Circumstances, Regret, Reunion

He drove around for an hour, trying to get his thoughts together. Jane was silent in her car seat beside him in the truck, but watched her father intently. He was aware of this, so did his best to remain as calm as possible. He finally stopped and got a kids meal for her at McDonalds, and a burger for himself. They ate in the truck, and then drove around for another hour. Jane seemed to be oblivious and began to show signs of sleep in the car seat. Steve knew he would have to get a hotel room and get her situated. He thought of any friends he could impose on, but all he knew were out of town for the weekend. He contemplated just heading to his parents' house in Ohio, but knew it was too far a trip for this night and time, and did not want to have to explain an impromptu visit to his parents, especially his mother. She was not fond of Anne, and had never been.

He pulled into a gas station, not far from his workplace of Memorial Hospital. He filled the truck with gas, staring off into space, not paying attention to the small Honda pulling in behind him. He was watching the pump, and checking on Jane in the truck, when from behind him he heard a familiar voice call him.

"Well, hello stranger. What brings you back this way Big Briggs?"

He turned and saw Amy behind her car door, still in her scrubs.

"Everything all right?" she said.

"No, I, uh, just out with my daughter." He replied, telling a weak lie.

She could see that he was upset. "What's going on Steve? Is Jane all right?"

"Yea, she's fine, just had to get out of the house for a little while." He lied again.

Amy sensed immediately and saw right through his replies. "What's wrong Steve? I have known you long enough to know something is not right."

He knew he was not good at hiding problems, or lying his way out of an explanation.

He asked, "Can you keep an eye on Jane for a moment while I go get a drink?" He felt the need to escape the questions for a moment.

As the pump kicked itself off, indicating his truck was full, and he replaced the nozzle, she replied, "Sure."

He checked Jane quickly, saw that she had dozed off, then walked into the store and bought two bottle of Pepsi. He walked back out to the truck, and saw that Amy had filled her tank, retrieved her receipt, and was walking around to the passenger side of his truck to check on his daughter.

He walked up to her. "Listen, I am having some troubles at home, and...."

"Again?" she interrupted.

This took him aback. "What does that mean?"

"Steve, I have known you for three years, and anytime you are having problems with Anne, everyone knows it."

"How? I don't come in there and blab my problems."

"No," she replied, "But you get quiet, and normally you are talkative and friendly. Everyone notices it, and you are throughout that hospital every day, fixing things and taking care of the staff."

"I'm sorry, I did not know it was that obvious."

"You are a straight shooter big guy, and you can't lie very well, nor hide pain in your face. Anything I can help you with?"

He smiled at her. "Dern, I wasn't aware I was that easy to read. Just some things I have to work out with her. She pretty much told us to leave. She'll cool off tomorrow, and we can work it out. I don't want to burden anyone with this, so please don't tell anyone." As he spoke, he noticed the way she watched him, never taking her eyes from his face.

"You know I won't." Anything I can do?" She said, looking straight into his eyes.

"No, I am just going to get a hotel room tonight so I can get Jane bedded down. I will call her tomorrow and go home and try to work it out."

"Come home with me." She said suddenly. "Not meaning to sound forward to a married man or anything, but I can get her set up with a bed, and get the couch pulled out for you. It's at least as comfortable as a hotel bed. How about it? Least I can do for a friend in need." She finished, staring him in the eyes again.

"Amy, I don't think I should, though I appreciate the offer."

"Don't trust me to keep my hands off of you?" she said, winking at him.

He smiled at this. "No, I trust you not to molest me. I just don't want to burden you, or get you involved in my problem." Can you understand that? I have to work this out."

"You need someone to talk to big guy. I may not be able to help much, but I am a good listener, and you can get it off your chest. Please consider." She replied, trying not to sound to pleading.

He sighed heavily, realizing that his options were limited on this night, and his first and foremost concern was getting his daughter out of the car seat in his truck, and into a safe place so she could sleep.

"OK, I am too weary to have another argument with a woman tonight."

"It's settled then, follow me. I live about ten minutes from here, and it's a little small, but the AC works, and you can get her bedded down."

He thanked her, and got back in his truck. Jane was asleep. Amy pulled past him, and he followed her to her apartment, a small, two bedroom place in a decent part of town.

They parked their vehicles. He collected his bag, and his daughter and followed Amy into her apartment.

Steve was suddenly pulled back into the present when Chester the Black and Grey tiger tabby jumped up into his lap and let out a loud meow. Chester was about the last throwback to his married life left in the house.

"Oooops, forgot to fill your dish, Chesty, sorry about that."

He petted the cat for a couple of minutes, then set it aside, arose, and filled the cat's dish. Chester purred and meowed as he followed and placed his face hungrily into the bowl. Steve looked at the clock again. 8:30. He then went to the door and saw the snow falling heavily in the flood lights. His truck was covered with about an inch already, and the flakes were now fat and falling rather heavily and steady. The wind outside had died down and the snow fell from the sky in a straight line.

He noticed the two neighbors houses he could see from his door had lights on in the living room. The main street light was out again, but he noticed a small car idling with the lights on at the curb, right where the street began to circle around to form the cul de sac.

He sat back down in his recliner, grabbed the TV remote, and turned on the TV. He found the weather channel and watched for a few minutes as the maps of the massive winter storm were displayed and the weather guys and gals had reports from many of the major cities of the mid-west. The first report was from Denver.

The City was blanketed by snow, with high winds and major accumulations expected.

He frowned and thought "Damn, hope Amy has safe travels. That looks bad."

He changed the channel to the Classic movie station just before the reporter in Denver announced that the airport was closed due to the storm.

He found that "The man who shot Liberty Valence" had just started. He decided to watch it, and try to put old dreams out of his mind with the help of Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin. It was now 8:45.....

Amy Kreisler's mind had been racing and wandering as well, from the moment she pulled away from Whalen properties.

She had driven straight to the airport, turned in the rental, and made her way through the TSA and baggage. She had an hour to wait for her flight to leave for Denver, and was hoping to be airborne before the snow in Richmond got any deeper, or began falling heavier. She was aware that a big storm with national implications was working its way from Canada into the States, but had not followed it closely.

She checked her watch as she sat at her gate. 5:30. her plane was due to takeoff in a little over and hour. She set her phone alarm to go off in 45 minutes, then set her head back to try to catch a nap.

Seeing Steve Briggs today had been wonderfully fun and refreshing for her. She had not let on that she had been widowed, and wondered if somehow he knew that.

Her husband Ben, 16 years her senior, had died of bone cancer just a year and a half ago. She had basically followed him from Memorial hospital to Chicago, when he went there to take over as chief of surgery at Cook County Hospital. They had been married just shy of twenty years when he died. During their hectic, but happy marriage, he had supported her through med school, where she went from registered nurse to Doctor.

He could not have children, and with their schedules they did not adopt, which was the one thing she regretted.

She had grown up without a father herself, as her own father had abandoned his family when she was just four years old, leaving her mother to support she and a brother and sister. She remembered the snide remarks from some people about the age difference between her and Ben as they dated, starting in Richmond, then after they moved to Chicago together and subsequently married. Comments about a sugar daddy, and her needing a father figure. There was perhaps some truth to it, but Ben had been a wonderful man.

She had never forgotten her friend Steve Briggs however. She had carried a torch for him since she worked with him at Memorial hospital. She had known him for 26 years, meeting him not long after he had married and become a father.

Seeing him again today had added fuel to that torch, and she cursed the fact that her business was causing her to leave him again. There was so much more she wanted to say to him, that the long two hour lunch they had shared had not allowed time for.

Her thoughts drifted back in time as she laid her head back against her purse propped beside her head.

She let the tiredness of travel take over, and dozed lightly, still aware of the white noise offered by the busy terminal. In her mind, Steve's world weary sad face sitting across from her at lunch came front and center. Much different than the younger version of him, joking and sauntering through to her nurse station to fix something, change a bulb, write-up an instrument or EKG machine for repair. Lightly and openly flirting with her, and the other nurses, in a non-threatening, jovial way.

She remembered planning each day to try to have contact with him in some way, whether seeing him in the cafeteria or the parking lot. She tried to be discreet about her planned, but seemingly unintentional happenstances with him. She enjoyed being around him, and had more than one dream of him making passionate love to her. These dreams always seemed to come on the nights that coincided with days when she noticed a look of worry and stress on his face.

She shifted her body in the terminal chair, and began thinking of the night she had found him and his daughter at a gas station near the hospital, knowing he was again having troubles at home, inviting him to bring his daughter to her apartment. Subconsciously, she knew why she wanted him to stay with her, though outwardly, she did her best to just play the part of a friend.

Her drowsy mind centered on that night, after he had put his 2 year old daughter to bed in the makeshift pallet she had prepared in her spare bedroom. He had dimmed the light and pulled the door mostly shut, leaving it cracked. She had changed into her Pajama bottoms, and an old flannel nightshirt, intentionally leaving the top three buttons unfastened. She had offered him wine, but he declined and settled for a glass of Coke.

They then sat on her couch and talked for three hours. She listened intently as he told her of how he had met his wife, their unplanned pregnancy and hasty wedding, how his mother in law despised him, while his father in law was indifferent. He talked of Anne, coming from a family of wealth and the spoils that go along with it, marrying him, a working man, and how his mother in law had interfered and injected herself into their lives from the very beginning.

Things had worsened after their daughter was born. With Anne's mother, bitter at her oldest daughter getting knocked up by, then marrying a maintenance man, undermining him, and their marriage. Amy heard details of things that had been said and done against him by his mother in law, and how it seemed to fuel a simmering bitterness in Anne, while he did what he could, both at home and with a good, steady job, to make a good, and better life for them.

Amy had drank three glasses of wine while he bared his soul to her. She noticed that he looked into her eyes, and only a couple of times sneaked a glance at her half open shirt top, and the ample cleavage she showed. When he finished his story about what had led him to the service station that night, she noticed his eyes were brimming with tears. She herself had also let a couple of tears escape, and had wiped them on her sleeve.

A silence followed. A slightly awkward silence on both of thems part. She moved closer to him on the couch, and reached out to him with a napkin to wipe his eyes.

He did, then leaned toward her. She thought he was going to kiss her, but he stopped short. He did stroke her hair once, then said, "I'm sorry to lay all that on you." Before she could reply, he added, "I better check on my little one."

With that he stood up, and smiled at her, then went to the spare bedroom door.

Amy silently went into her bathroom. The wine had gone through her, and she needed to go. Afterward, she freshened up. She was at a crossroads she felt, as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. She knew she was in love with this man. This very married man, who had just bared his soul and his problems to her, something a man should do with his wife, if his wife is inclined to listen. She was not his wife, but had listened to him. And now, she felt as confused as he did.

The wine had made her senses come alive with desire, and she thought of a way to deftly handle it, to escape without corrupting him, but could not seem to find one.

She came back from the bathroom to see him tucking in a sheet on her couch. She had put a couple of sheets and a blanket on the recliner earlier, and after the three hour soul baring, they had been left untouched.

He finished making the couch up for sleeping. She picked up her wine glass and finished the last of the wine in it.

"Steve.' She finally said.

"Yes?"

"Steve, I uh, well," She felt flushed from the last of the wine she had consumed. "I, have a nice pillow in my closet. Let me get it for you." She finished, and went into her bedroom, aware that she was slightly buzzing from the quick drinking of the glass of wine, that she was turned on by the man in her living room, a man who was being careful not to intrude upon her as a guest.

She debated with herself for only a minute, as she looked up at the pillow on the top shelf of her closet. She managed to reach it, but did not pull it down. Feeling a little light headed, but rather clear on the course of action she was going to take, she unbuttoned all the buttons on her shirt, then called out to him.

"I can't reach this pillow. You may have to get it."

She turned her back to the closet door, feeling a little nervous. Steve walked into the bedroom, paused, saw that she was in the closet, then went in. He wondered for a moment why she had her back to him, then reached up to grab the pillow.

As he did, she turned and threw her arms around his chest, and pulled him close. He felt one of her breasts against his t-shirt, realizing that it was naked. With the pillow in his left hand, he automatically put his right arm around her shoulder and returned the embrace.

"Amy, I don....." He started to say as he loosened the embrace a moment later.

Before he could finish, she stood on her toes and pulled his face to hers, connecting her mouth with his in an open, earnest kiss. Taken aback for an instant at her forwardness, he slightly pulled back. Her lips lost contact with his slightly for a second, then she matched his pullback by pushing forward, extending her tongue, trying to get it into his mouth.

He then returned the kiss fully, dropping the pillow on the floor and sucking her tongue into his mouth, extending his own to meet hers, kissing her with an unexpected passion.

Her breasts were now fully pressed against him, as her nightshirt front, unbuttoned and open, was brushed away on both sides. He felt their firmness against him, her hardened nipples prodding his chest through his shirt. He felt himself start to enlarge as she sucked at his tongue in her mouth.

He reached down and put both his hands under her bottom, and lifted her up off the floor. She immediately wrapped her legs around waist, never letting up sucking on his tongue.

They kissed in the closet for a moment, each building in sexual desire. His manhood strained against his jeans, and she felt herself getting wet as the lump in his jeans rubbed her pajama bottom, inches from her cavern. Her rock hard nipples pressed against him, the rubbing against his shirt and chest exciting her more.

He carried her into the bedroom from the closet, and then gently turned and sat on her bed, her legs still firmly locked around him, and her tongue battling with his to probe deeper into the others mouth.

She had a hand on the back of his head, the other running over his chest, finding his nipples, and maneuvering the cloth of his t-shirt over them. She felt his nipple harden as his right hand cupped her naked left breast, squeezing gently but firmly, then began kneading her large erect nipple between his thumb and index finger.

She gasped into his mouth at this, and he sighed in return at her work on his nipple, then abruptly left her mouth and began kissing his way down her neck.

He worked slowly, deliberately, gently kissing and suckling her skin. Down her neck front, to the top of her chest, taking his time, listening for any response to his actions.

He made his way to her left breast, and his mouth replaced his fingers on her nipple.

He cupped the bottom of her breast and squeezed it gently, mounding it up as his lips covered her areola. He gently bit her nipple, felt a slight shudder, and heard her gasp in pleasure. Her hand was still in the hair on the back of his head, and as he replaced his teeth with his lips and began sucking her nipple, she grabbed his hair and slightly pulled it, letting out a louder gasp.

His used his left hand to caress the side of her head, and let his right hand work its way down her left side, then her left leg, as long as he could reach, then jumped over to her right leg and began caressing back up toward her hip. She spread her legs slightly in anticipation, and moved her mouth to find his eft hand and began kissing his hand as it caressed her.

His right hand went between her legs and he began searching for her clit. Her gasp told him when he had found it beneath the pajama bottom, and he began kneading it with his thumb and index finger. He could feel her wetness through her panties and pajama's, and as he fingered her through the cloth, he sucked on her bare nipple a little harder.

She breathed heavily, sighing and gasping with each new sensation and build up on her sexual desire. She let her hand go from the back of his head to the ass of his jeans and with her other hand, fumbled with his belt. She managed to unclasp the belt, and unbutton his jeans within a minute, and just before he removed her hands from there, she rubbed the bulge under those jeans.

He continued to rub her clit, but removed his lips from her nipple as he pushed her hands away from his waist, clasped them both together and put them over her head, holding them there.

"Not just yet." He said softly.

"Why not?" she answered, tugging her arms held over her head by his strong hands.

"I want you to come for me first."

He let go of her hands. She kept them there, as if still being held there, and he then took his hand away from her midsection, and removed his t-shirt.