Spending The Night

   ‘Why are you laughing?’ Gloria asked with a smile. 

   ‘I’m trying to picture it.’

   ‘What, me running naked from the hospital?’

   ‘That, and other things.’

  Gloria frowned and shook her head. ‘Men.’

   ‘Please, I’m trying to picture your friend’s faces when you jumped up. That had to be hilarious.’

   ‘I don’t know, I was too angry to find anything they were doing funny.’

   ‘You didn’t get all blood thirsty when you saw that man’s open chest?’

   ‘No,’

   ‘But from all the stories I’ve heard, new born vampires are all blood thirsty monsters.’

  Gloria reached up and rubbed her eye with her finger and said, ‘It’s not really like that, when I woke up I didn’t know I was a vampire. Yes my stomach was growling from being hungry, but I didn’t know it was blood that I was hungry for.’

   ‘But what did you think when you could move so fast, and what about the growling? You weren’t surprise at your reaction to the two guys in the morgue?’

   ‘I was so mad at the two guys, I really didn’t think about it. And to answer your other question about moving so fast? That’s a little harder to explain, the way we think is quite different then human thinking. I don’t know how to explain it, we just process things different, faster. I just accepted that that was the way I was.

  I thought about that for a minute, ‘I guess so.’

  ‘I’m still me right? I’m just a whole lot more now. There’s a vast differences between being human and being a vampire, the brain has to process the senses differently. Like my hearing, I can hear you the sound of your eyelids blinking. I can hear your blood pumping through your veins. I can hear all of your neighbor’s televisions. I can tell how many people in your building are sleeping, having sex, talking on the phone.’

   ’Sounds like your heads a busy place.’

   ’Well that’s why I seem spacey sometimes, there’s a lot of things my mind is having to process at any given moment. Then there’s my sense of smell, it’s as sensitive as my hearing. And my eyes? I can see everything, ultraviolet, the different types a dust. I can see clearly for miles, if you held up a book a hundred yards away, I could read it, even in the dark.’

  ’Wow.’

   ’I can see the different temperature of objects.’

  I laughed, ’How in the hell can you see that?’

   ’I don’t know, I just can you know?

   ’No not really, but I’ll take you word on it.’ I laughed some more.

  I couldn’t believe how interested I was becoming. It was hard to believe that there was such a interesting person behind the vampire. There seemed so much to her. I was finding that I wanted really wanted to know the person behind those bright red eyes.

  She tilted her head a little as she looked into my eyes. I found I could really lose myself in those mysterious eyes.

’What are you thinking about?’

   ’Oh, when I first met you, I didn’t think of you as anything but obnoxious, now

I’m marveling at you.’

  She smiled and looked down at her lap. I embarrassed her I could see; I could tell she wasn’t used to heartfelt complements.

    She looked up and said, ‘I just can’t believe how nice you’re being to me tonight.’

   ‘Well, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but you need to understand something.

I was pretty scared of you that first day we met.’

   ‘I don’t see why, I didn’t do anything that would make you afraid.’

   ‘It’s not that you did anything, I’m just scared to death of a pretty girl. And your with your age, it brought back all of my teenage insecurities. What can I say; I’m scared to death of a pretty face. What?’

   ‘I find that really hard to believe.’

   ‘Why do you find that hard to believe?’

   ‘Well for one, you were in the army. I would have been scare to death of people yelling at me. Two you went to Iraq, twice.’

   ‘Well that doesn’t count. I was afraid there.’

   ‘Yeah, but you went, more then once. I find that very brave.’

   ‘I guess.’

   ‘You guess, I think that’s very brave of you. But I don’t understand why you could face the terrors of war, but you’re to afraid to talk to a girl?’

   ‘Most fears I’ve found are irrational. So when you were human you didn’t have any problems talking to guys?’

   ‘I really didn’t talk to boys when I was human.’

   ‘Really? I would think that they would have chased you all over the place.’

   ‘We didn’t have neighbors really. Well, none close anyways. When I was in school I was kind of a book worm, so the boys didn’t pay that much attention to me.’

   ’I find that hard to believe.’

   ’That’s because you’ve only seen me as vamp girl. You have to remember, I grew up in the Bible belt. My family is, or was very religious.’

   ’Really, I wouldn’t have guess that.’

   ’Why should you have? My family was United Pentecostal.

   ’And that is what?’

   ’United Pentecostal is a very strict religious sect, more than Baptist. Growing up we women were not allowed to wear makeup, we couldn’t cut our hair. We had to wear long dresses. Sunday mornings were like clockwork, nine o’clock Sunday school. Ten thirty, the main service. That normally ran till like one. Then we would go home eat and be back at church at like five till like eight.’

   ’Wow.’

   ’In the evenings, after homework, chores and dinner, we would have family

Bible study for like two hours. Then it was straight to bed.’

   ’Man that sucks.’

   ’No, it was nice. We were a very close family; I loved my mom and dad. I adored my two younger sisters. I was five and six years older than them. I made a lot of their clothes, brushed their hair. Losing my family was I think was the hardest part of all of this.’

   ‘Have you seen or talked to any of them?’

   ‘No, haven’t you been listening? My family were like the Amish, except we had an old Chevy truck and electricity. No running water though, we had an old pump that came in through the window over the kitchen sink and used an outhouse.

Not only was my family religious, they were very superstitious. They saw devils and demons in everything. I was very plain before I was changed, so you could imagine what they would have thought if I showed up.’

   ’And after the collage notifying them you had be killed.’ I said finishing her sentence.

   ’Right.’

   ’They didn’t come and see you at the hospital?’

   ’I don’t know, I don’t remember them being there, if they were then they would have seen me die. I just couldn’t do that to them, it was better for them to think that I had been struck by a car and killed.’

   ’But didn’t they guy in the morgue say he saw you come alive? Didn’t he tell someone that you weren’t dead?’

   ’Conner think about that for a minute everyone in the hospital knew I was dead. And then the coroner saying that I jumped up and ran off? Who would have believed that? Anyways, two days later I saw an article in a newspaper that said a girl from the local collage was struck and kill by car and then had her body stolen from the local hospital morgue.’

  I laughed when she told me that. ’That’s crazy, I’m sorry to laugh that must have been horrible for your parents.’

   ’I’m sure it was, they didn’t even have a body to bury. So then here I would be showing up all miss vamp girl, it would have scared the hell out of them. Their church would have taken it as some horrible omen and would have locked themselves up praying and fasting for months.’

   ’So now that all of this has happened, what’s your opinion on God? Do you still believe He’s out there, doing His God thing? Or do you think its all crap?’

 Gloria smile at me and tilted her head back the other way and said to me, ’A fool says in his heart, there’s no God. But to answer your question Conner, yes I do still believe in Him. I even go to church from time to time when I can think of it. I tend to scare the parishioners though.’

   ’That seems very hypocritical to me.’

   ’That’s because you don’t like church Conner. They just don’t understand me that’s all. People tend to fear what they don’t understand. And in my case, their fear is not completely misplaced.’

   ’I guess your right when you put it that way.’

   ‘Of course I’m right. You look tired Conner.’

   ‘I am. But I’m not ready to go to bed yet, I’m enjoying talking with you to much.’

   ‘Me too Conner, me too.’

   ‘So you’re running through the night laughing with your bare a*s hanging out, what did you do then?’

  Gloria laughed and said, ‘Well you remember, I don’t know anything about Dallas, outside of being in the hospital.’

   ‘And the morgue.’ I added.

   ‘Yes and the morgue, I’ve spent a whopping three hours maybe in Dallas. I had no idea what time it was other then it dark, but there was very little traffic out so I knew it was late. So, I just randomly ran. I figured sooner or later I would fine a clothing store or something. Eventually, I found a little clothing outlet. It had a few lights on, and the front of was all glass, I didn’t want to break the windows out to get in.

  ’I was worried that someone would hear me breaking the glass. So I went around to the back to see if there was a back door and I was in luck. So I grabbed the door knob and tried to open it like I did the door at the morgue. Well, I pulled the knob and ended up ripped it right off the door.

  ’I thought, well shoot now what? So tried to push the door knob guts out; once I got the guts out of the way, I was able to get a hold of the door, so I pulled on it.

Of course the door opened and it took a huge chunk of the concrete wall with it. I was really starting to enjoy my new strength.’

  ’So, how did you think you had gotten all this new strength?’ I asked.

   ’I had no clue. I walked into the store through the back; I had never been in a store like this before. We made all our clothes back home so I was just lost. So I walked around for a bit looking at mannequins. There was one wearing jeans, which I had never worn before. I just laughed at the thought of wearing jeans; I didn’t even know what size I was.

  ’So here I was, trying to keep the sheet wrapped around me like a toga and I’m hold these pants up to my waist to see if they were close to my size. When I found one, tried it on, and it didn’t fit like the way it did on the mannequin so I tried several other pairs till I got one that was right.’

   ’So was it weird wearing pants for the first time?’

   ’Oh yeah, they were kind of snug and when I walked they rubbed on my crotch. I was like, ’whoa.’

I laughed.

   ‘So I looked around for the underwear, when I saw where they were I headed over to them. I saw a nice sweater while I was walking to the underwear department, so I grabbed it and put it on. Once I got to the underwear I dropped the sheet and picked out a pair of underwear that looked about my size.

   ’I quickly slipped out of my pants, put the undies on, pulled my pants back on and decided to see how I looked in my new pair of pants.’

   ’Then you got your first look at your brand new vampire body.’ I said.

   ’When I first walked up to the mirror, I scared the hell out of myself. I saw the eyes first. I thought there was a monster in the clothing store with me. I jumped back from the mirror about thirty feet. I landed in my leap frog fighting crouch facing the mirror. My eyes never leaving the monster in the mirror eyes; I raised my hands ready to fight, I noticed that the creature in the mirror did the same.

   ’Shut up! Don’t laugh at me. I had never even seen a monster movie, so what did I know.’

   ’I’m sorry, that had to have been so funny, I wished I could have seen that.’ I said.

   ’Ha, ha, ha, Mr. Funny man, hush. Anyways,’ she said rolling her eyes at me, ’I moved my hand back and forth in front of me, the creature with the red eyes did the same. I slowly stood, and the creature did the same. I walked towards the mirror, and then the realization came to me that the creature in the mirror wasn’t a creature, but it was me. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the reflection of my bright red eyes. I couldn’t believe that they were mine.

  ’I looked at the rest of my face, I didn’t recognize myself. I said out loud to myself, ’is that really you?’ it had to be, the reflection I was seeing mouthed the same thing I said. I couldn’t believe how beautiful I was. Then the one thing, and don’t laugh at me about this Conner, but the thing that broke my attention was I caught a glance of my b***s through my sweater, they were a bit bigger then I‘d remembered.’

   ’Well damn, you would think you would have noticed that when you were running around all naked.’ I really laughed.

   ’You know Conner; I’ll let you in on a little secret. Us women, we don’t pay as much attention to b***s as you men do.’

  I just smiled. ’Go on please.’ I chuckled.

   ’Well in my former life, like I said, I was rather plain. I was a small A-cup. So looking at myself in the mirror I was shocked at what I saw. I looked up and down the rest of my body, I had a figure. I was so pretty.’

   ’You didn’t notice your b***s when you were putting on your pants?’

   ’Ah, no. I told you, my mind is a busy place. And because I was breaking the law for the first time, I was really nervous and jumpy.’

   ’I can understand that.’

   ’I was so happy that I had b***s, that I pulled my sweater off so I could see them. If I could have cried, I think if could.’

   ’You can’t cry?     

   ’Not that I know of, at least I haven’t in the last forty plus years.’

  I started laughing again, ’So here you are looking at your figure and admiring your own b***s.’

   ’You don’t have to be a perv about it.’

   ’I’m not, I just trying to picture you, from what you have told me, you were brought up very conservative, and now, the twelve hours after being changed, you’ve broke into a store, wearing jeans and checking out your new b***s.’

   ’Well I’m glad you’re enjoying my story. A*s-hole.’ she said laughing, ‘Anyways, before I was changed I had small A’s, now I was a large C-cup. And to go with those C’s I had a really nice butt. Anyways, I pulled my sweater back on, and then headed over to the shoe area. I grabbed some calf high tube socks and some plain girls running shoes and ran out the back door, then a thought stopped me so I turned around and came back in and grabbed me some sunglasses. I figured I may need them. Though I wasn’t in the bible belt anymore, I didn’t think it would be wise to go around with bright red eyes. You look really tired Conner, I should let you sleep.’

   ’I am tired, but I’m just enjoying your company, I keep waiting for you to slow down and get tired like a normal person would. I keep forgetting you don’t sleep.’

   ’Well I can let you go to bed.’

   ’I have forgiveness to ask of you.’

   ‘No you don’t, why do you think that?’

   ’Because I called you a bunch of hurtful names.’

   ’Oh Conner, you don’t have to say you’re sorry. You and I weren’t friends then.’

   ’I think your being too nice, but I wanted to say I’m sorry anyways. But if you don’t think I need to say I’m sorry, then just say I forgive you.’

   ’I forgive you. Would you like me to leave while you sleep?’

  The funny thing was I really didn’t want her to leave, but I didn’t want her to sit around staring at me while I slept. I didn’t think she would bother me while I slept, but I didn’t think I could sleep if she was sitting there staring at me.

   ’I don’t mind if you stay, and I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but I don’t really like the idea of you sitting around staring at me while I’m trying sleep.’

  She giggled and leaned back against the couch.

   ’I won’t stare at you while your trying to sleep. Do you mind if I lay down with you though? Listening to you sleep is very soothing for me. Listening to your breathing, your heart pumping your blood through your body, it’s so relaxing to me. It’s almost like sleeping. It blocks out all the background noise.’

   ’Okay Gloria that’s really creepy.’ I chuckled.

   ’I promise I won’t bite you.’ she pleaded. Gloria stuck out her bottom lip like she was pouting. With bright red eyes, her puppy dog face was going to need some serious work.

   ’As long as you don’t bite me, I don’t care.’

 Gloria raised her hand up over her head in celebration like her team scored a touchdown and quietly said, ’Yeah!’

  Gloria got off the couch and stuck out her hand to help me off the couch. I gave her my hand and she very easily pulled me to my feet.

   ’I need a moment in the bathroom.’ I said.

    ‘Okay, wait a second.’

   ‘Huh?’ I asked turning back towards Gloria.

   ’I want to show you something.’

  Gloria disappeared for a moment and reappeared holding something in her hand. She had a large smile on her face as she looked into my eyes.

   ’Let me see your finger for a second.’

   ’Why?’ I asked becoming suspicious.

   ’I want to show you something. Plus, I want to see something.’

  We stood there looking at one another for a moment. I knew Gloria wouldn’t hurt me, but I wasn’t too sure I wanted to know what was going on in that head of hers.

   ’Conner you know there’s nothing you can do to stop me from seeing what I want to see so let me see your finger.’

  I thought about that for a second and held out my hand. Gloria very gently took my hand in her hand; then I saw what it was she had in her hand, a travel size sewing kit.

   ’Gloria…’

   ’Oh don’t be such a baby.’ Gloria took one of the needles from the kit, ’Just be still, I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to see something.’

  Very gently Gloria poked the end of my finger with one of the needle, ’Now see, that wasn’t so bad.’

   ’What are you doing?’

   Gloria squeezed a drop of blood from the small wound and caught it on the end of her finger. Well, here’s the moment of truth I thought.

  Letting go of my hand Gloria slowly raised her finger to her mouth, her eyes never leaving mine. Gloria turned her finger to show me the drop that was now starting to run down her finger, she smiled and placed her finger in her mouth. At once Gloria’s smile disappeared.

  For a half a seconded my heart about stopped, then Gloria looked almost annoyed, ’Disappointed?’ I asked.

   ’Yes, you taste like asparagus.’ Gloria said sticking out her tongue, ’Conner, you really need to eat healthier. Yuck, you wouldn’t have even been worth feeding on you know that?’

   ’Well I’m glad to hear it.’  

  I turned and headed to the bathroom and Gloria headed to my bedroom. After I finished in the bathroom I walked into my bedroom. The light was off, Gloria was standing at the window. I came up behind her and put my hands on her shoulders and looked out the window.

   ‘What are you looking at?’ I asked.

   ‘Vampire.’

   ‘Where?’

   ‘Don’t worried Conner, he’s way down the street, he was feeding. He pulled whoever it was down into a sewer.’

   ‘Was it your friend?’

   ‘No, I don’t know who it was. I’ve never seen him before. Don’t worry; if he saw me he wasn’t paying any attention to me.’

    I undressed and got into bed. Gloria hadn’t moved from the window.

   ‘Gloria?’

   ‘Yes?’

   ‘Are you planning on looking out the window all night?’

   ‘No.’ she closed the curtains, and came over and laid on the covers on her right side facing me, I rolled over on to my left side to face her. It was dark in the room, there was very little light coming in through the window with the curtains closed. Her eyes illuminated the darkness between us. I could see the different details of her face because of the light shining from her eyes. I was grateful that she blinked now and again; her slow blinking eyes were so eerie. But it was nice at the same time.

   ‘Does this count as staring?’ she asked.

   ‘No, it doesn’t count.’

   ‘You have your electric blanket on.’

   ‘I do.’

   ‘It’s nice.’

   ‘Yeah, it is.’ I sighed and drifted peacefully off to sleep.

 

   I was lying on my stomach when I woke the next morning. My head was facing to my left, my arms were folded under my body and my hands were up by my chin. I felt very warm.

   ‘Are you awake now?’ Gloria asked very quietly.

   ‘How did you know?’ I still hadn’t turned towards her.

   ‘I heard your eyes open.’

   ‘You’re naked.’ I said.

   ‘I have my undies on.’

  Gloria was under the blankets with me. She had her left leg hitched over my lower back. She had an arm across my back with her finger tips tucked just under my armpit. She was laying on her right side and had pulled me against her naked body. She had her chin resting on the top of my shoulder. Her hair was everywhere.

  I readjusted myself so I could turn my head to face her. With the arm she had over my back she pulled her hair out of the way and tucked it behind her ear.

When she saw that my eyes had focused on hers she spoke very softly to me.

   ’Hi.’

   ’You’re warm.’

   ’I know.’

   ’How are you so warm.’

   ’How am I warm?’

   ’Yeah.’

   ’Well, first I have your electric blanket turned way up, and second your body heat.’

   ’I didn’t think you could get warm.’

 She chuckled lightly, ’Why would you think that?’

   ’You’ve always been cold to the touch.’

   ’I can’t get warm by myself. But I can be warmed up, but as soon as we get up

I’ll start cooling down.’

   ’You don’t feel too hot?’

   ’Oh no. I don’t feel temperature like that. I can feel hot and cold, but the different temperatures don’t make me uncomfortable.’

   ’You not uncomfortable now then?’

   ’No. on the contrary, you have no idea how good this feels laying here.’

   ’How does it feel?’

   ’It feels like, well the heat from your blanket feels like being in a hot bath after a hard day’s work. And then there’s you.’

   ’Me?’  

 She closed her eyes and sighed deeply and let out a small moan.

   ‘Anywhere my bare skin touches yours, I can feel your blood being pumped.

Your heart beat is like a small jolt of electric currant, but without the pain. It’s almost sensual, kind of euphoric. I don’t know if that makes any sense, I’ve never felt anything like it.

  ’I first noticed it when I was holding your hand. But with the hands, it’s wasn’t as strong as this, so when I climbed under the blankets after you had gone to sleep I touched your leg and I got a bit of a jolt.’

   ’So then you just tried to get as much bare skin as you could against mine.’

   ’You don’t mind do you?’

   ’No, I don’t mind, I was just a little surprised when I woke that’s all. But no, I don’t mind. So you had no idea that humans felt so good?’

   ’I’ve never been this close to a person.’

   ’Really?’

   ‘I’ve never even kissed a guy before.’

   ‘That’s sad.’

   ‘I know.’

 I pull my hand out from under me and wiggled it up to her face. I laid my hand on her cheek and reached over with my face and kissed her mouth. Gloria reached with her free hand and laid it on my face. I didn’t try to open her mouth to touch her tongue with mine; I just gently kissed her lips.

  She smiled and said to me, ‘I’m getting the pulses through my lips when we kiss.’

  I smiled and kissed her again.

  Gloria pulled away from me, pushed the covers back and sat up and straddled me. She started exploring my back with her fingers. She rubbed my back up to my shoulders; I turned my head back to the left. Gloria laid her naked body down against my back. She laid the side of her head between my shoulders; I still had my arms folded under me. Gloria reached under me and took my hands in hers.

We laid there in silence, Gloria sighed heavily.

   ‘What was the big sigh for?’ I inquired.

   ’Nothing.’

   ’Nothing?’

   ’I’m in love with you Conner. I don’t expect you to feel the same as me, I don’t know why I just told you that. I’m sorry.’

  I wasn’t surprised with Gloria‘s confession after seeing her last night in the hallway by the front door. 

   ’Gloria, I won’t lie to you, I don’t know if I’m that far yet, but something has changed between us. Something wonderful, some sort of feelings have developed in the last twelve hours, feelings I didn’t know I had. And I don’t think they’re bad feelings, but if you were to disappear from my life right now, you would leave a hole inside of me. I would hate it.’

   ’You know what I think?’

   ’What’s that?’

   ’I don’t think you’ve just discovered that in the last twelve hours. I think you’ve been in love with me since we first met. But now that the fear of me hurting you is out of the way, your letting yourself experiences the feelings you’ve already had.’

   ‘Maybe, maybe your right.’

 I rolled under her onto my back; I reached down and pulled the covers over us and held her tight. ‘Maybe your right.’ I said one more time.

  

   ‘You’re hungry.’ We‘ve been laying here in bed awake for a few hours, well

Gloria was always awake.

  Gloria sighed while trying to snuggle closer to me under the blankets. I was lying on my back and Gloria was snuggled up to my side with her head on my chest. I had my arms wrapped around her. Gloria could lie so still, you would have thought she was asleep.

   ’Why do you think I’m hungry?’

   ’Your tummy growled, and your sugar’s low.’

   ’Let me guess, I don’t smell as sweet?’

  Gloria buried her face in my chest and said, ’Something like that.’

   ’Are you ready to get up?’ I asked.

   ’No, but I don’t want you to be hungry.’

   ’I have to work tomorrow.’

  Gloria sighed at the thought of that, ’I think you should quit your job.’

   ’Why do you say that?’

   ’I don’t want to share you, plus you smell funny after being at work. It’s the dust.’

   ’Well I have to work hun. I don’t get enough from financial aid to not work.’

   ’I know, that’s why I brought over some money from my place last night. I went home to get a change of clothes last night for today, so while I was home I grabbed some cash.’

   ’Gloria I can’t take your money.’

   ’Don’t worry, it’s not mine. I stole it.’

   ’When?’

   ’I don’t know, I’ve stolen lots of money over the years. How do you think I survive?’

  I thought about that for a moment, ’Do I even want to know about this?’

   ’Probably not.’

   ’How much money did you bring.’ I was beginning to get worried.

   ’About ten thousand dollars.’

   ’Ten thousand dollars!’ I said a little too loudly. Then starting to laugh I said,

   ’Where the hell did you get that kind of money?’

  Embarrassed, Gloria buried her face into my chest again and tried to hide her face with her hand.

   ‘I stole it from a bank.’

   ‘Wow, I have a bank robbing vampire for a girlfriend.’

  Gloria looked up into my eyes and said, ‘I’m your girlfriend? I mean, you think of me like that?’

   ‘Well, you’re lying here naked with me and you’re trying to give me ten thousand dollars to quit my job. I think it would be a bit rude for me to still refer

to you as the crazy vampire girl that’s stalking me.’

 Gloria smiled and laid her head back down on my chest.

   ’I like girlfriend a whole lot more the crazy vampire stalker girl.’

   ’That’s if you don’t mind me thinking of you as my girlfriend.’

   ’I don’t mind.’

   ’So where do you live?’

   ’About a five minute walk from here.’

   ’My speed, or yours?’

   ’Mine.’

   ’Where do you have the money at?’

   ’It’s in my bag. Don’t worry about the money Conner. I have hundreds of thousands of dollars at my place.’

 I just shuck my head, and chuckled.

   ‘I also have about a million and a half in diamonds.’

   ’And you stole them all?

   ’Some, others I bought. I have to do something with my time. I like trading diamonds. I’m actually quite good at it. Let’s just say I have a good eye for it.’

   ’Please for my sake, no more bank robberies, or jewel heist. Maybe you’re fast and strong enough not to go to prison, but I’m not.’

   ’Conner don’t be silly. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you, but for you no more heisting. Besides, I make enough in precious gems that I don’t need to steal.’

   ‘Right, now you just do it for kicks.’

   ‘Something like that.’ she said laughing. ‘but anyways Conner, let’s get dressed and get you some breakfast.’

  Gloria turned away from me, pulled the covers back, and disappeared. I didn’t even see the bedroom door open or close. I frowned; I didn’t even feel the bed move. I got up and grabbed my jeans off the floor pulled on them on, I walked over to my dresser and grabbed a plain black T-shirt and a pair of socks and sat down on the edge of the bed. As I pulled my socks and my shirt on I mumbled to myself, ’Damn, I was hoping to at least see her in her underwear.’

 I got up and went out to the bathroom. I’ll take a shower tonight, I thought as I headed into the bathroom. I heard Gloria’s voice as I went in to brush my teeth,

   ’It’s not my fault that your eyes are to slow to get a peek.’

  I didn’t respond to comment, I could hear her giggling at her joke. I’m going to have to remember that she can hear everything. After finishing up, I joined Gloria in the living room and pulled on my Chuck Taylor Converses.

  She was dressed like she was going to work out. She was wearing black workout pants. They were form fitting. Around the ankles, they flared out loosely over her white running shoes. The workout pants complemented her body nicely. Her shirt looked like something a professional tennis player would wear. She filled it out nicely. It was white with a small collar. It had two buttons down the front that Gloria left unbuttoned. The shirt had no sleeves, exposing her graceful looking arms. Though her arms were thin they were quite muscular. Her skin looked like white satin. Her hair was pulled back in a very complicated looking braid. She had her green contacts in and had expensive looking pair of sunglasses pushed up on top over her head. Gloria as always, looked amazing.

   ’What’s wrong? You don’t like the way I’m dressed? Is it too much for breakfast?’

  Smiling I said, ’No you look great; I was thinking how plain your contacts make your eyes. Believe it or not, I prefer the red.’

   ’Thank you. I can’t tell you how much the contacts make me crazy. But, they’re necessary.‘

  She looked around like she might be forgetting something, ‘I don’t have any pockets, so do you mind doing the boyfriend duties and holding on to these?’

Gloria handed me a contact carrier and wad of cash with a very nice silver money clip on it. I took the money and the carrier and put them in the front pocket.

   ’How much money was that you gave me?’

   ’Three thousand.’

   ’Are we eating someplace expensive?’ I asked raising one eyebrow.

   ’No, I’m not eating so it’s your choice. But after you eat we’re going shopping.’

   ’What are we shopping for?’

   ’Clothes.’

   ’Your planning on spending three thousand dollars on clothes today?’

   ’I’m not, you are. Your clothes are old, dingy and ratty. So we’re going to get you some new ones.’

   ’Gloria I’m old, dingy and ratty.’

Gloria smile disappeared. She was suddenly very serious,

   ’Conner don’t say that about yourself. First of all you’re not old. I’m twice your age. And you’re not dingy and ratty. Your…,’ she seemed a loss for words for a second, then she continued, ’Your beautiful. I’ve always thought that about you. I’ve thought that since the first time I saw you. You sitting there reading, drinking your coffee, looking all grouchy. I can still remember the sadness you seemed to carry on your shoulders. I can still hear the classical music you were listening to on your I-Pod. When you got up and walk to class, I felt like, the sun just went down on the last summer day. I knew then that I would love you, so don’t ever say you old and ratty.’

   ’But I love my old clothes.’ I was so taken aback by her sudden passion, I didn’t know what else I could say.

   ’Connor I didn’t say you had to get rid of your old clothes, I just said we’re getting you some new ones.’

   ’Oh, okay.’ it seemed a lame thing to say, but I couldn’t think of anything else, I was just to touch by her words.

 Gloria held out her hand and said, ‘Can we go please?’

  I took Gloria’s hand in mine and we headed towards the door. The warmth in her hand was already fading.