Perfect Gentleman
With the last of the soap being rinsed out of Pam’s hair, Jorgen passed her a towel and handed her the flashlight. “I think I have some candles in the basement. I’ll be right back.” Quicker than a wisp of steam, he was gone leaving Pam chilled, half-naked, and alone in the darkened bathroom.
Somewhere outside the bathroom, she heard Jorgen’s footsteps descend down what she imagined were some wooden stairs. What was she going to do in the meantime? Sit on the commode and wait for him to return? Make herself a dress out of the towels he had given her? She heard the footsteps mark his return, but Jorgen did not appear as Pam expected. Filling in the silence with a logical conclusion, Pam surmised that he most likely didn’t have them in the first place and was scrambling to figure out what he was going to do to save himself some embarrassment. She sighed, this is going to be awhile.
Pam scanned the room with the flashlight to get her bearings and found the lotion on the far edge of the sink. Because it was a brand she hadn’t recognized, she assumed it was cheap and would pump out thin. Although it lacked any definable fragrance, the moisturizer proved her assumptions wrong. It was thick and creamy. When she applied it to her arms, they quickly absorbed the liquid and felt smooth. She was not sorry to be wrong. Just as she allowed herself to be impressed with his knowledge of beauty products, she heard the changes in the house.
A loud humming, followed by a series of clicks, preceded the lights coming back on. Her eyes had grown accustomed to the dark, and Pam had to blink a couple of times before they adjusted to the new settings. In no time, Jorgen was outside the bathroom door. “Is everything okay in there?”
“That was lucky,” Pam answered. “I thought it was going to take hours for the electricity to return.”
“It might,” Jorgen replied. “I just turned on the backup generator.”
He said he was going to get a candle. Offense fought with her sense of relief. Jorgen cracked open the door just wide enough to pass some of his clothes through the gap. Pam decided that life was too short to get upset over the little things and gladly accepted the t-shirt and sweats he handed through a small opening in the door.
She limped to the hall. Jorgen, who was slanted against the wall, with his arms crossed in front of him, greeted her with a smile of appreciation. “My clothes look good on you.” He straightened, and his normal composure returned. He held out his hand to offer her support. The old Pam would have pushed away his kindness and told him that she could do it herself. Ever since she met him, he had been the kind of man her mother wanted her to bring home. There was no reason to close herself off from him. Pam placed her hand over his and said, “Thank you.”
Jorgen grinned and remained close beside her. “Just to warn you the generator isn’t enough to run the main heater.” He guided her down the hall to what she guessed was the guest bedroom.
When they turned into the room, a small LED illuminated fireplace blew warm air into the room. It contradicted what Jorgen had just said. Pam tilted her face toward him. “I thought you said there wasn’t enough electricity to heat the house.”
“There isn’t. But there is enough to power this and the electric fireplace in the living room.” And it clicked. He most likely took the heater out of his room and placed it there for her. To verify her suspicions, she asked, “Do you have one of these in your room?”
“I’ll be sleeping on the couch.” He pressed forward to get her to the side of the bed.
“Alone?”
“Unless there’s someone out there that I don’t know about—yes, alone.”
His playful grin offered nothing in the way of remorse. Pam assessed the situation. His couch was a sectional that took up the entire wall. Her parents had the same couch when she was a teenager. Every once in a while, her family spent hours on the couch for movie marathons. Mid viewing her father and mother fell asleep on different sides of the couch. There was always still enough room for Pam and her brother to lounge comfortably.
Convention was the only thing keeping her from joining Jorgen. Quickly, she weighed the pros and cons. Pros: they’d have more time to get better acquainted. Cons: her back looked forward to the mattress. Her heart told her back to shut up.
“What if I joined you,” she suggested. “The couch is big enough for the both of us. I could take one end, and you would have the other.
A devious sparkle in Jorgen’s eyes changed his facial expression. He rubbed his chin as though he were considering the situation. Through the sweetest crooked smile, she had ever seen, he asked, “What if your invitation is just a clever ploy to seduce me?”
If Pam wasn’t so banged up, it might have been.