PART I
"You what?" Kay exclaims as she drops her purse onto the counter. She has just put in another twelve hour day working to provide much needed therapy to abused and neglected children in the Tampa Bay area. She spent all day hearing children talk about being touched inappropriately or hit for not picking up their toys and her boyfriend of two years continues to act like I jerk.
"Kay. I just thought that before you start making me dinner that we could go upstairs and mess around for a while."
"Steve, you have got to be kidding me. I don't know where to start with that. But sure let's go upstairs so that you can screw me while I mentally make dinner plans since once again you couldn't be bothered to put something together for dinner even though you've been home for hours."
"Okay sounds like a deal to me," Steve says as he turns around and bounds up the stairs. Steve has a surprise coming when Kay never shows up in the bedroom. She immediately sets to making dinner; not out of an obligation as a woman, but out of an obligation as a hungry person.
Kay Mitchell and Steve O'Brien have been a couple for over four years. Steve is supremely content in his life. He has been living with his "exotic beauty" for longer than he ever dreamed possible. Kay is the daughter of an African-American father and a white mother. This mixed genealogy produced a woman that depending on the time of year and the way that she wore her hair could be described as looking anything from Indian, to Native American, to African. For the ultra-white Steve, Kay was the gorgeous woman that he never dreamed he could get.
Things were not as nice for Kay. She had spent many hard years in school working to get her PhD so that she could counsel the most traumatized children and families around. After just three years in practice, she was quickly becoming widely known in the therapy community. She had developed several techniques that seemed to allow abused children to open up to her. Plus, she was so approachable that parents found her very easy to talk to. She just didn't know where things were going with Steve though. When they had first met, Kay was finishing her PhD and Steve was trying to start his own contracting business. She fell in love with all of the drive and ambition that she saw in him. Now after four years of being together, he had long since given up on his dream of running his own company. He was now content to just be a grunt building houses while living off of Kay's hard earned salary. Kay felt as if she was quickly outgrowing the relationship and she didn't know what to do about it. She thought that she loved Steve, but the more her therapist brain worked, she realized that she loved who Steve once was and who he had once dreamed of becoming.
Kay wanted nothing more than to make things work with Steve. She sought counseling on her own and begged Steve to come along, but he always refused saying that he didn't have any problems to talk about. She frequently gave into his constant sexual requests. He never forced her to do anything, but she frequently found it easier to just give in and not listen to his nagging for days on end. Suffice to say, Steve thought that he had a great sex life while Kay saw her sex life as nothing more than a chore to do along with all of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry.
In an effort to regain the closeness that she once had with Steve, Kay agreed to attend a golf tournament that was being played in their home town of Tampa Bay. She couldn't stand the game, but she knew that Steve played every chance that he got. He talked like he was a great golfer when the truth was that he would struggle just to keep up with his buddies. Kay did something that she had never done before and canceled all of her therapy sessions on Thursday so that she could attend the tournament with Steve.
They woke early Thursday morning and after fending off Steve's wandering hands, she staggered to the shower to prep for the day. She really wanted to have a great day with Steve, but she didn't expect much to come of it. Steve was too dense to even realize that they had a problem.
Upon arriving at the golf course, Steve could not stop talking about how excited he was to be there. Not once did he mention how he was grateful that Kay had rearranged her week so that she could come along with him. All morning as they walked along the fairways, watching a parade of players unknown to Kay do things she did not understand, Kay became more and more frustrated. Steve all but ignored her. The only time he gave her any attention at all was when he caught a guy checking Kay out. With Kay's tan skin and curly hair, she stuck out like a sore thumb in an almost all white golf crowd. She attracted quite a bit of attention and a good portion of that attention came from other guys. Steve was once quite good looking too, but he was always jealous of the attention that Kay received from other guys. When he noticed guys looking at her, he would "innocently" grab her butt or "accidently" brush against her chest. She didn't mind public displays of affection. But she did mind public displays of ownership.
After about the fifth time that he did that, Kay became infuriated with Steve and stormed away from the fairway. Oblivious, Steve momentarily just stared dumbfounded as she walked away. After about a minute he abandoned his great seats and went after her. He caught up with Kay as she was walking into the woods. He roughly grabbed her arm and spun her around.
In his quietest voice possible he yelled "what the hell has gotten into you today? I thought that you came here to have fun with me."
"Fun with you," Kay growled back at him, "Is that what you call this? Do you really think that having my ass grabbed and breasts groped for all to see is fun to me? I didn't want to be here. I hate golf. But I wanted to spend time with you and you've done nothing but ignore me or molest me and I'm sick of it. I thought that being here with you would be a change from our everyday life but it turns out that it is nothing but the same crap as at home."
"What the hell are you talking about? We have a great life. We have a great home, go on great vacations all around the world, and if I might add a pretty damn good sex life."
"That's right. I bought us a great house. I take us on great vacations and please, speak for yourself when it comes to our sex life." With that Kay turned and stormed away from Steve for the second time in the last five minutes. She never turned around to see people snickering at Steve as they walked by.
Not knowing where she was on the golf course or how she would get home, she wandered around for a good while. She walked through woods, behind grandstands and over ropes. If she'd known how many spectator rules she'd broken, she would be embarrassed. But at that moment she was too oblivious to care. After what seemed like walking for hours, she stopped and looked around. She could hear a lot of cheers coming from the grandstands behind her and there were numerous official looking men standing around with credentials hanging around their neck.
Once again Joseph Williamson put his head down in anger as he walked out of the scorer's tent. For what seemed like the hundredth time that year he had shot an over par round and was fast on his way to missing his seventh straight cut of the year. For a season that was only in its eight week, that made for a long start to the year. If things didn't turn around quickly, he would be looking for a place to play golf next year. As he stormed towards the practice range he nearly ran over and knocked to the ground what turned out to be the only person around in a fowler mood than he. He looked up in time to stop himself from growling at the person to watch where they were going. When he looked at the woman's eyes, he noticed tears dripping down. He was immediately captivated by her mysterious dark eyes. They were bloodshot from crying and they looked as if they held a deep sorrow.
Joseph was what one would call a journeyman pro. He had been on tour for several years now, but he could count his top 10 finishes on one hand and he had never come close to winning a tournament. In fact, if he disappeared from the tour, no one would even notice that he was gone. At this point in his career he felt like he should be making great strides, but he was taking more steps back than forward. He recently divorced his wife of five years. It was no big loss to Joseph. He wasn't sure that he ever loved his wife. It was a marriage of convenience for both and though they parted on amicable terms, he was happy to have moved on. Being on tour nearly every week did not leave much time for a social life. He attended sponsor parties during the tournaments, but at best his relationships would only last five or six days until he moved on to the next town. He had met a few women, but none that he was interested in attempting a long distance relationship with.
Never a believer in love at first sight, Joseph experienced the next best thing. When he bumped into this distraught woman he experienced a strange version of lust at first sight. Though this woman was undoubtedly hot, he instantly felt something more for her. He felt an instant desire to talk to her, find out what was hurting her and to take care of her. Never the suavest of guys, Joseph did not know what to say. He stammered out a combination of "sorry" and "excuse me."
Kay was wandering around this apparently restricted area when she noticed a tall, tanned, muscular guy walk out of a tent. She felt that once familiar butterfly feeling in her stomach. She hadn't had that feeling with Steve in a long time. She was almost ashamed at how she was feeling. She felt that she was cheating on Steve just by having tingly feelings for another guy. She saw this mystery guy come walking quickly towards her. She turned her head to the side as if she was looking at something. Next thing she knew she was slammed into by someone. She struggled to maintain her balance, but slipped on some mud and went to the ground. Now a mixture of pissed off and embarrassed she looked up to see who the fool was that knocked her down. She was horrified to see that it was the gorgeous guy that had only moments before caused her to feel things that she hadn't felt in years. Amazingly, she lost all of her anger and longed to hear this man's voice.
"I am so sorry...Let me help you up."
"Uh sure," and Kay reached out her hand and grasped what had to be the strongest hand that she had ever touched. She stifled a laugh when she noticed that his left hand was as white as a ghost; while his arm had a deep tan.
"Sorry I knocked you over and sorry you had to see my lovely hand. Occupational hazard of the job."
"Occupational hazard?"
"Yeah, of being a golfer."
"Why, do you play a lot of golf?" asked Kay.
"Well, you could say that. Again, I am so sorry that I knocked you down. Please let me make it up to you somehow. Anything. You name it. By the way, what is your name?"
"Kay. Kay Mitchell. And you are?"
"Oh, sorry again. How unchivalrous of me. I'm Joseph Williamson."
"Well so not that nice to meet you this way," Kay said with a wicked smile.
"Would you like to go get something to drink? It looks like we've both had a bit of a rough day and I feel like I deserve a chance to make it up to you."
Kay took one look at her mud covered pants, thought about Steve, then looked back at Joseph and every bone in her body told her to decline the invitation and to get as far away from this man as possible. For some inexplicable reason, "sure" is what came out of her mouth.
Joseph led Kay off in the direction of the clubhouse. All along the way many people were calling out to Jay saying "better luck tomorrow" and "just a few bad breaks out there today." Kay had no idea what they were talking about.
