Chrissie

Elaine laughed as I wheeled out my cart of cleaning and detailing supplies and equipment. She grabbed the Armor all leather cleaner and a microfiber towel and got ready to start on her side of the interior. I love a woman who knows how to wash a car I thought.

"Hey unlock my side," she said.

"Chrissie," I snapped under my breath. I knew this was an important step. The door lock on the passenger side slowly slid up and the window went down. Elaine looked at me smiling.

"I noticed you have an automatic starter, but is it voice controlled?" she asked.

"Uhm, something like that," I said.

She leaned the front seat forward and began to very gently clean the leather in the back seat on her side as I did the same on mine. We used regular Armor all for the surfaces in the back that weren't leather and vacuumed the carpet. As Elaine got out of the back and got ready to start in the front, the passenger seat snapped back into place. She smiled and gently patted the side of the car. I had a horrifying flashback of that same seat snapping back into place and nearly crushing a woman I had dated about 2 years ago. She'd had to be hospitalized and was still seeing a chiropractor today.

I won't bore you with what goes into washing my car, but two hours later we were just getting done. Nothing had happened that was terrible so I was beginning to relax a bit. We went into the house and kissed for a bit before Elaine broke away from me and said, "Stop teasing me. We'll never make it to dinner at this rate and you're already trying to get your desert." She kissed me one more time and went into the bathroom to change.

"We're taking your car to the restaurant," she yelled through the door. "I'm driving," she threw in afterwards. A sudden shock froze me in place. Elaine was still alive and hadn't been hurt, but exactly how much would Chrissie allow?

"Uhm, she's kind of tricky to handle," I said.

"Relax daddy, I won't hurt your baby," she said as she stepped out of the bathroom. I wasn't actually worried about her hurting Chrissie, I was kind of worried about the opposite happening. But Elaine looked so good stepping out of that bathroom in her little black dress that I just couldn't say no to her.

"I'll be as gentle as if she were my own. Besides we get along great already. I feel like we're old friends." She was smiling at me as she said it, and I just looked into a nearby drawer and gave her the car keys.

We locked the house and walked hand in hand to the car. I walked around to the driver's side and the locks popped open.

"Hey, I have the keys, how'd you do that?" asked Elaine puzzled. "Is it some kind of proximity sensor?"

"Uhm yeah, something like that," I said.

I held the door open for her and she sat down in the driver's seat and snuggled into the butter soft leather. "Holy shit, it feels like this seat is molding itself to my back," she said excitedly. "It feels really good, really comfortable. It feels almost like I'm wearing the car instead of sitting in it."

"Yeah good seats are like that," I said.

She turned the key and nothing happened."Do you have a short in the ignition system," she asked.

"Chrissie," I said. "Come on."

"Don't scold her," said Elaine. "Maybe I didn't turn the key right. Let me try it again. She simply reached for the key and the powerful v8 started and came to life. The whole car was vibrating from the force. Elaine just smiled, leaned over to me and kissed me again. "I love that sound," she said.

I was in heaven. I love Elaine, and it seems as though Chrissie had accepted her. That in its own, was a miracle. Chrissie had never even tolerated anyone before, let alone accepting them.

We had a nice dinner and were driving back home when a near tragedy struck. Elaine looked over at me, and our eyes met. I guess we were lost in the moment and she took her eyes off the road for just an instant, and before it even registered, we were in trouble. Everything started to move in slow motion. There was no way for us to avoid hitting the semi, and Elaine appeared to be frozen at the wheel. The semi driver had slammed on his brakes since he saw us before we saw him, but it was going to be too late. Suddenly the wheel wrenched right and my car turned so sharply she almost went onto two wheels. We missed the truck by millimeters, and no one was hurt. We stopped on the shoulder of the road and watched as traffic continued. Both of our hearts were beating way too fast for the next few minutes. The only sound was the big V8 throbbing in the background.

Elaine's eyes were as big as saucers. "We should be dead," she said. "And it'd be my fault. I took my eyes off the road."

"But we're not," I said. "It wasn't even an accident. No one got hurt. No harm, No foul. You're a great driver, you pulled us out of that, and saved us all."

"That's just it Tim," she said looking at me strangely. "I didn't do shit. I froze. The wheel just turned on its own. If it was up to my driving skills, we'd all be scattered all over the road and wearing toe tags. It was really weird, like the car..." She looked at my face as if she was waiting for me to say something, to let something slide, but all she heard was the thrumming of the big V8.

She put the car back into gear and drove us home. The rest of the way she didn't talk, or hold my hand or try to kiss me at all. She drove into the garage when we reached my house and got out and patted my car on the hood. Then thinking better of it she kissed her on the hood and said, "Goodnight, and thanks."

I closed the garage door and we went into the house. I could tell something was different. I chalked it up to the near accident. I pulled off my jacket and tie and sat down on the couch next to her. I just knew in my heart that there wasn't going to be any fucking done that night.

"Would you like a glass of wine, or a beer?" I suggested.

"How about telling me the truth?" she said.

"I always tell you the truth," I said. "I've never lied to you about anything."

"There's a big fucking difference, between not lying and telling the truth," she told me. From the look in her eyes, I could tell she was on to something. "All day I've been wondering why the hell you named your car after that ditzy blonde on Three's company, but that's wrong isn't it? Chrissie isn't named after Suzanne Somers at all, is she? That car isn't voice controlled is it?" she asked staring straight at me. I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head.

"Chrissie is short for Christine, as in the Stephen King book, Christine, isn't it?"

I nodded my head.

Elaine grabbed my arm and wrapped it around herself. I could feel goose bumps on her skin, and she was chilled far more than just from the cool evening breeze. I got a blanket from the closet and we snuggled up together on my couch.

"I'm going to tell you the whole story," I said.

"Five years ago I was married. I thought as most people do that I had a good marriage. Shanna and I had been together for about 8 years. We both had great jobs and were pretty happy. We didn't have any kids, but that had been a blessing.

We'd met in college and I just couldn't figure us out. We didn't fit. I was a nerd, plain and simple. She was a cheerleader and the prettiest girl on campus. She had so many guys chasing after her, that you needed an appointment just to ask her out and be turned down. It was a total fluke that we even met. To say that she was out of my league would be a gross understatement. If my league blew up, none of the pieces would ever reach her. She was the quintessential All American beauty. Blonde hair, blue eyes, enormous chest, long legs, the whole nine yards, plus.

Her room mate Sarah, was in my Honors English class and we were working on a report together. Sarah also did most of Shanna's English and History homework. Shanna had other people to do other things for her, so none of that tedious studying could get in the way of her social life.

Anyway Sarah and I were working on our English assignments when Shanna came in fresh from a date to the beach with some guy or another. She dropped her cover-up as soon as she got into the dorm room, and started taking off her clothes before she even noticed that I was there. Looking back on it, maybe she did know that I was there, she really loved showing off her body. Her breasts were huge, not in that freakish Porn-star fake way, but big enough that they just looked out of place on her small frame. It was nearly impossible to look anywhere else.

"Ooh sorry," she said, covering them up, while she looked directly at me. "I didn't expect Sarah to have company. She never brings anyone home."

I just turned away from her and went back to studying with Sarah. The mood in the room had changed somehow though. Sarah spent a lot of time looking at me, as if she was trying to determine whether I still saw her in the same way, now that I'd seen the school's princess nearly nude.

A few days later, I got a call from Shanna. Her laptop wouldn't boot, and since she'd heard from Sarah that I was a Computer Science Major, she hoped that I could help her out. I told her that she'd probably be better off taking her computer to the store she'd bought it from, or taking it over to the computer science lab on campus. Then I politely told her that I had studying to get back to and hung up the phone. The next day Sarah came over to my apartment with a big batch of cookies she'd made. I didn't understand how or why but all of a sudden, in her eyes I was special. I think it had something to do with the fact that I was the first person she'd ever seen, who had refused Shanna anything.

In reality, I was more than a little bit intimidated by Shanna, but more than that, I just didn't see any possibility that she'd ever notice someone like me. Kind of like those guys who are into sports cars that dream of a Ferrari or a Porsche. They know that they'll never be able to afford one, so they buy a cheap Japanese import and add every possible after-market part to it that they can. They make the car into the fastest loudest Toyota Celica ever made, but deep down inside they know it's just not a Ferrari. The more practical guys just lower their expectations. I knew that I'd never have a shot with Shanna, so Sarah was fine with me.

Sarah really was quite pretty, she was shy, she was slim; she had nice legs and a nice smile. But to be honest there were hundreds of girls just like her all over campus. There was however, only one Shanna. Eventually Sarah and I became an item, and we started having sex. We even used their dorm room on occasion, and that was where the problems started. Sarah and I, like most bright young people, were kind of experimental when it came to sex and other things. If we heard about something, we tried it. If one of us liked it we added it to our repertoire. Sarah and Shanna being room-mates confided in each other about things, and I guess our sex life was one of them.

Shanna was fucking nearly half of the school, that first year. Poor Sarah had only me. Sarah was pretty vocal when it came to sex, and one afternoon we came out of her room to see Shanna sitting on the couch when we came out. I noticed that she was looking at me in a really funny way but I didn't think much about it.

The next day, I was leaving one of my classes and noticed Shanna, talking to a bunch of guys as usual across the hall. When I walked past she left her group and caught up to me.

"Hi, Tim," she said smiling.

"Hello," I replied.

"Tim, what's wrong with me?" she asked. I really didn't understand the question. I didn't know what the hell she was talking about, so I didn't say anything. "Why don't you like me?" she asked. "You've never asked me out, and you don't even speak to me, other than hi and goodbye, when you come over to fuck my friend. So what's wrong with me?"

"Shanna there's nothing wrong with you. We just don't know each other. We travel in different circles. You're extremely popular and you've got tons of guys all tripping over their dicks trying to get a date with you. The Football team and the Basketball team; all of the start athletes and the rich guys, what chance would someone like me ever have, with someone like you." I said.

"A lot more of a chance than you think," she started. "All of the guys you talked about have one thing in common. They all have one aspect of their personality, or some skill, that gives them confidence. It boosts their ego up to the point where they have the guts to go after anything. So guys like that, think that they deserve me. Or they want to be seen with me. I become just another accomplishment, or just another trophy. The guy I've been going out with for the past three weeks Butch Simpson, he's the quarterback on our football team. We've been going out for three weeks, now. I've sucked his dick until it was dry, and done all kinds of things with him, that I'm afraid to admit, and I just found out today that he doesn't even know what my last name is. He's also screwing two other girls besides me. I don't matter to him at all. I'm a notch on his bedpost. When I look at you and Sarah, I'm jealous sometimes. And sometimes when I hear you guys in the room, I'm very jealous because no one has ever done anything to me to make me scream like you make her. I've talked to her about it, and I just wondered why you picked her. Think about it sometime."

Shanna walked away and left me standing there with my mouth open. I was really flattered, but I didn't take it serious. A few days later Sarah was crossing the campus one night after an evening class and got run down by a speeder who never ever slowed down. Her hip was shattered and both of her legs were broken badly. There was also damage to some of her internal organs. She was taken to a hospital and immediately after her surgery transferred to a hospital back in her home state.

I'd been waiting to the porch in her building for her, studying in that big porch swing that they have when her house mother came out to give me the news. I freaked out and cried like a baby. Mrs. Dawson, their house mother drove me over to the hospital and I waited there for most of the night but they wouldn't let me see her. She hadn't regained consciousness anyway. My life took a drastic change from its path that day.

I barely made it to most of my classes. And the rest of the time I walked around in a fog. Sarah and I like most young people in love, thought that we were invincible and gave absolutely no thought to what could possibly happen. Not only did her parents not know that we were in love, they had no idea that I even existed. I tried to see them and introduce myself before they took her away, but in their own grief and misery, they had no time for me. Like them I had to go through my grief alone.

Surprisingly, Shanna visited me several times and tried to make me feel better. She often brought me food and forced me to eat. A couple of times she took me out for walks and let me talk about Sarah. She never spoke; she just listened as I poured my heart out over another woman. When we returned to school after the Christmas break, there was no word about Sarah and consumed with my own education, I just stopped asking after a while. Shanna and I moved into the friendship stage, I assumed she was just checking on me out of loyalty to Sarah somehow.

One night she just showed up at my dorm while I was trying to study, and dragged me away to a movie. Almost every person in the theater was wondering the same thing I was. What the hell was Shanna Burnett doing with that nerd? Most of them didn't even know my name. During the evening several of her ex friends or ex dates came over to talk to her, ignoring me in the process as if I wasn't there. I of course said nothing and finally when one of them sat down with us and started trying to hold her hand, excused myself and left.

A couple of hours later someone was knocking on my door. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep hoping she'd just go away. The next thing I knew she was standing in my room glowering at me, with her fists balled up. My room mate had let her in.

"Dude, do you even now who this is? It's Shanna," he said as if it explained everything. I don't think he knew what her last name was either.

"Why the hell did you just leave?" she yelled. She appeared to be on the verge of tears, which really confused me.

"Shanna you had three or four guys hanging around you, and more coming every minute. You had all of the attention you could handle. You didn't need me getting in the way." I said. "I appreciate everything you've done for me, and I'll tell everyone who asks that there's a different side of Shanna. I'll tell them how caring and concerned you were, and how you were there for me while I tried to get over what happened with Sarah. But really you've done far more than could be expected of a room-mate." I looked at my room-mate as I said this.

He just took up a shit eating grin, shrugged his shoulders and said, "Dude she's Shanna." He also showed no sign that he was leaving so we could talk in private. He just seemed to be staring at her from every angle possible.

"Earth to Tim," said Shanna heatedly. "Get your head out of your ass. Have you ever heard anyone talk about me and Mother Teresa in the same paragraph let alone the same sentence?" she looked at me as if I was one of the slow kids. "Tim, I'm sorry as hell for what happened to Sarah. I had to find two other people to do my English and History homework. But that's not why I've been hanging around you."

"Shanna, I don't do other people's homework," I said.

"Tim, have I ever asked you to do my homework?" she snapped. Then she turned towards my room-mate and caught him with his head tilted staring open mouthed at her ass. "Hey Doofus," she snapped at him. "Since you're still here, have you ever heard of me asking any guy to go out with me? Have you ever heard of me practically begging any guy to do anything with me?"

He shook his head, but never stopped staring at her. As she turned back towards me her breasts jiggled and I think he rubbed the region of his pants covering his dick. If this conversation didn't end soon he'd probably end up in full scale masturbation, right in front of us.

"Tim, I asked you to go to the movie with me tonight. But not because I'm trying to help you get over Sarah. I asked you because I wanted us to spend some time together. I just wanted it to be you and me, not you, me and Sarah's ghostly presence."

I thought about it, but the idea just seemed unreal. She had to have some kind of agenda or ulterior motive that I couldn't see. "Well, there wouldn't have been room for Sarah's ghost anyway, with all of the guys that showed up," I said. "And it's been 2 hours since I left, so you really couldn't have been that worried about me leaving." I also noticed that she wasn't wearing the same clothes that she'd had on when we first went to the movies.

"Tim, you can't blame me because those guys showed up. Some of them are friends, and some of them I didn't even know, but you were the one that I was there with. I tried telling some of them that and then the movie started, and I got so into watching it, and when the movie ended, I looked over to ask you how you liked it, and you weren't you. So I came over here to tell you off for leaving me. But I really just want to know why you don't like me?" she seemed upset. As if there was simply no logical explanation for someone, especially a guy not to be enthralled with her.

"Shanna, what was the name of the movie we went to see?" I asked her. She just got a blank expression on her face. "It was, Lord of the Rings," I said. "It's part of a trilogy," I continued. "Tonight, was the first episode, the Fellowship of the Ring, the movie is three hours long and hadn't started when I left a little over two hours ago. That means the movie that you looked over to ask me how much I liked it, is still going on right now. But you've had time to not only come over here but to change your clothes and from your smell, at least take a shower. I don't know what you want from me, but you should find another sucker." I grabbed one of my books off the table and left the dorm, still in the sweat-pants and T shirt I usually slept in. I didn't even take the time to put socks and shoes on. I slipped downstairs into the furnace room of the building and started reading next week's assigned chapter.