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Seven Questions

Thomas Cannon

    The young mother knelt down on both knees and thumbed the tears off her daughter’s cheeks. Terry observed the whole situation while sucking the straw of his Burger King Mocha Latte. The view of the mom’s coin slot was an added bonus. Her low-rise, non-mom jeans intrigued him. It was only after the little girl managed a smile that her mother stood up and her short shirt revealed a belly that looked to him like a soggy loaf of white bread.
    He grimaced at it. His girlfriend had a narrow, flat midriff, the only kind he approved of, and yet he couldn’t look away. Instead, he put himself in the woman’s line of vision. “I saw the whole thing,” he said. “That dog over there ran up from behind you guys and snatched the hot dog right out of her hand.” Then he smiled down at the little girl. “I will go get you a new one, honey.” He pinched a five out of his wallet with a magician’s flourish before striding over to the hot dog stand at the entrance of the park.
    The mother and child were at the park pavilion watching a magic show. He took in the woman’s curvy hips and heavy chest before crouching down to the girl. “Here you go, sweetie.”
    “She don’t need that,” the mother said, laying her hand on the little girl’s sun-warmed head.
    “This is for you,” he said standing up and handing the mom a paper cup of soda while fumbling with his own whipped creamed drink. “It’s cherry.” When she took the cup, he smiled. He smiled at the way she looked him up and down.
    After the magic show, they all sat down on the nearest bench, which was at the bus stop. At :05 after the hour, the bus stopped, its doors opened, and its driver stared at them. At :35 after, Terry had eaten the last half of Jasmine’s hot dog and had the low down on Gena.
    She had divorced her husband while he had been over in Afghanistan. She had gone to East High and worked at the Qwik-In Mart on Franklin. Judging by the buggers in Jasmine’s nose, she was not squeamish.
    Her blonde hair with dyed red streaks fell onto her smooth, chubby face and she looked at him without brushing it away. His heart raced for a moment. “Now. Ask me any question you want.”
    “I want seven,” she said.
    “Seven? Questions? Why seven?”
    “It just seems like a sufficient amount.”
    He smirked, liking that she was that interested, and was about to tell her to fire away when his phone chimed the song, Lil Wayne’s Lollipop. He glanced at it in his cupped hand to see he had a text message and then stuffed it in his pocket.
    Gena fluffed her daughter’s hair like she was picking up pinches of salt. “Okay. First question. What does the text from your girlfriend say?”
    Don’t let her take control, he thought. But then he couldn’t think of what to answer, so he showed her. From Emily Where R U
    She gave him a flirty, sideways glance. Like the idea of him having a girlfriend excited her. “Who says she’s my girlfriend? You don’t know.”
    “Please. I already know everything I need to know. But I got my second question, anyway.”
    “No you don’t. You don’t know anything about me.”
    Gena looked him up and down again. “Not that age matters to me, but I’d say you are like eight years older than me, so that’d be the last minute of your twenties. You dress nice which means you make good money. You’re wearing your high school class ring, so you didn’t go to college. My guess is you’re a salesman.” She sat up straight and put her hand on her hip. “So. My second question is why are you talking to me when you have someone?”
    Terry glanced at Jasmine to see how much she was paying attention, but she was fiddling with the necklace on Gena’s chest. He didn’t want to be inappropriate around a little kid, but the way Gena leaned forward showed him he would do well to be blunt. It was obvious to him, too, that she knew him from the Suzuki dealership down the street where he worked. “Well, I thought you were sweet with your daughter.” This was true, but the reason he talked to her was because she looked easy. You gotta close the deal, he told himself. “But you look like a lot of fun, too. To be around, I mean.” He gave her his smoldering eyes gaze, and she winced because Jasmine had caught some skin while twisting the necklace.
    “I’m ready for my third question.” He wanted to keep her attention on himself.
    Gena wiped the ketchup off Jasmine’s face without taking a swipe at her nose. Jasmine, in response, slid-slipped away to a sitting position on the sidewalk, her sun dress settling over her knees. “Okay, you asked for it. Are you as attracted to Emily as when you first met her?”
    Terry crooked an eyebrow. “Why would you — this isn’t fair. You wouldn’t be asking these questions if I hadn’t gotten that text. I don’t like this.”
    Gena sucked hard on the straw in her drink and went “ahh” after swallowing. “You don’t want to see where this goes?”
    “I do,” he said immediately. He grimaced to answer so quickly. He settled himself and gave her his sideways glance. “And that was question four.”
    “Okay,” she said, imitating his salesman pitch voice. “But answer question three.”
    He leaned back on the bench and put his hand to his chin as if James Lipton had asked him a question. “Emily’s the sweetest person,” he said. “She runs this huge daycare with her three bitchy sisters and makes time every day to work with the children.” At this point, Gena looked down at Jasmine. Okay, he thought, children are a sensitive subject with this one. “But you asked about attraction, so I will answer attraction-wise. Don’t be jealous, but she’s still able to make my chain jump its sprockets if you know what I mean. She’s dresses like a mannequin at JC Penny’s and my buddies give me grief about her being a priss. That is until we all go down to Boca Grande and she wears her bikini. They become a bunch of drooling idiots because-” Terry stopped because he realized he had his hands out like he was about to heft two muskmelons. “Let’s just say, I’m drooling with them. I love it. It’s like I’m in on this secret paradise hidden under her pant suit.”
    “I don’t want to hear about that.”
    “Yeah, you do,” he said. “Since you know everything about me, you know I can tell when a woman is interested.” He looked Gena over and while she couldn’t measure up to Emily with him, her reddening skin made him want to touch her.
    “You told me to test if I got jealous.”
    You women are sure smart about some things. “Okay. And you sure seem to be.”
    “Are you going to marry, Emily?”
    “Ahh-” This was the answer he usually gave Emily. The whole topic made his legs ready themselves to run away. Then he realized that he had no reason to lie. There was a good chance, he judged, that she was into committed guys. “The answer to question five is I definitely think so. Just not yet. Not soon either.”
    Gena gathered up her keys and sunglasses, which were on the bench between them. He knew she saw the panic on his face. Then he realized she had been looking for it. They looked at each other for a few moments in a stalemate. “Terry, it’s like this. Jasmine’s dad finally got it through his thick skull he has to be a responsible parent. So I have to get her home so he can pick her up for the night. But I have two questions left.”
    “Okay.”
    “The thing though is that I don’t want one of my questions to be if we can continue this.”
    Terry felt the surge he got when he closed the sale on a new motorcycle. “How about we meet at O’Malley’s on Third Street?”
    “How about- I mean I will be back at this bench at seven-thirty tonight. I might want to go for a walk.”

    She showed up at eighty-thirty. He was so sore from being on the bus stop bench that he sat like a stuffed bear sewed in sixth grade Home Ec. class. He stood up and kissed her cheek.
    She had changed into a red tight-fitting top with a plunging neckline. Hot, he thought. Jesus. His next thought was Emily would look so sexy in that dress. If I got her to wear it and it was in a smaller size. He took Gena’s hand. “Let’s take that walk,” he said.
    They walked along the jogging trail and followed it to a bench overlooking a pond. They sat down and he looked out at the water. “I need you to understand something. When all is said and done, I’m still going to be with Emily.”
    “But you’re here with me. This is what you pursued. What is it you think you need that she doesn’t give you? And yes, that’s my sixth question.”
    “Nothing.” He scanned the park for the pavilion where he had met this woman. “I don’t know. Maybe I’m here because of the disappointed look in her eyes sometimes. When she looks at me through her sisters’ eyes. You stirred something in me up. You look at me with your sexy eyes and I feel something. Wanted.” He put his hand on her leg. “We can have something fun. Spontaneous and free.”
    He snapped his hand back off her and stood up as he saw Emily’s sisters walking towards them. Shit. How can they be here? There was no mistaking the two tall and slender sisters and the large oldest one. “Cool it,” he managed to say. “The three witches are blowing this way.”
    Now he saw himself through their eyes. Through their eyes he saw the pain this would cause Emily. That was almost the last thing he wanted. His plan to keep her from not getting hurt was to not get caught.
    Gena stood up. “Here’s my last question. Can you guess what daycare Jasmine goes to?”

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