| He looked at me skeptically, furrowing his brow. �Well�you look pretty harmless. I guess I could let you come up and use my phone.� He put the machine in gear and sped off toward his condo. He didn�t say anything to me during our short trip to his garage, and to be honest, I was too petrified to start a conversation. He parked the car and I followed him inside the house. �Wait here,� he ordered and kicked off his shoes. I just stood there, dripping water all over his laundry room. Howie Dorough�s laundry room. It was tidy. Very tidy, indeed. He returned a few minutes later with two big, fluffy towels. �Towel off, take off your shoes, and you can use the phone in the kitchen,� he said, handing me a towel. He was pretty efficient with barking out those orders. Of course I obeyed. He kept a towel for himself and disappeared again. I slipped off my sandals and left them next to his shoes. It was weird. The kitchen looked just like it did on his episode of Cribs. I quickly dialed AAA, only to have them tell me they were backed up with calls due to the storm. Lots of accidents. They�d get there as soon as possible, but it might be a couple of hours. I thought about calling out to Howie to tell him about the delay, but wasn�t quite sure how to do that without him discovering that I knew who he was. I didn�t want to scare the guy. And I wanted to stay for a while. Fortunately, he returned to the kitchen soon after I hung up the phone. He was wearing a dry tee shirt and sweats. �You look cold. Here.� He offered me a terry cloth robe. It was purple. �What did AAA say?� He winced as I gave him the bad news. �Well�� he began, running his fingers through his damp, curly hair, �I guess I better light a fire and get you warmed up.� Little did he know, I was warming up just fine. |
|