James finished brushing his teeth and stepped out the bathroom, of Jennifer's apartment. He had just moved in with her, so technically it was their apartment together, but it did not quite feel like it was his just yet. Most of his boxes were still down in the storage unit provided by the complex, and he had a feeling they might end up taking a permanent residence there. He had learned from watching friends and family that when a man and a woman find themselves in the same living quarters, either through marriage or an arrangement like his, the man's stuff is generally exiled to some place out of sight. In many occasions, this was a garage, an attic, a basement, or in James' case, a storage unit. For some reason, men's belongings seemed to 'clash' with everything.
As long as James had Jennifer's love, though, he did not consider the banishment of his personal affects to be any sort of loss. She was an amazing woman, and he counted himself lucky to have gained her affection. Not only was she drop dead gorgeous, but she had such a sweet tenderness to her, that even blind men would have been instantly attracted to her. He was still trying to figure out what the sexy red head had ever seen in him, but he was grateful that she never seemed to be trying to figure that out as well.
They had met six months ago in a coffee shop. Jennifer had approached him because of his smoothly shaven bald head. She worked as a nurse at St. Mary's Hospital in the radiology department, so she had wondered if he had cancer. She was familiar with most of the cancer patients in the Grand Valley, and yet she had never seen him before. When he told her that he had only kept his head shaved as a sign of support for his mother that really did have cancer, she was immediately struck with him. Talking over coffee soon led to talking on the phone, going to movies, kissing, and eventually laying down in the sheets together. It was inevitable that they would eventually move in together.
The move had made plenty of sense. James' work took him out of town all the time, so he was rarely ever home anyway. When he was in town, he was always over at Jennifer's. In that way, it was as if they had been living together for far longer than the recent official move. He knew that eventually he was going to have to ask her to marry him, but for some reason he felt the need to hold back on that. At least for a while. It was not that he was afraid of commitment. There was something else that he could not quite put his finger on. Some darkness in the back corner of his mind that was always there and yet eluded him when he tried to find it. He did not think it would be wise to lock down forever with a girl until he could figure out what it was that seemed to bother him so much.
He shook his head. This was not the time for such dark and dreary thoughts. The important thing was that he was happier than he had ever been. Work was going really well, and the love of his life was sitting up in bed smiling at him. Life was good today. There was no reason to mess it up with this stupid delusion of his that something terrible lied within him. He smiled back at Jennifer and slipped into the bed beside her. She felt warm against his body. It was not just the heat of her body against his. It was something much deeper and more profound. Whenever he thought about the darkness, he felt cold, but Jennifer always took that away. She felt so refreshing and comforting. She felt like life in the fullest sense. He bent his neck down to kiss her.
"No, not yet." She said, squirming away. "Morning breath. You can't come in here right after brushing your teeth and kiss me with my nasty breath. It isn't fair. If you want to kiss me in the morning, you need to have just as stinky breath as me."
"You don't have stinky breath." James said. "Everything about you is wonderful."
"Oh, yeah, Mr.-doesn't-play-by-the-rules?" She said and breathed hot breath on his nose.
"Okay, maybe it is a little stinky." He admitted. "But it still isn't nearly as bad as mine is in the morning. Trust me, you don't want me kissing you before I brush."
"I want you to kiss me all day, every day." She said on her way to the bathroom.
"I think that sounds like a great idea." He called after her. "Why don't we do that today?"
"You know that I have to go to work." She said. "Just because you don't work anything resembling a normal schedule doesn't mean the rest of the world is just as chaotic. Today is Monday, and I have to go to work. If you don't have to go out of town on Saturday, I think I would love to stay in bed and get all of your kisses."
"Just call in sick." He said.
"Yeah, like they are going to believe that. I have my boyfriend move in with me over the weekend and all of a sudden I am too sick to go to work on Monday." She laughed. "You know that wouldn't fly."
"Okay, fine." He said, giving up. "Just don't stay late after work. I think a special dinner would be a nice way of celebrating."
"Sounds good to me." She said as she moved away from the bathroom to her closet. She pulled off her night gown and revealed her wonderful body. James had to resist jumping up and pulling her back to bed with him. She was not tall; she was only five foot three inches in height, but she was well proportioned. Her thin neck trailed down to perfect breasts. Each one was just slightly larger than James' hands, and they were nice and firm. She had a flat stomach from all of her exercise videos, and a perfectly toned backside. James always wanted her, even when she was clothed. When she was not clothed, he absolutely could not resist her.
He had to turn his attention away from watching her dress if he was going to let her get to work on time, so he reached for the television remote. He thought he might as well see what was going on in the world. He leaned back against the head board and relaxed. He did not have anything to do today. He was a travelling business consultant. He only worked when businesses needed him to come and tell them how to better run their office. It meant that he did not always work every day, and many days were spent in travel, but he made really good money at it, so he did not mind the lack of routine. In fact, he relished it. He did not know how Jennifer could handle working Monday through Friday of every week. It was always the same. James liked to have things changed up on a regular basis.
A news alert brought him out of his muse. Two men had been found naked and mutilated in the bathroom at Lincoln Park. At this time, police were not identifying the victims, but said that it might have been a hate crime. For the time being, it looked as if the men might have been homosexuals that were killed in order to make a point. No photos were being released, but it was clear that the crime had been simply awful. James could tell by the look on the face of the police officer giving a statement that he had seen something that would haunt him for a while. A police sketch was shown of the suspect. Apparently a man that worked at the golf course had seen this man walking to the bathroom shortly before the killings were said to have occurred.
James looked at the picture of a man with short blond hair and bright blue eyes, but did not recognize him. He almost wished that he could. Anybody sick enough to do something like that needed to be locked up. The man's face was somehow unsettling to him. It was not ugly, but it seemed like something out of a nightmare. There was a darkness to it. James felt cold again.
"Hey babe, can you believe this?" He said to Jennifer.
"What?" She asked. She was back in the bathroom fixing her hair and had not been paying attention.
"Some freak killed two men at the Lincoln Park Golf Course yesterday. He stripped them naked, mutilated the bodies and used their clothes to flood the bathroom that they were in." James said. "I can't believe how sick some people are these days."
"Well, more and more people are moving here all the time." She said. "Grand Junction is really growing. A lot of these freaks come from big cities and bring their sickness with them."
"Well, I think it is disgusting." James said.
"I agree, but I think the more this city grows, the more we will see things like that." She said. "I know that it is a violation of HIPPA, but the things I hear out of the Emergency Room would scare the crap out of you. Last week a man came in with bite marks all over him. He was homeless, and another homeless man had tried to eat him. He had barely made it to get help. The nurses from over there said he had big chunks of his flesh that were torn away."
"Gross." James said.
"I know. With Halloween coming up, it sparked a bunch of talk about zombies." She almost laughed at that part. "There were some nurses who were actually afraid that the man would turn into a zombie and start infecting the hospital. I think they have spent too much time watching movies like Dawn of the Dead."
"So did he turn?" James asked jokingly.
"Yeah, and he bit me." Jennifer teased. "I want to eat your brains."
"Well, you will have to look elsewhere." James said. "I think I misplaced mine somewhere."
"Very funny." Jennifer said, coming out of the bathroom and reaching for her purse. "If you weren't smart, then companies would ask you to come and tell them how to run a business."
"Maybe they are just dumber than me." James suggested.
"Shut up." Jennifer said playfully and kissed him. "I have to go now. Have a good day. I will make sure that I get out of there in plenty of time to dress up for our dinner tonight."
"Sounds good." James said. "Don't get bitten by any zombies today."
"If I do, I am coming after you first." She laughed, as she went out the door.
James smiled and leaned back, slipping his glasses over his pale blue eyes. He loved her so much. She always made him feel good. Even her weird story about the homeless man had cheered him up. He was no longer even thinking about the creep that had killed the golfers. He shut off the television and reached for the novel that he was reading. It was a good political thriller about China taking over the whole world and turning it into a big water monopoly empire. He found his place and began to read. Life was good.