Bell bent over sideways to take off her sandals. She wrestled them off and held them up by their straps, glaring at the broken heel. It would cost more to repair than the shoes themselves. Taking a deep breath and straightening up, Bell pasted on her best sales smile and walked up the rest of the pebble path barefoot. The sharper stones cut into her feet and she ended up hotfooting it up the path to the smooth safety of the cement porch. She rang the doorbell and prayed for a little old lady or sympathetic gay guy. She wasn’t certain she could stave off another attack of testosterone. There was no movement in the house, Bell rang the bell again and knocked politely on the door. When there was still no answer she glanced over at the car parked in the driveway then she stood on her tiptoes to look through sun shaped window adorning the top of the door looking for life inside. She saw a light on in the kitchen and what looked like light from the TV bouncing around the doorway just to the left of the kitchen. She leaned on the doorbell, “I know you’re in there, just answer your damn door.”
The door opened a crack and an attractive eyeball, an eyebrow with a sexy arch to it, and half a mouth peeked out at her. “What do you want?” a gravely and unfortunately male voice asked her. Bell smiled her best dazzle ‘em smile and chirped “I need a ride to the airport. Your neighbor was giving me a ride but he is incapacitated now and can’t take me. I am going to miss my flight.” There was silence from the eyeball. “Please?”
The eyeball blinked and continued to stare at her. “I’ll pay for gas!” Bell’s smile brightened even more and put a slightly begging look into her eyes. ‘Come on! Everyone goes for this look,’ she thought scathingly. The door open a bit more and now the other eye, a nose, and tousled light brown hair studied her from head to toe, oddly not lingering on her breasts or short skirt, but wincing when he saw her shoes. Bell’s smile became genuine. Thank god! A gay guy, god’s gift to traumatized women. When his gaze wandered back up to her face he looked startled and then mumbled, “Yeah I’ll take you,” and walked away from the door leaving it open behind him. Having only heard a part of what he said Bell leaned in the doorway and called after him, “Was that a yes?”
Twenty minutes later Bell was in the very comfortable sedan with a handsome thirty something named Brian. Brian had a cold, a very bad cold that he was just barely getting over and had been asleep on the couch when she rang the doorbell. Brian knew how to jimmy a lock and had gotten her luggage out of the incapacitated Jake’s car. Brain was a good-looking guy with a body that spent more time in the gym than in front of the TV. Brian was a saint. Unfortunately, what Brain wasn’t, was gay. Though he hadn’t made a pass at Bell, she could feel the attraction that seeped out of him and quietly filled the front seat as if the heater was on and slowly creeping over her body. It was too bad, but he was a nice guy and as long as he ignored it, Bell was going to be polite. “I really can’t thank you enough for this.” She smiled her warm motherly smile and Brian looked at her oddly when he saw it. “You should be there in time to get through security before your flight.” He glued his eyes to the road and the car lapsed into silence again. Bell just smiled and looked out the window. The landscape was beautiful. Up North as her momma always referred to this area had so much green stuff. Having been raised in the suburbs, where houses and yards ate up the land, parks were the most green she had seen growing up. She knew there were parts of the world where just the earth stretched out until the trees cluttered the view and cut off the sky but she much preferred seeing them from her car. Bell loved the closeness of people and the spread of roads that tied them all together. She liked listening to the traffic on the freeway and the sounds of people living. Camping in nature and hiking were activities that she would leave to her little sister Mea. A real smile slid the corners of her mouth up towards her cheekbones as she thought about the antics of her life loving little sister.
“Ah, so that’s what it looks like.” Brian was focused on Bell’s lips. She had shown him about a hundred and one fake smiles today and that was the first genuine emotion he had seen grace her face. Whatever she was thinking about must be a nice memory. Brain liked nice memories much better than the spell enchanting sales woman who harangued him with a doorbell while he was having a very pleasant cough medicine induced dream involving a faceless blonde dancing naked. Bell turned away from the window and looked at him quizzically the smile dimming only slightly as if her pretty lips couldn’t hold on to the emotion once she was distracted. God her lips were beautiful. Brian glanced down at the diamond on her left hand and felt a moment of jealousy for the man who came home to those lips every night. “I’m sorry, what?” She asked as she shifted her body so that her shirt strained against her chest and he lost his train of thought for a moment. He blinked and looked back at the road, “Your smile. That was the first time I have seen you smile without having a purpose. It felt like you were trying to sell me something back at the house.” Bell chuckled and looked down at her hands, “Most guys don’t notice. I work in sales so no matter how you feel you have to always be upbeat about the product.”
“I’m confused. Are you the product or my car?” He smiled and seemed to relax. Bell joined him laughing felt so good right now. “Whatever it took to get me to the airport and home to my house on 9th street.” Brian felt his blood race at the sound of her laugh. There was something about that woman that made him unable to focus on anything. “Is it our landscape here that made you smile?” Brian’s hand shifted on the steering wheel as he watched Bell. She looked out the window and said “it reminds me of my sister Mea. She loves the outdoors. She hikes, canoes, climbs, any thing that nature put on this earth my sister will attempt to experience.” Brian nodded as if he cared about her sister. Though if she was as interesting as Bell and single it might be worth it. “I am more for the clutter of cities myself.” Brian said, “They distract, and combine at the same time. So much is going on that you can focus on any one thing and that is great but at the same time everything touches and mixes together.” Brian caught himself before he became too sentimental and asked, “Out of curiosity, what happened to my neighbor?”
Bell smirked and a look of gleeful mischief darted his way. “He is handcuffed in the closet contemplating his actions and the consequences of upsetting a goddess.” Brian nodded, “Should I go untie him when he gets home?” Bell gave him a sympathetic look; “I called his mom she said she would get to it today.”
“And goddess? Pretty high opinion of yourself there.”
“Always selling the product.”
“So it’s all hype?”
“Ouch! No, I am just something to be worshiped.”
Brian nearly swerved off the road as he thought of ways he would like to worship her. Bell bit her lip to keep from laughing as Brian got control of the car again. Men were easily led down a road to dirty thoughts. She had been enjoying the content quiet on the drive to the airport, but she was incapable of missing a chance to tease and incite desire. It just wasn’t in her genetic makeup, to be demure. She liked attention and sexual tension is a great way to get it, though not quite fair to Brian who had noticed her ring and was being quite a gentleman. Bell reigned in her pheromones and gave him a real no teeth smile. “Your neighbor didn’t pay attention to the ring on my hand and made a horrific attempt at a pass before mauling me in his house. I handcuffed him and left him tied up in the closet. To answer your next question; no, I do not always carry handcuffs in my purse. They came on a drink at the bar last night and I kept them.”
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