"I don't know how to thank you," Loretta Ebert told the assistant manager of the Family Dollar who was kind enough to take her home when he saw the widow in the parking lot beside a car which seemed to be disabled. "I'll call the garage in the morning and get my clunker out of your lot. Serves me right for being too lazy to walk those few blocks."
"No Mrs. Ebert, This isn't a social visit and the car is the least of your worries," the burly man behind the wheel said as he pulled up the driveway of the bungalow on the quiet street. "The evening isn't over."
"I feel so guilty Robert, having you drive me home after you worked so hard all day," the nervous senior said. "We could have settled this at the store."
"No Mrs. Ebert," the 31 year old divorced man said, stifling a smile when he saw her reaction to the declination before he added, "I need to use your bathroom so lets go in."
"Certainly," the now almost giddy lady exclaimed as he turned off his engine and followed her up the steps and into the house's kitchen. "It's the first door on your left."
After Loretta watched the broad shouldered man fill the hallway before ducking into the bathroom, she ran a brush through her short light brown hair and looked at herself in the faint reflection of the kitchen window, wishing that she was younger than her 63 years. Loretta jumped when she heard the toilet flush and her heart was racing when she heard the sink running.
"Maybe this was a bad idea," Loretta mumbled to herself as she thought of the weeks she had spent planning this attempt at seduction, cursing herself for listening to her friend Betsy and her telling of what had happened between herself and the Family Dollar employee, a story that had only fueled the inner demons that seemed to overwhelm the widow of three years from time to time.
Those feelings of regret disappeared when the bathroom door opened and Mr. Welch emerged, and while Robert Welch was not a particularly handsome man, with thinning red hair and some extra pounds on his burly 6'4" frame, the unsuspecting man was just Loretta's type since her late husband Warren was also a very physically imposing man.
Mr. Welch had loosened his tie and unbuttoned the top button of his white shirt, and the sight of the red hair that peeked out of the collar's opening made a shiver run down the widow's spine, hair that matched what covered the man's massive forearms.
"Are you sure I can't make you some coffee or perhaps tea?" Loretta asked, and when he declined she suggested that there was a bottle of bourbon in the cupboard that her husband used to drink. "It's just that I so rarely have company, especially a gentleman. I miss conversation with someone who isn't another biddy at bingo"
"I can tell," Robert said as his eyes roamed up and down the petite woman's frame. "Is that why you pocketed the lipstick?"
"Lipstick?" Loretta mumbled.
"Yes. The other lipstick that you slipped into your purse."
"You saw me?"
"That was what you wanted isn't it Mrs. Ebert? For me to catch you? Either that or you're the worst kleptomaniac in the history of Family Dollar, and that's saying something. The way you kept waiting for me to look your way before you pilfered it?"
"I would never do anything like that, I swear," Loretta said as she took the lipstick out of her purse and set it on the table.
"I know that. Now I just want to know why," Robert Welch noted. "I have a hunch that I know already but I would like to hear it from you."
"I'm a little short of money this month and I..."
"Stop it Mrs. Ebert," the man said as he crossed his arms over his broad chest. "You're a worse liar than you are a thief. You wanted me to catch you. That's why you put a little makeup on today - not too much - just enough for me to notice, and that's a new blouse, isn't it?"
"Why would I want you to catch me doing something so horrible as stealing?"
"Maybe because you were hoping I would take you into the back room like I do some other shoplifters, at least the female ones," Robert suggested, savoring the look of horror on the woman's face as he spoke. "I don't do that anymore though because the corporate headquarters installed a camera back there because of some rumors they heard. Naughty rumors about one of their assistant managers who was dealing with shoplifters in a way that's not conventional."
"Mr. Welch..."
"Robert. Call me Robert," the man said as he moved a step closer to the woman, accentuating even further the great differences in height and weight. "May I call you Loretta?"
"Yes."
"After all, I think we're going to become good friends. Would you like that Loretta?"
"Yes."
"I do have a problem making friends with thieves though. Who was it that told you about me?" Robert mused aloud. "There's a few that would know. Haven't I seen you with that big gal? What's her name? Betty Collins?"
"Betsy," Loretta corrected.
"What did she tell you?"
"Nothing really," Loretta replied, but after withering under the younger man's piercing glare she admitted, "she said something about the type of women you were attracted to."
"Which are?"
"Older women," Loretta said.
"What else?"
"Please," Loretta pleaded. "Can't we forget all about this ever happening? I'm just a silly and lonely old woman who was having a bad day."
"I'm sure she told you more than that, judging by the sleeveless blouse you wore today with no bra - something you never do, and the way you kept reaching up and fussing with your hair," Robert said while the widow blushed. "Your display didn't go unnoticed or unappreciated, may I add? It appears that the only thing bigger than Betsy's breasts is her mouth."