“There, just a little more lip gloss” Carol thought” and I am out.”
She picked up her cell phone in a hurry, at which point it rang. Automatically she assumed it was Natalie calling her to tell her she has arrived, but the cell phone kept ringing, and ringing. The caller ID showed it was an unknown number that wasn’t listed in her phone.
She answered sounding disinterested and quickly said “Hello?”
“Hello” said a deep male voice on the other end. Carol couldn’t recognize it at that instant, but noticed that it sounded pretty sexy. There was something exciting in that voice.
“Excuse me, who am I speaking to?” the unknown voice half-jokingly continued.
Carol made that even more nervous so she snapped back “You are the one who called, you should introduce yourself to me!!”
“Well did I get Miss Carol?” the sexy voice stubbornly continued.
“Look I am in a hurry and I don’t have time for this, so could you just tell me what you need,” said Carol who is already obviously irritated.
“Oh I see Carol that you are busy now, so I will call you back later when you will have more time.” said the voice on the other end.
Carol said “OK, bye!” and hung up, thinking about sitting in her friend’s car. She tossed the phone in her black leather hand bag and locked the door behind her.
Chapter 2: Old acquaintance
Two old friends, Natalie who was tall, blond and fairly slim model built type and Carol, a long-haired brunette with curves on just the right places. Both women are slender and were still an attraction while walking around town. They decided to go to the coffee shop where they spent many happy high school days- a place where a lot of coffee was consumed before or after school. While Natalie excitedly talked about her recent love affairs, Carol blew away large clouds of cigarette smoke and started thinking about the mysterious voice from before. She thought about how it didn’t matter to her and how she acted disinterested and nonchalant, but something now didn’t give her peace. For a second she wanted to know who it was, just out of sheer boredom. But she quickly regained focus on Natalie.
The coffee went by in tears of laughter, some of them were of sorrow, but all in all they had a really good time. Natalie had to do one more round of shopping to buy a present for her little niece's eleventh birthday, so she asked Carol to help her pick out the newest toy. Carol opted to wait in the car outside the mall and started to play with her cell phone to pass the time.
“I could send him a text”, she thought and started typing “YOU CAN CALL ME NOW.”
“There, short and precise”, she thought again. Just a few minutes passed and she got the answer back “CAN’T RIGHT NOW, CALL BACK IN FIFTEEN MINUTES”.
Carol started to think about whom it could be and remembering the voice thought that the man should be about her age. “Or, maybe older, but then again it is easy to be deceived”. He also had a specific accent and she was convinced that he wasn’t from this part of town. From the car window she saw Natalie coming back from the store in long, strong strides carrying a large gift bag.
“Yes, you managed to shop…“Carol laughed childishly, because she knew how hard it is to find that particular toy in this province. They started to leave the parking lot with the rain drizzling on the windows. Natalie drove slow and secure like she wanted this encounter to last as long as possible. The phone in Carol’s purse started ringing.
“Are you vibrating?” asked Natalie.
“Oh, yeah I totally forgot he was going to call.” she said. “Hello?” Carol answered and heard that specific sexy voice again. “There is something about that voice…“she thought.
“Hey it’s me. Did you finally recognize me?”, the voice on the other side laughed and continued “It’s Chris“.
He said something more but Carol didn’t hear it as the second movie started to roll, ah yes, Chris- an old acquaintance, one of the hottest guys in town, hell maybe one of the biggest dudes. The girls practically adored him, she remembered. She also noticed him and yes he is good looking but nothing more than that. He didn’t fascinate her that much back then when she was in love with her boyfriend whose name she couldn’t remember right now. Well, obviously it was a long time ago. Ahhh it was Michael, her first true love. God, how young she was back then and how everything seemed so easy and great, thought Carol.
“Do you know who it is now?” the voice through her cell phone brought her back to reality. “You know, we met at the gas station on the freeway last year during summer vacation, and you gave me your business card” said Chris.
I give business cards to everyone, thought Carol, but spoke out loud:
“Ah yes now I know, I recognize your voice“
There was a moment of silence, and when she was about to speak he continued.
“I promised you coffee or tea, but I screwed up and didn’t call you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about” thought Carol, but again responded politely:
“Screwed up? No, you didn’t screw up anything”, but the truth was that she couldn’t even remember or simply didn’t care since it was one of those polite “let’s have coffee sometimes” agreements. These kinds of small talks are when both sides were well aware that it will never happen. That is in most cases, but obviously this wasn’t one of those cases and already she stated to like his candidness.
“Are you up for coffee right now?” asked Chris, “so it’s not only words”, he added.
“Hmm, I can’t right now but you’re in luck because I am just visiting my parents so OK. Obviously you are also back home and not living somewhere out of the country.” Carol remembered.
“Yes, I am home, on vacation. I have some time to spare and I thought of you. When are you free?” he asked gently with an added false respect that men give to women to show that they are gentlemen. Those things where a man gives an extra effort to make the lady fee that she has a choice so that she feels that she can have what she wants but in essence the man has pictured in his head how he is planning to seduce her without she being aware. The goal is for her to willingly get caught in the net. Carol knew all of that very well, she had human psychology in her little finger- not just because of her Masters in Psychology, but also from experiences previously collected in working with people for the last 10 years. Carol was a very intelligent young woman. She definitely considered herself to be a very young woman, although she was slowly entering her thirty-fifth year not because she felt like she is young but most of all she looked way younger than her age.
“Friday night would suit me just fine” she answered short and clear and thought “I was bored anyway”, but she kept that part for herself. She could almost feel his relief when she said yes, although he was just pretending to be cool.
“Around eight o’clock? Should I pick you up or are you coming to get me?” Chris asked.
Carol saw that Natalie already made a turn for her front yard so she said “we will settle the details on Friday afternoon, ok”
“Ok. Talk to you soon”, he agreed, “Bye!” he said and she replied with a long “Ciao” and hung up.
Natalie raised her perfectly plucked eyebrow in a “What the fuck?” gesture. Carol just shrugged her shoulders.
“You know that guy who always walked around town with that mean looking dog? The one who moved from I don’t know where. Anyway he is not one of us, that Chris.” Carol smiled sweetly.
“Oh! The cute one, I remember very girl was crazy about him and then he fattened up a bit. What does he want?” asked Natalie curiously.
“He wants to go to coffee”, Carol continued to laugh and Natalie just said, “Whatever girlfriend, just don’t let another hundred years go by before we see each other again.”
“I will be staying for a few weeks since my mom is sick, nothing serious, but I would like to be with them. I was gone for years, and I missed out a lot. I haven’t even seen my niece and she’s already five years old. I have to make up for lost family time now that I have a chance, and that’s why I am here. Get it?”
Carol never married. She didn’t have kids because she was always chasing after her career. She wasn’t
