AFTER MIDNIGHT
(Ann Arbor, Michigan)
The bedroom atmosphere is dim... just barely lit by the Basketball lamp on the nightstand on the right side of the bed with the Star Wars bedding tightly covering it. Robert Mann is sitting on the left side of the bed, resting his feet on the comforting plush lambswool throw rug. He is looking into the hallway, focusing on the bright light glow coming from the bathroom off to the right side. These are two of the rooms of his apartment. And, he is talking to the woman brushing her teeth over the bathroom sink.
"Hey, Morgan. What are you going to do?” Was the question he just asked of her.
"Hmmm? I'm sorry, what did you say?" Was her response that she yelled over the running water from the faucet.
"What's happening with you in there?" He asked again.
"What's the matter…?"
"You said you were going to leave at 11:30. Well, it's now 12:15. So, what are you doing in there?"
"Well, I’m brushing my… you sound like you really want me to leave? Do you mean to tell me you do actually want me to go away? You’re really telling me that you don't want more sex from me?"
"Yea, I want you to leave," he quietly mumbled. Then he yelled a little louder, "And, no I don't want more... sex."
"You don't want me to stay for a few more hours?"
"Hell yes!” He whispered under his breath as he clenched both fists, but he responded out loud to her with a, “No, but…"
"But what... ?"
Robert’s seething anger got the better of him and he decided it was now time to be a man and tell this teasing woman what he really thought of her!
"But… this is the fifth time in a year that you've come to my apartment to get laid. I didn't hear from you for four months after we got together the last time. Suddenly, one night you show up again at my door, asking me for permission to enter my apartment before wanting to go out to Ford Lake, walk along the shore and then come back here for... sex. I obliged you because you‘re so goddamn beautiful. And, I want to like you. The next week you vanish again for four months. I'm pissed off, of course, and wondering what has happened to you. You could be in another state, for all I know. So I become a detective to find out where you work… your midnight shift at the city morgue. When I finally locate you there you act as though you don't want to talk to me. So, I leave your job. I'm gone. I don't expect to ever see you again. Two months later, you show up here again and expect me to just screw you. Well, I did it. You are too… fine… to… pass up the sex. But now I want you to get out of my bed and out of my apartment. I don't need this mind fuck bullshit from you!"
The nude woman walked into the bedroom, making a left turn at the door to enter inside. Standing there in the jamb, the light from the hallway highlighting her every curve like a surreal painting created to entice a man with its insane beauty, Morgan was everything physically that this man could have ever desired in a woman.
Her six foot frame made her two inches taller than him. Her naturally tan skin made her exotic. Her tropical Asiatic face was too beautiful, her breast were too big, her stomach was too flat and her ass was too firm. “Why in the hell is she teasing me by coming in and out of my life like this?” He had asked himself that question repeatedly for well over a year, now.
"Oh my… you really feel like that?” She said mockingly through faux pouty lips. “Well, I’ve already explained to you the abnormal particulars of my life. You already know why I don't like the stiff confinement of commitment. I mean, like, I would think that a man would be overjoyed at the prospect of having an all 'natural' beautiful woman like me show up at his apartment at various times of the year for good sex… and in exchange you give me what I need from you. I guess ... "
"Listen, I don't want to hear any more of this bullshit! Just get the hell out, OK?" Robert could not force himself to look at her as he said these words.
"Well, if that's what you really want?"
"That is what I want."
"OK, I get the message. Can I get dressed first?
"Sure. Just hurry up, please!"
“Robert… you do realize that the reason you have obsessively sought me out throughout all this time is because we are linked at the soul and within the space of a couple of weeks you will, again, be driven to find me. You realize that, right?”
“Yes, Goddamn it!”
“When I sink my fangs into your neck and drink your blood as you orgasm… while you are trying to screw me into the bed… my chemical/spiritual essence is reinforced inside your bloodstream, your mind... and soul! You understand that, don’t you?”
“I do!”
“And you know, and realize, that you are alive because I like you. What makes one person, human or not, like another is beyond reason, science, magic or reality. I saw you that first night and I knew I had to have your blood. What inner impulse inside of my mind that made me like you enough to allow you to live is still inside me. And… now that I have completely dressed and gathered my things… I will leave you to finish your night. I’m leaving. And, I’m not going to threaten you or complain about this settlement. Know this… you and I will be together again in less than two months. Next time we get together, and we will… I might have a change of mind as to what I will think about our relationship, so think about our next meeting, OK?”
“… -silence-
“Here’s a kiss on the cheek to remember me by… until next time. Remember my words, OK? Bye, for now. And I will see my own way out.”
And then she was gone… to leave this confused man still sitting on his bed deep in thought about the horrors that might be brought down upon him if he does not straighten up and conform to the whims of a woman who looks like a goddess... but might, in fact, actually be a demon creature from… somewhere!
“Wrong way to be thinking, buddy!” He declared to himself, after an hour of sitting there on the side of the bed, as he finally accepted his reality. He is obviously going to have to embrace a brand new thought paradigm about his relationship situation.
“I have never asked what kind of flowers she likes," he whispered as he snapped his fingers. “I do believe at least two of the local florist have a midnight flower delivery service... to make a peace offering to her at the morgue tomorrow night. And may god forgive me my future fate in the rest of my life if she has decided that she is through with me. I believe I may need his help with this situation one day, anyway!”
Sleep was fitful for the rest of Robert Mann’s night. Somehow, an intense nightmare of vampire meals assaulted his dream... until he awoke… leaving him with vivid memories of meals composed of blood and bread consumed by fanged creatures very nonhuman. Without hesitation, he picked up his telephone and ordered the largest bouquet of deep red roses he could afford!
And, the card tag said two simple words -- “I’M SORRY!”
The rest of this story is the stuff of a romantic nightmare... to be told later down the line!
RAM
