UNDER CONSTRUCTION, CHAPTER 10

 

         Charlie realized she wasn’t alone and didn’t like that fact. Her head ached and her mouth felt as though an army had marched through it while she slept. She moaned and muttered, “Quit, just stop it.”

“Hey babe, it’s time to wake up. I’ve got something for you. I wanted to give it to you last night, but you were passed out by the time I came in to join you. I was so disappointed.” Bradley’s voice was much too loud. It made her head hurt worse. And his hands, he couldn’t seem to keep them to himself. It actually felt as though he’d grown several more pairs. Then there was his hairy leg thrown over both of hers. Thank God she was laying on her tummy.

“Bradley, stop it. I have a huge hangover and I have to pee. Move your leg please.”

When Charlie climbed out of bed, she cast a swift look at Bradley and he was pouting. It was his most unattractive feature. If he didn’t get his way, he got this look on his face. It was a look that made her want to send him to stand in the corner like the little kid he appeared to be at those times.

Finished on the toilet, Charlie started the shower and stepped inside. She was barely wet when Bradley tried to join her. “No Bradley, I’m not in the mood for fun and games this morning. If you want a shower, you can have one after I finish.”

“Well fine. If that’s how you feel, I think I’ll just head on back to my condo.”

“Go ahead. Have a nice Sunday.” Charlie responded and turned her back to him.

When Charlie stepped out of the shower, she felt much better than she had going in. Her headache was almost gone and she’d drunk at least two quarts of warm water during her shower. It also made her feel much clearer to know that Bradley had left, that is if he had. Wrapped in a towel, she entered her bedroom to find both him and his clothes gone. Yippee, she thought. I get to have my very first morning in my first new house all to myself. If I hadn’t been so wined up, I would have sent Bradley away last night.

Dressed in shorts and a tank top, Charlie went into her kitchen and prepared her first latte of the day. She took it and a fuzzy blanket to the porch and nestled into the pillows on the porch swing. It was a little bit chilly so the blanket felt good over her legs. She sipped her latte and watched the lake and surrounding woods while she listened to the bird calls. She thought she could happily spend hours right there enjoying the peacefulness emphasized by the natural world around her.

Charlie returned to the swing with her second latte and a couple slices of peanut butter toast. As she munched away between sips, she thought about Bradley and decided it was time to send him on his way. They didn’t really have much in common and he definitely wasn’t someone with whom she’d want to spend her life or even a long period of her life. She also thought about Adam and knew one of the reasons for telling Bradley farewell was because she hoped to see if a relationship could develop with Adam. She wasn’t raised to be the kind of woman who juggled two men at the same time. That was tantamount to being a whore in her mamma’s book and she definitely didn’t want to find herself in that particular book. And, if it turned out Adam wasn’t interested, that would be fine too. She was ready to stop seeing Bradley regardless.

It was good Charlie had the talk with herself because before the afternoon was over, Bradley called, over his pout and ready to get together.

“Hey Babe, how about I pick you up and we go out to dinner? I can be there in a few and after dinner, maybe we can christen that new bed of yours like I wanted to last night and this morning.”

“Bradley, thanks for the invitation, but I believe it’s time we called it quits. I don’t want to continue seeing you….”

Bradley broke in, “What do you mean Babe. We’ve got a great relationship, with terrific sex and….”

“First, Babe, I really hate being called Babe and I’ve asked you more than once to use my name and not that word. And, yes, the sex has been good, but I’ve gone without before and can do so again.”

“But, how can you, I mean, I thought things were great.” Bradley flustered by her dismissal tried to find words that might change her mind.

 “I know you did, but I never intended our involvement to be a long-term thing. My mamma keeps introducing me to eligible young men and you were one of them. I’m just not the least bit interested in a permanent relationship. I really shouldn’t have gone out with you to begin with, but it did get mamma off my back for a while. Now that I’m living in my own house, it will be much easier to avoid her match-making.”

“But, Babe, I mean Charlie, I really like you. I thought we might have a future together.”

“Well Babe, that’s simply not possible. I enjoyed my time with you, but now, it’s time for you to find a new playmate. I’m done.”

“Charlie, wait….”

“Bradley, I wish you the best. Have a great life. Goodbye.” Charlie pushed the button on her phone and immediately deleted Bradley and his information from her contacts. Just to make sure he didn’t become a nuisance, she blocked his number so his calls, if he called, wouldn’t come though. Her mother wasn’t going to be too happy about her sending Bradley on his way, but not living under the same roof would make it easy for her to ignore her mamma’s unhappiness about the lost potential of marriage and babies.

Over the next few weeks, Charlie spent most of her time in the office dealing with a wide variety of issues and reviewing requests from companies and individuals for her firm’s services. They were already booked well into the fall and even in some cases, had set aside time for some clients the following spring. Suddenly, everyone seemed to want to build environmentally and electronically sound homes. That was one thing Charlie had chosen to not include in her home. She allowed for Wifi, cable and internet, but she didn’t want all the bells and whistles that would turn lights off and on and perform everything that was now possible. She probably should have done that, but wasn’t sorry she’d decided to leave it out of her home.

As she’d expected, her mamma wasn’t happy about her no longer seeing Bradley and Charlie was grateful her folks had made arrangements to travel for a couple of months. She looked forward to receiving the post cards and letters and even the phone calls which weren’t very frequent, but she wasn’t going to miss the weekly dinners with the man of the week her mamma seemed to always manage to find.

Fortunately for Charlie, her mamma had taken her suggestion about having a house sitter seriously and had found and hired a young woman who would stay there for the duration of their absence. That meant Charlie didn’t have to go by the house or take care of anything there. She was available if the house sitter called, but otherwise, she could just go home each night and she’d done that eagerly in the beginning.

Unfortunately, all her being home on time or even early didn’t bring Adam to call. She had been sure he’d show up, wandering out of the woods between their places to share her porch with her. Of course, Charlie had been looking forward to sharing more, but she couldn’t share if there was no Adam to share with.

Charlie became annoyed with herself over her Adam expectations. She told herself to get over it and do what she would have been doing if she wasn’t kind of waiting for him to arrive. So, she read a few books, worked in her garden, laid in the sun and did all her usual stuff. One thing she hadn’t done was go kayaking. When she thought of that, she decided she really wanted to try paddle boarding so she went and bought herself a paddle board and paddle.

It had been another hot day and going on three weeks since Charlie had seen Adam. She decided to test out the new paddle board. It wasn’t as easy as it looked and she’d fallen off a couple of times before she got far from her dock. At least it was fairly easy to climb back on. She told herself she wasn’t going to paddle toward Adam’s cabin, so she paddled the other direction. Eventually, Charlie was able to get a rather good rythym going and before she knew it her dock was a small speck when she looked back. It would actually be easier to continue in her current direction rather than turn back, so she proceeded around the lake.

As Charlie passed the two cabins on the far side of the lake, she slowed and took a good look at them. There was an older couple sitting on their deck with what looked like cocktails. Charlie waved her paddle. There didn’t seem to be anyone around the other home and she couldn’t remember what Adam had said about the folks who lived in those two places.

It was with high hopes Charlie turned toward her side of the lake, high hopes she could paddle quietly by Adam’s cabin without his being aware of her presence. She heard the hammering before she got very close and there was Adam, on his dock clad only in a pair of brief shorts apparently replacing some bad boards. She sort of hoped he was too busy to look up and notice her, but nope, just as she almost reached his dock, he stood up, pushed his curls out of his face and shouted, “Hey Charlie. Long time no see.”

Charlie smiled and waved her paddle as she’d done on the other side of the lake, prepared to paddle on by. Before she could manage that, Adam dropped his hammer and dove off the dock in her direction. The next thing Charlie knew, Adam came up right beside her board and pushed it over, sending her into the lake with him. When she surfaced, shaking her hair out of her face, he was laughing and pushed a handful of water into her face.

“Okay mister, you asked for it.” Charlie dove deep and came up behind Adam, put her hands on his shoulders and pushed him under. She let go and tried to swim quickly away, but at the last moment, Adam managed to grab her foot and yank her back toward him.

“This sure is a lot more fun than hammering boards.” He told Charlie when she began to tread water in front of him. I was getting very hot and this was the perfect solution. So glad you came by. Now I’m all cool, how about hopping up on the dock and I’ll bring us a couple of beers and maybe even some chips. What do you say?”

“Sure, why not,” Charlie responded. She hoisted herself up onto the dock and turned back so Adam could heave her paddle board and paddle up to her. She sat down on the new boards and began to squeeze the water out of her hair.

“Be right back.”

Charlie had finger-combed her hair back out of her face by the time Adam returned. She took the opened beer, looked at the label and said, “Mmmm, my very favorite.”

“I wasn’t sure, but you gave me this brand at your place, so I thought I’d have some on hand in case you dropped by. How’s things been going anyway?”

“Good, no complaints on my part although I’ve had to spend way too many days in the office taking care of business. Next week I hope to be back out on a job site doing what I like best. How about you?”

“Seeing your house made me take a hard look at my little cabin. I can’t believe all the work that needs doing around here. Of course, the fact my grandpa hasn’t been here in years and I just sort of moved in without thinking about repairs or anything like that, I guess I should have expected more work than I thought possible.”

“What needs doing? Maybe I can give you a hand?”

“I don’t think that’s likely only because you’re a professional and I’m just a look it up on YouTube, take notes and try not to hit my thumb or cut off an appendage I might continue to need into the future. I’d be embarrassed to have you watch me work.”

“What if I promised not to laugh or to not laugh too hard? Plus, I could probably teach you how to do stuff. My crews have always thought I was a good teacher.”

“We’ll see Charlie, we’ll see. I also need to start on my next book, so it may be only the absolutely necessary repairs will get done for now. That, or I’ll just hire someone to do it for me.”

“I’m available evenings and weekends.” Charlie responded with a wink.

“Well enough talk about my poor dilapidated cabin. How are your folks?”

They sat on the dock together drinking their beers and eating chips dipped in salsa while they talked about Charlie’s parents, their latest trip, the house sitter, a potential vacation Charlie was thinking about, and a bunch of other stuff. Charlie was amazed when she noticed dusk had settled in.

“Oh my gosh. I’d best get back on my board and head home. Who knows what’s under the water since this is my first time out on the lake.” She stood up and lowered her board onto the water. Adam laid down on the dock and held it steady. Once Charlie was standing, paddle in hand, she looked at him, his face a bit lower than her own.

“Thanks Adam for the beer and chips, but especially for the conversation. We’ll have to do this again some time.”

“I’ve a better idea. How about I meet you at your office tomorrow and take you to dinner? I could use a really good meal that includes meat and vegetables.”

“Sure, that sounds wonderful. You know where the office is located?”

“Yep, I’ve got that thing called the internet and can look you up, have looked you up. I’ll be there about 5:30. That good for you?”

“Yes, perfect. See you then.”

         Adam watched Charlie paddle away. He was glad she’d paddled his way. He’d seen her on the other side of the lake and had had to hustle to get himself on the dock with a new board. He’d been working out there earlier, but had stopped for the day. He’d been wanting to go see her, but hadn’t wanted to run into her and Bradley. But, if she accepted his dinner invitation, maybe they were done? He’d find out tomorrow evening and could barely wait. He felt a bit like a teenager who'd invited the most popular girl to the prom.