Spontaneous Combustion!

And with that comment he looked directly at me. I dropped my head, I couldn't look him in the eyes. The meaning was clear, Ameche had literally run over me.

Just as we were getting ready to exit the locker room to start the second half, Tanner grabbed me and pulled me aside.

"Max, you need to get your head out of your ass and focus." He told me.

I started to nod in passive agreement. This time he shoved me up against the lockers and looked me right in the eye.

"You know Mia's back with Ameche," Tanner told me. "He wants to humiliate you in front of her. Now you have a choice. You can be a lovesick pussy and feel sorry for yourself. Or you can let Ameche know he's in a FUCKING football game. Max you are the smartest guy I know. Get FUCKING focused,". He told me.

And with that he joined the team out on the field.

His words soaked deep into my brain. I had been moping around while Mia was back with Michael Ameche. And then Ameche runs right over me and taunts me. And all I did was feel sorry for myself.

A new emotion blossomed deep within me as I ran out for the second half. It was anger. Anger at myself, anger at the Crusaders, anger at Ameche, but most of all a deep anger at Mia.

We scored right away to start the second half, then it didn't seem like either team could sustain an offensive drive.

About halfway through the third quarter I saw the Crusaders line up in an unusual formation. I remembered it from the game film. Quickly I told Nat, our cornerback, to stay one on one with Perkins their wide receiver.

"I'll cover the flat," I told him. He looked at me, wide eyed, and nodded.

As the play started Perkins and Nat flew by me, I accelerated and moved toward the flat. And just as it was on film, here comes Ameche out in the flat. Dante's pass was a little high and Ameche had to jump a bit but he caught the ball. Meanwhile I was quickly closing in on him from my free safety position.

Everything slowed down for me even though I was moving at full speed. I saw Ameche jumping and watching the ball as he moved to catch it. By instinct I knew to hit him low. He plowed over me last time when I hit him high. I would not do that again. I saw his left leg plant firmly in the turf, all the weight on that leg with cleats holding him firm for that brief moment. I launched myself, head and shoulders full speed at that planted left leg. He didn't have a chance.

The first sound I heard was the crack of broken bone and cartilage popping, followed by Ameche's scream.

Ameche fumbled on contact and I quickly scooped up the ball and ran 57 yards for a touchdown.

As I jogged back to my rejoicing teammates I glanced up into the Saint Cecilia's grandstand. I saw the dark haired Mia staring at me with tears in her eyes. I couldn't help it, I smiled up at her.

Ameche was carried off the field on a stretcher. That seemed to take the life out of Saint Cecilia's. Final score was 35-24, Washington. As we lined up to shake hands there were a few angry comments. The last guy in line was a guy I knew was a buddy of Ameche's. I couldn't help it, I was still so angry.

"Hey Jordan," I said to Ameche's buddy, "Tell Michael I hope he feels better soon," I said with obvious false sincerity.

"Fuck you, asshole," was all the kid said.

Despite my bravado at the game I was deeply hurt by Mia's betrayal. I had a dreadful sense that it was going to take a while before things got better. They say that the opposite of love is indifference. Not for me. It was hate.

— — — — — — — — — — —

My senior year of high school seemed to fly by as did my four years at college. I had always planned on working with my dad at the insurance office. I majored in finance. Many of my friends and classmates switched majors during their time at college. I knew what I was going to do and there was a certain satisfaction in knowing that.

Throughout the last of high school and college years I never had a serious girlfriend. My experience with Mia scarred me. I had been betrayed. I had invested so much emotion and energy into the relationship and then she cheated on me. She didn't even have the decency to properly break up with me. I had learned not to trust women.

I never did talk to her to find out what had happened. Tanner gave me a brief follow up telling me that over the summer she and Ameche started hanging out and it developed from there. I couldn't understand it. I guess that's why through college I never got serious with anyone. I was afraid of the pain of betrayal.

The only satisfaction I got was knowing I completely fucked up Michael Ameche's chances of playing college football. I did see him once briefly, and he was walking with a limp. Good.

Speaking of college football Tanner received a scholarship to play football for a small college in Texas. He and I had spotty contact through college but when we did talk it was always just like old times. Tanner had decided to major in construction management.

I graduated with a BS in Finance and threw myself into my work. My Dad had a solid business and I started networking with some of his clients. I was hard working, sincere and I tried to be personable. I could see a very solid future for me at John Early Insurance.

And then tragedy struck our family. At just shy of 60 years old Aunt Helen passed away quietly in her sleep one April night. Her heart gave out. It was a sad time for us. We were not a large extended family. At holidays and celebrations it was normally just my Mom and Dad, Aunt Helen, and me. Now her odd quirky personality that we all loved would be missing.

Some weeks after her passing my Dad and I met with Helen's attorney. My Dad insisted I accompany him to the meeting for some reason. Helen had a small investment account that she left to my father, but the surprise in her will was that her house and all 9.7 acres of prime real estate was left to me. To say I was shocked was an understatement.

As we were leaving the law office my dad slung his arm over my shoulder and said,

"You remember telling me one time that Aunt Helen never paid you for all your help?" He asked.

I nodded in the affirmative.

"Well son, I think you just got paid." He told me.

I not only inherited the house and land, I inherited all of Aunt Helen's stuff. I now assessed the house from a completely different perspective. Before it was always Aunt Helen's place with flowered curtains, cabinets filled with china, and lace doilies. Now it was mine. This was a far cry from a bachelor pad. I had work to do.

Between my ownership of the house, and work at the insurance agency I was busy. One thing I noticed at work was that Dad continued to do things in the same fashion as he had for the past twenty-five years. Times in the financial products industry were changing quickly. And though Dad would likely keep his clients until he retired, for the business to succeed and grow we had to be willing to change.

One of the first things I did was take a good hard look at our office. It was outdated. Old wide beige Venetian blinds were our window coverings. There was a little cardboard clock on our glass front door with movable arms to signal when we would return. Right out of the 60's.

One of things I thought was important was a positive first impression. The landscaping walking up to the front door was very dated. A large square of bark dust out front bisected by a cracked cement walk. A pressure treated front porch with an outdated wood railing. There were two bright brass plated colonial lights on either side of the front door. Neither of them pointed exactly straight up. It all looked old fashion and cheap. This was the first thing I would tackle to update the business. We needed a different first impression.

I called several landscape architects to take a look, give me their thoughts and present a bid for their design. To my surprise when the second of the three landscape representatives came for our initial meeting I saw that it was Anna Dubois, Mia's friend from high school.

I was startled to see her at first. The entire negative Mia experience flashed through my head. I instantly became uncomfortable. I could feel myself go flush as we met face to face.

"Max, oh my god," she said, "Is it really you?" She asked with what seemed like genuine warmth.

Ignoring my extended hand she enveloped me into a very nice hug. I immediately began to relax. I remembered the kindness that Anna had shown when we were teenagers.

"How are you?" She asked, "you look great, so this is your business?" She peppered me with questions.

We took a few minutes to catch up. She had graduated in architecture and was studying for her Masters in Landscape Architecture. She had an apartment in town and worked full time as a designer at GL2 architecture.

I briefly told her about my job, but I quickly changed the topic to our office and some of my ideas on what I was after for our front entry. Anna seemed a bit surprised that I switched to business so quickly. She asked some questions, made some notes and told me she would have some preliminary designs for me by Friday.

"It was so good to see you Max," she told me with a big smile on her face. "I'll call you towards the end of the week." She went on.

Another brief hug and she was gone. If anything, Anna looked even better than she did in high school. Same beautiful face and same beautiful body I thought. Careful I told myself, the memory of my experience with Mia wasn't fresh, but it was still strong.

The first architect came in with an enormous estimate and I ruled them out. The third one postponed their meeting. I was hoping Anna had a good plan that would come in at our budget. Thursday afternoon she called.

"I have a couple of ideas for your entry." Anna told me.

"Okay great," I said. "I look forward to seeing them."

"Do you want to meet for lunch tomorrow?" She asked, "We could meet at the Bluebird anytime that works for you." She proposed.

I hesitated. I know this was a business meeting, but it kind of felt like a date. Even though it wasn't like I didn't date at all. I did occasionally, it was more like her association with Mia seemed too close.

I think she sensed my apprehension and quickly interjected,

"Or I could come by your office if you would prefer," she said.

"No," I said, "I can do lunch tomorrow, say 12:30?" I asked.

She agreed on the time and we were on for the lunch meeting.

That night I had a mixture of emotions. Lingering anger at Mia, still. Somehow in my brain Anna became associated with this anger. Another thought was my hope that her designs were acceptable and they were within our budget. And one last lingering thought. Anna was beautiful and I enjoyed her company. Alarm bells started ringing.

She looked even better when we met at the Bluebird Bistro. She seemed to have taken extra time to look good. I'm sure her appearance helped to secure business for GL2.

Once again, a warm hug in greeting. We skipped the small talk and went into her designs. The first idea was good, fairly simple. The second one had a bit of an Asian theme to it. I loved it. Now the cost. The first one came in just under budget, but the Asian design was $10,000 over our max budget. I told her I would need to think about it.

Just then our food came and we began talking, not specifically about business. She asked where I lived and I told her the story of Aunt Helen and my inheritance. She seemed genuinely interested in my living situation. She knew of the piece of land. Later she asked about my weekend plans.

"My weekends are pretty much spent on either the house or the yard, depending on the weather." I told her. "When it's nice, like this weekend, most of Saturday and Sunday are spent outside."

"I love gardens and plants," She told me. "It must be fun to have all that land."

"I have had many descriptions of working on my property," I told her, "never have I described it as fun." I laughingly added.

"Well, I'd love to see it," she said. "Maybe I'll surprise you one day and stop by." She said.

The following day, Saturday, as I had told Anna, I spent the day working in the yard. There was so much to do. Aunt Helen had created more of a formal English garden style to much of the land. Sculptured hedges, rose gardens, and planned plantings. I wasn't sure what I wanted, but Aunt Helen's style seems too old fashioned for me.

It must have been mid-afternoon when I saw the dust coming up the driveway signaling a visitor. The most likely visitor would have been my mom or dad but I knew they were out of town. To my surprise it was Anna. Immediately I took stock of myself, unshaven, dirty, sweaty and shirtless.

I greeted her and immediately went to grab my shirt.

"You didn't have to put that on for me," she said. "I was admiring the scenery." She laughingly added.

I looked at her trying to gauge what she meant. The first thought that went through me was, wow, she's really working hard to land this landscaping contract.

I pushed that thought aside and politely gave her the grand tour of the property. She seemed genuinely interested. I pointed out things I needed to do and she made some suggestions that seemed like good ideas.

"So what were you working on?" She asked.

I told her and without hesitation she dug right in and began helping me on my current chore. I appreciated her help, but I couldn't help but wonder about her motivation. This seemed like above and beyond just to secure a contract.

We worked that way, side by side, for several hours. It was a very comfortable environment. I had to admit I enjoyed her company. As it approached the end of the day she told me should probably get going, but she lingered, almost as if she were expecting some type of invitation from me.

I thanked her profusely, showed her the bathroom to wash up and then somewhat reluctantly she left. That night my thoughts were on Anna. She was beautiful and so nice, but she was once friends with Mia. That was a huge 'yield sign' for me.

That week we talked about the landscaping proposal. I told her we preferred the Asian theme design, but it was over budget. I implied we had other bids, which we didn't. By the end of the week she came back with some slight modifications on the original design and with a new cost, just two thousand over budget. We had a deal. She said they could start in three weeks.

"We need to celebrate." She said.

"Ha ha ha," I laughed noncommittally. "Have a nice weekend." I told her. She seemed a bit put off that I didn't pursue the idea of a celebration.

It was another warm weekend and I was working on my property. Once again, Saturday afternoon, Anna showed up. This time with a picnic basket.

"Can you put this in the house," she asked me while handing me the basket, "Now what are we working on?"

I told her and she went to work.

At the end of the day she asked me to bring out the picnic basket and a corkscrew. She laid down a tablecloth on the ground. She had made a mini feast and brought a bottle of Oregon Pinot Noir.

We had an enjoyable evening and I really did like talking to her. It seemed as if we had a lot in common. I also began to think that since we had already signed our contract with GL2, her firm, there was no reason to continue being nice if that was the only objective.

We continued these casual encounters over the next few weeks. Either her coming by the office for information on our design project or stopping by on the weekends and helping at my house. We continued to see each other and our friendship grew.

To date though, nothing romantic. She had made no moves, and for me, though a good part of me wanted to . . . there was that nagging reminder of Mia's betrayal warning me about getting hurt.

It was a Friday night. I left the office around six o'clock. Went home and did my evening five-mile run. As I was contemplating dinner my cell phone rang. It was Anna.

"Hey, Anna," I said in greeting. I could hear loud talking and music in the background. After no immediate reply I said "hello?"

" . . . do you have a girlfriend?" Was Anna's slightly slurred reply.

"Huh!?" My intelligent rejoinder.

Just then I heard a rustling noise and then another voice in the background and then it was on the phone,

"Hi Max, my name is Lindsay, I'm a friend of Anna's," she said. "She's had a little too much to drink and she was talking about driving out to see you and she shouldn't be driving. Can you come down to Palantino's and get her?" She asked pointedly.

I told her I could. I briefly cleaned up and headed downtown. Palantino's is a very nice restaurant and bar. A little too nice to be a pickup bar, more of a date night type of establishment.

I found them and met Lindsay. Quite attractive, but then there was Anna. In my eyes she was a goddess, no comparison. Anna was slightly drunk and apologetic about calling. I ordered a beer and then Lindsay quickly left. It was just Anna and me.

After only being at Palantino's for just a few minutes, she asked me "Can we go to your house?" I agreed and we left.

We pulled in and I mentally reviewed the condition of the house. I knew it still looked like an older single woman still lived there. I hadn't done much to the inside yet, I had been focusing my energies outside.

Anna didn't seem to care.

I was unclear where this conversation would go. Anna, slightly tipsy, asked me if I liked her and I told her of course I did. She asked if I had a girlfriend and I told her I didn't.

"I don't want to sound conceited," she said, "but guys normally are attracted to me. But it doesn't seem like you are." She told me.

I assured her she was very attractive. She then asked why I had not asked her out. I took a deep breath and relayed my insecurities relating back to my high school relationship with Mia. We talked a little about that and then she brought up Tanner.

"I know he is a friend of yours, and he can be fun," she said. "But he can be kind of a jerk too. I've learned to try and stay away from those egocentric types. I'm far better off with a different type of man." She said and stared straight into my eyes as she said it.

There was a moment of silence as she stared at me and my mind whirred. This was all a good thing . . . I hoped. At that moment she excused herself to use the restroom. I sat with my thoughts and wondered what the appropriate next step should be.

I should not have worried. The next step became quite obvious as she returned. She was naked. And she was beautiful. I remember as an adolescent looking at Playboy magazines and seeing those beautiful women and wishing I could touch them. Like wishing I could fly, or become invisible, impossible but still worth wishing for.

This was a bit like that. I remember first seeing Anna and how beautiful she was, and what a great body she had. And now years later, naked, out of my fantasies, here she was.

Like opposite magnets I was pulled toward her with an unconscious force. I wrapped my arms around her and kissed her. She began removing my shirt and I kicked off my pants. My hands explored her body. I felt like a kid at Disneyland for the first time, attracted to everything and trying to experience it all at once.

We fondled, hugged, kissed and caressed. Hand in hand we silently went to my bedroom and lay down. I kissed her face and then her neck. My mouth traveled to those gorgeous breasts and I kissed and sucked. Her nipples were firmly erect and her breathing had grown rapid.

My tongue trailed down her flat abdomen and found her pussy. Even though I hadn't dated much, that did not mean I was inexperienced sexually. I took extensive care to understand what women liked and wanted. I wanted to give Anna great pleasure.

Orally I explored her genitalia. Her clitoris was pronounced and engorged. I manipulated this source of her pleasure and sucked it. Anna's breathing increased, her thighs tensed and she erupted in a loud orgasm. I wrapped my arms around her and held her, my erection prominent and obvious, pinned against her.