The Romance Of Beth Gregory Ch. 02

The cobalt darted into the drive and rolled nearly to the garage door before it stopped. He had brought the large black Labrador and border-collie mix but was determined to leave the animal in the car. He had not been in the woman's house before and did not desire to add problems with the dog to his concerns for the heart of the woman. For the first time in his life he was not even considering the body of a female. The woman had made him happy just by smiling and he did not want to mess it up. "Go poop!" he ordered the dog as he held the front door open for it. He looked around the darkening neighborhood as he waited for the dog to finish urinating. It was a rather low middle-class neighborhood and most of the homes were an older version with lower house payments than most homes in the area.

He saw the lady that lived next door lying on her bed with two young children. It was not hard to see then and even harder to ignore them since they had no curtains or blinds on their windows. This literally shocked him as he had never known of a woman who would not at least hang a sheet over a bedroom window to keep even casual eyes out. "Okay, now get in 'cause you aren't coming in," he told the dog as he held the door open for the dog. He waited until the dog had leapt into the car before closing the door and walking to the side porch. At the door he pushed the door bell but nothing happened.

He turned around to avoid seeming too interested in the woman he had come to visit and then saw again that anyone could stand on the porch way and watch the woman next door who seemed to lack any concern at all that her window and bedroom was open to the world. He made a mental to mention it to the girl if he ever got the chance as it turned his stomach to think that these two little children were so exposed to any person's voyeuristic tendencies. Finally he grew worrisome that the door bell did not work and opened the screen door to knock on the inner door. He was rewarded with the sound of yelping from what he recognized was the throat of a Chihuahua.

"Oh. Hello. Come on in," the dark haired woman sat as the door opened and she saw him standing their in his jacket and black jeans. At her feet was a white and tan Chihuahua that was dancing around and barking at the doorway. "Shut-up!" She yelled at the dog as she stepped back away from the door to allow the man to enter.

"That's all right, it is his duty to warn of visitors and I am the one intruding on his territory," the man explained as he entered and turned to close the door. He walked up to her, used a single finger to turn her face up to his and kissed her gently on the lips. He then fronted the Chihuahua and removed his shoes before following her into the living room. As he followed her he kept moving his foot toward the dog with each step. The dog would snap at his sock and then run off until he took the next step. With each bite the little dog would yelp so that it was obvious someone else who had known less about animals had kicked the little dog for snapping at their feet.

"Ya think, but he still gets on my nerves," she said as she walked to the couch and sat down on it. "The little fucker!" She finally snapped as she turned and sat on the couch.

"He's really alright," he said as he watched the little dog leap up onto the couch beside her and continue to bark at him. He sat on the couch and the dog lept onto the back of the couch and help a position there. "He's a good dog," he added as he held a his hand in front of the dog palm outward to distract it as he bent over and kissed the woman gently on the lips. He then sat back on the couch and the little dog came and sat between them quietly. It was a short haired Chihuahua that looked more like a tiny reindeer in the body due to its long thin legs. "So did you still want to go with me to Wal-Mart? I promise not to dance you down the aisles."

"He's never acted like that toward a man before," Beth said with a smile of satisfaction. "If you still want, let me tell Heather where we are going and we can go."

"Be my guest. Wal-Mart is open all night," He added with his own smile. He watched as she went into the back room and then looked around the home as he waited. Thought he never got off the couch he could see that she was a woman who tried to have taste and class in her own home. The smell of dog manure could be smelled, but otherwise the home seemed relatively clean. The floors were of hard wood but contained the residual staining of dog droppings having sat for at least a day, but otherwise he was pleased with the living room area.

"Do you know how to get to Wal-Mart from her or do you want me to drive?" She asked as she walked back into the room and went into the kitchen.

"Hey, rule is as long as I can get you to smile I will do the driving," he said as he followed her. He had never been to the Wal-Mart in the area but he did need some dog food and copier paper. If going to Wal-Mart in the area could count as a date he was all for it and more. After she had spent their first night basically at his home it was only fair that he spend a little time at hers.

"Ahhh, he left you out here all by yourself?" She asked the dog when she got in the car. Petting and rubbing him as he fought to get every ounce of her attention.

"I did not know how your dog would respond to him," Jim said as he got in the car and turned the key in the ignition. "The last thing I want is for him to get beat up by a little dog. He's only had one fight and that was with a cat when he was a pup, damned thing beat him up, too. Split his lip," he added as he darted out of the drive and back toward Portage Trails. "Which way My Dear lady?" He asked as they reached the intersection.

"Left."

"Now is that my left or your left or Chester's left," he asked jokingly as he waited for the red light to change. He smiled as he saw that his playing had worked and the woman was smiling once more. Her face had dimpled and he could see in her eyes that she was comfortable and pleasing in his presence again. Even as she caressed the dog's coat, he was trying to plan the next caress of the woman's heart. He really believed that if she could be made to love again, she would be the loveliest woman on Earth.

"Your left..." she stumbled through a smile that was partly forced.

"Well, I guess that means you don't think my dog knows which way is left and which way is right," he continued to ramble as he turned onto the four lane road and speeded up. "I have you know that he likes you and to him that is right and he follows my orders so he must know that I am his Left...tenant."

"Go through the next few lights..." she interjected as she lit a cigarette and tried to conceal the smile and dimples from him. The guy upset her the way he was able to make her smile and laugh after only one day. It was not right that after avoiding any entanglements with a man, this one should come out of no where and be able to manipulate her feelings. She had never met any man in her life that had made her feel so free and so comfortable so quickly and intensely. In less than a week she felt herself falling...falling...falling in love with a man she had barely known for a week!

Nothing seemed to apply to this guy. She tried to rationalize some fault in him, but nothing seemed to work. The man defied all logic. He opened doors for her. Drove for them like a servant. Was not as dirty as most men and was not spotless to a fault either. He seemed to like to hold hands, walk shoulder to shoulder and even removed her coat for her when they went to dinner. He cooked and got her something to drink when she wanted it. Never ordered for her but allowed her to order and even though he did not have much income he never set a limit on her orders. Spontaneous he was and when she seemed to have a depressing thought he was there to make her smile even if it meant acting insane. In bed he was like no other she had ever met. Either he was having orgasms without her knowing it or he was so wrapped up in providing her pleasure he did not pursue his own. There was nothing she could say that was so negative that she did not want to be around him every moment she could. He was like a knight in shining armor that just popped out of a bottle and now she did not know how to get him back in the bottle--even worse, she did not really want him to go back in the bottle...in fact she was hoping he would forget he had even come out of the bottle.

"Ok, now where do I go from here?" He ask when he realized her mind was drifting off somewhere else. He had a belief that when it came to dating the Forces sent him or made a connection possible with a person that needed to love. The problem was that he could lift them up into a world of romance that most women could only dream of, but he could not stop them from becoming jealous or greedy. He was familiar with the way she looked and it brought him a depressing moment. He turned the way she pointed, no longer directly pursuing a smile from her. His own heart was growing heavy. Every woman he had managed to meet, he had changed in dramatic ways. They had gone from a life of monotonous boredom to one of exciting romance. Their low self-esteem had soured to new heights and their friends and family noticed that the person was smiling from the heart for the first time in years. It not only affected them but their children and relatives as well. It was like taking a woman from the lowest level and taken her to the highest when he was around. Just as the wino jealousy protects his only dollar, so he found that women can become so jealous and greedy of a man's time...of that moment and feeling...of being loved and attended to. Beth, this woman he had known less than a week had that look on her face. It saddened him. He had been married to a woman when he was younger and when they had separated she had spiraled into the heroin dens trying to find a replacement. His last wife still set in her house with two rooms of unpacked belongings hording over the things they had shared and spiraling out of control in a downward drop. A girl friend he had lifted to new heights had gone from a home to losing her daughter and living in a trailer in her search for the same form of love. Another was pregnant with an unwanted child in an attempt to find a man like him. Beth had that same look on her face.

"You should see it up on your left," the woman said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

"Left!" He said jerking the cobalt over to the left most lane. "Or did you mean your left?" He asked slamming it back into the right-hand lane.

"Your left!" She yelled in shocked surprise. The smile had returned to her face and now he too felt good and was smiling.

"Ok, but I notice those lovely dimples are back," he said as he turned the car onto the new road. "But this is not Wal-Mart," he said as he looked at what could not be a mall or shopping center.

"This is the back of it. You will want to turn right at the next road," she sounded like a child giving driving directions to her own party. She was smiling and expecting even more smiles and was ready to go into the Wal-Mart in this city and see what happened. She was afraid someone might see her but she wanted that romantic moment again and again. Somehow, it had become addictive in such a short period of time and she did not know how to stop it, break it off or just forget it. Worse, she actually wanted it to continue as it was everything she had ever dreamed a relationship would be.

"What are we doing back here? I get it," he joked as he watched her for a reaction, "I find me a beautiful woman and now she wants me to hide her. Oh no..." he crooned as he whipped the Cobalt around the turn and darted forward yet again, "can't do that. You are too...too...too h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-ot for that my little sweetheart." He darted the little car around the next corner and into a parking area. She was dimpling and smiling wildly once more as he drove in circles around the parking lot. "Here we are!" He announced as he stopped the car in a parking slot near the front.

"You're fucking crazy, you know that?" She playfully asked as she straightened up and got out of the car.

"You loved it so shut up," he said as he put his hand in hers and they walked into the store. She was smiling and he was confident.

"Don't tell me to shut up!" She said trying not to smile. She could not understand it or even begin to realize how anything had happened. She hated it when a guy told her to shut up but this guy done it in a way that made her feel good. She knew somehow that when he told her to shut up it was a way of getting her to smile and there just did not seem to be anyway around it. He held his hand tighter as they walked, never wanting the moment to end.

"I ought to put you in one of these carts and wheel you around," he said as he pulled a cart from a row and pranced off though the entry-way. "Damn-it, why is it my cart does not have an engine! Next time I am here you had better steel some better carts!" He announced to the door greeter as they strolled past. "Isn't this woman absolutely beautiful?" He asked an older couple as they passed and smiled back as they agreed that the woman at his side, who was blushing wildly and trying to hide her face, was beautiful.

"We're in Wally-World, we're in Wally-World, we're in Wally-World, we're in Wally-World!" He began singing as he lead her toward the back areas of the store. "Wow, this one is a lot smaller than the one in alliance or Canton."

He explained as he walked into the food area. "They don't have much food do they?"

"The one in Alliance and Canton are superstores and they have everything, but this one is just a Wal-Mart," she said trailing behind him by their interlocked hands.

"We can get you some of those there, now," he said with a whistle as they passed the bra and panties section.

"I don't get my bras from Wal-Mart, I get them from Victoria's Secret," she said as they left the section behind.

"Seems a rather expensive solution for your everyday bra," he responded. He felt Victoria Secrets was fine for bras and panties set for an occasion but otherwise it was un unnecessary expense when you considered her income and the fact she had two children. He continued walking toward the computer section. In the hardware section he grabbed her and danced her for a moment against her playful objections. "You are very beautiful," he said as he stepped behind and hugged her from behind. Then he kissed her neck tenderly before they proceeding down the aisle toward the computer section. He picked up a couple packs of copier paper and headed toward the pet section. "Doesn't taste like a real bone," he said a s he picked up a rawhide bone a bit it.

"I know you did not just bite that bone?" She said with a playful gasp.

"Why not, Chester eats my food. Besides, it is only right that I taste test whatever he eats," he said defensively. He watched her pick up some toys and they headed toward the check out aisle. "Isn't she lovely, isn't she beautiful," he asked several people as they walked by them. All of the people agreed and then they were at the cashier and walking out of the store.

"Is that all you came here for?" She asked as they walked toward the car.

"Well, I would have visited this girl I met that lives up here but I don't know whether or not she is home or even wants me around," he said jokingly. He noticed she was smiling and that made him feel good as well.

"Really now," she said as they got in the car and he started the engine.

"Well, now we will have to see about that wont we. I mean she may not be as hard as I thought after all," He said with a smile as he put the Cobalt in gear and pulled out of the parking space. "I mean she might just want to melt like butter before the hot butter knife of love." He commented, noticing the smile that seemed to cross her face.

"Where are we going? " She demanded between laughs as he turned the car in growing circles around the cars parked in the parking lot.

"I am waiting for the master to give me directions," he responded with an equally huge smile.

"In that case just go straight through the next stop sign," she said with a pointing finger.

"Through it or do you want me to stop for it?" He said with a laugh as he sped up toward the stop sign.

"You have to stop for it. After all it is still a stop sign, you know."

"Technically you are wrong my dear. Private property means no traffic laws," he said as he slowed and stopped at the sign.

"You can't tell the police around here that," she said with a challenge. "If there is a stop sign and you go through it they will ticket you 'cause I have a girlfriend it had happened to."

"Ahhhhh, the Book Of Chester page thirty-four, paragraph eight says that the woman in question did not plead innocent but decided not to fight it," he said with a glance in her direction. From the way she was looking he could tell that she had either made it up or he was right. "The Book Of Chester is never wrong My Dear."

"Really, but I did not say you were right."

"Did not have to. I am always right when I read from the Great Book Of Chester. So where do we go from here?" He said as he pulled to a stop at the rear exit of the Wal-Mart parking lot.

"Turn left. Then we can either go home to my house or you can drop me off." She said, each word intending to be bait. "That is if this one girl even wants you back at her home," she added allowing him to reach over and hold her hand as he drove.

Once in the woman's home, he sat on the couch while she took a shower. Peanut the Chihuahua never strayed far from her. When she returned he pulled her down beside her and leaned back so she could lie against him. Her body was soft yet every muscle seemed tight from stress. A twelve year old came out of the hallway and went into the kitchen after looking at them on the couch.

"That be my Danny," she said with a cautious grin. She was obviously concerned about whether or not the man and boy would somehow get along. You need to get a shower and get off to bed," she told the boy who went back down the hallway with the same sideways glance at them. "My daughter is upstairs, but she will be down too, I think."

"Relax, I like kids and it does not matter how old or young as long as I can pass off some of my beliefs and traditions to them," he said, feeling some of the tension leave her body.

"Did you take care of the phone yet, Mom?" A fifteen year old with an overly mature body, low cut blouse and shorts said as she came down from upstairs with a ka-boom from the door when it was sticking near the top of the doorway.

"That's trouble, my fifteen year old daughter," she said to him before turning her attention to her daughter's question. "Yes, and we need to find the receipt for it."

"Well, like it isn't working right," the young girl said in a manner associated with prissiness before returning up stairs with a quiter ka-boom from the door.

"Danny!" Beth called and waited for some answer before continuing. "get your shower now." No further answer came and she went to his room. "Come on and please get a shower."

He could not hear the boys response but could tell that the woman was getting frustrated over the boys disobedience in his presence. He did not really know what to do but felt awkward all the same. Finally he decided to trust his instincts on this one come what may. It did not take long and shortly after her return to the couch the boy came back into the living room and sat down after scooping up the Chihuahua. He noticed the traces of a deformed lip and the posture of the child, both evidence of being treated tenderly due to physical problems at a younger age. He said nothing but waited for the natural course of events while caressing and rubbing the woman's shoulders and back.