Free Ashleigh's Dilemma by J. D. Reid Page B

going...,” he sighed.
    She pushed hi m along and followed close behind.
    “But wil l I see you tomorrow?” he asked over his shoulder as she pushed.
    She thought about it and knew she probably shouldn't, once a week was enough.
    “I don't know… I have to go to the gym.”
    He suddenly stopped and turned back, blocking her forward motion. She nearly collided with him. She found herself wanting to take a step back, but refused to give ground and so stood close to him toe to toe. “Okay...” she agreed finally, nodding her answer - and then he kissed her, in the kitchen, under the dome light, with the dishwasher running, and the leftover Chinese food still on the counter. She let him kiss her – and then pushed him back.
    She hoped he could not see that her eyes were welling, threatening to spoil her makeup. She knew she was as red as she'd eve r been – no avoiding that. Her nose was running. She spun away and found a tissue and, without a great deal of elegance she thought afterward, blew her nose, followed by quickly but discretely dabbing at her eyes. “Now you really have to go!” she said and glanced at him over the tissue she kept to her nose.
    Patrick's smile reached from one side of his face to the other.
    “Don't smile like that!”
    “Sorry!”
    Ashleigh again blew her nose – and could not help herself and laughed too – but silently. What came out was muffled by the tissue she continued to hold up to her nose.
    “Go, please!”
    I'll pick you up at ten?” he asked, persistent. “McKeldin area? Hike?”
    “Okay... I'll bring the leftovers,” she offered, turned, and again pushed him toward the door, leaving him with no doubt that this time it was time to go.
    He trundled with her down the hallway, opened the inside door, stepped past it, but then stopped and turned back, she colliding with him. She waited for him to go while moving back but staying close, her eyes cast downward, her face careening to red, while wondering if another kiss was coming but not certain she was ready for another. Patrick – again unpredictable – only brushed his face against hers, his cheek to hers.
    “See you tomorrow,” he said and kissed her again quickly as she looked up.
    He smiled as he stepped back and opened the screen door letting the cool and fragrant summer evening drift in. “See ya...” he called back, stepping beneath the light cast from her porch light, and then one more step into the darker night.
    “Bye...”
     
    She closed the door. She didn't watch him drive off . She locked the door, and feeling warm and lonely didn't bother to clean up the rest of the kitchen but went straight to bed. She couldn’t wait. She needed the comfort of her bed and the promise of sleep. She knew it would protect her from the haunting sense of loneliness that had unexpectedly settled upon her. It was a feeling she was not familiar with, and yet another she could not understand the source of.
     
     
    That night , Patrick wrote Ashleigh another poem. He called her at two in the morning. She had slept for a while, but then had awakened, and when the phone rang she was wide awake.
    “What do you want ?”
    “I wrote you a poem. I want to read it to you.”
    “For God’s sake, it’s two o’clock in the morning! Can’t it wait?”
    “No, no, it can’t!”
    She could hear him unfold a piece of paper and place it in front of him.
    “Okay, are you ready?”
    “I don't want to hear it. I want to go back to sleep!”
    “It's short.” 
    He read it. The words his voice sang sounded strange and beautiful. Sinking lower into the comfort of her bed, tears filling her eyes, not understanding the source, filled with the mystery of it while hoping his voice would never end, she listened. 

Chapter III - Acceptance
     
    The first time Ashleigh found the strength and courage within herself to give up of herself, was in a tent between zipped up sleeping bags. The tent was pitched high up on a stone beach overlooking the