by Maureen J. Long
A bright mid morning sun was shinning as John pulled the GTO into Helena's driveway. Celeste had managed to liberate his car from the impound lot. A more than little nervous about the reception he would get from Helena, John held his breath as the garage door went up. To his relief, he found that her car wasn't in the garage. Using her spare key, he opened up the door and went inside. The house was spotless and he had a vague memory of Helena saying her housekeeper was coming yesterday. As he headed toward the kitchen, he noticed a note on the counter. He had to rub his eyes to get them to focus on the words. The note was from Helena and it said she had been called back to the hospital for an emergency. She didn't know what time she would be back, but until then he was suppose to make himself at home. On the bottom of the note, she had written the time, 5:30 PM. John looked at his watch, it was 10:30AM. He breathed a sigh of relief. She had been out all night.
He headed to the bathroom hoping to shower before she came home. As he rounded the breakfast bar he caught sight of her answering machine. It was blinking and the LCD indicated there were 2 messages. His first instinct was to keep walking and ignore the constantly flashing light. But his overwhelming guilt superseded his first instinct and he moved over to the machine and pressed the button. He was hoping that the messages weren't from Helena. The volume was up on her answering machine and John's heart nearly stopped when the first message played.
"Dr. Russell, this is Deputy Frank Metts at the Sheriff's Department. Listen, we've arrested two men on a 10-53. That's code for being a walking drunk in public. One of the claims to know you. He's says his name is Koenig. Dr. Russell, I know you probably don't know this character but according to our agreement with the Space Commission, we must contact the name given to us. Please give me a call when you get this message."
"Oh shit," John muttered as he reached to push the erase button. He waited impatiently for the next message to cue up.
"Dr. Russell, it's Deputy Metts again. There's no need to return my call. Some other woman came and picked up this Koenig character. Just wanted to let you know. Thanks."
John quickly hit the erase button. He waited until the machine stopped operating and he pressed the play button again to make sure that both messages were completely erased. When he was satisfied that they were sufficiently deleted, he continued toward the shower in Helena's bedroom.
He stepped in the warm water and started soaping his body. As his hands ran over his chest, he felt a slight sting. His skin was red and sore. Shaking his head, he recalled that he didn't apply any sunscreen before he went to the beach yesterday. His random memory returned and he had a flash back of sitting with Celeste for hours while the sun baked down on his bare chest and back. Celeste. The image of her scantly clad body as it walked into the kitchen popped into his mind and he smiled in spite of himself. He felt a growing need rise in his body as he stood in the warm shower. He found his soapy hand slowly move down his body as he thought of her. A ringing phone broke his concentration and he practically jumped out of the shower. "What if it's the Sheriff's Department again?" He thought as he frantically finished his shower. Quickly wrapping himself in towel, he headed back into the den to check the answering machine. There was not a message. He looked at the caller id and saw Victor's number. He grabbed Helena's phone and dialed Victor's number as he headed back into her bedroom to dress.
"Hello?" Victor voice was still horse form the previous night's drinking binge.
"Victor, it's me."
"Ah, John. I just called Helena's. I wanted to make sure you made it over there in one piece."
"I'm here and she's not. From the looks of things, she's been gone all night."
"I see. Well, I guess that's good news for you."
"Victor, the Sheriff's office called here last night. Do you remember me giving them her number?" John walked back into the den from the bedroom and checked the machine again.
"Let me think...Hmm...no. I don't remember much of last night, my boy."
"Me either. Victor, I have to know something...before Helena gets here. It's kind of embarrassing. "
"Go ahead, John..."
"Did anything happen...you know between Celeste and me?"
Victor laughed on the other end of the phone. "You mean you don't remember?"
John struggled to contain his temper. "No, I don't. Tell me Victor, I can't crawl in Helena's bed and pretend that everything's fine. I have to know."
"Well, I wish I could help you, John. But the truth is I don't know myself."
"Great. This is just great." John sat down in one the nearby bar stools.
"I wouldn't worry. If anything did happen, Celeste isn't the kind of girl that would go around talking about it."
"Victor, you're missing my point. How can I...sleep with Helena knowing I might have...well screwed Celeste.?"
Victor was silent on the other end of the phone. John waited until he finally spoke. "John, just don't worry about it. Maybe in time, one of us will remember. Tell you what, I'll ask Celeste when I talk to her later." Victor finally offered.
John muttered an almost silent affirmative then hung up the phone. His conversation with Victor had only served to confuse him more. He headed into Helena's bedroom, his head was beginning to hurt again and he felt a strong need to lie down. Tossing his damp towel toward the door to her bathroom, John pulled back the covers on the bed and crawled in. He was consumed by sleep as his head hit the pillow.
Several hours later, John was awaken by a soft shuffling noise. He opened his eyes slowly and discovered that Helena had joined him in bed. As he listened to her shallow breathing, John's eyes scanned the pleasant contours of her bare back. He resisted the urge to reach out and run his hand over her silky skin.
Glancing at the clock, he realized that he's been in bed for over three hours. He stared up at the ceiling fan and watched the moving blades. What was he going to do? Helena shifted slightly in the bed and rolled on to her back. In her sleepy state, she pushed the sheet down to her hips. The breeze made by the ceiling fan made the room a bit chilly. John stared at her erect nipples as she continued to sleep beside him. He wanted to take them in his hands, playing with them until he made her scream. But could he? Could he ever make love with her again without knowing what happened last night?
Helena exhaled a long deep breath and turned over to face him. She had to blink a few times before she was able to focus on him. He was sweating and wore a funny expression on his face. "John?" She called before realizing that a good bit of her upper torso was showing. She laughed lightly as she watched his face.
"Hi." He replied, his voice unsteady.
"Hi. Sorry, I was out so long." She scooted over to him and propped up on one elbow.
"That's okay." He said as he felt her leg rub against his under the crisp white sheets.
She felt his body tense at her touch.
"John, something wrong? You're sweating."
"No." He answered almost to quickly.
She put her hand underneath the sheet and ran her nails up and down his thigh. He sucked in a deep breath as he felt himself react to her touch. When she reached for his penis, he moaned. 'No', he thought. 'I can't do this. I have to tell her to stop. Oh God, that feels good. Don't stop Helena. No! You must stop, I can't!'
He stopped her hand and took a deep breath. He watched her expression change to one of confusion. "John?"
"I can't, Helena."
"What do you mean you can't?" She sat up quickly.
"Oh Helena, you have to believe me when I say I want to. And I really want to. But I just can't." He sat up to face her. The sheet slipped off his chest as he was about to confess to her about last night but Helena interrupted him.
"Oh my gosh, you're sunburned." She reached over and lightly touched his chest. "Oh I'm sorry. I should have known better. You must be in awful pain?"
'Pain?' he thought. 'Not yet anyway.'
Helena crawled out of bed and headed to the bathroom. She returned with a bottle of aloe vera gel. "Just how sunburned are you?" She pulled back the sheet and inspected the expose skin. "Let's put some this on it and you'll be as good as new by tomorrow."
He lay still while she applied the smoothing fluid to his sunburn.
"What did you do while I was out yesterday?"
Luckily, his back was a sunburned as his chest and he turned over to avoid looking at her "I went down to the beach. I lost track of time and got a sunburn. Nothing too interesting." He breathed a little easier. It was sort of the truth.
"John, you know better than to stay outside that long without your sunscreen. What'd you do after the beach."
"Oh, I ran into Victor and he spend the night talking...and drinking."
Helena laughed. "I never figured Victor to be that much a drinker."
'I never figured Victor to be that much of a playboy' John thought as Helena continued to lather his pink flesh.
"Did you do anything special after that?" She queried.
"Mainly, we just sat around until we sobered up then we went out separate ways." John stopped Helena's hands. Rolling over, he looked into her eyes and leaned forward to kissed her. " Nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. I think you medical types would call it male bonding." He smiled hoping he wasn't displaying any deceptive body language after all part of it was true. Pulling her hand to his heart he whispered, "Mainly, I just thought about you." 'Well', he thought, 'I did think about her a couple of times.' He still had his doubts about last night, but she was sitting in front of him totally naked while her soft skilled hands coaxed his body into a full state of excitement. 'I must have been crazy when I stopped her, what was I thinking?' His decision had been made. A decision made by the physical desire to possess her.
"Well, I'm glad you weren't bored. Maybe when that sunburn fades, I'll let you tell me about some of those thoughts." She smiled.
He grinned at her and gave her a seductive look. "I'm feeling better already." He pulled her to him for a lasting kiss. When they parted he pushed her down on the sheets and looked into her eyes. "Oh by the way, I checked your messages when I came in."
"Really, were there any?"
"Two. They were wrong numbers. I took care of them."
"Oh, John. How sweet of you to look out after me like that." She pulled him to her for another kiss.
"You can count on me." He said kissing her neck.
He would stick to this story and hope she didn't find out the truth. What were the chances that she would ever run into Celeste? After all, Celeste was headed to the moon and Helena was here in Florida