Chapter 5
Even though Aunt Ginger had promised to still be awake, at 11:25, Samantha still tried to come through the door quietly. She found Ginger, sitting in a recliner, flipping channels. "Should nave known you'd be up to pester me with questions about tonight."
"Well of course I'd be awake, dear. I just set up two of my closest friends on a blind date they didn't even know about. Who wouldn't be eager to get the scoop? So... spill it!"
"Okay, Aunt Ginger. What the hell was that all about?"
"Archie's something, isn't he? Shoot, if I was even 10 years younger, girl... I wouldn't let you anywhere near him. He'd be my little secret! So... tell me all about it."
"Okay, so... We didn't really talk much on the way to the restaurant. Really, just things like 'Turn left here.' And I'm thinking, 'What did you get me into?' So awkward. Started looking like it was going to be really long night. And I think he picked up on that, because he started... well, he started saying some really funny things about you." Ginger looked puzzled, but Samantha quickly went on. "Oh, nothing remotely polite! Just giving voice to his -- and my -- worries. Wondering how you could do something like that to us. And he asked if I wanted to call the whole thing off, but..."
"Yeah? Obviously, you didn't call it off. Why not? You finally realizing what a genius I am?"
Samantha snorted appropriately. "No, it was one word he said -- 'us.' I was sitting there, stewing about how you could do this to me, and he's thinking about us, rather than just himself. It struck me. Not a lot of guys are like that. I must have smiled or something, but I heard myself say, 'I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.' When what I was really starting to think was that I couldn't, in that instant, think of anyone I'd rather be with."
"Which means that your Auntie Ginger was ...?"
"Fine, you want to hear me say it? You were right."
"Very big of you to acknowledge the obvious, dear." Ginger cackled. "Go on."
"So, dinner was great, but you knew it would be. And conversation never really flagged. I mean, there were a couple of times where we both got quiet, but even those were sweet moments, like we both realized there was a possibility here, and neither of us wanted to screw it up by saying or doing the wrong thing."
Ginger looked a little sideways. "You got the vibe that he saw a potential there too?"
"Yeah, I did. And why shouldn't he? I'm a catch! Or so my nosy aunt keeps telling me..." They shared a laugh. "Seriously, does that surprise you?"
"No, dear. Of course not." The distant look in Ginger's eyes told another story. Samantha paused to consider how to ask the question scampering through her mind, the same thought that echoed in Ginger's eyes.
"One thing I don't get about him is why he's single. I mean, he's thoughtful, charming as all hell. He has this way of making you feel like... like I've never felt before. I wish I knew how to explain it. But when I asked him what dating life in Golden was like, he..."
"Let me guess. He got really quiet."
"Yeah! What's up with that? All he'd say was that he'd seen someone a while back, but there'd been an accident, and then he changed the subject. I know there's more there, but..."
"Is that what he told you? That there was an accident, and left it at that? I guess it's still pretty much a living memory for him, so maybe it's too painful for him to talk about. Sammi, sit down. You need to know what really happened, and if Archie can't tell you, I can."
Samantha thought that she had seen it all with Ginger. Ginger had tended to her when her parents had passed away, and she'd tried to repay the kindness when Ginger lost her Tommy But even with those tragedies of life, she'd never seen this emotion play across Ginger's face: sorrow.
"Valerie Williams. She taught US history at some college in Wisconsin. She and Archie met online, in one of those ... whaddya call 'em ... blog sites. Someone at her school retired to Arizona, and left Valerie two dogs to look after, so she went on the computer to learn how to take care of them. Archie answered a couple of her questions, and they hit it off. Next thing you know, they're talking on the phone a couple times a week, then every night. Soon enough, he flew out to meet her, and he came back looking like he was three feet taller. Then she flew here to spend time with him; you've never seen people smile that big. He was... happy. When he gave her the ring and she said 'yes', it was like he'd found a home.
"They tried to move her out here, but she couldn't find a teaching job at any of the schools nearby, and he couldn't get into the vet school there."
Samantha interrupted, "Archie wanted to be a vet? He didn't tell me that."
"Yeah, he had been trying to get into vet schools for a few years; that's why he came to work for me. Said it was real world experience. Pssh. I think he just came in to look at my boobs." Their laughter broke the tension, but too soon, Ginger got very serious again.
"Didn't last, though. These long-distance relationships... I don't know. I mean, they're great as far as they go, but there's just something about being able to come home after a frustrating day, cuddle up next to the person you love beyond words, and let him kiss and tickle and caress you and then pound into you until you both just explode into orgasmic oblivion. I remember this one time when Tommy had had just an awful day, so I met him at the door wearing nothing but a ribbon tied into a bow around my neck ..." Samantha smled, seeing Ginger lost in the reverie of the memory.
"Anyway, Valerie drifted away from him, and he got more and more mopey about it, which didn't help either.
