Page 15 of Just For Her

Tove laughed. “Who knows! And no, I don’t. I’ve got candles, a flashlight, and some blankets. Plus the wood stove if it comes to it, although I don’t mind the cold. Why? Are you afraid of the dark?”

She was cheeky saying that, but Kayla was not amused. “No! I mean… a little. It’s not like I’m freaking out. I don’t like not being able to see.” Tove was talking to a woman who always had a nightlight. It had to be bright enough for her to see her way out of her room at night, but not so bright that she couldn’t sleep. A far cry from the half-illuminated room she slept in while growing up. Back then, she really had been afraid of the dark.

I’m not afraid now.That’s what she chanted to herself as she pulled the blanket up around her face and dug her toes into the carpet.I’m not afraid. Definitely too old for that.

Something soft brushed against her ankles. It startled her so badly that she kicked her feet out with a yelp. A dark blur shot out from the couch, two glowing eyes staring at her in the dark.

“Nemo!” Tove stood up faster than Kayla could register what had happened.

“What was that?” she hissed.

Kayla knew. She simply couldn’t bring the wordcatto her mind, God bless her weary, startled soul.

“It’s my cat.” Tove hoisted the bulky, furry body toward her shoulder and patted the cat’s head. “This is Nemo. You can’t see them right now, but I’ve got two of these boys running around here, although they tend to be shy around strangers. I guess he wants to be on the couch that badly.”

“A cat…” Kayla could hardly believe it. The only thing that startled her more as a child than the dark was a cat, the kind of animal she only met when she stayed over at friends’ houses and had the displeasure of feeling them against her face in the middle of sleepovers. Ever since a cat leaped out in front of her and swatted at her ankles when she was a young child, Kayla had always been uncomfortable around them. Now there were two? In thedark?

This had to be some farce orchestrated by the universe.

“Here you go, Nemo… oh…” Tove lowered her cat to the empty spot on the couch, but he instantly jumped off and disappeared into the shadows of the darkened room. “Never mind. Do you like cats?”

“Love them,” Kayla whispered.

“Ah, well…” Tove didn’t sit down again. “The good news is that this house retains the heat, but if you get cold let me know and I’ll build a small fire. I know you didn’t wear pants.”

“I have nothing to sleep in.”

“Maybe I have something you can wear.” Instead of heading toward her room, however, Tove went back to the kitchen, where she opened the drawer nearest the living room and found a flashlight. The bright white ring flashed across the room. “I’ll go look. Wait here.”

Where else would Kayla freakin’ wait?

This is a nightmare…With the blanket wrapped around her, she got up as soon as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Kayla barely made out the shapes of furniture as she approached the dining room window overlooking the backyard.Stuck in a stranger’s house during a blackout caused by a snowstorm.Snow drifted off the sloping roof and created an uneven pile by the back porch. One window away, another cat hopped onto the windowsill and stared wide-eyed at the fat flakes. Kayla wished she was half as interested in the current weather as this cat.

Her phone buzzed in her hand. The bright light of her screen almost blinded her.

“Are you going to be okay?”Chrissy texted.

Yes. No.Kayla honestly didn’t know. Every time she accepted her situation, she was reminded of how crazy it was.I was here to extort favors from her and her fancy family… now I’m snowed in with her… on her turf…Kayla should have never come. Even if Tove was non-threatening, this situation was doomed. The universe knew that Kayla had ulterior motives that only served to advance her in life. She was taking advantage of the situation…

Take advantage of the situation…

A plan struck her at that quiet moment.

“I think I’ll be great,”she optimistically texted her friend back.“This is Thomas’s cousin, remember? The one Huey said was gay. Maybe I should try my luck. This could be the universe telling me something.”

Once she hit “Send,” she looked down at what she wrote and could hardly believe it.

“Huh? Really? I thought you were straight. Did you get the bicurious bug?”

Kayla dug in her heels.“It’s not like I’m disgusted by the prospect. I’m a woman on a mission. If I don’t mind marrying an eighty-year-old man for the payday, what’s stopping me from flirting with a lonely middle-aged lesbian? Doesn’t even require birth control.”

“You are determined! I admire your gumption! Good luck! Don’t get in trouble! This is still a Fredriksson we’re talking about.”

As soon as Kayla finished the conversation, she lost her nerve. It didn’t help that the cat hopped down from the windowsill and the ring from the flashlight bounced around the room.

“I found some clean sweatpants and a shirt you can borrow.” Tove stood near the couch, flashlight shining on the pile of gray and white clothes she left there. “By the way, I didn’t think to ask if there’s anything else I can do.”

Oh, of course there is…Kayla was more embarrassed than ever before. Yet she squared her shoulders and refused to let a tremble enter her voice. “I am a little frightened of the dark, I have to admit.” Perhaps she should have utilized that tremble, after all – it would have been more convincing. “It’s such a silly thing to admit as a grown woman, but I’m in a stranger’s house, in an area I don’t know. Besides, I…” There it was. The crack in her voice that she barely controlled. “I really am embarrassed. I came here to ask something of you on behalf of your family, and so far you’ve been nothing but hospitable.”

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