Sassafras, Part 29


Rick


I couldn’t believe she was going to let me stay. I thought I had blown it for good. When I picked up her hand and told her again that I was sorry I could see her start to chew on her lip. I knew her well enough by then to know that was a good sign. At least she was considering letting me stay. Eventually she decided I wasn’t so bad and let me follow her inside.

I had never been in Jenny’s house before. Until she died I had never even driven by it. Last night when I drove Joan home I knew where it was because I had followed her there earlier, but I told her I knew how to get there because I drove Jenny home from Don's once when her car broke down. Her house was small, just a kitchen with a little table to the right of the door, a living room to the left, and farther down past the living room was a hall that must lead to the bathroom and bedrooms.

She didn’t have anything ready for dinner. She said she got so upset visiting her mother in a nursing home that she forgot all about inviting me over. I suggested we just go out, or order a pizza. I was hoping she would let me take her out to eat, but she decided to get a pizza. After she ordered a pizza she went to the bathroom and I looked around the living room. There was a computer in the living room. When I saw the camera chips I assumed Jenny had a computer, so while I was home I picked up a flash drive. They’re little computer components, about the size of a cigarette lighter, that you plug into a port on the back of the computer. You can load files or programs on them to transfer the information from one computer to another. I loaded the program that the DEA was using to monitor my computer through the Internet. While Joan was in the bathroom I loaded it on her computer. Now when I got home I could browse through all the photos and see if any looked incriminating.

There was also an entertainment center with an old TV and a cheap stereo. It had a CD player, but it was one of the real old ones that just hold one CD at a time. There were a lot of pictures on the wall, but Joan was only in two. One was from Jenny’s wedding. Joan had been one of the bridesmaids. She was wearing a pale blue dress, full of ruffles and so long it looked like she must have had trouble walking without tripping over the hem. She looked like a little child playing dress-up with her mother’s clothes. The other picture was more recent. It looked like it had been taken in New York. She was standing in front of a building, wearing a long midnight blue dress that sparkled. Her hair was longer and even though it was pulled up it still fell down across her shoulders almost to her elbow. She was standing to the right of an older man in a tuxedo, her hand resting on his elbow. She was looking off to the side and smiling, almost laughing. When she hung up the phone I asked her about the picture.

“Oh, that was two years ago. Mr. Gunderson took me to a benefit the mayor was throwing. I didn’t know why he wanted to bring me to the benefit. I felt like a princess going to her first ball. It was so glamorous. You wouldn’t believe how much that dress cost. Mr. Gunderson told me to get something impressive and put it on my expense account, but I was afraid he would fire me when he saw how much it cost. He wanted me to meet Senator O’Brien, the man who we’re working with on that naval base redevelopment deal I told you about. I think Mr. Gunderson was hoping Senator O’Brien would remember me from the benefit later when we started negotiating for the naval base. He’s a sneaky old man. I used to be so afraid of him when I started working there, but I’ve learned a lot working for him.”

I looked at the picture some more. She was definitely impressive. “Did he remember you?” If he didn’t somebody needed to check him for a pulse.

“Yeah, he did. At least he remembered the dress. Me, I’m not so sure about, but Maria thinks he’s got the hots for me.”

“Do you like him?”

“Senator O’Brien? Yeah, he’s nice. Smart, too. He went to Harvard. And you should see his penthouse. At night you can go out on his balcony and look at all the lights spread out all around.”

When she started talking about the senator I knew I might as well give it up. There was no way Joan would be interested in me when she could be dating him. I couldn’t compete against a senator, and my apartment sure couldn’t compete against a New York penthouse with a balcony. He probably vacationed in Vail, had a summer home in the Hamptons. I bet he had a yacht, or a private jet. Probably both. I didn’t stand a chance. Besides, she belonged in New York, like movie stars belonged in Hollywood. And criminals belonged in jail.

When she brought me a beer she saw the bruise on my temple where Sneider hit me. I couldn’t tell her Sneider had a raging fit of paranoia when he saw me looking at those camera chips she left at the station and pounded me in the side of the head, so I made up some story about falling down when Sneider tried showing Thompson a hold. She got an ice pack and we sat talking on the couch for a couple of minutes when I mentioned something about her writing in her calendar last night.

She looked like she was about to faint when she was reading it. She started turning redder and redder, and repeating ‘Oh shit’ and ‘Oh my God’ over and over. She really looked like she was going to come unglued when she realized I read it. It was all I could do to get her to come back and sit down, and when she did she sat as far away from me as she could. She tried saying she was just sitting there because it was so comfortable sitting next to the arm of the couch. It didn’t have anything to do with me. I wanted to test her theory, so I slid down until I was sitting next to her again. She said she was still comfortable, but she looked like she was about to hyperventilate.

She needed to loosen up, so when she asked me if she did anything else embarrassing last night I told her she danced on the pool table and then started playing piano and singing show tunes. She believed me until she remembered she couldn’t play piano, and there isn’t a piano in Tanner’s. She looked like she’d like to strangle me, but all she did was thump me with her planner. I was able to slip it out of her hand before she knew what was happening. I thought about thumping her back, but she started grabbing for it so I just held it out of her reach for a minute. It was nice having her stretched out in front of me, one hand on my shoulder and the other one reaching for her calendar. Real nice.

Right when I was about to give it back to her she let out a yelp and launched the rest of the way across me. I was barely able to grab her before she landed headfirst on a cushion. I couldn’t understand what happened until I saw ice scattered all over the cushion where she had been kneeling. I must have dropped the icepack she made. For a minute all I could do was sit there and hold her, then when I finally caught my breath I lowered her down until she was sitting on my lap. She just sat there for a moment, looking stunned. I had no idea how she was going to react. She was completely unpredictable. I think that was one of the things I liked about her.

Sure last night she had been unpredictable because of all the beer she drank, but even before that she had been an original. I remembered watching her shopping at Wal-Mart. I don’t know if I had ever seen anybody enjoy themselves more in Wal-Mart. I know I never did. I hated Wal-Mart, but she seemed to love it. I remembered watching her browse the make-up isle. She picked up three or four bottles of perfume and sniffed them until she picked one she liked, then she sprayed it two or three times straight up in the air. She just tilted her face up and stood there under the perfume cloud, waiting for it to settle. I could tell when it hit her face because she started smiling. Then she sneezed twice. She tried on sunglasses and made faces at herself in the mirror. She even went through the sporting section and played with the duck calls.

I watched her look around the room for a moment, then I could feel her start to relax. She looked at me, her eyes studying every detail of my face. I guess she must have liked what she saw because she started smiling. She lifted her hand and touched my face for just a second before putting her arm around me. She hugged me, her cheek brushing mine then resting on my shoulder. I hadn’t expected a simple friendly hug to affect me so strongly. I felt my arms move, squeezing against her, my face was buried in her hair. I could feel the row of pearls she was wearing against my cheek, and before I knew it I was brushing her hair back and kissing her neck.

She ran her hand up my neck until her fingers were sliding into my hair, and I felt her head tilt just enough to expose even more of her neck. I don’t know if that was accidental, or if she wanted more, so I just kept kissing her. I felt her fingers squeezing my neck, and heard her sigh. She felt perfect in my arms. Her sweater was soft and warm, but when I ran my hand down onto her skirt it felt smooth and silky. I couldn’t decide which felt better, so I just ran my hand up and down her side, enjoying all her curves. I remembered how she looked when she sat down, how she ran her hands down the back of her skirt. When I did that I felt her muscles quiver under my hand, her lips pressing harder against mine. I swear, when my hand slid up beneath her sweater it was an accident, but I couldn’t stop it. Her skin was so warm and soft, and then I felt the lacey fabric of her bra crossing her back. My fingers followed it around her side until I could feel the start of another of her curves.

If I had died at that moment I would have died a happy man, but I suffered a fate worth than death. I heard Joan say to stop. At first I hoped I heard wrong, maybe she said don’t stop, but that wasn’t what she said. She said she didn’t want Billy to walk in and see us like that. Before I had been arrested I had been an arrogant, conceited pig, but I had never forced myself on a woman. As far as I was concerned, any woman stupid enough to say no to me didn’t deserve to be with me, but this was different. I couldn’t believe she wanted to stop, not when it felt so good. I wanted to argue with her, to beg her to change her mind, but I didn’t. It took all my willpower to drag my hand out from under her sweater and just hold her until I felt her start to relax again. I slid her off my lap until she was sitting next to me.