Blind Date

“I don’t care what you look like. I mean, obviously. We just had mind-blowing sex!

Well, at least it was for me…”

“Me, too,” he agreed, hugging her hips.

“Eric, I have to see you.”

“If it doesn’t matter, why do you need to see me?”

“I…don’t know. But, sweetie, unless you’re a vampire or something, we have to go out in the daylight eventually,” she teased.

“One thing I’ve learned, doing what I do…women often say they want something, but that isn’t really what they want at all. You’re telling me you want to turn on the light and end the mystery, but that isn’t what you really want,” he murmured, kissing her temple, her cheek, her jaw line.

“That is the most sexist statement I’ve ever heard.” She snorted.

“It’s true, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.” She shrugged.

He kissed her temple. “Annie, will you promise me something?” She looked up at him and marveled at how different she felt now than when she had stormed into the kitchen. Yet no more than an hour had passed.

“What?”

“A promise is a commitment,” he said, his voice low. “I would never promise someone something I couldn’t do, and I expect the same from others.

It’s a matter of integrity, of keeping your word. Do you understand that?” Annie swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“Then let’s do this. No lights. I’ll meet you outside, okay? On the front porch.”

“It’s dark out there.” She stated the obvious.

“Not as dark as it is in here,” he countered, making her smile.

“Okay, we’ll do this your way. Let me tell my sisters I’m going.” Annie stood, using his shoulder to steady herself as she slid her panties on. She made a face she was grateful he couldn’t see. She was going to have to use the bathroom before they left, too. “Help me find my boots?” She found one right away, but the other evaded their fumbling in the dark for a few moments until they found it wedged under the edge of a cupboard door.

“No lights,” he reminded her, kissing her mouth and making her remember the heat between them. “You promise?”

Flushing, she smiled. “Yes. I promise.”

She swung open the door, her eyes adjusting to see couples paired off and dancing in the half-light. Annie spotted her sister near the bathroom, dancing with her husband.

“Chloe, come to the bathroom with me,” she whispered, tugging at her sleeve. Her sister followed, shrugging at Dave as she shut the bathroom door behind them. Annie flipped on the light.

“You are not going to believe what just happened to me,” Annie whispered as she pulled her panties down and sat to pee. Chloe stood at the door, her arms crossed over her chest.

“You mean while you were alone pouting in the kitchen?” Chloe scoffed, rolling her eyes.

“I wasn’t alone,” Annie grinned and bit her lip, reaching for the toilet paper.

Someone knocked and the sisters both said, “Someone’s in here!”

“It’s me, Becca!”

Chloe opened the door for their sister, who came in and sat on the edge of the enormous Jacuzzi tub.

“What’d I miss?” Rebecca asked. “Holy cow, Annie, what were you doing in the kitchen, wrestling?”

“Is it that bad?” Annie flushed the toilet. At the sink, she peered into the mirror as she washed her hands.

“So what is going on with you?” Chloe asked, still propped against the door.

“There was a guy under your kitchen table.”

“What?” Rebecca echoed Chloe as she stood.

“In fact…we had sex on your kitchen table.”

“Annie!” both sisters exclaimed simultaneously.

Annie grinned into the mirror, rubbing her fingers under her eyes to lessen the raccoon-look and grabbed Chloe’s hairbrush from the shelf.

“And now I’m going home with him.” She yelped when she brushed the back of her hair, having forgotten about the lump on her head.

“Who is this guy?” Chloe frowned.

“I don’t know,” Annie admitted, grabbing a lipstick off the shelf and applying some. “Ick! Chloe, how old is this stuff? And cheap! You have more money than God, go visit the counter at Neiman Marcus once in a while, would ya?”

“What’s his name? Is he cute? What does he do?” Rebecca stood behind Annie, helping her tuck her skirt tag in and straighten the lines of her blouse.

“Eric.”

Chloe shook her head, still frowning. “I don’t know an Eric.”

“You don’t know everyone.” Annie sighed and grabbed a tissue to rub off the awful-tasting lipstick.

“I do in my own house!” Chloe insisted, reaching past Annie’s head and opening the medicine cabinet. “We didn’t invite any Eric.” She handed her a twenty dollar tube of Christian Dior lipstick. “All you had to do was ask. I keep that stuff out for the cousins to play with.”

“Thanks. Digital Brown? Who do they have naming these things now, robots?” Annie admired the way it slid over her lips, like silk. Much better.

“Don’t change the subject,” Chloe admonished. “We need to know who this mystery man is.”

Annie opened the cabinet back up to search for more. She found eye shadow, mascara, eyeliner, and put them on the counter. “What does it matter?

Seriously. He’s incredible!” Annie beamed at Chloe in the mirror and then turned to grasp Rebecca’s hands, squeezing.