"Ow!" It was Megan sounding off from the bathroom.
I happened to be headed down the hallway when I heard her.
"You OK?"
"No, I'm not OK! I cut my leg shaving!"
"Bad?"
"No. It'll stop bleeding soon."
Knowing my daughter would be OK I continued down the hall and into my office. My thoughts did wander to the sight of her standing in the shower shaving her legs and I did wonder if she shaved her patch as well. I decided not to ask.
About an hour later she came into my office to say good-bye. She was off to some dance at school with Julio and two other couples. She was wearing the new dress she bought yesterday and I was taken aback by how adult my daughter looked. She is eighteen, barely. About 5'8" tall (I say about because we quit measuring on the door of her room on her sixteenth birthday), with creamy, caramel colored skin in contrast to the pale skin her mother had. She was still a bit shorter than her mother had been and darker, with hair that her driver's license said was brown but I called copper. The dark purple, silk dress was tight on Megan's body with a scoop neck that showed about an inch of cleavage with a locket perched right at the top. The locket I had given her mom before we were married. The dress was so dark in most light it looked black. It ended about four inches above her knees.
Looking her over I noticed the band-aid on her calf.
"Pretty good cut, huh?" I asked.
"Damn thing wanted to bleed and bleed."
"What time are you leaving?"
"Julio is ten minutes late already."
"Maybe he cut his leg shaving and it won't stop bleeding."
"Daddy!" she laughed.
She kissed me; said goodnight and the doorbell rang. Seconds later she called out another goodnight and the door closed.
I thought about her mother and how easily she had cut herself shaving. Her legs had little scars on them when we met and over the years she had added to their numbers. I remembered how silky her legs were and how I loved running my hands all over her legs. I thought about that for a while and then thought about looking on the web to see if there was a way to get rid of the hair without shaving.
There are many methods of getting rid of the hair. Most of them hurt and require repeat performances but one looked promising. Laser hair removal. A special diode laser is shined on the skin. It heats the pigment in the hair follicle and that kills it. There are some side effects for a small number of people but other than that it seems to work. From what I could find on the web, the hair never comes back in most cases.
When my phone rang it brought me back to the present and when Max asked why I was still at home I realized I was late for dinner with Max and his wife Barbara. I made some half lame excuse and told him I'd be there in fifteen minutes. Since it takes eleven minutes to drive to their house from mine I had to really dash to make it. I did.
When Max opened the door he was looking at his watch as well.
"Did you come by Cessna?"
"No. I followed most of the traffic laws on the way over." We hugged and went into the kitchen. I had thought that dinner would be just Max, Barbara and me, but I was wrong. Barbara was standing at the stove top and at the island of the kitchen stood a woman who was stunning. She was 5'9" or maybe a bit taller, short brown hair, a great figure and wearing one of my personal favorite outfits; jeans and a sweater. She was tossing the salad. When we walked through the door she looked up and smiled. I had a thought, "They set me up!"
"Pete, we'd like you to meet Kate. Kate, this is our friend Pete." Max said.
She stepped to me and instead of offering her hand she gave me a hug.
"Glad to meet you, Pete."
I gave the hug back, noticing I felt no bra when I hugged and the fragrance touching the inside of my nose was "China Rain." When the hug ended she didn't move away. I liked that.
Barbara finished cooking and we all sat at the table and had dinner. We commented on the salad, the salmon, the baked potatoes and even the wine. All that out of the way I figured we would soon get to the conversation that had me for dinner and Kate as dessert. I figured Max would start it. I was wrong.
Kate looked at me, smiled a warm wonderful smile and said, "You know of course that you and I are a set up."
"Yup. I knew that when I walked into the kitchen."
"How's it going, so far?"
"Until the hug I wasn't too happy about it. Over the last three or four years Max and Barb have attempted a set up or two and they were disasters. Something is different this time."
"What might that be?" Kate's mouth had just a hint of a smile on it.
"You. Maybe I'm finally ready to meet someone interesting and beautiful and there you are. Maybe I need to thank Max and Barb for thinking so highly of me."
"Maybe. But what about what I think?"
"You're right. Before I thank them I need to ask you how it's going so far. So, Kate, how's it going so far?" "I accepted the invitation thinking that they were probably going to set me up with someone. I came anyway. My conversation is that I don't want to meet someone I might like because I don't want to complicate my life. I met you. Now I'm having second thoughts."
"About meeting someone?" I smiled when I said it.
She smiled back. "No. About complicating my life."
I nodded. Barbara and Max just sat there looking at us both. Barbara's glass of wine was about halfway between the table and her mouth. Finally, I asked, "Barb, are you going to drink that wine or have you become a statue?"
She sat the glass back down. "I really thought you two would be able to talk to each other. You do. You talk to each other like you are discussing someone else's first meeting, not yours. It was interesting and I could tell you were both having fun, but different.
Kate answered, "I got so tired of conversations that didn't ever get to the point that I decided that from now on I will get to the point. I also always want to have fun."
"I was raised in a family where no one ever got to the point. My Dad's favorite word was palaver. It means talk something to death but don't ever make a decision. I decided that I wouldn't do that to people."
Max asked, "Aren't you afraid that being that direct will put some people off?"
"That fear drove my family. It doesn't drive me. The people who stay around long enough to know me are people who like my directness. The others are like the guy you loan twenty dollars to and then never see him again. It was worth it."
"Well, now that I think about it, directness is one of the qualities I do like about you, both." Max said.
"Since dinner is over, we can move to the family room and be more comfortable." Barbara pointed us in the proper direction and we went. Their family room was more of a media room. One wall housed a giant TV, an entertainment center and two big speaker enclosures. A "U" shaped couch sat centered across from the TV and a narrow table ran along the back of the couch. I knew that Max had made the table for holding drinks and snacks and had crafted drink holders into the table top. In the opposite corners of the wall opposite the TV were two more sound towers. Max loves watching movies with lots of action and sound. I think we have seen "Top Gun" at least five times together.
Our conversation was about our lives, our jobs, our kids and the upcoming summer. I discovered that Kate had a twenty-year old son who was away at Stanford on scholarship, an ex who lived in Maine and she worked as a psychotherapist for a school. Max and Barb have three kids, two boys and a girl. The oldest is also a senior in high school this year and the others are each a year behind each other. I've known Max and Barb since our oldest kids were in third grade together.
When the digital clock on the front of their VCR showed ten o'clock I was surprised. The evening had gone quickly and I still felt really good. I looked at Kate and she winked. I stood.
"Thanks for inviting me to dinner. I've really enjoyed being here."
"Are you going?" Max asked.
"The night is still young, I don't need to work tomorrow and I don't think Kate does either, so I thought perhaps I could take her away from all this and spend some time with her without you two watching. Kate, would you be up for that?"
"I've been waiting for the invitation for some time."
She turned to Max and Barb, thanked them, hugged them and we were off.
As we stepped off the porch Barb said to Kate, "Call me tomorrow, OK?"
"That depends." Kate answered.
At the curb we needed to make a decision: one car or two? Kate looked at me and quietly said, "If we leave a car here and it happens to stay until morning, they might draw some conclusions from that. How about we both drive away from here and we park one car somewhere and then we go somewhere?"
"I know just the place to stash a car. Follow me."
