"Then it's settled. I'll take care of your time for the next two days." He turned to me and shook my hand. "It is a pleasure meeting you Mr. Peterson."
He went back to his office. When the door closed Donna said, "So, I work for you for the next two days?"
"Yes. Get your purse. We're out of here."
It didn't take long for us to get out of the store. She lived in an apartment a mile from the store so she walked to work. She got in my BMW and said, "You must have already done well."
"Yes, I was born into a good family and my parents left me a couple a bucks."
Forty minutes later I parked in front of my new home. We did a walk through. I saw how her mind was thinking about furniture that would look good in each room. When we were back at the front door I touched her arm. She stopped.
"Now, I want to walk back through the house again. Put the thinking as a salesperson for a furniture store away. Walk through the house as if you were thinking about living here, with me, and the furniture you would pick then."
She put her arms around my neck and kissed me. I remembered watching her kiss Tony and I remembered wondering if it tasted as good as it looked. In this kiss I got the answer. Better! When the kiss ended she said, "Ok. I'm done."
"What?"
"I only picked things I liked and thought you would like. I need to talk to you about colors but other than that we can go back to the store and order the house filled." We kissed again.
"Maybe I'm going too fast."
"Let me think. You lost me ten years ago. I have waited for you for ten years. How much more time do you want to wait now?"
"You waited for me? We never even kissed or danced back then."
"Everything I saw and knew about you told me I wanted more of you. When Walter screwed you to get Crystal I was so upset I wanted to kill him! I looked around for you and even your parents wouldn't tell me how to find you. I'll bet your sister still hates me, I bugged her for two years after you disappeared."
"This may be a shock but Crystal was in on the whole game. She helped him screw me."
"Fuck! I'm glad I broke it off with both of them the night of the prom."
"It's done. I walked into a furniture store to find someone to help me furnish the house and found you. Buying this house may be the best thing I've ever bought." We kissed some more. At some point we realized that we were in an empty house. If we did much more kissing we would end up on a very hard wood floor. We left.
Headed south on Pacific Coast Highway Donna said, "I don't want you to come to my place tonight. Where are you staying?"
"Up ahead. Are you staying with me?"
"Is that an invitation?"
"Yes."
"Is there a market or CVS or something where I can get a few things before we get there?"
At the next light I turned and a few blocks later I pulled into a big market parking lot. I opened my wallet and gave Donna a fifty. "You are buying things based on me keeping you away from home. Please let me pay for them. If it's Ok, I'll wait here in the car."
She kissed my cheek and said, "You're sweet." I watched her butt as she walked into the store. I had thought about Crystal for ten years. I was over her. The opening of my heart was there and needed to be filled. I wanted to believe Donna when she said she had waited for me for ten years. Recent dealings had me distrust. I would call the PI after I bought furniture.
Donna came back with a bigger bag of goodies than I expected. She buckled in and quoted from a movie, "Ok, stud, take me to bed or lose me forever!" Meg Ryan said it to Goose in "Top Gun."
As I drove to the hotel by the beach I hummed, " " from the same movie. She put her hand on top of mine. I parked and we went in. I registered and got a key. Our room was on the fifth floor facing the ocean.
Inside the room Donna was suddenly shy. She put the bag of stuff and her purse on the table and said, "I'm scared."
"Of?"
"I know you won't believe me but... I really have waited. I've only been in three hotel rooms. Once on a vacation with my parents. Once when Beth and I went to Yosemite and once when I went to my brother's wedding in Boston. Never in a room with a man."
"Would you be more comfortable if I took you home?"
"No! I'm not here to be comfortable! I'm here to finally get comfortable. I want to be comfortable in your arms. I want to be comfortable in bed with you. I want to wake up tomorrow morning with you next to me in bed. Most of all I want to give you something I've saved for you for ten years."
"Can I unwrap it?"
She looked puzzled, then said, "It isn't in the bag."
"No, it's in a brown dress standing in front of me."
"Yes, you can unwrap me."
"Good." I kissed her a few times and held her close to me. Then I backed away far enough to reach the twenty buttons down the front of her dress. I started with the bottom buttons and stopped when I got to her waist. I kissed her five or ten more times and this time they included tongues. My hands when to the collar of her dress and one by one the buttons became undone.
When I took a step back all that really held her dress on was her belt and the cloth over her shoulders. "Finish unwrapping for me?"