Candy Apple Red Corvette

Caroline pulled her new candy apple red Corvette into the high rise parking garage. She secured the convertible top, and gathered her two paper sacks of groceries to carry inside. It always seemed like a long haul, like coming to her private retreat from the back side of town, but she enjoyed doing her grocery shopping in the old neighborhood.

Through the garage and around the building she carried her fresh fruits, shrimp, and vegetables. She'd stocked up on cat food too. Her cat, Merlin, had been with her for many years. Caroline might not always have a well stocked refrigerator, but Merlin always had food. Caroline preferred to eat out anyhow, and now she had the funds to do it properly. Still, there's something to be said for a home cooked meal, on occasion.

Waiting for the elevator, she looked out on the bay, which fronted the high rise apartments. Her apartment on the twelfth floor gave her a view across the bay, ships coming into the port as well as shrimpers, fishing and sailboats. As she waited, she watched the small waves, lapping at the shoreline. Only a dozen or so children littered the beach, this sunny fall day. The breeze was light, and the humidity was causing her to sweat before she returned to her cool air-conditioned mansion in the sky.

Not really a mansion, but a very spacious apartment, she had brought all her family possessions when her parents passed, and she decided to return to live on the Texas coast. She'd enjoyed the extensive furniture and accessory shopping, and felt that she had everything a person needed. She didn't really have to work for a living anymore, but there were things she wanted to do, situations she wanted to put right. Things were very different since she quit drinking.

As she stored the groceries, her black furry mate greeted her with a rousing yawn, and "meow."

"Yes, I brought your food sweetie. Mama wouldn't let you go hungry." Caroline opened a can of Fancy Feast, and placed it in a glass bowl that was designated for kitty dinners. She thought that was the way all pampered pets ate.

When the groceries were stashed away, Caroline checked her phone for messages. She didn't expect to find any. She hadn't called her old friends since she'd returned to what she considered her home town. Being away for ten years makes a difference. Friends move, life changes. But there were a few relationships she wanted to put straight. For all she knew, her old boyfriends had all married. This would be the day she would pick up the phone and make some calls.

She wished for a glass of wine, just to quiet her nerves, and make the first call easier. No wine in her apartment. She could go to the roof top bar, "but I don't drink anymore," she reminded herself. She walked to the picture window and counted the boats out for an afternoon on the water.

"I could buy one of those now," she mused to herself. "I'd probably drown the first time out."

Caroline turned on the new age music which she found so relaxing, and settled into a relaxed position on her new cushy red leather sofa. Red had never been her favorite color when her parents were alive. She thought maybe she was undergoing a change of personality.

She was over her grief, or fighting hard at being over it. The car wreck had happened almost six months before. She closed her eyes, and drifted off. . .

. . .she dialed the number from memory, and exdpected to get an answering machine voice. She didn't.

"Hello, Richard, it's Caroline. Does your memory go back that far?

He laughed an old familar laugh, indicating that what had parted them was of no consequence this day. "Carroline, where are you calling from. Are you in town for a visit?"

"A visit? Yes, you could call it a visit. I brought my stuff with me though, and I rented a place on North Beach."

"This sounds like a permanent visit. North Beach, huh? Isn't that a little pricey for a teacher." Richard always got straight to the point.

"I'm not teaching this year. My parents died in a car wreck, and I moved my life back to the bay. I was happy here. We had some good times, didn't we? Or was that all my imagination?"

"We had good times till you got fat, and I got old. Has anything else changed?"

"You got old and cranky, and I got bipolar diagnosis. My sitaution is different, but the diagnosis is still there. Are you still a cranky old man, or did you find a fountain of youth?

"Just the same old fountain I always drank from," Richard quipped.

"Have you married, or are you a cranky old single guy?" Caroline saw no point in beating around the bush.

Things would be different if he had a wife. He was so good to his first wife, and to Caroline when they were together. She still had the diamond heart pendant he had given her during their only Christmas together. He was the only boyfriend who had ever given her diamonds. She appreciated that he appreciated her as a woman.

"I'm not seeing anyone special now," Richard growled, his voice gravely with too many cigarettes for too many years. He recovered from the throat cancer, she thought, or he wouldn't be able to make much noise. He was whispering when last they spoke. It was too much loss of him to contiue at that point. Only a whisper on the phone, for all he had been in his life.

"Are you free for dinner tonight? I thought if you wanted to go to our favorite old steak restaurant, I'd treat you for a change. Is it still open. Does my girlfriend from high school still own it with her husband. Now she's fat! I was never more than plump, pleasingly some would say." Richard liked his women lean and mean. He wasn't below letting the woman pay, if she was able. That was history too. He enjoyed companionship with his meals. Now that Caroline ate out alone, often, she knew how he felt. The past few months had been solitary, and soul searching.

"You know I'd jump at the chance to have dinner with you. I eat around 7:00."

"I remember what time you eat," Caroline laughed. "Some things don't change do they?"

Richard chimed in laughing.

"Oh, I'll be the one in the red eveing gown. Why don't we meet, at 7:00, as you decree." Carline had indeed lost weight, and had a closet full of clothes that made her look good. She wanted to knock his socks off. Reminding him of how he last saw her would make the eveing's first image of her more stunning.

"I'll be happy to come an pick you up dear," Richard offered.

"No, dear, it's been so long, I think I'd prefer to meet you at the restaurant. Perhaps we could go for a drive after dinner, if we're still speaking."

Caroline remembered how they parted, and Richard was not kind then. She wanted to keep her options open if things didn't work out. However, she thought the red evening dress would overcome any potential fat jokes. She was tall, lean, and ready to be mean.