It was
not right. If it were someone from school it would be a lot
easier to keep her mom from prying.
“What‟s his name?” was the next question.
Kim almost blurted out “Jake” but at the last moment she
changed it to “Josh.”
Her mom didn‟t need to know too much, she sensed that she
was embarrassed and let it be. Kim just stared at her cereal and
slowly shoveled it in while her mom watched her smiling. She was
glad that her daughter seemed so happy. Her mom got up and got
dressed. She kissed Kim goodbye and left.
“Don‟t forget. I have a shift tonight, can you be home by
five thirty so Mrs. Simons doesn‟t have to watch Ally too long”
she said.
Kim nodded but was annoyed about being on a time constraint
on her date. Was it really a date? He had asked her to meet him
so it was a date she decided. It really would be her first date.
She had kissed a boy before but that was it, it had been at
summer camp and it was just something everyone did. Nate had
been his name and he had been a year younger than her but he had