Restless

Chapter 13

Across town, Kyle sat in his home office, tapping a pen against the desk. Try as he might, he couldn't get his mind off his ex-wife.

There was no way in the world that he would ever have pegged Sahara for becoming a lesbian. Did his leaving her crush her so much that she was turned off of men altogether? He had expected her to be hurt but he didn't think she would abandon the entire male population. While part of him was disturbed by it, part of him couldn't help being a little flattered that he would be the last man she deemed worthy of being with.

He really felt responsible for turning Sahara against men. It was on his mind constantly since that night he saw her with that woman at her apartment and again at church. Part of him wondered who that man was that she was talking to after the service but it never entered his mind that it was someone that she could be seeing. All he had been focused on was Sahara and the woman standing a few feet away watching her. To him, they were making serious eyes at each other. How long had this been going on? Since the night he had rejected her? Did it devastate her so much that it drove her into the comforting arms of one of her girlfriends, and what started out as platonic, sisterly consoling evolved into a passionate, eye-opening session on explorative lovemaking?

And where was Rison when all of this was going on? He was upset about his daughter possibly seeing or hearing something that she wasn't ready for or wouldn't understand, but he tried to cut Sahara a little slack. She had been through a lot over the past year. Maybe he should try to talk to her; see where her head was at. Maybe they could come to some sort of understanding.

He called her on her cell phone, but it rolled over to voice mail. He tried again, thinking maybe she just didn't have time to get to the phone the first time. She didn't answer until the third call, and she did not sound very happy to hear from him.

"What?" she asked in an angry whisper.

"Are you busy?"

"You didn't gather that from my not answering the phone the first two times you called? What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you. It's kind of important."

"Well, it's going to have to wait. I'm on a date."

"Another date? I mean...good for you. Um, so you're out with Charlie again, huh? Y'all really seem to be hitting it off."

"Yes, we did. But I'm not out with Charlie."

He automatically started to ask who she was out with, but held his tongue. Even though he really, really wanted to know. "Oh..."

It sounded like she had put her hand over the phone while he heard her saying something to her date. He strained to hear what she was saying but he couldn't really make anything out. At the end of it, he heard her say, "Just one second, Shannon," before she got back to Kyle. "I have to go."

Shannon?? Kyle was floored. She was out with yet another woman? What happened to Charlie? Maybe he was the guy that made her turn over to women. Just how many people was she dating? And where the heck was Rison??

"May I ask where my child is?" he asked, not being able to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"You don't need to worry about that," Sahara hissed angrily. "I've taken care of that just like I've been doing for the past few months while you're off living like a childless bachelor. Now goodbye." She hung up.

Kyle wanted to throw the phone across the room. Now not only was Sahara dating women, she was apparently seeing more than one. And all around his daughter. This was just completely and totally unacceptable.

He got up and stalked down to the kitchen, where Wanda was heating up some soup on the stove. That was about the extent of her cooking skills. Anything out of a can or a package or a bag, but nothing from scratch. Kyle sometimes missed a good old-fashioned, home cooked meal like the ones Sahara used to make for him every night, but he just chose to overlook that minor little flaw in his bride-to-be.