Intersections Read online

  Even in the short walk to the alcove they both got doused with rain. His hair hung in tangles and his jacket looked like she could wring it out like a towel. She felt some of her own makeup run and wiped it away with the back of her hand.

  “You look like The Crow,” he said, “but prettier.”

  “And you look like some greasy wrench monkey.”

  “Easy, I am a greasy wrench monkey,” he said.

  They laughed and went to the door. Keisha’s teeth chattered together in the cool air of her apartment.

  “I’m f…f… fucking f…f…reezing,” she said.

  “Me too.” He gestured to his jacket. “I knew I should’ve gone with Gore-Tex.”

  “Gore what?”

  “It’s a waterproof material… never mind,” he said.

  She started taking her clothes off. His eyes bugged out at her.

  “What are you…?”

  “Strip,” she said. “These are going straight into the dryer before one of us catches pneumonia.”

  “Fair enough,” he said.

  “Go start the shower while I put these in the dryer. I like it hot.”

  She dropped the clothes in the dryer and went into the bathroom. Dick already had the shower heated full bore with hot mist billowing behind the curtain. This is going to feel so good, she thought and leaned into Dick. They held each other, naked outside the warm shower, both looking for warmth from the other and finding it even against cool, damp skin. He kissed her and she smiled.

  “After you,” he said and slid the curtain open.

  She stepped into the spray.

  “Mmmmmm perfect,” she murmured, and Dick stepped in behind her.

  Until the water turned to lukewarm they took turns soaping and caressing each other, splashing and playfully smacking. A two-person slow dance under the heat of a hot shower. Shower sex had always been awkward when Keisha tried it before, but something about the two of them just worked. They got into a rhythm and even though it didn’t last very long, they were both satisfied as they clung to each other on weak knees.

  Just before the water turned chilly they cut it off and dried each other. They’d showered so long that the clothes dryer buzzed. They dressed and shared Keisha’s favorite fuzzy blanket and a bowl of buttered popcorn and watched a movie.

  When the movie was over, and it grew dark outside, Dick stood and yawned and told her he had to go. Keisha didn’t want him to leave, but she didn’t want to guilt him either. He’d told her before they came and she didn’t want to come off needy.

  He hugged her goodbye in the doorway and gave her one last, lingering kiss. Holding her cheek, he smiled. “I kinda like you.”

  “Good. You better.”

  Dick drove away, and Keisha danced back inside with her head full of ideas and her heart with a growing sense of affection.

  The Ouija board still rested on the kitchen table. She didn’t have any more ashes to sprinkle, but she wanted to try it anyway. She put her fingers on the planchette.

  “Have I finally found the one?” she asked. “Is it Dick?”

  The planchette didn’t move.

  “Conrad, if you’re still there will you answer me? I really like this guy, can you tell me? Is Dick the right guy for me?”

  The planchette still didn’t move. It only remained on that ambiguous letter.

  Y.

  13

  The board didn’t want to talk to her, but Brady MacGregor did. Her phone bonged with an incoming text.

  You are a fucking bitch.

  “That’s not very nice, Brady,” she said to her phone.

  Fuck you, you stupid fucking whore. I hope that asshole treats you the way you treated me and you get what you deserve.

  She twisted the deadbolt on her front door and then did something she should’ve done a long time ago. She blocked his number. No more could that weasel send her awful messages. Keisha’d never done that to anyone before. She hoped it wouldn’t tell him he’d been blocked when he sent another message. That instead it would just go out into the digital ether where the rest of his asshole thoughts belonged.

  She tried to keep both Brady and Dick off her mind. After spending twenty minutes or so idly fumbling through her phone willing it to ring with a new message or call from Dick, she decided to put it on silent and stick it under one of the couch cushions.

  She walked three steps away and pulled it back out. Sent one quick message to Dick.

  Thanks again for your help tonight, and then for warming me up. I had fun. Night.

  It felt honest without being needy or aggressive and adding “night” showed she wasn’t looking to start a conversation. God, why was dating such a pain in the ass? Why was telling someone you were into them such a taboo relationship killer? The only answer she could come up with were guys like Brady. Without doing the dating dance, it’s way too easy to fall too fast and too hard with a total scumbag. Or fall too hard too fast and get ghosted. She’d grown so fed up with that, so she’d always been the one to do the ghosting.

  She shoved the phone back under the couch cushion and went to her office where she tried to get a head start on some work.

  She focused on the materials provided to her, studied them and sketched out some concept ideas with pen and ink. With four different options outlined, she sipped a cup of tea while she critiqued her work. Satisfied with the boost she’d given herself, she went to bed without checking her phone.

  She slept and woke and showered and made breakfast for herself, stalling as long as she could before she picked up her phone. Holding her breath, she slid her thumb across and exhaled. No new messages.

  So what, she thought. He said he went to bed early and had to work. Some people out there actually worked and didn’t spend all day screwing around on their phones, and today, I will be one of those people. She brewed herself a pot of coffee and disappeared into her office.

  She spent the morning transferring her sketches to Photoshop and tinkering. Another client called around 10 am and asked to take her to lunch to talk about a future project. Keisha accepted, happy to get out of the house, and didn’t take her phone.

  They met for lunch and this reinforced to her that she could get along just fine without Dick or any man. The meeting went great. Lunch drifted into happy hour and ended with a handshake and a promise that Keisha would turn around the project in the next week.

  With no phone, she’d totally lost track of time, getting home just before sunset. She’d been gone a while, but had started hard this morning to get ahead on her current project and secure the next one. Not bad for a day, but unfortunately, Dick still weighed on her mind and she felt confused and annoyed when she got back to her phone. He still hadn’t responded.

  “Fucking men and their fucking head games,” she said to her empty apartment. “If you fucking like a girl, answer her. Playing all coy, especially after you’ve already established such a powerful attraction is ridiculous. Can we just be people and talk like adults?”

  She looked at the Ouija board and longed to ask it some questions, but without the ashes, Conrad was gone, no one left in there to talk to. She walked over anyways and picked up the planchette from the Y it had rested on for the last couple of days.

  “Why won’t Dick answer me?” she asked.

  Nothing.

  Defeated, she poured herself a drink and went over her project for a while and when she finished, Dick still hadn’t answered.

  She hated herself for what she was about to do, but she couldn’t help it. She sent him another message. She didn’t know what to send. She wrote, revised, deleted, and rewrote. Finally she went with, Hey, hope you had a great day. I’ll be around if you get bored, and pressed send before she could second-guess herself for the thousandth time.

  As soon as it sent she laughed.

  “Oh fuck, that’s terrible, oh well,” she said. “Goddamn it.”

  He didn’t answer and she went to bed, and when she woke up, he still hadn’t answered