Changes Ch. 06

When I came back out wearing the black dress pants, black button up shirt with the white, sleeveless undershirt beneath that she'd laid out on the bed for me, there was soft music playing, Diana Krall, I guessed, and she was looking me up and down, smiling approvingly.

While I was changing, so was she, as she now wore an ankle length, deep purple, lace nightgown. It fell just short of her high heels and was opaque, showing off her nipples somewhat. The eye popping garment only had one button in front, just under her delicious tits and, through the lace and the part in front, I could see the low cut, black panties she wore.

"Do you like dancing?" she asked.

"No, I don't know how." I said, feeling myself stiffen up, sure she could see it too.

"I knew you'd say that. It's alright, though, we'll just be slow dancing and that's easy. Come here, I'll show you."

"Okay, I've done this." I said as we got going.

"Yeah?" she asked, moving closer and slipping her arms over my shoulders, smiling happily, despite our bickering. "Where'd you learn?"

"Bars."

"That's not the best dance to meet women with."

"I know, believe me. You look really great, Heather. You smell nice, too."

"Thank you. I brought some of my choice perfumes from the house."

" ... I'm sorry I was shouting earlier."

"Me too. It just seems like you've been under a rock for the last ten years or so, sometimes. By the way, you smell like must." she added with a giggle.

"Must? I do?"

"I've noticed it before. It's not abadthing, but curiously fitting for you."

"So, I smell like an old book from some old man's basement?"

She laughed a little and said, "It's okay, I like it. It's you. Can I ask you something?"

"Sure.", I allowed.

"What put you in that life? I mean, moving from city to city, what is it with that?"

"Well,... You know, it's like when you've gone to a nightclub enough times that you know everybody and the newness wears off and starts to leave memories in their place. There's people you have to avoid, the little dramas that play out, your rep, blah, blah. You just use the place up and it's time to start going somewhere else, ya know?"

"Oh. Well, I can sort of see that in a nightclub, but I have trouble applying that to a whole city."

"I don't know, I just get that feeling sometimes. It's almost a panic inside. When my whole life seems like a mess. There's just this freedom and relief on the highway, endless possibilities seem open and I feel like I'm reset. Happy."

" ... You'd just dump a whole life? Job, friends, girlfriend, routine, security,... everything?"

"It's never been a problem. I'm highly employable even if I don't want to work for myself, but as long as I have enough to get a shop, I can earn three or four months' rent on that shop within the first month. I don't normally make friends beyond loose acquaintances and, as for women,... well, they never last anyway. If anything, they end up being a good reason for moving on."

"What's the longest you've ever stayed somewhere?"

"Two years, eight months, Fort McMurray."

"You liked it there?"

"Fuck, no, I hate the prairies with a passion, I stayed for the wages."

"Shortest?"

I smiled and told her, "Four months, a place called Quispamsis."

"What happened there?"

"It was a shithole and the people there were idiots, but also because I was kinda hammered one night and I accidently put my winter car through a light standard in the trailer park I was living in at the time. Cut the pole right off and kept going."

"What happened then?", she asked with a grin.

"Well, there were witnesses, but there was also enough confusion with what all the different witnesses allegedly saw to delay the cops and their 'investigation'. So, in order to avoid any un-necessary trouble, I had a yard sale the next morning and was gone by Noon."

"Youarea crazy frenchman." she laughed.

"Would it surprise you if I told you that I can't even speak French?"

"What!? Oh, pissy! I wanted you to whisper sweet nothings in my ear in the language of love!"

"Oh, god!" I complained good naturedly.

"Where are you originally from?"

"Fredericton, New Brunswick." Yourself?"

"Oshawa."

" ... So, what's your story? How does a girl from the Oshawa suburb end up here?"

"Well, it's not as adventurous as your story. I just didn't want to end up spending the rest of my life working behind the cosmetics counter atSears. I moved here when I was twenty two, hoping to become a journalist. That didn't work out and the next thing I knew, I was working at the Cosmetics counter atEaton's."

"Jeez.", I said commiseratively.

"Yeah. It was kind of a low point for me, that's for sure. But I stuck it out. I took a few courses, but they went nowhere and, by the time I was thirty, I figured the best I'd ever do for myself would be to marry a man with money while I had any looks left at all, otherwise I'd end up right back in suburbia. Full circle, you know?"

"Uh huh."

"It was such a dark and drudgerous existence in that cheap old house, the same as everyone else's and with this filth of nowhereville all over it. I actuallyfearedending up back there, but my only other alternative was stripping, and even that option was slipping away year by year. So, after some unfortunate trial and error, I met Bryan and, well,... Here I am."

"I grew up in suburbia too. Can't say I blame you, obviously. You ever talk to your family?"

"No. My older Brother was already married and starting out in another little shit house in another depressing old subdivision and my little sister was too young at the time to take it seriously. I do kind of feel bad about her sometimes. Dad was pretty strict and not very happy after Mom died,... He said some pretty dirty things when I left, so I never bothered getting in touch."

"You never wanted to go back, even when you were feeling your worst?"

"No. God, no. You?"

"No.", I said, remembering again Dagmar's e-mail to my sister and stressing a little.

"Hey, relax. You just got all stiff, and I don't mean that thing that's been poking my hip."

I laughed quietly, actually relaxing and noted, "So, we're both runaways."

"I guess so. But, you've run a ways further than me. And you've never stopped."

"Yeah, well I seem pretty stopped up now."

Heather shot me a brief, sad smile and laid her cheek on my shoulder.