This Strange Addiction, Julie Steimle [little readers txt] 📗

I get it from impound now?”

Almost automatically, Matthew and Randon cringed together. They said, “We, uh, sold it.”

“You what?” Audry’s voice rose in pitch.

“Here’s the thing,” Matthew explained as the thunder outside rolled more, the wind still wailing as the storm continued to pelt the city, “We have this annual impound auction, and it accidentally ended up in the with the cars, and it got sold. We’ll pay you the cost of the car, or we can just get you a new one.”

“No. No. No.” Audry was ticked off. This was inexcusable. She had loved that car, and they were not going to bully her into letting Rick buy her another car. “I can’t believe you people. I don’t want Rick to buy me a car!”

“I wasn’t talking about Rick,” Matthew said, mouth open in protest. “I was implying the NYPD would replace your car.”

She glared at him, folding her arms. “What about my stuff in my car?”

He sighed. “It’s in evidence. We’ll get it to you.”

Shaking her head, clenching her teeth, this still was not acceptable. They had messed with her life enough. Her precious car was now gone. She wanted the clean break. And she was still going to get it. She stuck out her hand and said, “The money. I want the money.”

Matthew nodded, cringing apologetically. “Ok. I don’t have it on me right now, but if you would come to the station, you can pick it up.”

Groaning, Audry stormed away from him, going to Vincent.

The lights then went out.

“Oh, perfect.”

Audry went to get her flashlight.

 

Audry stayed with Jandra Washington that night. She had couch space and a warm heater along with candles. The storm continued to rage all night long, leaving a damp morning where the rain was more of a drizzle. That morning, she went back to her apartment with Jandra as help as she and Vincent finished off the packing and put her things into a shipping container to have it moved. Then with Jandra, they went to the police station where Audry picked up her money from the car sale and all the things that had been inside it. By the end of the day, Audry hung out with her old Green Club friends for one last hurrah at a night club.

“We’ll miss you,” Farrah said, already a little drunk.  

Jeremy nodded, raising his glass in a toast. “To Audry. May you have success wangling mountain lions and plenty of tranquilizer darts.”

They laughed, raising their glasses also.

But in the middle of their good-bye party, Neil got a call. After he had talked for a while, he then said to Audry, covering the mouth piece, “Do you want to have real last hurrah?”

Audry peered her alcohol drenched eyes at him, wondering what he meant.

“The community is calling for another beach cleanup this week. And the temperatures are going to be warmer tomorrow, so we can camp on the beach if we want. What do you say?” Neil looked hopeful. He had really done a great job taking over as president of Green Club, and Audry thought on it.

One last real hurrah? Why not? It was best to say goodbye by making the world a little better.

“Sure!” she said, and smiled.

*

So many people came to help clean up the debris from the storm. Like last time, there was a lot of plastic that had been blown into the sea which had washed up on the shore and had to be gathered up to be hauled to a proper recycling facility. In a way, storms like these were blessings. They made obvious the ills of human carelessness—throwing it back at them.

They did not need rain jackets this day, though. After the storm, there was an odd warm air current that blew in. It would have been a beach day if the beach had not been so littered with trash. So everyone was out in tee shirts and shorts. It was an Indian summer, someone said. Winter was just around the bend.

As clubs and city groups gathered on the beach. Audry recognized the usual players. Green Tree was there. So was the American Littoral Society, Ocean Conservancy, Water Way, and Deacon Enterprises. If Rick was there, Audry did not see him. And she really didn’t want to. Bobo was there with Jandra, as they were definitely dating and he had never left Green Club despite not being needed to protect Audry anymore.

But Hogan was also there with Water Way.

Audry almost went home—until she realized that she was staying with Jandra, and Jandra intended to stay the night at the beach. Jandra would be with Bobo.

Hogan walked up to her. “I thought you were in Africa.”

Audry turned away to get next to Bobo and Jandra for protection.

Hogan followed her. “Can we talk?”

“No.” Audry walked away from him, further down the beach as clearly Jandra and Bobo were not going to interfere unless Audry screamed for help. 

Hogan followed her. “Look. What can I say but sorry? A thousand times, sorry. I really did want to leave my stupid past behind me. But yes, I was a total louse. But I wanted to make right by you.”

She stormed down the shore toward some larger men who might see Hogan as a stalker. He hung back though, watching her.

“Audry…”

She shook her head and quickly joined a group who was heaving out seaweed tangled in plastic bags.

He did not follow this time.

But of course. He was not Harlin. Harlin would have grabbed her. Harlin would have tried to kiss her, tear off her clothes, or something like that, trying to take what she would not give. Hogan, even now, was acting the gentleman.

The day was spent hauling all sorts of garbage from the sea. Audry helped release tangled animals whenever they came across one, and she gathered heaps of plastic bags and bottles into sacks for hauling. She only left the beach briefly for lunch, returning for more work while going down to the untouched spots of shoreline. By the evening, most of the trash was cleared.

“I heard about your breakup,” Neil said to her as he was working nearby. “The guy was a wreck when you left.”

Audry stared at him.

He nodded. “Maybe you misjudged him.”

She shook her head. “No. I met his exes. I heard the truth.”

 “Maybe they all lied,” Neil said, raising his eyebrows. “You did tell us he had a vindictive ex who just wanted to ruin him, right. What if she dug up actors to pretend to be his exes?”

Closing her eyes, Audry said, “Because Hogan verified they were real.”

Neil stared. “No way.”

Audry nodded.

But then he said, “But that just means he really wanted to come clean with you. Nobody is perfect, you know. Not even your rock star CEO.”

He then gestured to the hill where Rick was now standing in a nice suit, overseeing the trucks that were hauling away the trash. He had not come to clean up, but supervise like the rich boy he was. But then Audry realized that probably Matthew told him she had returned, and he was choosing to stay away. That was more like Rick.

A bonfire was built up in a fire pit on the beach using some driftwood, though firewood had also been brought. They pitched their tents around it. Several gals shared the one tent Audry had set up as it was her larger one she used when going on Safari in Africa and not her little snow tent for her other camping. They had spread out mats in the bottom, a bit like a Bedouin’s camp. No fancy pillows though. Just the regular camping fare. As Audry hung up the lantern at the top on a hook, gazing about the open space with satisfaction, she then dug into her bag for hand lotion. What she picked up was that small jar of balm she had been carrying around for a while.

Pulling it out, Audry stared at it. It was the balm that Daisy had given her at the conference. She had been tossing it from bag to bag since she had found it again, always wondering if it actually worked. Daisy had said it was a pheromone enhancer. That it was what she used to seduce Rick into making love to her. But that had always seemed like nonsense. A smell did not make a man lose control. A man chose to cast off his scruples, making excuses for his actions later. However, realizing that she had been a little afraid to see if it was an effective aphrodisiac, as animals were affected by smell, Audry finally decided to put it to the test. See if it attracted men. She was no longer dating anymore. She was in a safe public place. It would be an experiment. Nothing more.

Unscrewing the lid, Audry scooped out a small dollop. It smelled like citron almost, though also a bit like honey. She gently rubbed the balm into her wrists and the hollows of her neck—exactly where Daisy had put it on herself. Now all she had to do was walk out and see the effect. If anything, it just smelled like insect repellant. Perhaps that was all it was. A psychological trick Daisy used to mess with her.

Audry walked out to the campfire where people were already roasting marshmallows and snuggling together. Heads turned when she arrived. Smiling at them, Audry noticed that Hogan was also at the fire. She sat on the other side of the blaze, making it clear they were not getting back together.

The evening felt a little surreal. Several of the men in the group started to stare at her as if they had never really seen her before and they were finding her interesting for the first time. Not all, though. Bobo was totally into Jandra. And Jeremy was chatting like crazy with Farrah, laughing a lot. They all started to sing songs, tell jokes, and as it got later, some couples pared off for beachside walks. Bobo and Jandra were one of them. Neil wandered away with Brooke.

And Audry decided to go to bed. She was tired. Jetlagged, and really the experiment was a partial success. Apparently though she could not smell it, the balm did act as a perfume that drew attention of the men, but that was all.

She said her good-nights and walked back to her tent.

Hogan followed her. She found him standing in her tent doorway as she was getting her sleeping bag rolled out. Feeling his presence, Audry turned around and said, “I don’t want to talk to you.”

He walked straight in and pulled her into an embrace, kissing her. It was dramatic, so passionate, and startling—more passionate than she had ever felt from him except that night in Watkin’s Glen. She could feel he truly missed her. For a second, she thought he was trying to show her that he was genuinely sorry and he wanted to honestly fix things between them—but his kisses then got more intense and he pulled her to the ground.

“Hey—”

He silenced her protest with an even deeper kiss, using his tongue to stop her words, pressing her into the floor mats. His hands moved right into her shirt, prying up her bra. Feeling his hands wrap around and squeeze her breast, Audry tried to scream, but he pressed his mouth over hers more, smothering her. She would have bit down on his tongue, but he bit onto her upper lip, not hard, but enough to stop her. Practically undressing himself on top of her, one of his hands grabbed her wrist as she slapped the top of his head and gripped his hair to pull him off. She clawed at him while his other hand dug into her pants. With his hands in all the wrong places, she screamed, kicking to get him off of her. He let go of her wrist and with that hand, pressed her throat into the ground.

Audry stiffened.

No air. She gasped, straining to breathe. Her fingers pried at his