She clucked her tongue disapprovingly. It was the one item on my list she didn't approve of. She could handle the one-night stand or her suggestion of an affair, but conquering my fear of heights was a different story.
"You know I need to do it," I reminded her.
"There's plenty of ways to conquer that fear without jumping off some damn bridge. I'm sure your twins are all in," she retorted, referring to Tressa and Brittni.
"Brittni is. Tressa is deathly afraid of heights and claims she has no desire to ever conquer her fear."
"She's a smart girl."
"You didn't think that when she pranked your least favorite customer last week," I threw out, finally finding my keys.
"Well, that's because sometimes that Tressa acts like she's still in high school. Besides, anyone with a brain knows it's not the best idea to wrap a store toilet bowl with Saran Wrap. Most people who use our bathroom really got to go, and having their pee puddled in their shoes is not good. I could not for the life of me figure out why there were wet footprints trailing from the bathroom door."
"It was gross," I laughed. "But you have to admit it was pretty funny how the minister's wife, Shelly, scurried out of the store thinking she had missed the toilet."
"That was the only highlight of the whole incident," Fran replied, chuckling along with me. "She's always judging others whenever they look anything less than perfect."
"Exactly, which is why Tressa hatched the idea."
"So, you're telling me Shelly was the target all along?" she asked, quirking her eyebrow at me.
"Um, yeah," I stammered, knowing I'd just given away my part in the prank.
"And how did dear Tressa know that Shelly would be the one to use the toilet?"
"I might have told her. Come on, you have to admit, her catty remarks every time she uses the bathroom get old.
"How did you know it would be her who got pranked?"
"Because she comes in every week after her ladies' tea..." My voice trailed off as I backed away from the door before I could implicate myself further. "I'll see you on Monday," I called over my shoulder, hurrying down the path.
"I knew you were involved," she called after me before closing her front door.
I laughed at her words as I approached my car. I threw my purse over on the passenger seat and climbed in behind the steering wheel. I was backing up my car when some kind of movement off to my right startled me. Whipping my head around, I saw a lone runner making his way down Main Street. Woodfalls had its share of walkers, but there really weren't any runners, and definitely not any like the one who was currently crossing the street in front of me. Ordinarily, I would have scoffed at a man running without a shirt on, wondering what he was trying to prove. Nathan, though, was a different story with his glistening pecks and rock-hard abs. It would have been sinful to deprive the female population the opportunity to gawk. I sat motionless in my seat, watching as he ran by my car window. My heart thundered in my chest as I watched a trickle of sweat track its way down the deep contours of his well-muscled back, disappearing inside his shorts. He was long gone by the time I shook myself out of my fawning comatose state enough to drive home. I felt feverish. Glancing in the mirror, I saw that my face was flushed.
"God, you're a mess. What are you going to do if you ever see him naked? Spontaneously combust?" I asked my reflection.
***
The ringing of my cellphone woke me the next morning. I fumbled around my nightstand trying to find it while still keeping my eyes shut.
"Yeah," I croaked into the phone, my voice still heavy with sleep.
"Are you sick too?" Brittni's voice croaked back at me, although she sounded much worse.
"No, I was just sleeping. You're sick?" I asked the obvious. She was either sick, or she'd swallowed a very old frog.
"Yeah, my mom made Dr. Baker come out and check me. He said it looked like strep to him. I bet I got it from my damn students," she complained. Brittni subbed at the elementary school while she worked on getting her teaching degree. I found it ironic that she insisted she wanted to be a schoolteacher, but didn't seem to like kids all that much. Tressa told me the dislike thing was actually an act. "She may be gruff, but she has mad skills when it comes to teaching," she had stated.
"Well, crap. I'm sorry you feel crummy," I offered, trying to hide my disappointment that I wouldn't be able to cross an item off my list.
"I'm sorry I'm bailing on you."
"It's no biggie. Just get better," I reassured her.
"Okay. We'll go when I get back from that stinking training thing next week," she promised before hanging up the phone.
I sat up, contemplating my list in my head to see if I could tackle one of the other items. Coming from hot-as-hell Florida, most of the items on my list centered around winter-related activities, with the obvious exception of the activity that possibly involved Nathan. A mental picture of a shirtless Nathan flashed through my head, making me jump out of bed abruptly. There was no way I was going to mope around all day. It was bad enough that thoughts of him had kept me up tossing and turning half the night.