Chapter Eight Draft

After Todd left, the group decided to stay up and watch an airing of “The Daily Show” that Katy had recorded earlier in the week.  They had always enjoyed Jon Stewart’s take on the news, and the comedy made the news a bit more palatable.  They all agreed that Stewart was hot.  He was so smart and funny, and it gave him an amazing sex appeal.  Katy thought that he was even hotter now that his hair was going gray.  He was one of the few celebrities that all of the girls could agree on.  They also all agreed that he could use a bit of manscaping on his knuckles, his only flaw, they were much too hairy.  It was something that they did together as often as they could.  It also gave them time to wind down.  The discussion returned often to Todd.  The other girls were also quite excited about him.  They sat up into the early morning hours recounting tales of the night.  They were intrigued by the fact that he had worked the Tribal King case.  They liked the fact that he was attentive to Katy throughout the evening without being possessive or needy.  They also liked the fact that he had a good sense of humor as well as a good sense of self.  They talked about how he was just Katy’s type.  And Claudette dubbed him “hot”.

Katy felt that the conversation had centered on her too much lately, so she did what she could to redirect the conversation to relationships in general.  She was rewarded with an intense update of what was going on in the romantic lives of her friends.  Lindsey’s lawyer friend wasn’t working out well, and the girls spent some time talking about that.  Evidently, his desire to argue was not his only flaw.  He also liked to condescend to everyone around him.  This was a bothersome trait in anyone who had it, but it was particularly bothersome in a boyfriend.  Lindsey was a very intelligent woman, so she felt particularly insulted when he talked down to her.  The women discussed the fact that no one should condescend to their significant other, and it was decided that Lindsey should ditch him.  Lindsey wasn’t sure.  She said that despite his little flaws, which seemed more like major flaws to Katy, they had excellent chemistry.  According to Lindsey, the sex was amazing, and it was going to be hard to let that go.  She would need to think about it a little bit longer.

Jasmine was having some luck in the man department for a change.  She was an attractive woman, but often had difficulty finding a man that could meet her very high standards.  She was a sports fan, which made meeting men a breeze, but she liked her men to be complete alpha-males, and could not tolerate softness.  She had recently begun dating a local contractor who was a manly-man if ever there was one.  He had been a high school and college football star, had been in the Marines, and was now running his own construction business.  He was the epitome of an alpha-male.  And he and Jasmine had been dating for a few weeks.  It was going well so far.

Claudette had recently started dating a man that she met in the community players.  She had always tended towards the sensitive, artsy type.  She often referred to Jasmine’s choice of dates as Cro-Magnon men.  Her new friend was the manager of the local movie theatre, and just joined the community players.  He was still earning his stripes, so he was doing bit parts, but Claudette assured her friends that he had real talent.  Plus, he was a hottie.

Katy realized that it was the first time in a while that they were all involved with men at the same time.  Katy sang out, “It’s raining men…”

The other women shouted out in unison, “Hallelujah!”  And they all laughed.  The song had long been their battle cry in the dating wars, and lying in the dark singing the song together reminded each woman of the strong bond that she had formed with this group.  The girls then went to sleep, each thinking of their respective men.

They slept late in the morning, and Katy missed church.  She decided to go to a service later in the week.  The girls did meet Katy’s mother for brunch after the service, and they reported on their opinions about Todd.  Katy’s mother was thrilled to hear that Todd had passed muster with each of the women, though she was doubtful that such the perfect man could exist.  She knew that their endorsements were not easily won, and looked forward to meeting her daughter’s new young man.  She was also amused by Katy’s giddiness about him.  She was certain that Katy did not even realize that she lit from within whenever she spoke of Todd.

The rest of the week rolled by quickly.  That was probably furthered by the fact that Todd called Katy every night, just to ask about her day.  It was sweet and endearing, and Katy found it flattering.  They talked about his day on each call as well, and Katy was amused by the tales that Todd told easily, as though they were mundane.  Katy found them quite interesting.  On Thursday’s call, Todd invited Katy to go to the Hebron carnival on Friday night.  Katy agreed quickly.

As far as she knew, Katy had never been to the Hebron carnival.  She and her friends had always looked down their noses at it.  It was a small local carnival that was put on by a local fire department.  In all of the time that she lived in the area, she had never so much as ridden by the carnival grounds.  She and her friends had always chosen to go to King’s Dominion or Wild World, rather than waste time on a local carnival.  Especially since the Hebron carnival only had about ten rides, and the most exciting of those was the Tilt-A-Whirl.  It did have two tiny roller coasters, one that was a plain one aimed at children, and the other was The Caterpillar, aimed at adults, but with a small adrenaline factor.  The fact was that Katy hadn’t been to an amusement park since long before Wild World had been renamed Adventureland, in order to capture a younger market.  That meant that she had not ridden a ride in at least five years. 

For her return to the world of rides, the Hebron carnival would have been Katy’s last choice, but she would go just about anywhere with Todd, and expected that he would have the unique ability to make it fun.  So the decision to go was easy.  It was probably time that she dropped her roller coaster pretentiousness anyway.

She found herself looking forward to the carnival in a way that she had never looked forward to an amusement park before.  She even called Jasmine, Claudette, and Lindsey to tell him about her plans for Friday night.  Each of the girls agreed in their own way that the invitation was “cute”.  All of them were amused, yet found it very romantic.  Katy agreed with the sentiment.

Katy found herself distracted for much of Friday.  She did her job, and was effective at it; it just came naturally to her.  But her mind was elsewhere.  It was at the Corral, La Bella Dona, and the planetarium.  It was at her kitchen table, watching Todd’s strong, supple hands maneuver his cards repetitively, back and forth, back and forth, as though moving them around would somehow change them for the better.  Most of all, her mind was at the carnival, riding rides and holding hands with Todd.  She imagined them riding a kiddie-coaster side by side and laughing out loud.

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Christy Parker is the author of three blogs:  Ruminations from and Unkempt Mind,  Learn to Crochet - In Minutes a Day,  and You Be the Editor.

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