Chapter 2

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 460.

Troubled sleep invariably followed such remembrances and six am found Andi wide awake and staring at the ceiling. She wondered why she still allowed them such power, when in reality she had moved on long ago. Well physically at least anyhow. Lana had stayed in the house and Andi had ended up here to the Central Valley area. She was working twelve hour days to re-establish a client base and make payments on her living and business premises. One more year, she promised herself, and she could start to slow down a little and have more of a social life. Try making some new friends; gay or straight, she didn't really care -- the last thing she needed or wanted was a relationship. Lana had been some twelve years her junior, though to her credit it had never appeared to bother her. It had been Andi who had always felt somewhat uneasy and awkward in the bar-hopping, partying set of friends that Lana gathered around her. Her own tastes ran more to the occasional film or theater date, dinner in some place where you could actually hear your companion speaking and quiet parties that weren't advertised on the internet. Sliding out of the tangle of damp sheets she pulled on a t-shirt and shorts, and padded barefoot into the kitchen lip the coffee maker switch. Hell if she was awake then she might as well make use of the time and get in to work early.

A quiet knock on her front door was followed by several louder ones. Andi rarely had visitors and certainly not at this hour, so she peeked carefully out the living area window before opening the door to a young woman she didn't recognize.

“Hi, my name is Gill, I moved in next door last week. I'm incredibly sorry to be troubling you so early, but I was wondering if that is your truck?”

The girl, who was dressed in the uniform of a national donut chain, gestured behind her to Andi's pickup which was parked somewhat skewed against the curb. Her tone was soft and apologetic and Andi's initial glance took in dark brown eyes with a dusting of light freckles across her nose. Although she didn't appear to be more that twenty five years old there were deep worry lines etched around those eyes and the corners of her mouth.

“Yes, that's my truck, is there some sort of problem?”

Andi was already moving down the steps, surveying the scene; her natural tendency to take over situations coming instantly to the fore. And there was the problem, staring her in the face. She was parked almost on top of a small sedan in the next spot, What with the lateness of the hour and her tiredness last night, she'd made a real hash of the maneuver and now this poor gal was obviously unable to get out.

“Oh God, I'm so sorry, I'm not usually that inconsiderate. I guess I'm used to having both these spaces to myself. Hang on; I'll go get my keys.”

Andi turned and loped up her front steps, grabbing her keys from the hall table and, still apologizing profusely, moved her truck a foot or so forward. Sliding out of the cab she was rewarded with a brilliant smile from Gill who had already slipped behind the wheel of her own vehicle and scooted out on to the road. Through the rolled down window Andi heard her yell, “Thanks so much, sorry, late for work!” before she scorched off in a puff of very black exhaust smoke.

“Hell that engine sure needs a tune.” Andi thought, then gave herself a mental shake as she found herself still standing in the street with a silly smile playing on her lips long after Gill's car had disappeared. “Shows how much attention I pay,” she muttered, walking inside, “didn't even realize they had rented that unit yet. I hope she hasn't got a heap of young noisy friends.” The words had barely left her lips when it occurred to her how downright old and stuffy that remark sounded and she wondered glumly just when she had become such a bore.