When other teenage girls were busy worrying about boys and dating I was at home taking care of my parents. When my old classmates went off to college, I had to put off my education as my dad had just passed away and mom was not able to take care of herself as she was blind and going deaf, and in very bad health. By the time I was 20 I was all alone.
My parents weren't my real parents. They were actually my grandparents. They'd been in their late 30s when they had my biological mother -- their only child. She got pregnant when she was 17. She refused to say who the father was and a week after giving birth to me she slipped away in the night and was not heard from again. When I was 5 my parents got a call from a hospital in a town they'd never heard of. Their daughter had been working the streets as a prostitute and died from a drug overdose.
They'd hoped that she'd come back and get me one day, and after she died they started looking for my dad. They talked to all of her old school friends, but nobody knew of her having had a boyfriend. With my distinctive colouring -- fiery red hair and emerald green eyes -- it was obvious that I must take after my biological dad (our family was of Scandinavian ancestry and all family photos showed blonde people), but even with that knowledge, it was impossible to find anyone who could possibly have fathered me.
I didn't have to worry about money, my parents had been quite well off, but with no family left and having spent my teenage years caring for mom and dad, I didn't really have anyone to turn to when they'd passed away. There were no friends who could stop me from isolating myself. Perhaps it wasn't a surprise that I decided to sell the old Victorian mansion I grew up in and move to a new house in a new town.
I decided against going to college. My inheritance and the money I made from selling the old house were enough for me to spend the rest of my life without any money worries, provided I wasn't careless. I decided to find something that I enjoyed, that paid the few bills I had, and that gave me the chance to figure out what to do with my life, maybe even find a man to marry and have that perfect TV-family that I'd watched with envy as a child.
I tried lots of jobs in the first year. I worked at a day care centre, I worked as a hotel receptionist, I was a filing clerk, and I even tried being a secretary. None of those jobs really appealed to me though. I got bored quickly and moved on to the next thing. That's when Ralph's and my paths crossed.
Ralph was 10 years older than me and the local veterinarian. I liked him the moment I saw him. He was a tall and muscular man with very intelligent eyes and a wild brown mop of hair on his head, making me think of a nutty professor. And that wasn't very far from the truth. He was incredibly smart with an immense passion for animal welfare, but he was quite awkward around people and the most absent-minded person I'd ever met. He'd hired me to do all sorts of tasks for him, everything from answering the phone, to making appointments to typing letters.
There were only the two of us working at the clinic. Every so often he needed the help of a veterinarian nurse and then the nurse who worked with a colleague of his in the next town would come and help, but the rest of the time it was just Ralph and me. I found that I liked it that way. I was so used to being alone that I'd found the other places where I'd worked far too busy and chatty. Ralph, on the other hand, had found it hard to keep assistants as it was such a lonely job and he was a very demanding boss. I didn't mind working hard though and we soon got into a routine that suited us both.
I'd worked for Ralph for half a year when we were hit by the worst blizzard in living memory. At the end of the day when I went to drive home I could hardly open the door and my car was covered in inches of snow.
"I don't think you're going anywhere tonight, Heather," Ralph remarked from behind me. "Why don't you stay in my spare room?"
Ralph lived in an apartment above the clinic so we headed up the stairs. He told me to get comfortable so I kicked off my shoes and curled up on the sofa with a book about veterinary medicine that I was slowly working my way through. Ralph disappeared into his office and closed the door behind him. His dog had followed him into the office, but the cat curled up with me.
I'd been up in the apartment to make cups of coffee and tea before so I knew my way around the kitchen. After an hour I felt like a cup of tea and knocked on Ralph's door and asked him if he'd like one. I heard a yes from behind the door. As the water was boiling I looked around the kitchen to see what there was to eat. It was obvious that Ralph was living a typical bachelor existence as there wasn't much in the cupboards to cook with. I did find enough to make an omelette though and I could feel myself getting hungry. As I entered Ralph's office to give him his tea, I asked if it was OK for me to make an omelette.
"Oh... yes... of course," he said, looking slightly confused about the concept of cooking. "I'm sorry, I'm not a very good host. Of course you must be hungry. Do I have anything edible in the fridge?"
"There's plenty for me to make an omelette with," I said with a smile. "I can make one for you too."
"Oh, I don't want to put you to any trouble. Really, I'll just call for a pizza. Can I get you a pizza too?"
I suppressed a smile. "Have you looked outside? There won't be any pizza deliveries tonight. Please let me make you an omelette."
"That's right. The blizzard. I forgot. An omelette, you say? That sounds marvellous."
I went back to the kitchen and rummaged around for some pots and pans. Ralph joined me and watched with fascination when I made the omelettes. It was as though the thought of someone actually using his kitchen to cook was a novel idea to him, one that required investigating. We soon tucked into our food and Ralph smiled at me.
"This is fantastic, Heather," he complimented me. "I haven't had home cooked food since the last time I visited my parents. Mom despairs at me since I've never taken the time to learn to cook. It's not that I'm not interested, there's just so much else to learn, I never seem to have the time."
After our meal he helped me make the bed in the spare bedroom and then he gave me one of his t-shirts to use as a nightshirt. He also managed to find an unused toothbrush for me as well as some toiletries that his sister had left behind the last time she came to stay. We said goodnight and I went to bed with my book. I could still hear Ralph tapping on the keyboard in the office next to my bedroom an hour later when I switched off the lights to go to sleep.
It was pitch black when I woke up. It took me a few moments to remember where I was and then I realised that I needed to go to the toilet. I tried to go as quietly as possible, and I cringed when I remembered how loud the flush was. I cleaned my hands and opened the door and walked straight into Ralph's chest. He obviously slept in only pyjama bottoms as his broad chest was naked in the night and I noticed that it was covered in brown curls. Only his hands on my arms stopped me from falling backwards when I ran into him.
"Heather!" he exclaimed, confused at first. "Oh, the blizzard. That's right, you're staying the night."
"Uh... uhm... yeah, that's right," I stuttered, disconcerted with the feeling of being so close to him. For the first time I saw him as a man, not just the charmingly confused doctor. His surprising masculinity had an effect on me that I'd never really felt before. His hands were still holding my arms tight and I could feel my nipples stiffen against his chest and an unfamiliar tingle between my thighs.
