Author's Preface: Everyone in this story is eighteen years old or older. The story is entirely fictional. Any similarities to real people or events are purely coincidental. Constructive comments are always welcome.
Enjoy
Rainy day one-night stand - A one-night stand leads to more.
Helen Curtis lived in a neighborhood of curved tree-lined streets with charming houses on half-acre lots in North Dallas. It was a pleasant community where people of all ages walked daily for exercise, filling their Fitbits with data. It was a friendly area where no one ever worried about their safety. Any time of the day or night, people walked with their dogs, their friends, their husbands or wives, their children, or by themselves. Helen was in the last group, young and single with no children, dogs, or close friends nearby.
Her parents bought the house when she was twelve years old, and she lived there until she went to college at eighteen. She graduated from UT Austin Law School at twenty-five and moved back to Dallas with her boyfriend. That summer, her parents were killed in a car accident and the house was part of her inheritance. She had no siblings and now lived in the house she grew up in. The house was far from small, but it was one of the few remaining smaller houses on her street. The rest had been torn down and two-and-a-half-story monsters had taken their places. On streets nearby, whole neighborhoods had been torn down with gated communities built in their place.
Until last year, she'd lived there with her boyfriend of three years. She easily found a job at a small law firm and made good money, but not surprisingly, with his master's in art history, her boyfriend couldn't find a job. It turned out he wasn't looking for one. He spent his afternoons at a neighborhood bar picking up lonely housewives in need of companionship. She kicked him to the curb when she discovered his little hobby.
Being alone in the big house was scary for her, but there was no way she could ever trust that sleaze again. Now that she was unattached, she'd begun an exercise regime to keep away depression and to keep looking young and healthy.
+++++
Sunday was a rainy day, but by late afternoon the skies began to clear, and the sun peeked through the clouds. Helen was more than ready for her daily walk. It was sixty-five degrees, perfect for a long fast walk. Her Fitbit needed feeding. She had to get 10,000 more steps in to meet her daily goal.
She was two and a half miles away from her house, halfway to her goal when the sky darkened; she heard a loud clap of thunder not far away.
Minutes later, the sky opened up. It didn't just rain or even rain hard, it rained in sheets. It felt like buckets of water were being poured on her. The wind had picked up and she was soaked to the bone in seconds. Sixty-five degrees in the sun was lovely but now dark clouds covered the sky, the temperature had dropped, she was wet, and the wind was blowing rain in her face. There were lengthy eight-foot-high brick walls on each side of the street. On this street, the houses were all behind brick walls with locked gates guarded by uniformed men in little huts. Those entrance gates were several blocks away. There was nowhere close for her to find shelter, not even a tree.
A man drove by slowly, with his wipers beating franticly, barely able to see out his windshield. He saw something move outside and realized a woman was out in the rain. Slamming on his brakes, he backed up towards her. He jumped out of his car, opened an umbrella, and ran towards Helen. She was alarmed to see a stranger running towards her, but her fear was unfounded. The umbrella he held over her helped, but not much, and she began trembling from the cold rain. The man took off his suit coat and put it over her shoulders.
"Get in my car," he yelled to be heard over the sound of the rain pounding on the umbrella.
A bolt of lightning hit the ground a few hundred yards ahead accompanied by a deafening clap of thunder. She knew getting into a car with a strange man could be risky, but she had little choice. It was dangerous being outside and she was drenched and freezing. They ran to the car as he held the umbrella over her. He opened the door for her, ran to the driver's side, and got in. She saw a brochure on the front seat that said
Budget Rental
.
When they were safe inside, she saw he was just as wet as she was. Helen could see through his soaked shirt. That made her think about her own state of dress. Her t-shirt was soaking wet. That wouldn't be so bad, but she hadn't worn a bra today. Before he put his jacket over her, the thin t-shirt she was wearing would have been transparent showing her breasts and nipples hardened by the cold rain to the world. He must have seen them even in the dim light. She looked at the man in the driver's seat trying to gauge how much he had seen. At least she had panties and dark shorts on.
"Hi, I'm Greg Davenport."
The interior car was dim so she couldn't make out the details of his face, but his rich baritone voice was soothing. From his outline, he looked to be about her age, slim, and fit. His wet hair was plastered to his face. It was hard to see him well, but he didn't look threatening.
She held out her hand and said, "Helen Curtis. Thank you for stopping." Her hands were ice cold.
He yelled over the noise of the rain on the car roof, "Why are you out in the rain?"
"It stopped raining earlier, and I wanted to take a walk. This is embarrassing but it upsets me if I don't hit my Fitbit step goal every day," she said. " I'm afraid your clothes might be ruined and I'm dripping all over your seats."
"No worries, my clothes will dry and it's a rental car."
Marble-sized hail began pummeling the car; the sound was like the inside of a Jamaican steel drum. "I'm glad I found you before the hail began and that you're all right."
"I hope you bought the rental insurance." She saw dents all over the hood.
"Are you still cold?" he asked. Helen nodded.
He turned the car heater to High.
"This should be over in a minute," she said then looked at the weather on her phone. Several alerts for severe weather were shown, including high winds, golf ball size hail, possible tornados, and flash flooding. Several large storms were headed towards them. She showed him her phone.
"Is the weather always this mild in Dallas?" Greg asked and laughed. He had a compelling affable laugh that calmed her.
"No, sometimes it storms like this when it's one hundred degrees outside." She joked.
"This storm wasn't on the radar twenty minutes ago," she said. "It might not be so bad."
They heard a loud clap of thunder right above the car and jumped. It was raining harder now than before.
Greg said, "I'm afraid this storm may not let up for a while. Even if it does, I don't think you can finish your walk."
"I think you're right. Would you mind driving me home? It's not far," she asked.
"I'll have to. Otherwise, you'll have to swim and dodge falling ice cubes." He laughed. "Where do you live?"
She gave him directions to her house. It took a while to get there because the water had flooded some of the streets and Greg could barely see. He pulled into her driveway and stopped close to her front door. Greg handed her the umbrella and told her to keep it.
Her hand was on the door handle when she looked back and said, "Please come in with me. It's not safe to drive in this weather and you're soaking wet. You have to be cold."
"I wouldn't want to impose." They heard the tornado warning sirens start wailing.
