They Say Love Is Blind (10 page)

He kissed h
er. "I've watched you for a long time, Tory, waiting each day for you to get on the bus, wondering what you think of me and how I would approach you. And days when I don’t get to see you then
I'm disappointed.
You never have to worry about how I feel about you. I’ll alw
ays show you my feelings.”

They touched foreheads murmuring their feelings until there was a loud rapping on the bathroom door.
"
Vocês vão passar o dia todo aí?
!
" Came Roz's tight, angry voice.

Lee grimaced in embarrassment.
"
Desculpa! Já estamos a sair!
"

"
É que eu tenho mais que fazer hoje
!"

             
"
Desculpa!
Desculpa!
" Lee reached up and turned off the shower. "We better get out there."
Tory gave him a curious look wondering what was said. She was not going to like this whole thing of speaking Portuguese unless it was Lee speaking sexy words to her. He got her a fresh towel and
then
quickly dried himself, rubbing his hair briskly before heading for the door. He wrapped the towel snuggly around his waist, pausing before reaching for the door knob.
"Ready?" She had already pulled on her clothes again and was just wrapping the towel around her sopping wet hair. Man was she ever a mess...but it had been worth it.

She grinned. "Yep, ready."

He opened the door and they quickly hurried to the bedroom but Tory still saw Roz sprawled on the couch looking pissed to high hell.

CHAPTER 7

Lee dressed quickly in cargo pants and a T-shirt that made her want to strip him down and jump his bones. She dug into her purse and retrieved her hairbrush and hair pins and made a cute bun out of her wet, ruined hair. She put on a bit of lipstick and then they went out to the living room together holding hands.

Roz looked at her watch. "Let's go if we're going. We're dropping you off, right...um...what's your name?"
"Actually I'm going with you. Lee invited me shopping."

"She's Tory." Lee reminded her while guiding them to the elevator.

Tory looked down at her clothes. "I still need to go home and change, though. Can't shop in dancing shoes!"
Roz gave her a brief, unfriendly look as Lee closed them into the elevator and pressed the controls.
Although it wasn't normally Tory's nature she couldn't help but to get in the other woman's face just a little. "I suppose since Lee and I are a couple now I should probably learn all of the things that you do for him—so that you won't have to do it anymore." Lee squeezed her, and the way he did it, she could tell that he knew exactly what she was doing and was giving his approval.

"A couple?" Roz's voice was low. "I thought you just met..."

The elevator stopped at the first floor and Lee opened the doors and ushered them out.

"I watched her for a while. And I know for a fact that she's a keeper. Tory is the perfect mix of sweetness, innocence and woman. I was really lucky to have met her and I won't be letting her get away." Tory forgot about Roz then as she looked up at her man...Mmmm...her man. She put her hand through his arm and became his cane. Roz looked on stiffly.

She finally plastered on a fake smile as they walked to where her car was parked at the curb. "Well, I should show her the ropes of leading the blind."

"Well, she's pretty damn good. She's been my cane for a couple days now."

"Well that's places that you already know. She hasn't helped you in a new place." Roz spoke defensively.
"My place is new." He looked at her and smiled.

Back at her home, Tory led Lee into her apartment while Roz trailed them--checking out everything
with a critical eye. Well, she knew that she was a bit quirky. She liked vintage movie posters, and antique furniture that didn't match but had beautiful fabric or great texture. She had knickknacks that weren't all-together cute, but that meant something special to her; like the cloth voodoo doll that sat on her bookshelf,
given to her by her paternal grandmother. There was
the elaborate candelabra that looked straight out of a Frankenstein movie, but a piece that she absolutely had not been able to take her eyes from when she saw it in an antique shop. It was huge and overbearing in her small dining area but she
didn’t care because she
loved it!

Lee removed his cane from one of the pockets of his cargo pants. She hadn't even seen him stow it there. She looked around quickly, eyes darting at the likely hazards in his path. He might bump into the cd/dvd holder, the arms of the entertainment center stuck out and would need to be folded back, you had to squeeze past the couch and chair in order to get into the dining room...
"Go and get changed." Roz said while taking Lee's other arm. "I'll take it from here." Tory hesitated and then leaned in quickly to kiss Lee's cheek. She hurriedly changed into jeans and a casual blouse. Lastly she laced up tennis shoes and hurried back into the living room after checking herself in the mirror. She didn't look too bad considering that she had just recently resembled a drowned rat.
As she re-entered the room, she overheard Roz talking. "Be careful here. There's a rug. It's old and curled on the ends." Tory blushed in embarrassment. It was an old rug but it was a clean one. She cleared her throat.

"Okay, I'm ready. Shall we go?"

Lee was touching a small metal bell, running his fingers over its surface. He quickly returned it to the mantle.

"I like your apartment." He said breathlessly. "There's a lot to see. I can't wait until you show me everything." Tory was about to smile when Roz decided to open her mouth.

"Yeah, well this place is an accident waiting to happen."

Lee tilted his head, turning in her direction. "Rosalind."

"It's a...cute apartment but this clutter is going to cause you to trip over something and break your neck!
This place is
é uma bagunça
.
And
that’s being nice.” She gave a distasteful look around. “
N
ão é lá muito limpo
!"

"Rosalind!" Lee spoke sharply.

Tory looked from o
ne to the other. "What did you
?" Rosalind crossed her arms in front of her without responding. Tory turned to Lee. "Lee, what did she
just
say?"

"Tory...nothing. Let's just-"

"I want to know what she said!" She snapped, finally reaching her breaking point with
the two of them
speaking secretly to each other just because they knew a different language and she didn't.
Lee turned to Rosalind. "Roz...you need to just leave."

Tory stomped her foot and brought her hands together sharply. "No! I'm not having this. You two are not going to be speaking over my head. I want to know what she said
and I want to know NOW
!"

Roz was breathing hard. It was obvious that she wanted to do battle with the younger, woman. And yet she wouldn't until she got some indication from Lee what would happen next.

Lee scowled. "She said that your house is dirty.
Tens que pedir desculpa!
" He seemed to suddenly remember to speak English and amended. "Rosalind, you're going to apologize to her this instant and then you're going to leave!"

Tory was speechless.
Her apartment was cluttered, maybe a bit dusty but it was not dirty!
She felt like defending herself but wouldn’t. She wasn’t dirty. She rubbed her elbows. She was not a dirty person.

"Lee, don't be silly. I'm not going to just leave you here. I've never left you someplace in my entire life and I'm not going to star-"

"I don't know what your damn problem is! But you've gone out of your way to be rude to my girlfriend." His voice was so angry that it shook. "What is wrong with you?"

Tory finally found her voice "I can't...believe what you just said.” Her eyes narrowed. “How dare you call my apartment dirty!
" She had never been so insulted!
She’d had to fight for years to feel clean and here was some woman implying that she wasn’t. She started shaking with sudden rage.

"
I know what your real problem is.” Tory spat. “You want Lee
. You want him—and not as a family friend, not as a brother.
He may not be able to see how you look at him, but I do!
Am I right, Rosalind? You want him the way a woman wants a lover!
"

"You're sick!" Roz said. "Lee, let's get out of here!"

Lee reached out his hands and Roz took them. He yanked away from her. "Tory?" She brushed past Rosalind and gave Lee her hands. Then she glared at the woman who no longer held a superior look on her face, who now looked scared and filled with anguish.

"The novelty is going to run out for her, just like it did for all of the others-"

"Don't do this here-" h
e said.

"Family will be here when she isn't! I'll be here, like I've always been here."

He scratched his head.
"Roz...you're married. You have
the boys. I mean-that was a long time ago. We were just kids and...
you
ended that."

"I was stupid. I was young and stupid. I thought that the world was my oyster, Lee. I didn't know what I had in you until I went out there and everyone else was-"

"Don't!" He said. He rubbed his face and Tory watched. He hadn't known. He honestly hadn't known...but now that he did, would he want her? They obviously had history.

Lee blew out a loud voice. "Roz...you're like a sister to me. I mean, we were like fourteen years old. I was broken hearted when you dumped me but I got over it."

"But...I haven’t
."

"Roz...I met someone that I really like. I'm sorry but...I don't feel that way about you."

Roz looked at Tory, not with anger, but with so much hurt and pain that she almost felt it herself. It was the hurt that she'd felt more than once in her life when she wanted a man and she knew that he wouldn't want her...not ever. But for Roz it was a hundred times over.

"I'm sorry
," s
he choked out and then hurried out of the apartment.

Tory was silent for a moment. "Do you want to go after her?"

"No," h
e said firmly. "I'm here with you." He gripped her fingertips and pulled her into his arms. "I'm so sorry. There's enough baggage without that-"

"Shh!" She kissed him lightly. "I don't think that about you at all."

He frowned. "Are you sure? If this ever gets too much-"

"Lee."
"No. If it does I'd rather you walk away then just stay with me out of guilt. If I start thinking that..."
She kissed him again. "I guess you have to say that, huh? But the same thing goes for you. If you don't want me anymore-"

He sighed. "Unless you turn into a maniac over night, I don't see that happening...and even if that did happen, it'd be hard to let you go. I'd have to get a long chain and keep all sharp instruments away from you." She giggled and then grew serious.

"You didn't get your shopping done."

He smiled. "I can do my shopping alone. I just call up there and the grocery store that I shop at gets one of the baggers to guide me. Of course, it's more c
onvenient when I have someone with
a car for the bigger stuff like litter for Cat, or bottled water. But truthfully, sweetheart, I am very self
sufficient
. Do you know what the ACCESS bus is?"

"I've seen that." She'd seen handicapped people using it.

He nodded. "They take me to and from my appointments when it's not convenient for me to take the metro
or when my family isn’t available
." His eyes crinkled a bit. "I do have one problem though
; when I'm in a lovely lady’s
apartment and I find that I've skipped breakfast and am ravenously hungry. We should do something for breakfast...or is it lunch now?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm starving myself. What we had yesterday was interesting but not a meal."
"True." He gripped her butt. "We can't go having you dropping weight and losing this booty that I love so much."

She laughed. "Did you just say booty?"

"I was going to say ass but I didn't want to be crass."

"Mmmm." She kissed him again and then pulled out of his grip. "Okay." She gripped his hand. "I'm going to lead you to the kitchen, but there are a lot of things to see along the way so it might take a while."
He nodded happily and had an expression as if he was about to open presents at Christmas.
 

~
***
~

It took
nearly half an
hour before they finally reached the kitchen. He touched each knickknack and each knickknack held an interesting story. He listened intently as she described
a rock
that her mother had found on a
beach in Florida, where she and her Dad had moved. There was a photograph of the three of them during a happier time and even though he couldn’t see the photograph she described it for him. She placed a kewpie doll in his hand and he tilted his head in confusion at the ghoulish fi
gure. Her Daddy had bought it for her and she loved it dearly. She finally let him ‘look’ a chi
pped porcelain pig that she purchased out of a sense of kinship.