Returning to the Scene of the Crime

Like a glutton for punishment, the following Friday Sandy found herself headed back to Country Connections for singles night. Ginger had other plans, so this time, her neighbor Elizabeth decided to join her. Elizabeth preferred to drive her car, so she picked Sandy up at her apartment, they hopped into her black Chevy Lumina, and hit the road--bound for that hangout for fast-talking men and freewheeling women, Country Connections!

Elizabeth did not drink, so she brought Diet Coke, and Sandy brought a vodka gimlet. That is, she took a pint of vodka, poured about a shot and a half into a glass, threw in a slice of lime and a squirt of lime juice. She had pretty much finished it before Elizabeth arrived. Then she added lime juice to the pint of vodka until the liquid was back to the level it had been before it was opened, put the cap back on and shook it up a little and was ready to go. Ice and paper cups were available at the bottle club, so she just tossed the bottle into her oversized purse.

As they drove up the highway, Elizabeth-Liz-asked, "So is the band any good at this place? And how about the men? Are there any decent ones, or are they all hound dogs?"

"I'm sure there are some of both varieties," Sandy laughed. "You just have to have your BS deflector activated." She was feeling much more confident this time; she had been there before and survived. And of course, the vodka gimlet helped! They laughed as they admitted they were both suffering from that state of unrequited lust known as horniness. The parking lot was filled with cars, and once they found a parking place and left the vehicle, the girls could hear the thump, thump, thump of the base. Sandy's step quickened a little; she was anxious to get dancing. As they approached the entrance, a couple in their 20's came stumbling and giggling out into the evening air. The twosome totally ignored Liz and Sandy, as the girl leaned against the wall beside the door, and her companion began nuzzling her neck. Her giggles could still be heard as Liz and Sandy paid their $5.00 admission and stopped at the welcome desk to get ice and cups.

Jeans and tank tops or Tees were pretty much the standard attire, and Liz and Sandy blended in with the rest of the crowd. The table they chose was about ten feet long and three feet wide with chairs on both sides, and it sat perpendicular to the dance floor. As soon as they were seated, Mark strode over, a big smile on his face.

"Hello, ladies," he opened. "Is anyone up for a dance?" Sandy introduced him to Liz and promptly excused herself to the 'use the facilities.'. No sense beating a dead horse was her way of thinking. Liz was widowed five years earlier, and had dated some since Sandy met her. The two were nice people. Maybe they would hit it off. The ladies room was nearly deserted right now, except for the girl who'd been having a neck nuzzling outside earlier. She was reapplying her lipstick, which had been totally kissed off, Sandy suspected. She ran a brush through her hair, and after a sufficient amount of time had passed to convince Liz and Mark that she did indeed have to go, Sandy returned to their table.

Sipping her second gimlet of the evening, Sandy saw Rick approach their table. He was blue eyed, bearded, and brimming with sex appeal. Bedroom eyes looked her way with a slow-to-appear smile that seemed to light up his whole face.

"I'm going to drag him home with me tonight," Sandy whispered to Liz, which set them both to giggling. Here was a cure for "unrequited lust," indeed! Sandy's eyes kept returning to his; he sat across the table from her, about three chairs to her left. It was embarrassing. Sandy just kept sneaking glances at him whenever she could. Finally, he spoke.

"I caught you staring," he said with one of those heart-stopping smiles. Her face felt like it was turning redder than her shirt.

"It's a ladies' choice. Would you like to dance?" Sandy asked, in an effort to conceal her embarrassment. As he took her in his arms when they were on the dance floor, she felt a need to make some explanation. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare," she lied. "I was just trying to remember where I've seen you before. Could it have been at Dunfy's after DH a couple of weeks ago?" It was a lie, because she'd remembered that bit of information when she first saw him. Divorce Horizons (DH) was a support group which met bi-weekly at the Parkerville Congregational Church. It did serve to stimulate conversation though, because they began to talk about Divorce Horizons and their respective marital statuses.

Rick had been divorced for a year and seemed genuinely concerned about the welfare of his two pre-school-aged daughters, who were living with his ex-wife in Florida. He hoped to go get them for a two- week visit next month.

As the dance ended, Sandy tried to put things back on a lighter level by saying, "Maybe it was the beard; I really have a thing for beards. I'll try not to stare anymore."

"Look all you want to, woman," he laughed. "I love it."

She may have danced a couple of times with someone else; she couldn't be certain. All she could see were bedroom eyes, a beard, and a smile that really seemed to grab her. As the evening wore on, and the gimlets further mellowed her, Sandy was no longer sneaking peeks; she was now casting lingering looks.

Once he said, "You caught me staring that time! Let's dance again." This time there was no conversation as they danced. The melted together and moved as one to the strains of "Please Don't Go." The proximity of his beard to her ear and his thighs to hers did little to lessen her lust. They danced to a couple more songs, and then he left her for the men's room. Sandy didn't expect to dance with him again-how much luck could a girl have in one night? While Rick was in the men's room, Sandy decided to check on her friend. Liz was sitting on the end of the table, nursing her diet Coke, and swaying a little with the music.

"How are you doing? I didn't mean to abandon you," Sandy apologized.

"Don't you worry about me; I'm doing just fine. I've been chatting and dancing with some people I know from the gym," Liz replied. "This is much more fun than I anticipated. Didn't expect to see anyone I knew. How about you and bedroom eyes?"

"Oh my God," Sandy laughed. "He's just so hunky I can't stand it. Shhh...here he comes again."

Before Rick reached their table, a sexy little blonde in a pink spaghetti strap top and cut-off jeans grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. Sandy experienced a few pangs of jealousy as the hussy (could she be anything else?) rubbed up against him as they danced. Realizing the feelings were ridiculous, given the situation-after all, they had just met tonight and danced a few times, shared a few laughs-there was no reason for it. Rick danced a second dance with the blonde, and then there he was at their table again.

Any subtlety Sandy had shown earlier was gone. She was now all but openly drooling when she looked in his direction. He asked her to dance again, and this time they stayed on the dance floor until the dance ended. They were still standing there in an embrace, while others were leaving the floor, and the band was packing up their instruments.

"I think the music's stopped, Sandy whispered, as she pulled her cheek away from his beard, in order to look into those incredible eyes. He smiled; then he kissed her-a long, slow, gentle kiss. They returned to her table. He suggested they leave together. Further discussion determined neither of them had brought a car. Finally they agreed to ride with Liz to HoJo's for a snack.

Sandy couldn't eat anything. She had been joking when she told Liz she wanted to drag Rick home with her-at the time she didn't even think she had any hope of dancing with him-and here he was, offering to buy her breakfast!

Rick was sweet. They talked while he ate. He was very attentive and she enjoyed listening to his "tales of the highway." He worked as a trucker. When he'd finished eating, Liz agreed to drive them to Sandy's apartment, then Sandy would drive him home. He was actually coming to her apartment.

With the reality of the situation facing her, Sandy began to get a little nervous. She had never slept with anyone but her ex-husband, and the knowledge that this sexy guy, who was probably six or eight years younger than her 35 years. might end up in her bed-maybe this wasn't such a good idea! Liz dropped them off at her door.

"If we can get right into my car," she thought. Damn-she had left the keys on the kitchen table when Liz insisted on driving her car. She had no choice but to let them into her apartment.

Rick seemed very much at ease, He walked through the living room and the kitchen, browsing really, while Sandy looked for her keys. At first she was fine. She remembered having thrown them on the kitchen table after having removed the key to her apartment. But after searching the table with no success, she began to panic.

Here she was, fumbling around on pretext of looking for her car keys. It had to look like a stall. Except that it wasn't. The last thing she wanted to do was stall. She had an absolutely gorgeous hunk of younger man in her living room and was absolutely terrified. In the movies, you said something like, "Let me slip into something more comfortable." In reality she was panicked and frantically searching for her car keys!

At one point he came up behind her and puts his arms around her, and Sandy knew all she needed to do was turn around; and she wanted to-it had been so long since a man had made love to her. And probably Rick would be a tender lover. But she was just too scared, and she broke loose and made a last desperate attempt to locate those keys in the kitchen. She shuffled things around on the table, and at last they fell out of the phone book. They must have somehow slipped in between the pages when she had carelessly tossed them on the table before she left.

Hastily, she rushed Rick out of her apartment, into her Volkswagen and drove him home. In his driveway, he gave her a couple of lingering kisses, "to sleep on." Then he said goodnight and got out of the car. He promised to call her.

Rick never did call, and after a couple of weeks, Sandy realized he wasn't going to. He probably thought she was a total nut case! She often wondered what would have happened if he had called. Would she have been less terrified the next time?