You Can’t Stop Me Ch. 07

"She's got her hooks into you good, doesn't she," Lindsey whispers in appreciation of the situation.

"That is one to look at it. Carmen means a lot to me," I reply.

"If you hadn't met her do you think there would be a chance of their ever being an 'us'?" Lindsey asks.

"Yeah; we were good together. I thought about it more than once, but then Carmen came along," I explain.

"Mmmm ... okay. It is still a long way until the end of the year," she teases me before lowering her head to my shoulder. I thankfully put the incident behind me when I feel a tug from the other side. I look into those limpid pools of brown reflecting the firelight. I'm not sure how much Carmen has overheard and I'm looking for some sign of condemnation.

Instead she smiles at me, gives me a kiss and sighs.

"Lindsey didn't mean anything by it," I whisper. Carmen nods.

"I trust you," she responds with a sound barely above a breath. I find it at the same time lovely but creepy.

Lindsey and I get shoveling duty, digging out our cars, not that we have anywhere else to go. Carmen and Ashe get the fun duty of going to the closest convenience story for anything that you can prepare before the dawn of the twenty-first century and electricity. Lindsey suggests that we both will need massages. I remind her how good Carmen is with her hands.

Ashe and Carmen get back in good time with a surprisingly large amount of grub. It would appear that we are one step ahead of our neighbors. Lindsey figures out a way to cook food over the fire so we will have more than canned fruit and pickles. Carmen provides a Swiss Army knife I didn't know she had so we can actually open cans.

Ashe and I are kicking the ice off of fire logs when Ashe gets my attention.

"Carmen was worried about you," she tells me evenly.

"She trusts me;" I say followed by, "What makes you think she was worried? Did she say anything?"

"No," Ashe said, "but I couldn't get her to open up like I normally do. She wanted to get back in a hurry."

"Ashe, she's my girlfriend and I'm here with my ex. Wouldn't you be a little worry?" I suggest.

"With you, nah; I know you and you are as devious as stone. In all the years that I've known have you ever cheated at anything?" Ashe jokes.

"No. Okay; your point is?" I grin.

"Does Carmen have anything to worry about?"

"No," I insist.

"We may be in close quarters for the next day or three so make sure Carmen knows how much you trust her," Ashe tells me. "Lindsey can be 'expressive'."

"I'll make sure," I agree. Ashe didn't say anything else until we were about to take our firewood and go inside.

"I notice you didn't tell me that there was nothing to worry about," she points out. "What do you know?" I sometimes hate how well Ashe knows me. She is like my evil twin.

"Don't tell anyone this Ashe," I say in deadly earnest. She nods. "Carmen had to kill someone in this house six years ago. It traumatized her. She's been fighting to get her life back together since then, so I want you to give her a break. It was one thing, six years ago. That's all there is."

"Okay," Ashe tells me. All I want Ashe to do is give Carmen the same chance that I have.

We stay shacked up for two days before the roads clear up enough to let Ashe get home. Somehow Ashe convinces Lindsey to spend the night with her so that Carmen and I have the place to ourselves for the first time in over a week. Part of me wants to thank Ashe for the private time; part of me thinks that she's letting Carmen de-stress.

The power has only recently come on in this old house so Carmen and I are huddled in front of the fire. I can't wait for the water heater to get stoked and I suggest the Carmen and I shower together.

"I would like that," she responds with that shy yet seductive smile. After a minute she pokes me in the side to get my attention.

"Yes?"

"Can I quite school at the end of the semester?" she asks with a hand on my thigh. I take that as a sign that she wants me to say yes.

"Why? I've seen your work. You are doing okay. You'll graduate with my help," I sound confused.

"I don't like school Robert. I didn't come here for that. I came here for the house and now for you. Without you I don't know what would have happened to me by now. With you this is all I could ever want," she tells me.

"Wouldn't your grandparents have wanted you to finish?" is all I can come up with.

"They didn't want me to come here. They didn't want me to come here at all. They didn't believe in this kind of education. They weren't a normal family," she sighs.

"The detective said something about that. What did he mean?" I say as I stroke her hair to let her know I care.

"They were always moving about. I never had a formal education. I never had any friends. They taught me that no one would care about me. Everything was a transaction to them," she informs me. It takes me a moment to register the undercurrent of that statement.

"Carmen, how did you get into college?" I ask thoughtfully. Carmen is hesitant but not tense. She knows she was going to tell me, but isn't sure how I will take it.

"I hacked the system," she says with some regret.

"Ah, how did you ... where does someone learn how to hack a system?" I wonder.

"Robert, my mother and my grandparents were grifters and thieves. They stole things from people. My whole life I was part of that and all I wanted to do was get out."

"And you want to leave college before someone figures out what you did," I state; not ask. Carmen nods.

"Okay. We'll work through it. I guess this means I'm not going straight for my doctorate," I overdramatically sigh.

"Really?" Carmen gasps.

"What did you expect me to say?" I respond.

"I ... sometimes I expect to wake up and be back there in that life and you'll be nothing but a dream," she says in a happy voice.

"A dream eh? Does this mean we can have sex," I teased her. I was just enjoying her being happy.

"Yes," she responds frankly. I nearly fall over believing she's teasing me back for the first time ever.

"Are you ..."

"Yes, I'm serious Robert. Let's go to the shower," Carmen directs me as she stands and offers me her hand.

"The water will be cold," I warn her.

"I don't care," she smiles. "Tonight we are the only two people in the world."