Three Alarm Tenant. Christa Maurice

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СКАЧАТЬ interrupt the kids who were trying, they didn’t care if I fell asleep.”

      “I don’t like to give up on anyone. But then that’s how I ended up here.” Katherine grumbled before she remembered where she was and who she was talking to. Her jaws clicked shut too late. Not only had he heard, but he'd been looking at her when she said it.

      He blinked, a little taken aback. “Well. Seen any good movies lately?” The light changed, and he focused on the road.

      Katherine stared at her hands in her lap. No wonder she never went out, she wasn’t fit company.

      “Seriously, seen any good movies? We have a guy at the station who’s a big movie buff. He’ll watch about anything. Old movies, foreign movies, B movies. It’s kinda neat the stuff he brings in. I think he’s got a deal with the little video store on McKinley so he can rent a bunch of stuff and return it late without having to pay a fee. He brought this one in a couple of weeks ago…”

      Katherine let him babble on about movies, half listening and glad it was dark. Did he think she meant here as in here with him? Should she explain she’d always believed the police force would bail her out if she needed them, and by the time she’d realized they wouldn’t, she’d been in over her head? Would that make her look even more silly and pathetic to someone who lived by the same code? Or would he be able to make her understand why they left her the way they had? Pam never understood why she felt so betrayed, but maybe Jack would. If she only had the courage to ask him. But how much of herself did she want to expose on this first not-date?

      They passed the Wendy’s she knew. Only half the tables were taken, but she suspected fast food wasn’t the dinner of choice for most couples on Valentine’s Day. Last Valentine’s Day, she’d sat at her desk with one light on and the heat turned down as low as she could stand to save a couple of bucks while she added up the state of her debt and graphed her decline into bankruptcy.

      “So.” Jack cleared his throat. “Have you seen any good movies lately?”

      “I don’t see many movies. The last thing I saw was Laurence Olivier in Hamlet when I showed it to the class.” Katherine looked out the windshield at the strip malls on either side of the road. This whole area had expanded since the last time she’d had extra money to shop with. At least she hadn’t blurted out how her DVD player had started eating DVDs nine months ago, and she’d given the TV to the school janitor in trade for some work he’d done because she ran out of cash.

      “Is it any good?”

      “It’s restrained.” Katherine focused on the film, forcing thoughts of strip malls, cops and Jack’s easy smile out of her mind. “Olivier plays Hamlet as a very tightly controlled character. The kids have an easier time with the Mel Gibson version because he plays it more tortured.”

      “Why didn’t you show that version to your class?”

      “I couldn’t get a copy. The district only has one and somebody else got to it first. Fortunately, I have my own DVD of To Kill a Mockingbird for when my sophomore class gets to that point in the Spring.”

      “I read that in school. It was great.”

      “It’s one of my favorites. I teach it every year.” Katherine looked out her window and noted a bus stop. So buses did run out here. Now the question was, why was she so sure he would strand her?

      “Doesn’t that get boring? Teaching the same book year after year?” Jack flipped on his left turn signal and angled the truck into the turn lane.

      “No, I teach it to a different group of students every year.”

      He turned onto the access road to the Crossroads Plaza. “I don’t read much. I used to read those military mystery novels, but they all started to sound the same after a while. You know, militant nut decides to take over the world and the hero has to find him and stop him before he can succeed. Maybe you can turn me on to a new author or something.”

      “Maybe.” Katherine licked her lips, tasting the cherry Chapstick she’d put on. The phrase ‘turn me on’ caught in her mind and changed context. Turn him on? Certainly. Just say when. Then she realized it sounded as if he were making plans for the future with her. That probably meant he wasn’t going to desert.

      “Here we are. The new Wendy’s.” He turned into the parking lot.

      She surveyed the area. This had been an empty field the last time she came here. Now there were a couple of restaurants and a jewelry store. She felt as if, after years of living in a cave, she’d emerged into a new century. Of course large portions of last summer had been spent in the basement, which was as close to a cave as she ever wanted to get. “I didn’t know there was anything new out here.”

      “It only opened last summer. Nothing but the best for us.”

      “Well, it is Valentine’s Day, I guess beggars can’t be choosers.” She stepped out and took a deep breath. The air smelled like fried chicken and melting snow. A cool breeze caressed her cheeks. Suddenly her stomach growled. Jack stopped at the front fender and stood waiting for her, watching her.

      “It’s still warm. I feel as if something’s terribly wrong if I’m not wading though knee deep snow until April. We’re on parole from winter,” she announced to cover her odd pause. She hurried to the building, hoping the latest blush would fade before he noticed.

      “I know what you mean, this weather has been really weird. Not that I don’t like it, I’m waiting for the blizzards to come back.” He opened the door for her.

      “I hope this doesn’t mean it’s going to be a hundred and ten all summer long. Last year, I spent most of the summer in the basement battling the spiders and working on the foundation. I don’t have another job like that to keep cool this year.” She fought the urge to touch his coat as she passed him. It looked almost too teddy bear soft to resist.

      “What’s wrong with the foundation?” he asked, following her inside, almost on her heels.

      “Nothing now.” Katherine stepped into the queue. She knew what she was going to get. She always got the same thing so she would know how much it cost. “The mortar between the cement blocks had started to rot and I had to scrub it out and replace it. I warn you, the basement is inhabited by giant, fast, black spiders that are almost impossible to kill.”

      “Impossible to kill?”

      She shivered. “Unless you smash them between two hard surfaces like a concrete floor and a big dictionary, they keep running. And they crunch if you step on them.”

      “Maybe I’ll have to get a dictionary.”

      “I don’t think they bite. They’re just scary.” Katherine hugged herself more to keep track of her hands than to secure herself.

      “You really hate those spiders, don’t you?” Jack grinned at her.

      “Well, let’s just say if you hear a lot of screaming and banging from upstairs, assume the spiders have moved in with me.”

      “I’ll protect you.”

      Katherine studied him dispassionately. He looked so good and seemed so nice, why did he have to keep reminding her how inappropriate he was?

      “I knew you would,” СКАЧАТЬ