Random

Chapter TEN

In the morning I dress in shorts and a tank top and my tennis shoes, braid my hair, and drive to the address Tyler texted to me. It's way up in the hills in Manitou, streets so steep they're kind of nerve-wracking to drive. I park on the downslope, turn my front tires to the curb, and pull the emergency brake, looking downhill, wondering how it is to drive on that in the wintertime. Horrible.

The whole neighborhood is old houses, with front porches and wrought iron fences and sparse lawns. There's evidence of a mud flood in the gutters by the steep curbs, and I look upward to the invisible canyon. It was burned in a fire last year, so there's nothing to stop the rains anymore.

Tyler's house is set back from the street under a big old elm tree, and his yard is in worse shape than the others. Two metal lawn chairs sit on the narrow porch, with a weathered table between them. I climb up the steps to ring the doorbell, but he's already opening the door. "Good morning!"

How can this guy like me? He's freshly showered by the look of his wet hair, and he's barefooted. "Good morning." It comes out quietly, shyly, and that irks me. I've worked hard to get rid of my shyness. But there's something so rare about him that I can't even think of anything to say.

"I'm running a little behind, sorry to say. I was out listening to music till the bar closed down. Come in. Want some coffee?"

"Sure." I walk in behind him and smell it, fresh brewed no more than a few minutes ago. I inhale deeply. "Smells great."

He inclines his head, giving me that one-sided smile. "You do seem to like your coffee."

He gestures for me to follow him through a living room that's basic guy-couch, a few posters on the walls. There's some clutter on the coffee table, but not anything dramatic. Keys, a book, a couple of pens.

The kitchen is bright from the line of windows along the back. Of course he has no curtains, but maybe that's because of the view. The house faces the city of Colorado Springs, down a hill and past the Garden of the Gods, but the thing that catches my attention is the fact that there are no dishes in the sink and the counters are clean. The stove doesn't have a year's worth of splatters over the top, and in fact I can even see that the pans below the burners are relatively clean.

"You live here by yourself?" I ask.

"Just me."

"Wow."

"You sound surprised."

I shrug. "It's pretty tidy."

"So is yours."

"You were surprised at my place, too?"

"Not because it was clean." The light strikes his irises, making the green and blue blaze. "Because it has such a sense of calm."

"Really?" Something in me blooms. "That's what I wanted."

"Unusual. Drama is more often the case."

"Six years of dirty dishes and sticky floors are the usual with guys."

He half nods, reaching for the coffee cups, and moves them a quarter inch. "Can't argue with you on that."

Is he nervous?

I am, and rather than stand there and wait for the coffee, I move to the windows and look out. A deck juts out over the steep yard. "I bet this is great at night."

"Yeah, it's one of the reasons I rented the place."

"I thought about Manitou, but it's kind of far from things, and there's always the gas issue."