A Hope and a Chance(21)
Author: Jennifer Foor

Yesterday she went for a run in the community. I had washed my bike around the side of the house and put it in the garage so it didn’t get dusty. She thought nobody was home, but I was in the pool house having lunch. The next thing I knew she was stripping down to her bra and panties, swimming laps in the pool. When she climbed out I could see her hard nipples through her white bra.

Day after day something would happen and I would see it firsthand. It was torture. I was back to smoking almost a pack of cigarettes a day just to relieve some of the stress I was undergoing.

My sister and Mark were due to leave in the morning. They decided to have a nice family dinner before they left. My sister had cooked Italian, which was my favorite. She made homemade bread and the house was filled with the scent of yeast and garlic. The formal dining room had finally been painted and the new furniture was delivered. Buffy had set out candles and lit them around the table. She looked on the internet to find how a fancy place setting should look and did her best to mimic it.

Per her request, we all dressed up and met in the dining room at a quarter to six. I decided on wearing what I had worn to the bar the night Hope had come home with me. Part of it was because I still hadn’t unpacked the boxes in my closet, but the other reason was because I knew it would drive her insane to see me wearing it again. The last time I had these clothes on; she had been the one to remove them.

When we got to the table I noticed that Hope’s seat was empty. She finally came running down the stairs and around the corner entering the dining room. Buffy had a huge smile on her face as Hope tottered in. She must have lent her one of her outfits. She was wearing a light gray skirt and a thin silk shirt that was see through, revealing a lace tank underneath.

I noticed her father’s face from the corner of my eye, and quickly turned my head so that he couldn’t see me admiring his daughter. Once again it took everything I had for me not to look at Hope. The table was a large rectangle. Buffy and Mark were at both ends and Hope and I on either side. I stared down at my plate as we ate our salads. When Hope passed the bread around, she reached the tray across the table to me. For just a moment our hands touched. I felt a jolt of electricity running from my fingers all the way down my legs. For that instant our eyes met and I could feel the same heated passion between us that I’d felt that night.

As quickly as it started, it had vanished. Hope looked toward her father and started talking about his cholesterol, and what he should and should not eat while they were away. He gave her a hard time, but promised he would try to pay attention to what he consumed.

Buffy talked about how long the bread took to knead. When Mark praised her good cooking, she blushed. I could tell she was beside herself with happiness. She’d dated such losers for as long as I could remember, but Mark was different. I knew he admired her, and I never got the pervert vibe from him like I had with all the ones in the past.

Mark treated her like a princess. He’d picked her up when she’d hit rock bottom and given her a new life. The day he and I went through those clothes and got rid of them, I knew he cared more about her than how she looked. Even when he gave her the money for the boob job, he specifically told her to do whatever made her feel happy with herself, and that if she didn’t do anything at all, he would be fine with it.

She was so happy, which in turn made me happy. Our mother had died at such a young age. We had each other now, and I would do my darndest to stick around and make her proud of me.

When dinner was all finished Mark and Buffy started clearing the table. I jumped up from my seat and grabbed the plates from their hands. “I think that Hope and I can take care of cleaning up dinner tonight. Right, Hope?”

She gave me a dirty look, but put on a fake-smile when she turned to face her father. “Sure, it’s a great idea.”

“Oh. Thank you, guys. I still have so much to pack,” Buffy admitted.

“Thank you both for helping. She really out did herself tonight didn’t she?” Mark said before he followed my sister upstairs, leaving me alone with his daughter.

As soon as they were on the steps I felt Hope burning a hole through me with her stare. “What?”

“Don’t ever make decisions for me without asking first.” She was pissed. Admittedly, she was cute when she was angry.

“Excuse me. I thought it was the least we could do. Did you not enjoy the meal my sister spent all day on?”

“The meal was great. It was the company that made my stomach hurt.”

I lifted a couple more dishes off the table. “Can you be civil for half an hour, so we can get this mess cleaned up?”

“Whatever, Chance.”

I couldn’t take her attitude. “What is your problem? What have I done to you since you’ve moved in that’s so horrible?”

She gave me a dirty look, and part of me thought that a bowl of marinara sauce was going to be flung at my head. “Obviously, whatever you touch turns to shit. Isn’t that why you live in a pool house? You’re an asshole, and I wish we never met.”

I felt like I was going to throw up, but instead I held my ground. I swallowed my pride and headed into the kitchen where I immediately started filling the dishwasher. I wasn’t going to let her see that her words had affected me. She was acting like a bitch.

Hope came in from the dining room, and instead of her lips being scrunched up in anger they were relaxed. She had a sorrowful look in her eyes when she sat the rest of the dishes on the counter. I watched her attempt to touch my arm. “Chance, I..”

I pulled away from her touch. “Don’t touch me, Hope. Don’t you ever fucking touch me again. I take it you can handle the rest of this.” I motioned to the pile of dirty plates. “I’m out of here.” I marched out toward the pool house, determined not to look back and see her face. I knew she was pissed, but it couldn’t have been anything like the way her words were destroying me.

12

I’d made a terrible mess of things. How could those words have come out of my mouth? Never in my entire life had I said something so hurtful to another human being. There was no way Chance would ever forgive me. I didn’t know if I could even forgive myself.

If he disliked me before, this was the nail in the coffin.

I took my time finishing the dishes, crying the entire time, hoping that my father wouldn’t come downstairs and ask why. When I finally turned on the dishwasher and threw the table cloth in the laundry room, I peeked outside. Chance was standing with his back against the pool house door smoking a cigarette. He had his hand covering his face. I held on to the door while considering going out there and apologizing, but I heard someone approaching from behind me.