My Anime Girl

I was plenty pissed at Lisa for the stunt she pulled. I mean, she was the one who set this up. She assured me she would take care of everything and play hostess for our "guest". Then she copped out on me claiming she had an out of town emergency with her mother. Lisa told me this woman was a friend of a friend of a friend of her boss and was putting her up as a favor to her boss and it would mean a lot of Brownie points for her.

There were no hotel rooms available for love or money because the Comic Con was in town. I wondered what idiot would show up in town the same week as the Comic Con. It turned out our guest intended to go to that mob scene but couldn't afford the outrageous prices being demanded by our hospitality industry. Still, if I wanted a guest in the house, I could have charged a pretty penny. I felt like a sucker because Lisa didn't even live with me. She had her own condo further out of town, but my condo was right by the trolley stop and was convenient to the convention center.

Lisa assured me I wouldn't be inconvenienced in her absence. Our guest would probably be spending all day and half the night at the convention center and I wouldn't even see her. It was the principle of the thing as far as I was concerned, but Lisa had a way of twisting things around and making me feel like a jerk for opposing her will. Still, I loved that gal and I'd marry her if she would only set the date. We had on again-off again engagement. We'd bicker then break up. We'd get back together when I started jumping through her hoops again.

I heard the doorbell and went to answer it. Standing before me was a not unattractive brunette wearing nerd glasses. She was about 5' 2" tall, was a little overweight but had a nice rack on her. I preferred tall willowy blondes like Lisa. She was definitely not my type.

"I'm Jane Gray. Lisa's expecting me."

"I'm Tom Hadley. Lisa got called out of town suddenly."

"Oh dear," she replied. "I hope that won't cause a problem."

"It's a problem only if you'd feel uncomfortable spending three nights alone in the same house with a strange man and no chaperone. There's no lock on your bedroom door." She laughed pleasantly.

"I'm sure you'll be a complete gentleman." I helped Jane with her suitcase and showed her to her room. I gave her a key to the condo and told her I had to go to work. I work at home but when I shut the door to my office, I'm not to be disturbed. It's too easy to get distracted otherwise. She assured me she'd find her way around and would stay out of my way. I wished her a pleasant visit and left her to her own devices.

I took a break at midday to grab a bite to eat. Jane was gone by then. I realized there wasn't much left to munch on in the kitchen. I don't cook much at all and I always eat out. Lisa doesn't cook either. I decided to invite Jane out to dinner if she hadn't already eaten by the time she returned. About the time I was ready to go back to my office I received a call from Lisa's mother wanting to know where her daughter was because she couldn't get hold of her on her cell phone.

"I thought Lisa was with you."

"Why would you think that?"

"No reason," I replied. "I'll tell Lisa you called the next time I see or hear from her." Well, I wondered why Lisa found it necessary to lie to me. It would be interesting to hear her explanation. I got busy again and didn't think about it for the rest of the day. It wasn't until I opened my office door that I caught the aroma of something cooking in the kitchen. It smelled delicious. I was drooling already.

"Where did all this come from," I asked.

"I picked up some groceries on the way home," Jane replied. "I hope you don't mind me using your kitchen. I'll clean up afterwards."

"I don't mind at all, but I was going to ask you to dinner with me."

"No, thanks. I have this meal all prepared. There's enough for both of us. Would you like to join me?" There wasn't any way I was going to turn down a home cooked meal. It was pretty simple; spaghetti with marinara sauce, green salad and a red wine. It was delicious. We ended the meal with coffee and conversation. Jane told me she was a librarian.

"What's a librarian doing at a comic book convention?"

"I try to find out what's popular out there. We then buy the titles we think our patrons will read."

"You buy comic books for the library?"

"We buy graphic novels. That's popular now. Children, teenagers and even adults prefer them. It's better than buying titles which will just gather dust on the bookshelves."

We talked about books while we cleaned up. There were a few authors we both liked. We talked about relationships. Jane didn't have anyone at the moment. I kept my comments about Lisa pretty neutral. I didn't like to listen to people complaining about their relationships and I assumed Jane felt the same way.

Jane said she was pretty tired from traipsing the exhibit aisles so was going to clean up and turn in early. I wished her a good night. Later on that evening on my way to bed I saw her in the hall just coming out of the bathroom. She was wearing a terrycloth robe and her nerd glasses. On impulse I kissed her. The lady responded positively so we kept on kissing. I opened my bedroom door and silently invited her to join me. Jane seemed to have her own internal debate and then walked past me into my bedroom. We wound up on the bed kissing, caressing and undressing each other.

"Let me put your glasses someplace safe," I said.

"I can't see much without them," Jane replied. "Can I keep them on? I don't want to make love to a blur. I hope you don't mind." I didn't mind. In fact it looked kind of sexy. I admit to enjoy looking at pictures of anime girls online. They're the images of impossibly beautiful women created by Japanese artists. The girls usually wear nothing but a smile but sometimes they wear a pair of eyeglasses with that smile. I started to get a rock hard stiffy thinking of Jane as a true to life anime girl.

"Should I wear a condom?"

"I'm pretty safe at this time of the month." I can't claim that making love with Jane was any unique experience but something about it sure made it feel special. It was something I hadn't felt with Lisa or any other woman I'd been with. She stayed in my bed for the rest of the night. I'm afraid we didn't get very much sleep. We showered together in the morning and had breakfast out. I asked her if she wanted to eat dinner out that evening. She said she'd rather fix us dinner than dine out.

The following two nights were pretty much a repeat of that first night and I was very sorry to see her go. I invited her to stay here during the next Comic Con, but Jane said it would be someone else next year because they all took turns. We kissed again and then she was gone.

"Mom said you told her you thought I was with her. I know that's what I told you, but I don't think you have any right to interrogate me about my whereabouts. After all, we're not married yet." That was typical Lisa. I hadn't asked her why she'd lied to me or where she'd really been, but she decided to go on the attack right away. Attack even when you're in the wrong.

"Is it okay if I ask you not to lie to me any more?" She sneered at me.

"I can see you're being completely unreasonable and there's absolutely no reason to talk to you when you're in this mood. Call me when you're ready to talk." I noticed she wasn't wearing her engagement ring; her typical signal that I was on the outs with her and our engagement was off. I found I didn't care.

I packed and shipped Lisa's belongings back to her place. I'd never done that before. A few days later Lisa shipped her engagement ring back to me. I felt relieved. I moped around the house for the next month or so. I was lonely, but I wasn't going to try crawling back to Lisa. That was over. I didn't want to go out and meet someone new either. I knew what I had to do or at least try to do.

Jane never gave me her home address and she had an unlisted number. I did know which library she worked at. I got up early one morning and made the hundred mile trek north. I got there just as the library opened and spotted her right away. I waved at her; my anime girl. She hesitated as if trying to remember who I was. This wasn't good.

"Hi, Tom," she said. "It's good to see you. What are you doing up here?"

"I get up here every once in a while...on business."

"How is Lisa?"

"That relationship is over with."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I fell in love with someone else."

"Well, I'm sure Lisa's loss is this new girl's gain."

"I hope she feels that way too."

"She'd be crazy not to."

"Listen...uh, I'm going to be in town for a couple of days," I said. "Are you finally going to let me take you out to dinner?" Jane blushed and I immediately knew there was a problem. I figured I was about to get the kiss-off.

"I have to tell you something, Tom."

"Are you seeing someone else?"

"It's nothing like that. The fact is...I'm pregnant. I know I told you I was safe when we were together and I truly thought so, but I was wrong."

"So I'm the father. Why didn't you tell me when you found out?"

"Because I didn't want you to think I tricked you."

"Well, we're going to have to do something about this situation."

"There's not going to be any abortion, Tom. I'm going to have this child and raise it myself. I'm not asking you for a dime in support so you have nothing to say about it."

"I wasn't thinking about anything like that."

"Then what?"

"Well...uh...I was thinking that...maybe we should get married?"

"What are you talking about? You just said you were in love with someone."

"I was talking about you."

"Me?"

"Yeah...uh...I guess I didn't realize I was in love with you until after you left. I've missed you like crazy. I wasn't up here on business. I came up here to see you and to ask you to be my wife. Of course, I was going to wait until tomorrow night or the next night before proposing to you because I didn't want you to think I was a complete nut. But now we have an urgent situation on our hands. I mean, I don't want this baby of mine born to an unwed mother. And anyway, if you feel even half the love for me that I feel for you, it could work. Or maybe we could try it for 50 or 60 years and see how it goes?"

I knew I was running off at the mouth but I was so nervous, I couldn't help it. The more I talked the more nervous I felt. This was not going well. Jane was going to run away screaming or calling for security any moment now. I decided to slink off, drive home and drown my sorrows in booze. I finally ran out of steam, shrugged my shoulders and turned to go.

"Yes!" I turned around and found my arms filled with the woman I love. She was kissing and hugging me. She was laughing and crying at the same time. Her colleagues rushed up asking what was wrong.

"Nothing's wrong," she said. "I'm getting married." That brought squeals of excitement. The head librarian even got excited when she rushed out of her office to find out what the commotion was about. We got married in front of a county clerk as soon as possible. Outside of Jane's colleagues no one else knew until after the fact; not even Jane's parents or mine. Lisa even called a few weeks later and told me I had been forgiven and our engagement was back on. I told her I wasn't interested and that anyway, I was already married. Lisa thought I was joking. When I convinced her I was serious she got pissed. She acted like I jilted her or stood her up at the altar. Women are weird.

Lisa told mutual friends I married on the rebound after she dumped me. I let everyone think that. I didn't care. I think I got the better of the deal. This all happened a while back. Jane and I are expecting our third child. Lisa is expecting her second divorce. Jane still wears her nerd glasses when we make love. I still call her my anime girl.