“Yeah,” I didn’t have to say any more. We both knew we had all felt a deep closeness and connection, like we had known each other forever.
“Thank you for forgiving me, my lady,” Todd joked, making a little bow. He took my hand in his, giving it a light kiss. As his lips brushed the back of my hand, a little quiver rushed through me again. It was so odd having these feelings about him when I cared so much about Dave.
“Dave’s a lucky guy to have you,” Todd said. I could tell by the look on his face, he wasn’t just talking about my pink pussy, which had practically been smack dab in his face—he was talking about me, Beverly Collingswood, the person.
“Thanks Todd. I feel lucky to have Dave. He is a great guy.”
“How is your ankle?”
“It’s almost like new, just a twinge now and then.”
“That’s good. Just make sure to go easy on it—no running or jumping for a while. You don’t want to set it off again.”
“Ha! Are you Dr. Todd Becker now?”
“Well, not exactly, though I did have to take first aid, wellness, and physiology courses for my major. Just do what I say and take it easy. Can I give you a ride home? My car is in the parking lot right around the corner from here.”
“I don’t know—is the battery working, or am I going to end up stranded somewhere?”
Todd laughed. “So far, so good—I haven’t had it break down on me since the night I drove you home from Slice of the Pie.”
I paused for a moment, looking at him. “Well alright, that sounds good.” Actually, I didn’t mind if the car did break down. It would be great to talk to him some more.
We walked to Todd’s car, enjoying the cool breeze and the colorful leaves. As we neared the car, a gust of wind blew several papers towards us, and there were many more littering the ground.
“Looks like someone dropped the flyers they were distributing,” Todd said.
“I hate it when people do that and don’t bother to pick them up,” I said. “Litter is such a nasty blight on our landscape—and unnecessary.” I cringed as I thought of the paperwork Kristen had been working on. She was one of the counselors at Camp Rocky. The last night of camp she had been filling out the camper reports and when she went to the bathroom, I had knocked them off the picnic table just to give her a hard time. I don’t even know why I did it. Maybe I was jealous that she seemed to have it all together, when inside I could be such an emotional wreck. But even so, that was no excuse. I was so immature back then. It seemed like a lifetime ago. I had learned a lot this past summer. Well, I couldn’t go back, but I could go forward and do the right thing here…
“I love that you are so passionate about the environment.”
“Yep, and I am going to pick all of this up!” I dropped my book bag by a tree and started circling the area, running after the papers as they blew.
Todd didn’t hesitate as he jumped in to help. It felt good to enjoy the breeze, and we laughed as we chased after the papers and tried to gather them up before they blew away.
“I think the rest are lost to us,” Todd said, pointing at some of the flyers that had blown off well into the distance.
“Well, we can recycle these.” I clenched the papers in one hand as we walked towards Todd’s car. “There’s a recycling container near my apartment building, we can put them in there. Did you know the average person generates over four pounds of trash a day, and most of that is paper. The more we recycle, the more we save trees, pollution, jobs…”
“Got it Bev,” Todd grinned. “Come on, let’s go recycle…”
We climbed in Todd’s car and Todd drove the short distance to my apartment building. Todd pulled into the back lot near the recycle bin and parked.
“You don’t need to get out. I’ll do it and then I will park closer to the building so you won’t have to walk so far on that ankle.”
“Ah, Todd you are such a sweetheart.”
Todd grinned broadly at me as he took the papers from my hands. Glancing down at them, his wide smile quickly turned into a frown. “Fuck! Beverly, did you even look at these?”
“No, I was too busy picking them up to read them, and we talked the whole way back here. Why?”
Todd shoved one of the papers in my hands.
A blurry picture of a werewolf looked back at me. Underneath the picture were the words ‘WHO—Werewolf Haters Organization: Join us for a meeting to take back our country and declare war on the wolves. Enjoy free food, music and BEER!’
“Oh my God!” They really are organizing,” I whispered. I was scared shitless.
“Free food and beer—they are bound to get a crowd,” Todd muttered.