4. Unbridled Thoughts

The sun was just brightening up the afternoon when she pulled her brown BMW out of the hospital parking lot into the light traffic. She glanced at the digital clock on her dashboard and sighed.

One twenty two.

She had been rather been hoping to make it back to school in time for the second segment of the day after lunch break, but then, she hadn't known she was going to get some more bad news in the hospital—bad, perturbing news that would require her withgoing school for the day. On the hunt of a guy who lived on the other side of the city—and inadvertently, on the hunt of her sperm donor; her baby's daddy.

She glanced at the piece of paper again. Ryan Vice. Twenty four years old. She was supposed to be looking for a Ryan Vice who lived in a trailer house in Springfield.

She rubbed tiredly at her eyebrows. That was if she found him. People that lived in trailer houses didn't mean to stay in it for long, and Kiersey knew there was a fat chance of Ryan Vice still living in the same trailer house for so many years.

But she had to force herself to build some positive energy. To think positive thoughts. She could get lucky and find him still there, wearing large rubber gloves and apron and slugging chum into an iron bucket.

That was Kiersey's idea of how trailer people lived. In a more reasonable part of herself, Kiersey knew she was pretty close minded about some stuff. Some would even see it as snobbish and doctrinaire.

She smiled at this thought and looked out the window to her side at the traffic. She hardly had time to have thoughts such as these and when they came, she found that they pleased and amused her.

Still smiling, Kiersey realized how lonely and quiet it was. It was such a pity that she didn't have much friends. She didn't even think she had that close friends at all. She had had those in high school and college, she had even been best friends with her first year college roommate once, but that had all dissolved when they graduated and got married. They had just drifted apart—two friends separated by state and circumstances.

The girl's last number hadn't been going for a while when Kiersey still used to try it. She should probably look her one of these days. She was pretty sure she'd find her on F******k or I*******m or Twitter or something. You always found everyone online.

That aside, Kiersey thought, the reason she didn't have close friends had mostly been her fault. She had let Rocco dominate and dictate her life like a stupified dunce under the command of an hypnotist. She had let him order her what and what not to do, where and where not to go, who and who not to talk to.

And what had ended that? she thought bitterly. He had packed his stuff at the slightest hitch (which wasn't even her fault) and left a divorce letter.

The fucking bastard!

She worried the inner of her left cheek with her tongue as she split out of the traffic lane unto the side ramp that led to the other side of the city. 

But she was really relieved he had left. If what happened hadn't happened, she'll still be shivering in her socks and running around at his slightest twitch.

So she relaxed back into her seat and turned on the radio, welcoming the rap hip-hop with a contented sigh.

She drove on smoothly a few more minutes to the ramp exit and merged into the traffic below. This part of the city was slightly unfamiliar to her, so she turned on her phone GPS, groaning when she found out she still had about fifteen minutes before she reached her destination.

It was all that hospital's damn fault! If there hadn't been that stupid mix-up with the donor's file, she should have been back in school, taking the eleventh grade Economics class, or maybe even at home, lounging on a sofa in front of the TV in her socks with a bowl of chilly potato chips.

Kiersey swallowed at the last thought. It made her realize she was hungry. Potato chips sounded like the bee's knees right now.

Thumbing on her left indicator, she veered to the left side of the road, off into the small gas station that just happened to be nearby. To her glee, it had a mini mart to the side. Thank God for gas stations, she thought with relish.

She parked by the second pump, in front of a sleek, low, white Honda and topped up her gas then went into the mini mart to pay and get her goodies. A bell tinkled above the double doors as she pulled it open. Kiersey was greeted with the cool air in the building as she stepped in and made for the pay desk. It felt so nice to take a break from the slightly toasty air of the outside, even if only for a few minutes.

A guy in a white shirt and dark Adidas sweatpants was paying when she arrived at the desk. His long, brown, tinted hair was slightly wind tossed, like he had just come off a bike ride without helmet. But he looked like no biker. And it wasn't the slightest bit breezy outside. This made Kiersey believe it had been intentionally tossed.

She was only offered a side few of the guy, but what she saw intrigued her. His skin was bronze-gold with tan and the exposed flesh of his arm was smooth and tan with fine, dark hair. His hard face was equally smooth and had a serious, business-like look to it, even as he smiled at the female receptionist, exposing a beautiful set of teeth with a slight overbite. Kiersey could see a neat, dark eyebrow and long, thick eyelashes that almost made her swoon. His nose intrigued her the most, with the way it was long and pointed down towards his dusky rose lips. She gulped, impressed that she was impressed with what she saw. He had nice feet, tucked into some expensive sort of saddle-tan leather loafer-sandals with a braided vamp.

He looked to be in his late twenties, like her, or early thirties and was very tall and fit. The light shirt wasn't tight, but she could just see the flat planes of his stomach where the shirt stuck to his body. And his arms were all fit sinewy muscles. The sweatpants was loosely tied at the waist with the drawstrings dangling. Despite the casualness of his dressing, he exuded this breezy scent and aura of a high class folk. It was all in the way he smelled, dressed and moved, and the style and fashion of his outfit.

Kiersey had a feeling he hadn't really dressed like that for the outside. He must own the Honda she had seen outside.

She forced herself to look away, knowing she would start to seem like a pervert. It had only taken her a few seconds to glance at him and take note of all the details, but she still couldn't be too careful.

It actually gave her a strange kind of thrill in her chest that she was gladly looking at a man without being appalled at the action. Not that she hadn't done it before. Yes, she had mostly had eyes for her husband—err, ex-husband—but that had never stopped her from appreciating natural beauty when she saw one. The same way any other pious woman or man would look at a beauty twice without having any corrupt feelings about it. No harm done.

But in all of her oglings, Kiersey didn't think she had ever seen a man that her attention captured and approved as much as this guy. His features and physique just intrigued her the way no other person had. Now that she wasn't married anymore (almost), she could look at a man the way she liked and untame her bulging imagination.

She had only seen a side few, but she was filled with anticipative pleasure already. The receptionist would finish packing his stuff into the white nylon bag and hand it to him and he would be turning towards her to leave anytime soon, so she swept her unbridled thoughts to one side and went into the aisles to hunt for her potato chips.

She was slightly disappointed to find the space in front of the desk empty when she reappeared with an armful of snack bags. But it wasn't like she had expected him to wait for her, Kiersey reasoned, dumping her load on the table and reaching for her MasterCard.

She didn't know their paths were about to cross again, soon.