The Girl in the Rain

I shrugged. "It was what came up."

"Yes and it happened to sound like something that Donald the dork would have said."

"Sounds like you're through?"

Steffi stood back from me. She took a deep breath before speaking. "Get this straight Derek. I do not mix with low life. Sometimes we look at life through rose tinted glasses and we make bad decisions because we don't see the picture for what it is. I forgive easily but not just anything. Donald and John planned the attack on you. He also lied to me about a number of things I questioned him about. Never, for as long as I live will I forgive him for doing what he did. The mere thought that there was a chance of us getting married one day is almost too ghastly to contemplate." She suddenly giggled. "I was preparing vegetables when our fight went nuclear and I chased him from my house with a knife still in my hand. Never knew I could be so angry."

I stood there looking at her. Right from the start she was pleasant to look at but now a beauty was shining through. A beauty I had not really looked for before. "May I ask something?"

"Of course."

"What did you say when you left here that day?"

She looked down at the floor as a slight blush crept over her cheeks. "When I kissed you?"

"Yes. Were you making fun of me?"

Shock made her mouth fall open and she put her hands around my neck. "Derek, never in my life will I make fun of you. Never."

"What was so funny then?"

She looked at me for long seconds and a naughty smile made her eyes dance. "The guard at my mouth was fast asleep and I said something I shouldn't have. One side of me wanted you to hear it while the other was terrified that you may have."

"And it was?"

She blushed furiously and leaned against me. "May I beg for a little time before telling you?"

All I could do was pull a face and shrug. "I guess so but I want you to know it nearly wrecked our relationship."

She jerked away and stared at me. "Why?"

"I thought you were making fun of me and with the humiliation and anger of the attack on me and the physical pain still with me it ran circles in my mind and it made me angry at you. I hate being made a fool."

She slowly nodded her head. "And that is why you snubbed me?" she asked and all I could do was shrug in admittance.

"I was a mess," she said in a pained whisper and I hugged her to me.

"My production manager called me an asshole."

Steffi sniffed. "Why?"

"Because I was a mess."

I could feel her giggle and she was still giggling when she looked up and kissed me. My whole body reacted to her and it didn't take long before I had to pull my hips away from her. My powers of thought became a little scrambled as just about every spare drop of blood was forced into the little guy who by now was not quite so little any more. Steffi leaned her hips against me and chuckled into my mouth before she broke away with glittering eyes and a blush on her face. She dropped her arms around by butt and pulled me against her.

"I assume that is for me?" she smiled.

"Actually no," I grinned. "I am into aliens and that is for the man in the moon."

She pouted. "Damn. I meet the most desirable man and he turns out to be gay."

"Aliens are funny but the man in the moon really is a woman. What else can continually be changing? The reason we say man on the moon is simply because saying 'woman on the moon' involves too many movements of a lazy mouth."

She laughed while hugging me hard. "Can anybody be so lazy?"

I curved my eyebrow. "Speaking of lazy. May I ask something?"

"Do you want to know if I'm lazy?"

I had to laugh. "No, not that. Do you always fall asleep so easily?"

She had a question written all over her face. "Meaning?"

I shrugged. "The day I found you next to the road. You fell asleep within minutes after you got into the car. Ok, I didn't see you in the meantime but last night you almost fell asleep on your feet. Only two things cause that. Either you suffer from some serious illness or you are desperately tired."

I felt her chuckle and she hugged herself to me. "In the car I fell asleep because I was exhausted after being so cold and the warmth in the car as well as the feeling of safety lulled me to sleep. Yes, I was tired as well but nothing compared to the past two weeks. Last night was something else altogether."

"Yeah?"

She nodded. "You may have read about that bridge on the Northern bypass that had cracked?" I nodded. "Everybody is trying to blame everybody else and in desperation the main contractor got us as an impartial company to evaluate the situation and come up with some solution or irrevocable blame. It has been almost three weeks now and apart from the weekend after my flat tyre, none of us had slept much. We were at it, flat out for eighteen hours every day. If not on site, then at a lab or somewhere in an office poring over pieces of info. Last night we had the final report printed, bound and ready for delivery this morning."

"And?"

She sighed deeply. "The last couple of days were extra bad for me."

I pulled her to me. "Because of us?" and felt her nod.

"Last night I dropped a pen and came apart. I kicked it across the room and screamed at it like a banshee before stomping on it. The chief engineer wrestled me into a chair, made me drink water and then told me to go home with specific instructions not to even think of coming to work until Monday. You see, apart from having to do a lot of the thinking, I also analyzed and typed a lot of our findings. I cannot remember the last time that I had slept for more than three hours."

I had to laugh. "And you arrive home to find your place...."

"It was lovely Derek."

"And yet you wrecked it."

A small fist rammed down on my chest. "You said you're not angry."

"I'm not," I chuckled. "Why didn't you stay at home and sleep first?"

Steffi pulled herself fully upright and leaned against me. Her eyes were dark and it felt as if they were boring into me. "Death would have kept me away from here last night Derek. I needed to be with you as much as I need air to breathe."

I stood there looking down at her, trying to think of some smartass stupid thing to say. The tension between us was tangible and I needed to do something to release it before either of us did something stupid. I needn't have worried. Steffi did it anyway. She grabbed hold of my face.

"I love you Derek," she said in a whisper before she kissed me and my world exploded once more. The effect she had on me was incredible. Everything that was me zoomed in to everything that was Steffi. We melted into one another and we had a serious make out session with me fighting the urge to slip that sheet off her. I was convinced that she wouldn't mind and I think we both knew we were ready to go from kissing to some serious lovemaking.

We had to come up for air and she carefully pulled away. "Wow," was her breathless summary.

I grinned. "Maybe we should make something to eat. Right now my body is in overdrive but the fuel tank is about empty."

She nodded while taking a long and deep breath and extricating herself from me. "Standard bacon and eggs?"

"Actually I was thinking of a pleasant garden restaurant."

She laughingly hugged me again. "Have you seen what my dress looks like?"

"I noticed."

"I am so not wearing that to a restaurant today."

A thought came up and I laughed. "I still have your overall here. Get yourself into it and we can swing by your house to get you something proper to wear."

Steffi giggled. "My overall?"

"Yes, yours. It is still here."

"Why?"

"Because it is precious to me."

Once again I was squeezed hard enough to make me grunt before she extricated herself from me and with a wink told me she was going to have a shower and I should get her overall ready to wear. I listened to the water splashing in the bathroom as I lay the neatly washed and ironed overall on the bed for her and stood looking at the bathroom door for quite some time. On the other side of that flimsy piece of soft wood was a woman. Naked. Wet. Beautiful.

I was perving on her in my mind when the water stopped flowing in there and I hastily beat a retreat from the room. In the kitchen I poured the last of the coffee into a mug and went outside to await my queen.

She showed up a while later and with her thumb indicated the inside of the house. "Your turn, Stinky." Her hair was brushed out into a gentle wave of golden blonde, spilling over the deep blue of the overall and I stood there, mesmerized.

"You're stunning."

She chuckled and hooked her arm into mine. "Pretty woman."

"Huh?"

"Richard Gere and Julia Roberts."

"Yes I know. What does 'You're....' Ah, I see. When they met in the lounge. God, she was stunning in that black number."

She giggled and pulled me closer. "The way you said it sounded so much better than his attempt. Go and clean up. I need to eat and seeing as you refuse to feed me here, I will have to hurry you along."

I hit that shower on the run and as I came into the living room again I could see that Steffi had found a little make-up in her handbag. It was subtle and almost invisible but it highlighted her features in a way that had me staring.

"What?"

"You're stunning."

She giggled and grabbed me into a hug again. "Keep on saying that and I may start to believe you Mister."

"Shall we go?"

She nodded and picked up her keys. I frowned and she came to me with a beautiful smile. "I need a solid excuse to come back here tonight. I drive."

I was still chuckling when we pulled from my driveway and I had fun with her as we negotiated traffic, acting like a terrified male passenger. In fact she was an excellent driver and all I got from her was a tongue stuck out to an impossible length.

We were halfway through the city when she suddenly turned to me. "There is a lovely restaurant not far from here. We can go there now."

"You, ma'am, are dressed in an overall."

She smiled sweetly. "And your point is?"

I simply shrugged.

At length we pulled in at a pleasant looking restaurant and with Steffi clutching my hand as if she was scared I would float away, we walked down a pathway lined with palm trees, dense undergrowth and bubbling pools. It was cool and I looked around me at the tastefully laid out gardens, wishing I had the time and space to have a similar garden at my house.

A beautiful woman dressed in an overall in a classy restaurant draws attention. A lot. We were scrutinised, evaluated and discussed by many of the tables. I loved it. Steffi obviously did not care and smiled at the more curious tables. We also ate too much. For a brunch we really packed it in but in defence, both of us were ready to drop by the time we had walked in. As we left I groaned and patted my stomach. "If I walk into something now I will burst."

Steffi giggled and pulled herself in to me just as we rounded a corner in the garden and almost walked into quite a party of important looking suits with a familiar face in the lead. John Mayson. He came to a faltering stop as he recognised me and turned a sickly grey. I felt Steffi's hand cramp mine and I smiled at her as I gently pulled her to me. The troupe had come to a confused stop and I grinned as I leaned forward to really be in John's face. I had seen the video and knew the answer but I needed this yellow livered prick to admit to it. With as much malice as I could paste onto my face I hissed; "When you and your cowardly friend attacked me in my house that night, who kicked me in the balls from behind while the other held my head so that I could not move"?

"I didn't...."

"Who kicked me?" I hissed and he gained a green tinge to the grey in his complexion. "I have cameras in the house and I have a rather incriminating video of the two of you."

"I... kicked...." he stuttered softly and I stepped closer to him.

"I did not hear that properly. Please repeat it so that everybody can hear?"

A pearl of sweat ran down his temple and he nervously wiped at it. "I kicked you," he wheezed and I smiled at him.

"The two of you displayed a remarkable sense of bravery that night," I crooned. "Two of you found it necessary to beat me up because I had helped Steffi when she was desperate and in danger. What you told that bald headed fool I do not care but here is something I want you to put in your ear and if you see that loser, please repeat it to him. I decided not to press charges because neither of you are worth the trouble but don't ever go alone. If I find you alone near a dark alley you may never recover from it. Got me?"

For some stupid reason he stepped back, tripped over a rock and in an attempt to regain his balance took a hasty step backward only to drop into a pool of smelly fish pond water. It was funny but I considered laughing at the jerk a tad over the top so I pulled at Steffi to follow me. The troupe stood to one side and I smiled at them as we briskly walked past. One rather beautiful woman smiled at me and winked as I went past. It was obvious that she had enjoyed that. Maybe John Shithead had many people who disliked him.

As we walked onto the parking lot I pointed to a car close to us. "John Mason's car?"

Steffi frowned. "Yes, how do you know?"

"I don't. Just confirmation of a hunch. Those headlights are the same as a car that had followed me from the restaurant the night I found you. There were only two ways those fools would have known where I live. Either you told them, which I doubt, or it was Mason who had followed me. He obviously had a plan even then."

"I'm glad you didn't hit him," Steffi smiled at me as we got into her car again.

I shrugged. "To be honest. I would like to beat his face to a pulp and kick his nuts to paste but that would achieve nothing except physical vengeance. The chance presented itself to scare him and I did."

She nodded. "You wreaked havoc there."

I frowned. "How?"

She chuckled. "I could be wrong but that may have been a company pub lunch. Those smart suits are some of the senior partners in the company and if we had hung around a bit we may have seen Donald arrive as well. I would love to be a fly on the wall back there right now."

"Oops."

"Yeah. Oops. If they do not do some very fancy footwork they may find themselves looking for a job. Mr. Featherstone is a stickler for company image and what they had done to you will not go down in a hundred years."

"Just desserts," I grumbled and looked around the parking lot. Seeing a bald head there somewhere would have made my day but there was none.

She smiled at me. "Living in constant fear of either losing their jobs or being attacked by you if given the chance is just desserts. Let them stew."

Minutes later we turned a corner and her house came into view. It looked like a war zone. Flowers, or what was left of it, were scattered all over her lawn near the front door where I had so carefully placed it.

"I think I am in trouble," I heard Steffi say and turned to see her looking around the yard. "Those plastic wrappers must be all over the place."

"Time for some excuse making and garden cleaning," I chuckled and got out of the car, picking up a limp flower from the grass and holding it out to her. She laughingly took it and I got a kiss in return before we started collecting what was left. We filled quite a number of bags with flowers and had to run the gauntlet with the neighbours for the plastic wrappers they had collected from their lawns after the wind had spread it all over. Most of them saw it as funny but still took jabs at us. The upside was that in a very short time I knew almost each and every neighbour Steffi had.

I eventually took the lawnmower and used it as a vacuum cleaner to gather the remnants of flowers while at the same time getting the lawn cut. I was almost finished when a car pulled in and a couple got out. I glanced over at them and shut the lawnmower down. Nobody needed to tell me that they were Steffi's parents although they had spread the genes a little wayward. Her father was a big muscular man but he had given Steffi her face, dark brown eyes and golden blonde hair. She had the same features but beautifully feminine. Her mother was disturbingly beautiful. Straight dark brown hair worn to beyond her shoulders framed a striking face that made me think of Judy Garland but at least she had given Steffi her body. She smiled at me as I approached and I have to admit that I may have stuttered had she been twenty or so odd years younger.

Introductions over I turned to Joe. "Mind if I finish the lawn quickly?"

"Mind if I grab the blower and clean around the edges while you're busy?" was his answer and with a chuckle we turned back to the lawn. Steffi and Jacqueline went inside and I could just imagine the conversation between mother and daughter. I hoped that certain things remained untold.

We cleaned the machinery and as I put the lawnmower away Joe came up to me and restrained me with a hand on my arm.

"Thanks for the kick in the gut," he said with a scowl.

I took an involuntary step away from him. "Wha...?"

He took a deep breath. "Life gets in the way of our best efforts Derek. I promised myself something and somehow allowed time to whittle away at it." I could sense his unease and I stood there looking up at him as he chewed on his lower lip. "My mother had friends who unfailingly stood by her in her last days. They never left her side and Peter was holding her hand when she breathed her last at around two in the morning."

I nodded. "The people I bought the groceries for? Steffi mentioned something about their son..."

"Yes. Their son. A worthless piece of flotsam who destroyed their savings and then disappeared. The last we heard he was somewhere with a cult and living off what they could beg or steal but that is not what I am on about. This concerns me and a lapsed promise."

"Oh."

Joe shook his head. "I go on and blame their son while I failed them just as badly. It took you and a gesture of immeasurable kindness to kick me in line."

I shrugged. "I paid for their groceries. No big deal."

"Allow me to finish Derek," he said softly. "When my mother died I promised myself that those people and many others like them will not go without again." He turned to the shelf on the wall next to him and lifted small secateurs. As he opened and closed the blades he squinted through it. "Do you realise there are old people who buy dog food even though they do not own one? It is what they eat Derek. Dogfood!" His voice had anger in it. "And I don't mean those cans of meat reserved for the dogs of the rich. I am referring to those bags of badly flavoured blocks of maize meal."

I just looked at him. Somewhere I had heard something to that effect. Maybe a TV show or even something as an insignificant article in a newspaper. Something the editor placed in the left hand corner of page five just to appease a junior journalist who had done his or her first story.

"Even before my mother died I used to buy loads of groceries and dropped it at the home to be distributed to those in need. The day came when I slipped a week's groceries and in time it came to a once a month thing." He leaned against the wall. "When Steffi phoned me that night, weeping like a child after she found out that you had paid for Peter and Maggie's groceries, I realised that more than a year had gone by without any contribution from me. That was a kick in the face like no other."

I sighed. "We can't help everybody," and Joe nodded.

"No, we can't but we can help some. If everybody helps a few, less would be destitute."

Steffi stuck her head around the door. "Sheesh! These long faces? You guys working on a funeral?"

Joe laughed. "No, not a funeral but maybe the imminent demise of a bachelor."

My eyes flashed to Steffi and I saw her looking at Joe with a slack jaw before she smiled at me. My heart leapt, remembering her words of earlier.