Chapter 7

The next day, I went through my normal routine until there was a knock at the door. I went to answer it and found myself facing Melody and Theresa. There was a small cargo van parked in my driveway.

“Hi, Rand!”

Melody sounded warm and bright and jumped into my arms to give me a hug that I returned gratefully. Theresa got one of her own as I let them in.

“What’s with the van?” I asked lightly.

“If you’re still willing to part with the bed, I want to get it back to my place today. A friend of mine loaned me the van for the day, since he doesn’t work on Sundays.”

I nodded and led them upstairs to start breaking down the bed. I left the fitted sheet on the mattress and Melody questioned me about it.

“It’ll protect the mattress from getting dirty or hitting minor snags on the trip,” I told her. “It’s way easier to put the sheet in the laundry than clean dirt off the mattress. It’s a trick I picked up in college.”

They liked that, and they helped me muscle the thing down the stairs and out to the truck. To be truthful, I was more than capable of handling the weight, but it was too bulky for me to keep it steady on my own. We got it and the box-spring loaded and then took the frame apart and got it onto the truck.

“Did your ex take the rest of the bedroom furniture?” I asked her when we were done.

Theresa bit her lip and nodded.

“I’m doing okay there. I’ve just been storing everything in plastic tubs. It’s cool. I was always too lazy to fold my clothes properly.”

“There’s two nightstands and dressers that match the bed frame,” I told her. “They’re yours, if you want them.”

“Done!” Melody broke in before Theresa could beg off. “Let’s go get them before she talks herself out of them.”

I laughed and followed her up the stairs, admiring the way her hips swayed as she walked. She seemed to have a little extra spring in her step today, or at least I was noticing a little extra motion in her gait. I was tasked with a lot of heavy lifting as we took the night-stands, drawers and furniture out to the truck. We removed the mirror from the bureau, and we set it aside carefully. I’d transport that in my car and follow her back to her place, so that I could help make sure the furniture was where she wanted it.

Melody got into the car with me for the trip, looking like she wanted to talk to me about something serious. Once Theresa had the van moving, we pulled in behind it and we followed her closely.

“Rand,” Melody started tentatively. “Are you okay waiting for me, before we can ... I mean really. Are you okay with it?”

I nodded and grinned at her. “Of course,” I said as if it were obvious. “You have very good reasons to wait and I don’t just mean your prenup with Stan. You were cheated on. The last thing you want is to be guilty of that yourself. I know because I’d never want to cheat after knowing what it felt like. You and I are both still very much recovering. I want you more than I can describe, more than I thought was possible, but I’m also terrified.”

“Terrified?!!?” she repeated the word, confused. “Why are you terrified?”

“Because you’re beautiful and charming and vibrant and ... perfect! I’m scared I’ll screw it up, scared that you’ll leave me. My parents are both dead, so after what happened with Beth, all the most important people in my life have left me on my own. I know my parents didn’t want to leave, but when Beth left, the feeling was pretty similar to mourning them. I don’t want to ever mourn over you that way. I guess I’m just scared that I’ll say something stupid or do something wrong, or that you’ll find me as boring as Beth did, and move on. Does that make sense? I can never tell if I’m expressing myself well.”

She reached out and took my hand in both of hers.

“It makes perfect sense,” she said. “I feel the same way. Stan was running around on me constantly. I found out from one of his other ... conquests, that she’d been with him for three years. She was with him longer than I was. She clearly meant more to him, since he spent more time with her. I was in high school when I met Stan. He did business with my father. He’s the only man I’ve ever been with.”

“I was swept up in the romance of dating an older man. He got me pregnant and my parents insisted we get married. I lost the baby, thank GOD! Raising that asshole’s kid would have been torture. By then, we were already married. I ... really don’t have a lot of experience with sex and the experience I got from Stan was kind of pathetic. I’m worried that I won’t measure up. You’re sexy and athletic and handsome, and I heard a rumor somewhere that you were rich.”

She giggled. I smiled.

“My wife left me because she wasn’t satisfied with what I had to offer,” I told her. “She’s suggested that I start to explore and broaden my horizons. Let’s do that together. We’ll learn what we love, what we hate, and the stuff that falls in the middle. First thing we need to do is get your eyes checked though if you think I’m sexy.”

I grinned and she chuckled and kissed my hand again, holding it tightly in both of hers.

“I’d like to explore with you,” she told me seriously. “I dated a little in high school and my best friend and I fooled around once or twice, but that’s it. Once we were married, Stan wanted nothing to do with me. He just set me up in the house and fucked me once or twice a month. It was the most boring thing imaginable. He’d get himself all worked up and sometimes he could get it up and sometimes he couldn’t. I guess there was no attraction once we were married.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry you had to go through that,” I squeezed her hand. “If there’s ever one thing I can promise you, it’s that I’ll never run around on you. I never did on Beth, and God knows she deserved that from me.”

She chuckled about that.

“I know you won’t,” she told me confidently. “I could tell how much her cheating hurt you when you told your story on Thursday. Next week, you’ll get to hear some of the others. Normally, we talk about our week and take some time to discuss how we’re processing things.”

“Heh,” I chuckled. “I can’t wait to share last night with the group on Thursday then,” I said dryly.

“Oh?” she asked sweetly. “Do I get a sneak peek at what’s going on.”

“She called me last night. It turns out that the neighbors have been spying on me for her. Your visit yesterday and the group meeting on Thursday, drew her out.”

“Really? Are you okay?” She asked, turning more toward me so she could observe me more directly.

I nodded.

“She really pissed me off, but I’m doing better now,” assuring her.

“When she calls, and you need to talk, you call us, silly. That’s why you have our contact numbers.”

She pulled out her phone and made a call.

“Bella?” she said when it was answered. “Rand got a call from his ex last night. Can we meet? He didn’t know he was supposed to call for support when he gets upset like this. We’re on our way to Theresa’s to give her some furniture. Okay. I’ll start calling the others.”

She hung up and immediately made another call.

“Hi, Claire. We’re having an extra session today. Rand got a surprise call from his ex last night, and didn’t know to call.”

After that, she got hold of Stephanie and she said she’d be right over. Jason was last on her list and he promised to be there, too. When we got to Theresa’s, we started carrying the bedroom set in to the building and up to her apartment while Melody told her that the others were coming.

“Oh, good!” she said brightly. “Bella and Muscles can wrestle in the front yard over which of them is gonna carry the heavy stuff upstairs,” she joked, reaching out to squeeze my arm. “Seriously, you’re starting to look pretty good. You could be one of those male dancers.”

I laughed and shook my head. I was still getting used to my new body, but it was a little embarrassing to have it pointed out to me that I was looking better. I was just focused on feeling better, and pushing weight felt like I could physically push my problems back out to arms-length when I felt too crowded.

I made two more trips while the girls rested and waited for me at the doors. I had the bureau upstairs and went back for another load when Belinda pulled up. I hopped up into the truck and handed her down one of the nightstands while I picked up the heavier piece.

“You’re really going to try to play frail little woman on me?” she growled, but took it from me as I hopped down carefully.

“Actually, it’s reverse psychology,” I told her. “The bed is the heaviest part. If I keep giving you small things while I look like I’m taking a big load, you’ll get frustrated and do most of the lifting on the bed.”

She gave me a dirty look.

“If Mel hadn’t told me that you’d had a bad night, you’d be in for an ass-kicking,” she assured me.

“It wouldn’t be my first,” I shot back. “It’ll be worth it, if you take the bed though.”

By the time we got back outside, the others were arriving, and they pitched in to take the drawers and the other nightstand.

“So, where’d all this come from?” Belinda asked as we walked the pieces of the frame into the building.

“It’s my old bedroom set,” I said. “Melody decided that she was going to replace the bed with one that Beth had never slept on, so I offered Theresa the rest of the set, since they match. She was taking the bed anyway.”

“That’s nice of you,” she said. “Alright, ass-kicking averted.”

We settled in and talked while we assembled the furniture and arranged the room. I explained the phone call, and told them what had been said.

“She’s had you watched by the neighbors this whole time?” Claire asked, surprised. “That’s a little disturbing. Tell me again how she spun the divorce to them so that they’d be sympathetic to her?”

I repeated what she’d told them and what points she’d skipped.

“I don’t think it was accidental,” she told me.

“I don’t either,” I replied. “I don’t think she intended me to look like this much of a bastard, but she definitely didn’t want to risk losing her friends here. I also don’t buy her story that she’s not encouraging them to spy on me. Her information is too detailed, and she has it too fast for it to be casual.”

Claire nodded.

“Do you think she’s planning on trying to get you back or watching you for some other reason?” she asked.

“Well, I told her last night that I don’t have thoughts of wanting her back anymore, so if that was her plan, it’s going to be undergoing revision. No, I think she’s feeling guilty, and she’s hoping that I’ll find someone, so she can feel that she hasn’t wrecked my life.”

She nodded and smiled. That was clearly her assessment, too.

“Good. I’m glad you’re thinking it through.”

“I’m smarter than Stan,” I said, looking at Melody. “Why would I want to settle for Beth when Melody looks at me with those eyes?”

She blushed and then hopped up into my arms, wrapping her arms around my neck.

“You keep saying things like that, and I’m not gonna want to wait for Stan to do the right thing,” she warned me before she kissed me.

I forgot where we were for a few minutes, and someone might have been talking to us, but I couldn’t be sure. Belinda gave me a kick in the ass to remind us to separate.

“Hey!” I protested. “You said ‘ass-kicking averted’,” I reminded her.

She shrugged. “Then, pay attention when people are talking to you.”

“And neglect Melody?” I scoffed to general laughter.

“As I was saying,” Stephanie said with a cough and an amused smile. “It could be that she’s keeping tabs on you so that she knows you’re not with anyone. Richard was like that for a while. He didn’t want to keep it in his pants, but he watched me and followed me for almost a year just to make sure I wasn’t seeing anyone. He still called me his wife and claimed that no one else would ever touch me or he’d kill us both.”

“What ever happened to him?” I asked her curiously.

“I shot him,” she said proudly.

“He was following me around, so I got a restraining order on him. He broke it and tried to get in the house because he remembered that I left the bathroom window open a crack after my shower. I heard someone coming in the window and I fired one shot. It was the only time I ever fired that damn gun.”