The One who got Away

***

By the morning, the storm had moved on, leaving Ft. Wayne soaked with a few inches of water. Darren slid out of bed gently to where he didn’t wake Sherry. She slept hard as a rock. He got his pants and shit out of his closet then used the

bathroom in the hallway to get ready instead of in the master suite. It was nearly 9 o’clock before he finally got out of the house; he pulled up at his insurance agent’s office around 9:30, barely making it on time because of getting caught by the last car of a train.

When Darren stepped out of Mr. Perry’s office, he checked his phone. The MISSED CALL alert popped up. His brother John had called.

“Hello?” John answered when Darren climbed back into his car and called back. He’d been thinking about last night, on the terrace, anytime he wasn’t directly interacting with his agent. Even though he had a busy day ahead of him, he’d probably still stop in the house. He vividly remembered how Sherry had been sleeping so beautifully before he pulled his bedroom door up and got moving with his morning.

“What’s going on?” Darren asked. “I saw you called.”

“Yeah, I was just calling to see how things were going,” John said. “I was seeing on the news that you all got hit with a big storm last night. They’re showing a bunch of power outages, some trees and shit down. Some river...don’t remember the name...is flooding.”

Darren had been daydreaming about the wall of water that surrounded his love making session with Sherry and how it made it all the more erotic. “Yeah, man, it was pretty bad. But I can’t really complain. I mean, it was pretty cool for banging the nanny out on the terrace.”

“What?” John asked. He then chuckled. “What the hell are you talking about, Darren? Banging the nanny out on the terrace? You can’t be serious?”

Darren reminisced for milli-seconds about Sherry’s scent down between her legs. “Man, best experience of my life.”

“Oh, God,” John said. “Dude, this already sounds like a bad idea. You can’t really be banging your nanny. And she lives in your house, too? Dude, what are you thinking? I mean, seriously.”

“Oh, calm down, John,” Darren said. “You probably wish you could be banging your nanny.” He chuckled loudly, knowing his brother was probably getting the most repulsive mental image – a 65-year-old woman who wore huge glasses, was overweight, and didn’t particularly look well-preserved.

“Man, too much,” John said. “Mental image, mental image.”

John scolded his brother further about sleeping with his nanny. Darren never backed down from his position. He explained how he and she started talking and that he truly felt a connection with her. Darren made sure his brother was aware of Sherry’s genuine and natural care for Gabriel. Their grilling competition was cute, to say the least.

“Man, here you go,” John said. “Getting involved in some scandalous kind of stuff.”

“Scandalous kind of stuff my ass,” Darren said. “Dude, you act like we’re famous or something. It’s not that serious.”

“Well, maybe you’ll fall in love with this one...finally,” John said then chuckled. “The nanny...and you, a single guy who adopted a baby. I swear, you really do always have the most interesting stories.”

Darren’s eyes slanted toward the phone. “Here you go, again.”

Chapter 9

In the days following their wild, spontaneous lovemaking on the terrace during the storm, things got a bit hectic for Darren. For that reason he’d been home much less for at least three or fours days afterward. When he did interact with Sherry, the lust was definitely there; however, the both of them were deep in their own thought processes as they adjusted to how their boss-nanny relationship had changed. After all, this situation was strange for all parties involved – not typical at all. Conversation had been tense, but in a good way; their stares were a little too long, but never felt uncomfortable. Neither knew what to really say. Whatever little flame went on between the two of them would be pushed to the back burner the following week. Darren’s mother Joan and her sister, his Aunt Carol, were coming to Fort Wayne to visit Darren and see the baby.

“Gabriel is finished with his bath!” Sherry yelled down from the top of the steps. “And this soap works a lot better.”

“Good deal!” Darren responded. He then turned his attention back to Rosa. It was 9:30 in the morning and she’d just arrived, ready to work extra hours to get Mr. McWaters house ready for his mother’s arrival. Thirty minutes had passed since Darren received a call with her ETA. The plan was he would meet his mother downtown and they would probably start off with a walk in the park with Gabriel. The spring weather was still unbelievably warm. From there, they would just see how the day wound up. When he finished giving Rosa her list of duties, Darren climbed the steps so he could see how getting Gabriel ready was going.

Sherry was a bit startled by Darren’s sudden tap at the door. “Oh, I thought you were downstairs.”

Darren nodded as he looked Sherry up and down. He couldn’t help but to admire her shape as she nurtured Gabriel. A few seconds lapsed before he finally spoke. “How close is he to being ready? Looks like my mom will be showing up at the restaurant maybe in a half-hour… and I wanna be there first so I can be sure we got the table I specifically requested, you know...with the view.”

“Yeah, he’s almost ready,” Sherry said.

Badly, Darren wanted to wrap his arms around Sherry’s waist. For the first time in a week, they had a rather long chat down in the kitchen. Darren had been looking over some papers on the dining room table with the french doors open. He wondered what had been on Sherry’s mind. Sometimes he found himself avoiding eye contact. Even though John’s advice rang through his head every so often, but he couldn’t regret that night. The sex was too good; he clicked with Sherry in a way he hadn’t clicked with a woman in so long.

Sherry finished up with getting Gabriel ready then handed him to Darren. She then followed him downstairs where he grabbed the baby bag, his wallet, and opened the door. Sherry grabbed the handle, saying she would close it. Just then, Darren, without even realizing it, turned around with an expecting face and leaned down toward Sherry’s. It took Sherry a second too long to realize he’d turned around for a kiss. By the time she processed it, he snapped out of it and went on down the walkway. She stood in the doorway and watched the single father load his child into his MKZ. Her heart throbbed for this guy in ways she wondered if he picked up on. Still, she couldn’t deny that she was dying to know why a guy like him would adopt a child rather than get married first then start a family.

Sherry closed the door then climbed the steps, returning to her own room. There, she sat on the edge of her bed in thought. Did I make a mistake? This is a job, Sherry. Why did you do that? Mental images of their teenage-like lovemaking on the terrace flashed in her mind. Even it was wrong, and of course inappropriate from a job standpoint, it felt so right. She looked up and out of her window, at the Watson Residence across the street. Her eyes closed as she bit her bottom lip and reminisced on it all.

***

Sherry went on with her day eventually. It took her a while to figure out what to do with herself, but she wound up running some errands then simply enjoyed being back at Darren’s house alone. The deal had been once Rosa left, she would have the day to herself. No sooner than the woman pulled off, Sherry came out and jumped into her own car then zipped off. Now, as she lay in her bed, she vividly remembered the way she was frozen in time at a rose bush she passed on a trail when she stopped by the park before coming back to the house. If you would’ve said I would be having this kind of live five years ago, I wouldn't have never believed it.