Chapter 8

That evening, as I was eating my dinner, I got a call from Henry. He let me know that his sister-in-law was going to be ok, a few broken bones but nothing that was life threatening. Then he apologized for leaving me alone in his house. I told him that it was fine and that I fully understood the situation and that it was not a problem. I assured him that I might have done the same thing if the circumstances had been reversed. Family, in my humble opinion, had to be placed above everything else in my book. We ended the conversation by making plans for Wednesday night, this time at my place. He asked if he could bring a friend, a male friend, with them and I told him that would be fine with me.

Not here more then a couple of weeks and I'd already made an impression with several people, all of whom I liked and considered friends. Tomorrow night would prove to be another interesting occasion.

Before anything else could be planned though I had to do some shopping, so I placed a call for transportation and got ready. As I stood by the door waiting I found myself wondering what tomorrow would be like and how much I'd enjoy it. I heard my cab blow it's horn to let me know he was outside and I opened the door, locked it after closing it and checked to make sure it was secure, then went to the cab and gave the driver my destination.

Twenty minutes later I was at the grocery store. I'd paid the cabbie and asked him to come back in about an hour. I knew it wouldn't take that long to get the shopping done, but I wanted to leave a little leeway, just in case I ran into someone I knew.

Turns out my precautions were right.

As I turned the corner of the fourth isle I literally ran into, of all people, Robert Towns.

"Robert," I said. "How are you doing? I haven't seen you in ages. How you doing?"

By the reaction on his face I could tell that Robert hadn't expected to see me either, but his brief surprise was soon one of welcome and we shook hands and briefly hugged each other.

"I've been fine, Mike. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine. In fact, I've just moved to a new house."

"Really? Where?"

Now it was my chance to really blow his mind.

"The Richland Retirement Community," I told him.

Now the look of surprise was replaced with one of total shock.

"That's where I live," he told me.

"I know. I'm on Cypress Lane."

I could almost see the gears in his head turning. I just stood there though, and it wasn't long before he realized that I knew he lived there as well. After all, he was the one who told me where he lived. Could I help it if I'd also decided to move there, to enjoy the life of ease the place assured me was there. I'd already found out about all that and I was sure I was going to love living there.

"I'm on Clay Street, about 4 blocks from your place."

"Isn't that nice," I said.

I knew he still wanted to get together and I could almost read his mind as he stood there. I hated to admit it, even to myself, but I was enjoying this very much. Very, very much.

Now was the time to spring, so I asked, "Would you like to come over this evening? You know, to see the place?"

"That would be nice," he immediately replied. "What time would be good for you?"

"How about 7?"

"I'll be there." And with that we again shook hands and went about our grocery shopping. Tonight was definitely going to be interesting.

I finished the rest of my shopping without running into anyone else, not even Robert. On the way to the check-out I stopped by the section where the books were and perused the racks, hoping to find something of interest. Imagine my surprise when I found a book that immediately caught my attention. I picked it up and put it in the cart, not even bothering to read the blurb on the back cover. You might think that odd, but to me it's not. I don't judge a book by what the blurbs tell me. If a cover of a book catches my eye then there's a 95% chance that I'll enjoy it. That's they way I buy my books, except for the authors I follow on a regular basis. I already know what to expect from those writers, so buying the newest books isn't a risk for me. And when I buy other writer's prose, I've found that I'm not too disappointed with them, either. There's only about 5% of those books that I end up not even finishing, and that's a record I'm proud of. Not too many books disappoint me and they usually get their authors on my 'to read' list in the future and 9 times out of 10 I'll look for previous books by them and read, and enjoy, them as well.

I paid for my groceries and pushed my cart out to the front of the store, where I sat on one of the concrete benches and waited for my cab to return to pick me up.

Once I got home and hand all the groceries put away I retreated to the bedroom, where I got out of my clothes and got ready for a nice hot shower. The outing had gotten me quite sweaty and I wanted to be fresh when Robert arrived. I got the water as hot as I could stand it and then went out to the storage room and brought in a plastic lawn chair I'd brought with me. I place it in the middle of the shower, directly beneath the nozzle, and settled in for a while. This was one of the many ways I relaxed. The hot water cascading over my body always helped me to relax and get ready for important meetings. This meeting with Robert was going to be one such meeting. I always suspected that this night might happen, but never in my wildest imaginings did I figure that I'd be the one to run into him after moving down here. I'd planned to avoid the face-to-face as long as I could and had really intended to get in touch with him after talking to James. What I really wanted was to have a threesome with the two of them. Today had changed those plans. I'd always imagined that James and Robert had been 'seeing' each other but had nothing concrete to prove it. But that was their business and not mine. At least not at this moment.