Brian and Renee Collins noticed the light was on when they pulled into the driveway of their modest, three-bedroom home on 2493 Balfour Lane.
"Well, the house didn't burn down," Brian said. Renee rolled her eyes. Brian always said that whenever they left a babysitter in charge. Brian didn't understand why Renee always sighed whenever he said that. The children's bedroom lights were off though, so Renee was pleased.
Brian pulled the car into the garage and cautiously opened the door, trying to avoid banging it against the wall.
Renee walked into the house first. The house was completely quiet except for the steady hum of the refrigerator. The babysitter had done her job well. Renee had just set her purse on the kitchen counter when Mandy emerged from around the corner. Her hands were behind her head, tying her long, brown hair into a ponytail. Brian felt his pulse quicken as soon as he saw her. Mandy was clad in impossibly tight jeans, and the position of her arms over her head made her large breasts protrude from her Vikings T-shirt even more than usual. Trying not to make his staring obvious, Brian diverted his gaze and turned to hang his coat up in the closet.
"Hey guys, how was your evening?" Mandy asked.
Brian and Renee went silent.
"Well," Brian said, "we had a little disagreement about-"
"What time did the kids get to bed?" Renee interrupted.
"About eight-thirty," Mandy said, pretending not to notice the subtle squabbling. "Really helped a lot. I was able to get a lot of studying done."
"Well, that's good," Brian said. "Let me get you your money."
Brian took his wallet from his pocket and counted off several bills. As he did, Mandy took a tube of chapstick from her pocket and rubbed a layer across her lips, puckering as she did so. Brian could see her running the chapstick slowly across her full, sensuous lips in his peripheral vision, and lost track of how much money he'd counted. Starting over, he removed the agreed upon money from his wallet and handed it to Mandy.
"Thanks," Mandy said, placing it into her back pocket.
"Thank you, Mandy," Renee said as she walked up the stairs. "I'm not feeling well, so Brian will drive you home tonight."
Brian nodded. He was used to Renee making all of the decisions.
"Okay, I'm actually staying at my aunt's this week," Mandy said. "You think you could drop me off at her place? It's in Hartly Township."
"That's about forty minutes away," Brian said.
"I know, I'm really sorry, but it's this week only, I hope it's not a huge inconvenience," Mandy said.
"It's alright, I'll need my wife's gas card though," Brian said. He turned to the stairway.
"Renee?"
"It's in my purse," Renee said, from the upstairs bathroom.
"Of course," Brian said dryly. He opened Renee's purse and rooted through all of her belongings. Makeup, tampons, a bundle of coupons. Brian knew it was in there somewhere. Brian fished around for several seconds while Mandy gathered up her school supplies.
"Renee, I can't find it!" Brian said.
"It's in the SIDE pocket!" Renee said, annoyed.
"Of
course
," Brian said again. He opened the side pocket and found the gas card.
Mandy slung her book bag over her shoulder.
"Ready to go?" Mandy asked.
"Yeah," Brian said, grabbing his coat.
"We're leaving now!" Brian said, shouting up the stairs. Renee didn't respond.
Brian opened the passenger door of his 2008 Taurus and Mandy hopped in, setting her book bag into the backseat.
Brian got into the driver's seat and backed out of the driveway.
"Sorry again about the drive," Mandy said. "I asked my sister if I could crash at her apartment tonight but she hasn't gotten back to me yet."
"It's no problem, Mandy," Brian said. In truth, he was a bit happy to be away from Renee for a little while. As he reached the edge of the driveway, he watched the dim light emanating from the master bedroom switch off.
"Everything okay with your wife?" Mandy asked.
"Yeah," Brian hissed, as he pulled into the street and switched the car back into drive. "We had another argument, that's all."
Mandy nodded. She had many fights with her ex-boyfriend and understood the frustration.
"What about, if you don't mind me asking?" Mandy said.
Brian sighed.
"She thinks I look at other women too much," Brian said. "I don't mean to, but sometimes it just happens."
"Okay, nothing wrong with that," Mandy said. "It's normal for men to look at women."
Brian gave a surprised wince. It wasn't often her heard a woman show understanding of something like that.
"Well, glad you understand," Brian said. "My wife feels I don't find her attractive any more, when really, the worst thing about her is her low self-esteem."
"I know exactly what you mean," Mandy said. "My ex, I mean, he could have been the perfect guy for me if he had just stopped freaking out every time another man looked at me. I mean come on!"
Brian had no difficulty understanding that. Mandy had the kind of body that drew attention from men wherever she went. If her ex was as jealous as she described, he would have spent every moment in public with her having a conniption.
"We need to stop and get gas," Brian said, pulling into a gas station.
"No problem, I want to get some Snapple," Mandy said.
Brian stopped in front of one of the pumps and Mandy hopped out of the car. A sign posted on the pump read "please pre-pay after dark."
Brian decided he wanted to get lotto tickets anyway, and followed Mandy into the store.
"Pump four, and two lotto," Brian said, handing the gas card to the store attendant. The attendant swiped the card and handed it back to Brian.
"Pump two and four lotto?" the attendant asked.
"No, no, pump four, two lotto," Brian corrected.
"Oh, right," the attendant said, pressing several buttons on his screen. Brian got the feeling the attendant was distracted by something, as his gaze continuously shifted to something behind Brian. Brian turned around to see down the aisle, at the back of the store, Mandy had the cooler door open. She was bent over retrieving a bottle from the bottom shelf. She did not bend her knees in the slightest, and seemed oblivious to the two men, both of who now had their eyes fixated on her absolutely perfect ass.
Mandy retrieved the Snapple bottle and stood up. Shutting the cooler door behind her, she sauntered sexily up to the counter.