Dreading the inside of the place because of the memories, she forced herself inside. To take her mind off Tim’s bedroom, she started looking around for canned of soup. She reached inside the pantry, took out a can of ‘Chunky’ and heated it up.
Noise from the bedroom indicated Tim was doing everything but resting. “Get in the bed, Tim.”
The moving about stopped moments later. Myrrh wasn’t barking anymore, and she was left alone to tend to a can of soup and a salad in utter quiet. She looked around the immaculate kitchen. The entire house was clean, other than his basement steps, but not so immaculate for her to think he had a housekeeper. No, he did it himself; there were still newspapers and man things scattered about. She didn’t see pictures of his family. She knew he had a brother, but no pictures of him. The only picture she saw was in his computer room when she nosed around. It was an ultrasound image of a baby. His baby?
She entered his room with the steaming hot soup, the salad, and a cup of tea. “Here it comes, and you had better have clothes on, Tim. I’m not playing.” He had fallen asleep with the covers pulled over his shoulders. As she walked in, she couldn’t help but notice how cute he was bundled up like a baby in that big bed. That bed that they had made love on that night. She touched the covers, then realized she had to get the hell out of there before her emotions ran amok.
She wrote him a note and left it on his dresser. There was a letter there addressed to a Mr. Gregory Polaris with Tim’s return address on it. Being the snoop she was, she had wanted to read it, knowing it was to his brother. He seemed so sad the few times he even mentioned his brother, and she wanted to know why. The letter was already sealed, so she left it alone.
Leaning over Tim, she kissed his forehead, then left. His hair and skin made her hands tingle, nervously for and because of him. Eric once had that effect on her. That was now a distant memory. Though he was supposed the ‘right color’ for her, he still didn’t have what it took to drive her mad with passion. She looked in on Tim again before leaving. “It would take you to make me feel like a woman in bed.”
She took her keys from his dining room table and saw a note to himself: “Tell Brandi about the November ‘Hands On’ presentation.”
“What the hell is that?” No matter what it was, she knew she wanted to go, if for no reason except to be near him.
Near the door sat a Halloween pumpkin filled with candy to be handed out that night. A smiled brightened her face; so, he was a softie at heart. He was the kind of man women waited all their lives for, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to wait that long. She moved the plastic pumpkin aside, stepped into the fading sun, on her way home.
Later that night, Tim warmed up his soup in the microwave. He had wanted to hand out the Halloween candy to the kids, but was too out of it. Then he looked into the now-empty pumpkin and realized Brandi had done it for him. In her own way, Brandi was systematically doing everything it took to make him fall harder for her. But he knew she wasn’t even aware of doing what she was doing. Being kind and gentle came naturally to her, it was her way.
Eric sat down on the porch next to Brandi that Saturday morning. “Why didn’t you come inside? From what I could gather from your phone call, it’s urgent.”
“There’s a breeze out here; besides, what I have to talk to you about needs to be said out here instead of where your mother can hear us—she hears everything on purpose, Eric.”
“Why are you jumping on Mom suddenly? She’s cool, never disturbs me when I need my privacy.”
“Whatever, Eric. I’m here because we do need to talk.”
“Coming back to me?”
“I said we need to talk, not do something totally stupid.”
“So talk. What’s on your mind?”
“Oh, don’t worry. I have plenty to say.”
He leaned back stretching his legs out. “This sounds like a permanent ‘see ya’. Am I right?”
“I am not here about us. I’ll get to the point. You know where Dr. Polaris lives.”
“I beg to differ. I think this is about us, now that I hear his name.” He noted her grim expression. “Yeah, okay. I know where he lives. Why?”
“You were there that night, and I know it. There’s a window broken in his basement, and a paper was taken that he wanted to give to me.”
“First off, I wasn’t there, and I didn’t break any damn window. Second, if I was stupid enough to do that, would I admit it to you?”
“You might, if you thought it would throw me off. I know your sly, stupid games, Eric. How do you even know where he lives?”
“You know where he lives, why shouldn’t I? Maybe we should tell the rest of the campus where this good ole boy lives.”
“Just shut up! You’re beginning to look as sickening as you act. Dad told me to be civil around you, but I can see that’s impossible. I know where he lives because…well, because he had the papers for me.” A half lie was better than telling Eric anything he could use against her.
“Brandi, he could have given you those at school.” The snarky smile returned. “I think my idea was a good one: tell everyone where he lives. That way he could have the entire chick population come to him, right?”
“I’m sure Stacey Neal would be glad to be one of them. She can’t be getting any ‘real action’ from someone as dull as you are. Then again, you’re both dull.”
“You’re going too low with that Stacey crap. Lay off. I told you how it was with her chasing me.”
“Eric, the point is that I’m not the one in question. You are. You have made it a point to find out where he lives, and for no reason. It’s not like you’re trying to get his help, although you need it way more than I do.”
“Depends on the type of help we’re talking about.”
Gracing him with a response to that went against her grain, so she stared at him.
“You want the truth, Brandi? The truth you shall get. I followed you Friday. You rushed out of class so fast that I thought something was wrong with you instead of Mr. Timothy. When you got to the hospital and didn’t come out, I waited and waited.”
“Wait! You followed me?”
“I said I thought something was wrong. Brandi, I care about you. That’s why I followed you. I followed you from the hospital back to his truck, then to his house. You stayed in that house an awfully long time, I might add!”
“Then if you knew I was okay when you saw me outside the hospital, why did you continue to follow me?”
“Because he was with you, Brandi! Why were you gallivanting around town with him? He is not your type, and you know it. Don’t you remember? It has something to do with a white thang.”
“Grow up, Eric.” She walked to her car then turned back to him. “He needed my help because someone attacked him. But you know that already, don’t you? He was hit hard enough to require days to rest. You know that, too, don’t you? Sure you do.”
“Again, if I had done that, would I tell? Get real, Brandi. I did not touch him, and you shouldn’t either. That could get him in trouble.”
“Who would know, Eric, unless someone told? Who would tell? You?”
“Possible.”
“Nothing to tell; I haven’t touched him, either.” Not today, anyway.
“Brandi…”
“Bye, Eric. I’m history.”
He called to her again. “I didn’t break any window, Brandi.”
“Sure you didn’t. Can’t you tell from my voice that I believe you? Sheesh!”
He watched her drive off.
CHAPTER 10
That next game brought in a jammed-packed crowd, including Brandi’s family. While scanning the crowd for her aunt, Brandi spotted Eric sitting with Stacey, both of them staring at her. The nerve of him bringing that heifer to my game. Both Eric and Stacey were staring at her. She could feel their eyes penetrating her, assaulting her. Eric had always been no good, but bringing Stacey there took him to a whole new level.
Forcing her mind off them, she looked at her parents just as her Aunt Theresa arrived and joined them. Theresa was in her early to mid-thirties and was more like an older sister than an aunt; Brandi could talk to her about anything, including her feelings for Tim. She spoke of Tim to her aunt several times, having received good advice about waiting on him to make the move to another school—if he would. Brandi also knew Theresa wouldn’t care about Tim being white. Men were men in her book.
Giving a final wave to her family before the start of the game, she and the other cheerleaders did their final drill. She wanted to be extra good to show up that damn Stacey, though she really no longer cared who Eric dated.
Tim entered the gym and sat in the front row to get a good perspective of the game. Brandi smiled when she saw him and waved to Theresa again, pointing to Tim and mouthing, “That’s him.”
Minutes before the game Brandi quickly walked to Tim. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“Wouldn’t miss it. It’s our Madcats and I have to support them, and you cheerleaders as well. Knock the other team dead tonight.”
“We plan to, but…could you possible do a favor for me?”