So Angry, So Numb

I got tired of sitting in the dark, I wanted to see her, I needed to know what that bastard did before I went crazy. At first I got up and opened my door, letting the light from the hallway flood the room but the shadows over my bed didn't let me get a good look at her. I returned to my spot on the floor, I was afraid to get on my bed because I wasn't sure how badly she was hurt and I didn't want to be the one to hurt her more.

There are no words to describe the anger I felt towards Ken while I waited for Sara to wake up. It didn't make any sense to me why any man would hurt a woman like that. I wanted to hunt the bastard down and kill him! Thankfully I didn't have any idea where he lived so I just waited for her to wake.

My mom came up a couple times to see how she was doing, she seemed really upset that there was nothing she could do to help; my mom always felt she had to help. She was supposed to go to the store to help dad yesterday but she told him she had to stay home, I heard her say that both Sara and I needed her at the moment. I expected my dad to tell her she was crazy but he told her it was ok, that he could manage the store by himself.

It was around noon when I posted yesterday and Sara hadn't woke up once since the moment I got home from work which was around 7:30; it would be another couple hours before she joined the land of the living.

I think I woke her by accident because I wanted to see her. When opening the door didn't help that much, I turned towards my nightstand and tapped my touch lamp on; the lowest setting gave me enough light to know that Ken was a fucking dead man!

The first thing I noticed when I turned back to the bed was Sara's pantie clad ass staring me right in the face but before I could enjoy the familiar tightening in my jeans, I saw the nasty black and purple bruises on her ass and thighs in a pattern that looked an awful lot like the imprint of fingers. How fucking hard do you have to grab someone to leave your fingerprints in bruises on their skin? Maybe it looked really horrible on Sara because she's so pale but fuck! And for some reason, the worst of the bruising seemed to be around her knees.

As much as I would normally have loved the view of her nearly naked ass, I couldn't look at it much longer, I dragged the covers over her and returned to my seat on the floor. I was shaking, what I saw really scared me, I wasn't sure I wanted to see what else the bastard did to her.

But I wouldn't have much choice, Sara seemed to be waking up. She managed to roll over onto her back despite the apparent pain she felt. When she lifted her hand to her face, I saw bruising on her wrist, bite marks on her bicep and something that looked like burns on the underside of her arm. "Owww!" My eyes jumped from her arm to her face as she cried out in pain when she rubbed her eye. She turned her head my way, when she saw me she started to cry. "Don't look at me!" She pulled the covers up over her face, hiding from me.

"Sara," I reached out and tried to tug the covers down but she wouldn't let me.

"No Tanner," she sobbed. "I don't want you to see me like this."

"Sara," I got up on my knees and leaned on the bed. "I've been sitting here ever since I got home from work; I've already seen you."

Slowly, she lowered the covers and I tried not to show any reaction. She gazed at me through eyes that were almost swollen shut, my first thought was, how the fuck did she manage to drive here? "It hurts Tanner," she tired to lift her left hand to her face but she couldn't. She gave me this defeated look, "It hurts so much, I just want to die."

"No!" I jumped off the floor and sat on the bed next to her. "I don't want to hear you talking like that! You can't let that bastard get away with this Sara, you have do something about this!"

"Why?" She turned away from me. "It's not going to change anything, it'll only make things worst."

"He has done this before?" I don't know why I was surprised.

She nodded, "But this time it was worst." She glanced at me, "It's my fault really, I disrespected him; I deserved it."

"You have got to be kidding me!" I snapped. "He beats the crap out of you and you think it's your fault? Sara!" I shook my head. "This isn't your fault! He has no right to ever touch you like this!"

"You don't understand Tanner," she turned away again. "Just leave me alone please, I shouldn't have come here." She cried out in pain again as she tried to push off the bed.

"Sara you need to go to the hospital."

"No," she shook her head. "I need to go home, it'll be fine Tanner." She tried again to get off the bed and once again she cried out.

"You have got to be kidding me!" I made my way around to the other side of the bed and knelt on down to look at her. "Sara you can barely move, you can't get out of bed and you think I'm going to let you just get in your car and go home? No fucking way! You came here for whatever reason and there is no way I'm letting you leave while you are like this; the only place you are going is to the hospital!"

"I don't want to go to the hospital!" She screamed at me. "I want to go home!"

"And what? Wait for Ken to come over and finish the job?"

"Maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea."

"Sara!" I just stared at her as I felt this stabbing pain in my chest; I didn't know what I would do if she wasn't around. "Please don't say that," I lowered my head to the mattress. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you." For the first time in my life, I felt like crying. "Sara please," I turned my head towards her. "I'm begging you, let me take you to the hospital."

"I can't Tanner."

"Then let my mom take you, she's been pacing the floor downstairs since the moment you came here, she's really worried about you and she wants to help you. Please let her take you to the hospital if you don't want me to go with you."

It took a little convincing on both my mom's and my part to get Sara to agree to go to the hospital. My mom helped her get dressed in a pair of my sweats and then I helped Sara down the stairs and out to the car when she was unable to get her shoes on both feet because her left ankle was swollen twice it's normal size.

As I watched my mom drive away with Sara slumped over in the back seat, I wished that I could have gone with them. I turned to walk back into my house when I spotted Claire standing in her yard watching me.

"Was that Sara?" She asked me.

"You didn't see anything!" I snapped at her and stomped back into the house to wait.

And it seemed like forever before I heard from mom or Sara again.

No Show Again

God I'm so tired. I can't sleep but I want too so badly, I'm just happy that I don't have to go into work tonight.

Sara wasn't at work last night, she had called in sick again. Or should I say Ken called in sick again for her. The second we all went to our departments Billy was over in my space totally freaking out. "I wasn't able to get hold of her all day," he told me. "You don't think that some thing happened, do you?"

He went on and on for about ten minutes until I finally snapped at him. "Billy I don't fucking know!"

He stopped, stepped back a foot or two and glared at me. "Excuse me for thinking that you actually cared if something bad happened to her! I thought you were her friend? That's what she keeps telling me!"

"I am her friend," I told him. "But I still don't know what happened to her and you freaking out like this isn't going to change the fact that until she contacts one of us, we aren't going to know what's going on with her!"

Billy didn't say another word to me after that.

Work seemed to drag by and nothing I could think of made me stop worrying about Sara.

But it seemed that I wouldn't be left to worry for too much longer. When I turned down my street, I noticed her car was parked outside my house but I saw that she wasn't in it when I got up to it. Pulling into the driveway, I barely managed to put the car in park and shut it off before I leapt out of the car and ran towards the house.

"Mom? Dad?" I called as I opened the door, I knew my parents were up, they were always up with the sun. My mother came into the kitchen with this look on her face that I never seen before. "Mom what's wrong? Where's Sara?"

Mom looked so upset, "She's upstairs Tanner, I made her go lie down." I started towards the stairs but mom stopped me. "Don't wake her dear, she probably won't be all that coherent, I gave her some Tylenol."

"Tylenol?" I stared at my mom, whenever she said 'Tylenol' she meant 3s, which my dad had prescribed when he had minor surgery a couple months ago. "Why did she need those mom?"

"She was in pain Tanner," my mom said quietly. "I asked her what happened but she was too upset to answer me, she just kept asking when you would be coming home."

"Mom," I grabbed her shoulders, I could feel my heart racing. "What happened to Sara?"

"She looked terrible Tanner," tears slid down my mom's cheeks. "I wanted to take her to the hospital but she refused to go, she wanted to see you."

"Mom..?"

"Some one hurt her Tanner," was all I heard my mom say before I took off upstairs as fast as I could go.

I've been sitting on the floor by my bed, listening to her breathe since I came home. My room was dark because of the blackout curtains I put up so that I could sleep during the day, so I really couldn't see what the bastard did to her but from the sound of her breathing at times, she was hurting really bad.

F***ing Dip*hit!

I haven't had a real conversation with Sara since this past weekend and I was starting to miss making her turn red. Last night I decided that I was going to make her talk to me and hopefully get her to let me give her a hug.

Oh fuck I'll admit I just wanted to feel her body against mine again and damn do I need to feel her hands on my skin again. And that look she got in her eye when she was bumping against the waist band of my pants? Totally fucking hot! That innocent type look that just sends all blood rushing to my cock and I - fuck! She drives me crazy! I just want to - I just want...so badly.

But I can't have her, she's dating the bastard - that's what I'm calling him from now on just because he dating Sara and not giving her the attention she deserves. I'll tell you, if she were my girl she would never leave my bed.

Ok maybe for food.

Maybe not. I don't think I would let her out of my arms at all. And she would fucking know that she's hot and sexy and...

Fuck me! I forgot what I started out saying!

Oh! Last night. Work. Sara. Conversation. Got it.

But guess who didn't go into work last night? That's right sunshine, Sara. I couldn't believe my luck, the night I plan on getting her to talk to me, she calls in sick!

I didn't think much of it until dipshit (Billy) came over to pets just as I was getting started. "Hey," he looked kind of uncomfortable even talking to me. "Did you talk to Sara today?"

"Not since this morning when we left work. Why?"

"It's probably nothing," Billy said. "I'm probably just overreacting..."

Probably? I was about ready to call the fucking mental ward, the dude was seriously fucked up.

"...but I've worked with Sara since the day she started here and she's never called in sick."

"Well there's a first time for everything," I told him.

"No," he shook his head. "You don't get it, Sara is always here! She doesn't call in when she's really sick, she doesn't call in when the roads are dangerous and the police are telling everyone to stay at home. She even came in after she hit that deer on the highway last year! Sara doesn't call in! Ever!"

"Fuck man calm down!" I really wanted to slap him but I didn't. "Maybe something happened with her family."

"But why call in sick? She would say that something happened, she would -"

"Billy I don't fucking know why she's not here, I'm not her fucking secretary! Why don't you go and call her if you are so fucking worried about her!" God really? Do I look like a fucking psychic?

Billy stepped back and blinked about twenty times in rapid succession. "You know you swear a lot."

"Fuck me," I muttered. "What does it matter? I can say what ever the hell I want."

"Sara doesn't like people who curse all the time, it's one of her turn offs."

I was about to tell him that I turn her on fine but I stopped myself. "Why don't you go call her and see if she's ok?"

"I already did, there was no answer." Billy started to walk away but stopped, "Management said that Sara wasn't the one who called in, Ken was."

"What?" I dropped the bag I was holding.

"You heard me," he said and then disappeared.

So thanks to the fucking dipshit, I've been worrying all night if Sara was ok.

And I don't even have her fucking number so I can't call her!

She better be at work tonight or I'll - I"m not sure what I'll do but pets will never be the same again!

And yes, I do realize I use 'fuck' a lot!

Confused

I bet you would be shocked, utterly shocked when I tell you that I woke up Sunday morning hard as a fucking rock. Ok maybe you wouldn't be so surprised since I always wake up that way. And since you already know I woke up with Sara, it's kind of a given that I would be hard. I almost didn't wake up with her though, she was going to sleep on the pull out in my brother's 'office' but not even ten minutes after I said good night to her, she came knocking on my door.

"The pull out isn't comfortable," she told me when I opened the door.

"Oh," I tried really hard not to smile because I knew she was lying through her teeth; I've slept on that pull out a few times and it was really comfortable. "Did you want to sleep in here?" I asked her kind of hesitantly; I didn't want to see too eager.

"If that's alright," she said shyly.

Alright? Was it alright? It was fucking awesome that's what it was. I told her it was fine and then moved aside so she could come in; I tried not to get too excited as I closed the door but damn! How could I not be excited? I was given the chance to hold her again and I couldn't wait. I jumped into bed.

But Sara just stood by the side of the bed. "What's wrong?" I asked her while pulling back the covers for her.

She shifted back and forth before asking me if I had something she could change into. "Sleeping in my clothes isn't really all that comfortable."

I didn't have anything else that she could wear besides the clean shirt that I just put on before she knocked on the door so without a second thought, I ripped my shirt off and held it out to her. "It's all I have that's clean," I told her when she raised a brow at me.

While she was in the bathroom changing, I counted the seconds that had passed because I needed to think of something besides Sara in my shirt. My shirt touching her naked flesh. Her tits making 'bumps' in my shirt. God it wasn't helping then and it's certainly not helping me now!

I almost forgot to breath when she entered the room again. My shirt fell mid thigh and I couldn't take my eyes off her legs, her naked legs that lead to her...Fuck! I was dying, she was killing me slowly and I was getting hard while she was doing it.

She crossed the floor quickly as if she didn't want me to see her in my shirt. When she slid under the covers I held back for her, the shirt slipped up and I was given a good view of her pantie clad rear end. I wanted to grab it so badly but I restrained myself.

Once she was covered up, she turned onto her side and faced me. The blankets covered her chest so I wasn't given the chance to really stare at her tits which I was sure were as naked as her legs. "What are you thinking?" She asked me suddenly.

"Ummm..." I coughed I didn't want to tell her I was thinking about flicking my tongue over her nipples. "I wasn't really thinking about much."

"No?" She raised a brow. "Do you often turn red when you aren't thinking about much?"

I laughed, "Why yes, I turn red when asked anything period. The attention does funny things to me."

We really didn't say much after that, she started yawning so we decided to get some sleep.

The next thing I remember is awaking up that morning, hard as I mentioned before. Sara was lying on her stomach facing away from me, I rolled over onto my side and stared at the back of her head while I debated wrapping my arms around her.

"Ah fuck it!" I mumbled, sliding closer to her as I wrapped my arm around her waist. I purposely pressed my cock against her, I wanted her to wake up and know how hot she makes me. I told myself it would be an ego booster for her but really I just wanted to rub against her.

I did rub against her. Fuck it felt so good. I slipped my hand down to her hip and gasped when my fingers brushed against bare skin. I had forgotten that she was half naked in my bed! I was in the process of trying to figure out how bold I wanted to be - how mad I wanted her to be when she woke up and found me touching her soft skin - when she started to turn towards me. I was pretty certain that she was awake because she turned pretty fast but she settled down in my arms again, her face against my chest; I wasn't so sure anymore.

Then she giggled and pulled away a little bit. "It tickles," she said as she gazed up at me.

"What tickles?" I asked but I should've saved my breath; her hand was on my chest, her fingers playing with the hair there. "Oh sorry." I turned onto my back.

"It's not a bad thing Tanner!" She cuddled up next to me; her head resting on my arm as her hand laid against my chest. "I like it," she glanced up at me. "Lots."

"Yeah?"

She nodded and her fingers started to move against my skin. First she just went in circles but soon her fingers were trailing over my skin - around and over both my nipples, down my abdomen, around my belly button and down until they met with the waist band of my pj pants.

"Oh" she pouted as she bumped against the waist band a couple times with her fingers. "Dead end."

I groaned involuntarily, "Not a dead end," I said a little rougher than I expected. "It's a..." paused to think of something smart. "A overpass."

She giggled, her hand left my waist and jumped to my shoulder as she hugged me. "An overpass, that was a good one Tanner."

"I'm glad you liked it."

She didn't say anything as she half laid on me while 'hugging' me still.

I couldn't take it anymore, I grabbed hold of her and pulled her on top of me, spreading her legs so that they fell on each side of my legs. Fuck she was hot, my groin felt like it was on fire as she pressed against it but I was good - so good that I gripped her ass and held her against me.

Sara groaned and pressed her body against mine; her mouth was on my shoulder and I felt her teeth against my skin, she was as hot for me as I was for her.

But she had to go and ruin in. She had to remember that she had a boyfriend.

She sounded so torn as she whispered, "Tanner we can't do this."

I tried to tell her we weren't doing anything but she didn't buy it, she climbed off me and soon made an excuse to leave.

And she's been acting weird around me all week; not really ignoring me but not making an effort to talk either.

Saturday Night Cinema

I had so much fun with my nephews Saturday despite the fact the little monsters decided that they were going to come in and jump on me first thing in the morning! But I think Travis has something to do with it because I heard him laughing his ass off when my heart fell back into my chest after spending some time visiting my tonsils.

The boys and I spent most of the say outside playing all sorts of games, most of which involved lots of running and rules that changed every time I went to do something that they just did. At first I would argue with them about the rule but soon I just gave up. Shelly, who was watching us for a while told me that I made a wise choice, "They play games like their dad, their way or not at all!" I laughed, it was so true Travis was like that.

I stayed for supper Saturday night and as we were sitting down to eat Travis asked me if I was going home or staying another night. "We don't mind if you stay," he told me.

"Yeah!" Kyle shouted. "You stay uncle Tanner and we can play some more!"

Shelly then suggested that maybe we would rather go rent some movies instead, "You might want to show uncle Tanner that you can be good little boys too, otherwise he may not want to come back!"

That started a discussion between my nephews as to what they wanted to rent; Kyle wanted to rent 'Ice Age 2: The Meltdown' because he loved Scrat and they didn't have the second Ice Age movie but Cody wanted to rent 'Night at the Museum' just because. I told them if they were good, I would think about renting both movies for them.

After supper I took the boys to the movie store. They took off to look for their movies the second we walked through the doors, I headed over to the new release section to see if there was anything that I was interested in seeing. I was reading the back of 'The Astronaut Farmer' when Kyle came running up to me and asked if he could also rent 'Bridge to Terabithia'.

"I heard mommy talking about it, she would like to see it but daddy said he didn't want to watch it so mommy didn't get it." He told me.

"Go ahead," I told him, I figured if I got it and Shelly put it in to watch it, my brother wouldn't walk out of the room. I don't know why but I thought that after their little thing the night before, that Travis should do something to show Shelly he did want to be with her.

I think I need to get laid, I'm starting to sound like a chick!

"Uncles Tanner!" Kyle came running back over, he sounded so upset. When I asked what was up he told me that the movie wasn't there any more. "Someone took it uncle tanner!" I tried to explain that it was ok but he was getting really upset. "But I wanted to rent it, can't you do something?"

"Like what?"

He shrugged, "Go find the person and tell them the movie was mine?" He asked hopefully.

"I'm not going to do that Kyle, why don't you go and pick something else out?" Kyle went off to find Cody 'because he'll get the movie back' and I went back to reading the back cover of the movie in my hand.

I decided not to get it, I didn't want to be up all night watching movies when I didn't have anyone to curl up with like the night that Sara came over. I started to think about her firm ass rubbing against my hard cock when Kyle came running back over, waving the movie in his hand. "I got it uncle Tanner!"

"You didn't take it from some one did you?"

He shook his head, "No the pretty lady heard me and told me she was sorry, she said she didn't know I wanted to rent it!"

"Did you say thank you?" I couldn't believe someone would give Kyle the movie just because he wanted to rent it. He told me he didn't and I told him to go and thank the lady because she didn't have to give him the movie at all. He wanted me to go with him, so I did.

"There she is," he told me as he took off towards her. "Thank you!" He called out as he stared up at her.

Slowly she turned around...

...it was Sara! "Hey," she smiled at Kyle as I joined them. "Hey!" She seemed really surprised to see me.

I asked her how she was doing and then asked what she was doing. "I'm renting a movie," she told me with a smile.

"Oh," I mentally kicked myself. "Right."

I don't really know how it happened but I remember asking her if she wanted to join us as we watched 'Bridge to Terabithia' and she said yes!

But she had to go home for some thing first, so I gave her my brother's address and then sped back to his house to tell him and Shelly what I did and beg them not to embarrass me.

I shouldn't have wasted my breath. The first thing my brother said to Sara when he opened the door to her was, "So you are the reason Tanner is having a nervous breakdown in the family room right now."

"Travis!" I wanted to kill him.

But Sara just smiled. "It's nice to meet you Travis," she held out her hand to him and he shook it. "I met your boys earlier, they were really nice."

Shelly came into the room as Sara was telling Travis that. "I'm Shelly, the nice boys mom." Sara smiled and shook her hand too. "Come on, let me show you to the family room," Shelly said and then led Sara off, turning one to give me the thumbs up sign.

"SO there is someone after all huh bro?" Travis threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into a headlock. "Why do you insist on lying to your brother?" He asked as I tried to get free. "It would be easier just to tell me about the girl and then I wouldn't have to do this to get more info out of you!"

"There isn't any more info," I told him. "I work with Sara, she's my friend; she has a boyfriend."

Travis released me and shrugged, "So? She's here with you and the boyfriend isn't anywhere in sight."

I told him there was no way I was going to do anything to ruin my friendship with Sara.

"And that's why you will die alone," Travis left me standing in the front hall.

When I joined them in the family room, the only place left for me to sit was with Sara on the love seat. God what a stupid name for a piece of furniture.

We watched a couple movies and then my nephews had to go to bed. When Shelly returned from tucking them in, she shut off the lights and put in the movie Kyle got for her.

Ten minutes into the movie Sara moved closer to me.

Twenty minutes into the movie, I wrapped my arm around her shoulders.

Forty minutes into the movie, I was half lying down across the love seat and Sara was cuddled up next to me.

When the movie was over, Shelly and Travis went to bed and I asked Sara if she wanted to watch something else. Out of my brother's movie collection she picked 'Space Balls' and asked if we could sit on the couch instead of the love seat.

Halfway through 'Space Balls' we were lying on the couch with our arms around each other, we weren't doing anything nor were we saying anything at all.

Sara spent the night with me...

Moronic Statement

This weekend I decided that I wasn't going to go out partying, my mom was so happy when she heard this. "Now that you have a couple days free, you should go and spend some time with your brother and his family, you haven't seen them much since you've been home."

I tried to tell her that I had some other things that I wanted to do but my mom, the queen of guilt trips started to lay it on about my nephews missing me and asking if I loved them anymore. "Fine mom, I'll call Travis and see what he's doing this weekend." Yes my parents decided to name us both with 't' names; I really don't know why parents do that, it only makes it more confusing for them when they are mad at one of their kids! I've been called by my brother's name so many time by my parents, it was so annoying!

With my mom pretty much looking over my shoulder, I called Travis Friday morning before he headed off to work. I told him what was up and just because mom was listening, I added, "Because apparently the boys don't think I love them anymore!"

Travis laughed, "They never thought you did in the first place Tan and tell mom I say 'hi'." He went on to tell me that they weren't doing much this weekend but I was welcomed to come over and do nothing with them. "They boys would really like to see you," he said. "They haven't beaten you up lately, they've had to resort to picking on me."

"You aren't making me want to come see them," I told him but then added, I would go over later that day.

"Tanner!" My mom whisper shouted at me. I told Travis to hold on and looked at mom. "You should sleep over there and spend tomorrow with them as well."

"What?" I shook my head, "No!"

Mom stood up straight, it was pretty impressive to see an older woman make 5'1 seem tall. "Tanner," she gave me that mother look that says 'do it or else'.

I sighed. "I think mom and dad have some huge orgy -slap across the back of the head from mom - ow!" I glared at her but finished my sentence. "...planned for this weekend bro, she wants me to spend the night at your house."

Travis told me to hold on and I heard muffled voices and decided that he was clearing it with Shelly, his wife. "That won't be a problem," he said when he came back on the phone. "Just let me know when you are going to come out, if it's around suppertime we'll throw something on the grill for you."

I told him I'd let him know and hung up. "So mom," I turned to her as I rubbed the back of my head. "Just how am I getting to Travis'?" The car I was driving, the one that was in the garage to be fixed was on it's last leg and apparently I broke that leg; it was gone to the big junkyard in the sky.

"You can borrow my car," she told me.

"How will you and dad get to the shop and back?"

My mom frowned, "Why in the new car of course!"

"What new car?"

"The one your father is picking up today," mom told me. "Didn't your father tell you we bought a car?"

"Ummm, no."

Mom smiled, "Well we did!"

And good for them. But is it wrong to hate your parents because they can afford things you can't? And you are forced to live with them because you can't afford shit?

No, I don't really hate my parents, I'm just kicking myself because I had everything and fucked it up.

But enough bad thoughts! Let's talk about my weekend.

I drove out to Lakeland - where my brother lives - Friday after supper. My nephews, Cody who is 10 and Kyle who is 8 were excited to see me; they jumped me the moment I walked into the backyard.

"Dad said you were coming," Kyle told me. "We didn't believe him though but you're here!"

Travis looked on as the boys and I 'wrestled' for a while before Shelly called them in to get cleaned up and ready for bed. "Good to see you Tanner," she called from the back door and then disappeared into the house with the boys.

I made my way over to the lawn furniture where my brother was lounging around drinking beer. "So mom and dad are having an orgy?" He joked as he handed me a beer.

"Trav," I cringed. "Did you have to go there?"

"Yes," he laughed, taking a mouthful of beer. "So what's been going on with you?"

As I was filling him in on work, Shelly came out to join us. She is one of the few women I know who can drink beer with the best of us. It's kind of hot or it would've been if she wasn't my sister-in-law.

"Woman what are you trying to do?" Travis stared at Shelly who was trying to edge him over.

"I want to sit with you," she told him and then looked at me. "Are you seeing anyone special?"

I started to tell her I wasn't when Travis, who was moving over to let her sit down with him, spoke. "If he was smart, he would stay single as long as possible."

Shelly stiffened. "What?" She glared at him. "Do you want to be single? It can be arranged you know!" She went to get up but my brother stopped her.

"You know that's not what I meant."

"No?" Shelly looked at me. "Didn't it sound like that to you?"

It did sound like that but I wasn't about to tell her that I thought so; I told her that it wasn't my place to say anything but, "Travis would be lost without you."

"Are you unhappy?" She asked Travis as he tried to pull her down next to him.

"No!" He said immediately which I thought was a good thing because I really didn't want to have to kick his ass for being a moron. "I didn't mean it that way at all! Tanner just doesn't have great taste when it comes to women; he isn't lucky like I was when I found you."

Now I wanted to kick his ass but it was true, my single status proves that. By the time Travis was my age, he was married for 5 years, had a 4-year old and a 2 year old.

What he said must have worked because Shelly smiled and cuddled up next to him.

"I hate you," I told him but he just laughed.

I went to bed that night and wondered about my future in the 'love' department, it didn't look that great.

I Can Be A Nice Guy!

Even though I hate it when it happens to me, I found myself sort of ignoring Sara the past couple nights although the amount of work we both had make it really easy. But last night she kind of cornered me. Ok, she just happened to come down to pets while I was working on a bulk food skid and I didn't notice her until I turned around to grab another bag and she was sitting on top of the skid. I knew she was completely innocent to the thoughts I had about taking her on a skid but it still threw me off just seeing her sitting there.

"Are you mad at me?" She asked without looking at me.

"No I'm not mad at you," I went over to stand next to her. "Why would you think that?"

Sara tilted her head and looked at me. "That's why," she said after a couple minutes.

"What?" I didn't know what she was talking about.

She looked downward and my eyes followed hers to where her arms were crossed over her chest. "You stopped being a pervert towards me ever since you found out about Ken."

"You told me you hated when I did it," I told her. "I was just respecting your request to not do it." She must've thought I was crazy if I didn't notice every time she did it still, god it killed me not to stare at her tits when she did it. Or her ass every time I happened to catch her bending over or walking in front of me.

"Forget about it," she muttered and moved to jump down from the skid.

"Wait a minute," I stepped in front of her, looking up at her. "What's going on in that head of yours Sara? Why does it bother you that I'm not perving on you?"

"You're a guy," she sighed, looking away from me. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me."

"It's not really about you," she told me.

Ouch! I tried to seem like I didn't care. "Sara!" I grabbed her shoulders and she looked at me. "Tell me what's going on with you, I can't be your friend if you don't talk to me." I can't sleep with you if you won't either! Well, I could but..focus Tanner, she needs you to listen, you remember what that is, right? "Come on tell me."

Sara looked down and I sighed. Leaned in close to her and said 'tell me' in a deep voice next to her ear. "Or should I say," I raised my voice so it sounded less manly, "Oh my god Sara you just have to tell me what's going on, I swear I'll die if you don't!"

"We don't talk like that!" She looked at me and laughed.

"No?" I asked in my normal voice. "Then I guess I better get my hearing checked because that's what you all sound like to me!"

"Tanner!" She slapped my arm while rolling her eyes at me. "Fine," she sighed. "I'll tell you."

"I'm waiting," I told as I still stood in front of her; her legs were on each side of my hips and if the situation were any different, I'd be in so much 'trouble'.

Sara mumbled something that I couldn't make out so I asked her what she said. "I said, I don't think that Ken wants me anymore," she tried to smile at me but it didn't work. "He barely pays any attention to me or spends any time alone with me. All he seems to want is to spend time with his friends. Oh but he does want me to be there," she paused. "He'll ignore me most of the time unless he gets really drunk, then he 'wants' me."

Fuck! She was right, I really don't want to hear this!

She gave a little laugh. "It's like he forgets I'm around until someone asks about me and I don't know what to do anymore."

Dump his sorry ass!

"We've been together for the last three years and I don't know if there's anything I can do to change what's happening. I tried to talk to him but he tells me that there's nothing wrong with us," she groaned. "How can he say that? We haven't had sober sex in over 6 months!"

Fuck!Fuck!FUCK! I don't want to hear this!

"Is there something wrong with me Tanner?" I just stared at her. "Well," she looked away. "I should go."

I moved back so she could get down, I wanted to say something to her to let her know that there wasn't anything wrong with her that it was her loser boyfriend who had the problems but I couldn't. I watched her walk away.

She ignored me for the rest of the night and I didn't blame her once, I asked her to tell me and when she did I didn't say anything? I got to be the stupidest fucking moron on the face of the earth!

During last break, I waited until she was out of infants and into the staffroom before I strolled through her department.

Grabbing a piece of cardboard from her cart, I pulled my marker out of my back pocket and wrote, "If you were anymore perfect, you would be this month's Playboy centerfold and I never would have gotten to hold you in my arms while you slept. Don't ever change."

I knew it sounded corny but I didn't care for once I was saying something because I meant it and I wanted her to be happy - not because I wanted her naked.

I didn't bother to go back to the staff room, I just went back to work.

Twenty minutes later I was engrossed in what I was doing, I turned from shoving an empty box into my garbage cart when someone came flying at me. "What the...?" I was knocked a little of balance as Sara's body crashed against mine. "Sara?" I tried to move her back from me but she held on tight.

"Thank you," she cried against my neck.

I wanted to say 'you're welcome' but I had bigger issues, her breath on my neck was sending the 'ok for launch' message to my cock!

Luckily she finally pulled away and looked a little embarrassed but happy.

God I hope she doesn't have 'sober sex' or any other kind of sex with Ken because of what I said.