Free Touch Me Once by Anne Kyle

a fat wad of bills.
    “Now , you know this is too much. You even bought my dinner, you’re making all of my other clients look bad,” Charlie said, tucking the money in his pocket.
    While they talked , I looked down the street and saw a car with its lights off idling four or five houses down. The exhaust was rising in a thick cloud over the rear bumper. I thought that it was probably just a couple of kids making out. But then, with its lights still off, it slowly rolled up the street and disappeared around the corner.
    I turned back to the two men to see if they had seen the car, but Charlie was already heading back to the driver’s seat , so Alex and I said our goodbyes to him, and I didn’t give the car any more thought.
    We were holding hands and walking up the driveway when Alex said, “Uh-oh,”
    and pointed at the flat tire on the rear driver’s side of my car.
    “Oh shit,” I said, letting go of Alex’s hand. “I don’t even know if I have a spare.”
    “Hang on, I’ll go turn on the floodlights , and we’ll get this taken care of,” Alex said over his shoulder as he walked to the house. A few seconds later, the driveway was bathed in light. I opened the trunk to look for the spare, and after lifting the mat, I saw that there was an extra tire.
    Alex came back and took out the spare out and set it on t he ground. He grabbed the jack and tire iron and kneeled down next to the flat. “Huh, that’s funny,” Alex said, poking a finger at the tire.
    I knelt next to him and looked at where he was pointing. He asked, “Do you see this hole?” I told him I did. “This tire was slashed. Someone did this intentionally.”
    “Why the hell would anyone want to slash my tire? That’s just so… I don’t know, juvenile,” I said, incredulously.
    “Yeah,” A lex muttered, almost to himself. “Is there anyone in town with a grudge against you? Maybe an old boyfriend or someone you went to school with who knows you’re back in town?”
    I thought about that while Alex jacked up the car and took off the flat tire. “There are a couple of old boyfriends still around, I guess. But I haven’t seen any of them since I’ve been home. And I never had a bad breakup with any of them—at least, nothing that would warrant this kind of behavior.”
    I told him about the car I had seen earlier when we were leaving the house He looked up from the tire and stood with a worried look on his face. “Are you sure it was a Focus?” he asked.
    “The car I saw earlier was definitely a Ford—I saw the emblem on the trunk when we drove past it.” Then I told him about the car I saw while he and Charlie were talking. “It was dark, so I couldn’t see what kind of car it was. I just thought it was strange that it pulled away with its lights off. Do you think it’s the same car?”
    “I don’t know,” Alex said as he put the spare tire on and began tightening the lug nuts. “If it is, I might know who did this, and it doesn’t have anything to do with you.”
    “What does that mean?” I asked in a stunned tone. Even as I said those words, I couldn’t help but watch the muscles in his arms bulge while he fixed my tire. I could also see his firm thighs straining against his pants while he rose and put the flat in the trunk.
    He stowed the jack and tire iron then turned to me as he closed the trunk. “Its not a pretty-looking tire, but it should hold up until you can get a new one,” he said, slapping the dirt off of his hands.
    “Thanks for changing that for me, but can we get back to the part where you s aid you might know who did this?” I said with more petulance than I had intended.
    He lo oked up and down the street. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain. I might be wrong, and I don’t want to worry you for nothing. Boy, this sure is a night for sharing. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone so much about me in such a short amount of time.”
    His comfortable demeanor made me relax a little despite