Reconnecting

“Adam? Is that you?”

I paused mid-stride and looked around, unsure of where the voice had come from and a little wary while out in the dark. I didn’t see anyone at first, but then movement caught my eye, and I had to concentrate to see the silhouette of a woman slowly approaching me.

“Yeah?” I said, squinting to make out who that was. The voice had been feminine, which was the only reason I hadn’t kept moving. Women usually didn’t represent a threat in a dark parking lot.

“Oh god! I thought that was you,” the woman said, stepping closer. The light from the Walmart sign illuminated enough of her features for me to identify her as Kayla McHenry, my regular babysitter from eight years old to twelve. Mom and Dad were both ambitious career people who regularly worked late into the evening, and Kayla had become a regular part of my life during those formidable years. They must have paid her a small fortune between her Freshman and Senior year to look after their only child. Many of her weeknights and weekend evenings were spent watching movies with me, playing games, or driving me to various extracurriculars.

I hit puberty during those years, too, which meant that she’d also featured prominently in my imagination during my hours-long gooning sessions at night. She had thick, straw-colored hair that hung to her shoulders and had developed before she’d hit high school so that she had B-cup tits the day I met her that had developed into healthy D-cups by the time she graduated and left for college. She’d pursued a degree at a college across the country and had seldom returned for visits, which was good because our hometown was tiny, with barely anything to do.

That was a big part of the reason why I left. I wasn’t attending a college across the country, but an hour and a half away in a college town was a better option than staying around here. I was pursuing a degree in computer science, which kept me from sticking around to bag groceries at the local Walmart or work at the hardware store.

“Kayla?” I asked. “Is that you?”

“Yeah! I can’t believe it’s you! It’s so good to see you!”

“You too!” I said. She came over to me, and I hugged her, noting her large breasts crushed against my chest.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “Didn’t you get out of town?”

“Well,” she said, “You know what they say about this place. You eat the Dairy Queen once after graduation, and you’re doomed to return.”

“Shit,” I said. “You ate the DQ?”

“I’m a sucker for their steak fingers,” she said with a laugh.

She still had a good figure. Her large breasts had grown if I remembered correctly, and it looked like she’d put on a few extra pounds, but they made her look good… especially her ass.

“Listen,” she said, “I need to get home. My dad’s watching Caleb and has to go into work soon. Are you doing anything?”

“Not really?” I said. “ I was supposed to hang out with a couple of people, but they canceled on me, so I was just going to head back to the house and study for a while before turning in.”

“You want to come over?” she asked. “I wouldn’t mind catching up with you. If you’re not busy, that is.”

The invitation felt like it came out of the blue and caught me off guard. Why would Kayla want to hang out with me? Sure, we had spent much time together when I was younger, but that was years ago. What sort of things would we have in common to talk about? Still… I had nowhere else to go. I shrugged, opened the maps app on my phone, and handed it to her. “Sure. Type in the address.”

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Forty-five minutes later saw us sitting on her couch, laughing at some of the old bullshit I put her through as we sipped red wine. That is, I sipped my first glass. She was on her third.

“Hahahaha,” Kayla said, brushing her hair out of her eyes for the third time as she cut a glance over at me. “God, you really would not shut up about that book.”

“That was your fault,” I pointed at her accusingly. “You’re the one reading me scary stories.”

“It was in school libraries all across America!” she said in mock defense. “How was I supposed to know they would be that bad?”

I chuckled and sat the half-empty wineglass on the table, and Kayla eyed it.

“Don’t like it?”

“Not really,” I said. I’d had beer at college, but drinking red wine was a first for me, and I wasn’t impressed. “I’m more of a beer guy.”

“Typical man,” Kayla said with a shake of her head. “Just like my husband.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking around. “You never mentioned where he was.”

She sighed. “That’s why I came back here. He left me for a younger model about nine months ago. I tried to make it about three months in Seattle without him, but it’s expensive. Especially with a kid. My mom convinced me to come back here until I got back on my feet.”

She flashed me a sad smile, and it deepened when she saw my look of pity. “It’s only for a little while. Once I get on my feet, Caleb and I are out of here.” I found out that Caleb was her one-year-old, who was asleep in the back room.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Divorce sucks.”

“Your parents are going through it too?” Kayla said. “I heard about that.”

I shrugged. “It’s not like I didn’t see it coming. I’m sure you saw the signs, too.”

“I did. Still doesn’t make it any easier,” she said. She leaned back against the couch and threw back her wine glass, killing the remainder of the crimson liquid gathered at the bottom. She sat it on the side table, and we silently stared at the opposite wall for the next few minutes.

I finally looked at her and caught her looking over at me, her eyes slightly unfocused, and while she wasn’t fully drunk, she was clearly buzzed.

“So, are you seeing anyone in town?”

“No,” she said, laying her head against the cushions and giving me a wistful smile. “What about you? Do you have a girlfriend at school?”

“I’m talking to a girl, but we haven’t made anything official yet.”

“Have you kissed?” Kayla asked.

“Yeah,” I said with a wistful smile as I recalled our first kiss a couple of weeks ago.