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there’s something going on with you, obviously I don’t
know what that is, but I’m going to get to know you whether you like it or
not.”
    Jen made a
sound of frustration and rubbed her hands thoroughly over her face as if wiping
his words off. “Can’t you just shut up and stop saying things like that.”
    Todd took
hold of her wrists, shaking them to get her fingers to relax before resting
them on his chest. “Go out with me.” He delivered it not as a question but a
statement of intent.
    She gasped at
his touch then recovered, “I don’t date - ever,” Jen muttered, looking down and
refusing to meet his eyes.
    Todd laughed
in her face and it sparked Jen’s ire back to life.
    “Don’t you
fucking laugh at me, I’ve never hit anyone in my life, but get your hands off
me and I’ll give it a good shot.”
    Todd dropped
back but didn’t release her hands, he was a little turned on by the idea of her
making good on her threat; she was practically vibrating with fury under his
hands.
    “I don’t know
what I’m doing here,” he admitted. “Generally it doesn’t tend to make women so
angry when I ask for a date.” He paused before continuing.
    “Ok, let’s
try something else - stay in with me tonight,” a new idea occurred to him
before she could respond and he spoke more softly, “I’m going to come to your
door at 7 tonight and I’m going to sit with my back to your door and you’re
going to sit on the other side to me and we’re going to talk. What do you say
to that, you won’t even have to look at me?”
    “Aargh,” she
yelled breaking her hands free, “you’re impossible,” and she took off down the
street. He decided to let her get away this time, after all she hadn’t said no
had she?
    ****
    “Lord almighty
forget what I said about Jen being a quiet tenant it sounds like she’s doing
some kind of work-out video upstairs,” Lily said.
    “No,” Todd
waited listening carefully, “I think she’s just pacing the floor.”
    “That’s
funny; it’s been going on since she flew into the hall about 5 minutes ahead of
you. I don’t suppose that’s got anything to do with it?”
    “We have a
date tonight, I’m going to sit outside her door and wait until she decides to
talk to me.”
    “Sounds like
fun, you really know how to show a girl a good time, it kinda explains why
you’re 32 and still single,” she quipped.
    “Well it
wouldn’t have been my first idea, but I think it’s all she’d agree to for now.”
    “For now?”
Lily queried.   
    “Exactly.”
    ****
    At six fifty
five that evening Jen placed a pillow on the floor and leaned back against her
front door. She had a glass of wine at her side and her head in her hands.
Although she’d managed to walk off a lot of her tension her heart was still
beating like a trip hammer, waiting for Todd to knock.
    In the end he
didn’t need to knock, she heard his footsteps approach and then his bodyweight
rock the door on the other side of her as he sat down, “Hey are you there,” he
asked softly.
    Jen made a
noise like struggling to clear her throat, “I’m here, “she croaked, “but I have
some rules about what happens.”
    “That sounds
ominous, lay it on me then.”
    “Well it’s
just one really, this can’t last longer than an hour tonight, talking like this
wipes me out, I’ll answer anything as best I can, I spent a lot of time when I
was younger talking about this stuff so I can explain to you quite well. Once
you’ve got your answers I don’t expect you to chase me down again.”
    “Are you sat
with your back to the door?”
    “Yes,” she
replied.
    “Good, me
too, I like being close to you even with a door between us.”
    “Stop saying
things like that; just start asking your questions already.”
    “How did you
come to be in Bloomington?”
    She gave a
short laugh, “I needed to leave Chicago where I was living, but didn’t want to
travel too far, so I kept sticking a pin in that vicinity of