Chapter 18

Friday couldn’t come fast enough for me. This woman had the cojones to deal with most anything was my evaluation of her spirit. Her fiancée might have dumped her for her injuries, well he had, but he was going to play hell connecting with her equal.

At any rate, I was on the hunt now. I wondered how my ex would react to meeting her if she ever did. I know that Liz was arranging a meeting for the near future, and that with not just Grant Hardy, but with the both of them. Yes, maybe I would have my new, possibly new, woman along too. Yes, indeed. I would tell Liz to mention it.

And Friday did come, and I did pick her up, and I did respect her rules. And we did real good together. Oh, and she loved the Harrington.

Glory, and yes, I did wonder at the name, but it was just something her mom had come up with was the word I got. She lived in the north of town, kind of a low rent area. She was on disability, like I had been in the beginning, and was just getting along—again, just like I had been.

Since our meet up in October at the VFW, which my good friend Liz had finally admitted to conspiring with the others to set up, Glory and I had been getting along real good. Three dates in three weeks, and I was getting the nerve up to ask the question, no, not that question; but rather whether or not she would possibly be interested in moving in together. Frankly, being lonely all of the time, and I was, is not the best of all possible worlds, not for me. And, I needed a woman; all of us guys did.

And so here we were at the Pasture, drinking beer, and talking about all of our wonderful experiences in the military.

“So, you’re pretty smart,” she said, “a genius of some kind or other.”

“Yes, well, except when it comes to women. But, that said, guys are supposed to be dummies when it comes to them; it’s in the rule book,” I said.

“Oh well, good. I was thinking about how I was going to get me an edge,” she said.

“Huh? An edge?” I said.

“Yes, I was just going to ask if you’d like to move in together. I mean I know with my face I don’t exactly have a winning ticket, but with you missing both of your gams, well, I figured I might have a shot,” she said. I just stared at her. That she had stopped me cold in my tracks was an understatement of heroic proportion.

“Well, I have clearly overstepped myself,” she said, kinda looking down.

“No, no,” I said, kinda hurriedly. “I was planning to ask you the same thing is all, and I was going to do it tonight. There has got to be something in the water; I mean really!”

“No shit?” she said. And now she smiled.

“For real,” I said. “And so I won’t be totally left in the dust here, I am really going to stick my neck out. What about you and me going to bed together, I mean tonight, now,” I said. Now she laughed. I was still too surprised by her request to show any significant emotion; but I was conscious, that was a plus.

“Okay, and you do get a point on that score. I mean for having balls after all, no legs or not,” she said. And now I laughed. But I mean who laughs at the truth that they have no legs. This was crazy. We, I, would definitely be looking to see how far things might be going. Oh yeah!

“And we did move in together, and we did spend nights together though not every night—we did have separate rooms—and I was able to perform, and things were looking good.

And then several things, major things, happened, that in the end, would have long term consequences that no one could have predicted at the outset.

“I have it on good authority that Lee has achieved the impossible,” said Grant.

“Grant?” said Penelope.

“He has a girlfriend and they’ve had several dates and they are, as I’ve been told, living together,” he said.

“What? What did you say!” she said.

“It’s a fact. I talked to Liz about having the meeting with him for this month, TG-Day,” he said. “It’s a go, but the man insists that his new woman be part of it or he’s not.”

“Okay, good. I mean it is good right?” she said.

“Maybe. It seems the young lady and she is younger than he is by some years, is ex-military, and is also seriously disabled: missing one leg and has a very messed up face. According to Liz, she is actually ugly, but very nice, and, and this was emphasized to me, is very self-assured,” he said.

“So?” she said.

“If I get the chance, and if it looks to be possible. I’m going to fix her face—gratis. That oughta get us some credit with our man. The problem is, that I haven’t seen the woman, let alone examined her, so I don’t even know if she’s fixable. I mean I’m good, but...” he said.

“I see what you mean. Yes, credit with the man. But...” she said.

“But?” he said.

“What if you did succeed, I mean could fix her up. She might leave him for a man with legs?” she said.

“I’ve thought of that. There’s no guarantee of course, but she is missing one of her own legs. So, unless she is super pretty, and therefore a target of the other half of the population, the male half, I figure she’ll stay with him. Anyway, this is all speculation at this point. I have to get a look at her first. And that’ll be at our meet up with the man that Liz has arranged: TG-Day dinner at our place,” he said. Penelope Hardy nodded.

“Okay,” she said, “I guess we wait.”

“Yes,” he said.

“So, you’ve agreed with your old school chums to have your talk with your ex and her husband on their turf?” said Glory.

“Yes, but I will walk if it starts to get hinky. I want my time with my daughter and not just some tokenism ‘allowed’ by them. But serious—Zoey stays with me—time. Nothing else will fly. Yeah, he makes more money than me, but I do all right at the law offices. Hell, I could be a lawyer if I wanted. Maybe I’ll even go that route one day; I could do it, maybe even in less than the three years it usually takes. I’m only thirty, done all the lower division stuff; got me a Ph.D. Yeah, I could do it. Yeah, maybe I will. Yeah,” I said.

“You really that smart? I mean I know what Liz says about you, and Lance, but really? Come on, give,” she said. I snorted.

“IQ of 191. That enough for you,” I said. “Yeah, I’m legless, but pretty smart for all of that.”

“Jesus, if you’re not lying...” she started.

“Oh, and didn’t I say, I speak five languages. Little out of practice, but I still got it,” I said. Now if all of that shit didn’t impress your pretty pink butt, well...” I said. She was slowly nodding.

“Okay, I stand impressed,” she said. “But, you say I do have a pretty butt?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Well, that does prove your intelligence for sure. I mean it is the right thing to say to a girl,” she said.

“Hmm,” I said.

Well, we did get the formal invitation, me and Glory, to the meeting, dinner, on Thanksgiving Day. We committed ourselves to going. And then I got a call.