Page 32 of Hot Zone

“Okay, let’s go. Do you know where Ware Road is?”

“I don’t, but I’m good at following directions.”

We got in his car, and I pointed to the left. “Head that direction until you get to Twenty-seventh Street, then make a right.”

“Hopefully, this place will work out, but at least you have a place to stay so you don’t have to rush it if this one doesn’t work.”

“I kissed Samuel,” I blurted out.

“Woah, you kissed the sexy silver fox?”

“I did.” I sighed, and my shoulders sagged. “You can’t tell anyone about this, okay?”

He made a criss-cross on his chest and then mimicked zipping his mouth shut and locking it.

“Now tell me everything.”

“I don’t know. There isn’t really much to tell. He had a rough day, so I gave him a shoulder massage, and then we kind of had a moment. We kissed, and then he left. Then he was gone when I woke up this morning.”

He cringed. “Yikes. So what do you think happened? Gay freakout?”

“I guess. I mean, I don’t know. But he’s been so nice, and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“You had a moment. What does that mean exactly?”

“I don’t know. I was standing behind the chair, and he grabbed my wrist or maybe my hand, I don’t remember. Anyway, he pulled me around to the front of the chair, and I just crawled right up on his lap like I had a right to be there.”

“But he didn’t push you off?”

“Not until after the kiss.”

“Okay, so you were on his lap, and then you, what? Just kissed him?”

I thought about that for a second. “Or maybe he kissed me. I’m not sure who kissed who, to be honest, but what I can tell you is it was the hottest kiss of my whole life. And then he said he was sorry and left.”

“He said he was sorry for kissing you?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. He said something about me being too young and being a guest in his house.”

“Ah, so he was trying to be honorable.”

“Maybe, but I wasn’t wanting honorable in that moment. I wanted another kiss, ‘cause, damn, it was even better than I’d ever imagined.”

“So what are you going to do?” he asked.

“This”—I motioned to the road ahead—“I’m going to find a place of my own before things get too awkward.” He put his blinker on and turned on 27th Street. “It should be just a couple blocks up, and you’ll make a right.”

“I don’t know, Mars, the neighborhood’s a little sketchy.”

“Yeah, I’m not really familiar with this area, but it does seem a little iffy. Maybe it’ll get better when we turn on Ware.” I triedto sound hopeful, but it wasn’t looking good at all. Sure enough, things got worse instead of better after we made that turn.

Most of the houses had peeling paint, and the yards were unkept. The little house for rent wasn’t in horrible shape, but the one beside it had a car up on blocks and a collection of old lawnmowers sitting around the yard.

“So you want to stop and peek through the windows?” Mika asked.

The house was obviously vacant, but I shook my head. “I think I’ll keep looking.”

Samuel

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