They Say Love Is Blind

  "So I did good in choosing for you?"

  "Very good." Rice, beans, vegetables and meat; how could it get better than that? She glanced at him. She just had to know, and he'd started by asking her a question.

  "Can I ask you a question?"

  "Of course." He pushed back his bowl and gave her his full attention.

  "How did you see me when I was here the other day?" She was blushing furiously that he might think that she was bringing up a sensitive subject. Instead he gave her an easy smile. It made her heart flutter and the adrenalin rush to her head.

  "I heard you."

  "Was I that loud?"

  "I recognized the sound of your voice. And no. You weren't talking very loud. I can just hear very well."

  "You're...totally blind?"

  "Yes." He watched her intently. "I used to be able to see some...hazy, though, and shadowy. But that's been a long time ago." He seemed absolutely relaxed as he talked about this thing that must be incredibly devastating. She cleared her throat, and pushed on.

  "It really seems like you're looking at me."

  "Ahh." He turned away from her and reached for his iced tea.

  "I mean, I'm not complaining! It's just that...I thought you were looking at me."

  Lee smiled and looked at her again, looked her right in the eyes. "I am looking at you, Tory. I can't see you, but I can look at you just fine." He straightened in his stool. "I know exactly where you are by your voice. I know exactly where to look." She considered his words as she ate. He really couldn't see her. She took a big spoonful of food and chewed it quickly, so that she could continue talking without shooting food out of her mouth at him.

  "So...are you married, have a boyfriend?" He asked.

  She shook her head quickly, almost choking. "No." Her face was turning red again. "I'm single."

  "Just for the record, so am I."

  She stared at him with big eyes. Flirting again? Was this flirting, or was this just making friendly conversation? God, why couldn't she tell the difference?! She was doubting herself now. In a moment of desperation she just blurted out. "Ok, I'm going to be honest here. I'm not too swift in this area, but are you flirting with me?"

  Any look of amusement fell from his face. He watched her with a very serious expression. "Tory, I like you. I'll just make it plain, ok? I'd like to get to know you."

  Tory was quiet as she digested his words, trying to find a hidden meaning. After she examined it from all angles she found that there was nothing lurking behind those words. He liked her. Her heart was beating a mile a minute and breathing was becoming a real chore. Lee said that he liked her…But now the big question.

  "Why?"

  That question seemed to throw him for a loop because he opened and then closed his mouth, finally turning back to contemplate the last remnants of his soup.

  Maybe she would kick herself for this later, but the answer to that one simple question was the most important thing in the world to her right now.

  "What made you even notice me? I'm sorry if I'm putting you on the spot-"

  "It's not that." He turned to face her again. "It's just that I'm not usually this forward. I mean, I don't know anything about you yet...and the answer to that question might offend you."

  Offend her? She didn't know if she should prompt him to continue, or not. But she remained silent. His hands clasped in his lap and he sighed deeply.

  "I noticed you because you run for the bus every day."

  "What?" She looked at him in confusion.

  He sighed. "You run for the bus every day and when you get on you sound like you've just made love...and have been thoroughly satisfied." Tory's heart jumped in her chest, her cheeks flamed. He continued. "The first time I heard that...I could barely stand up to get off the bus. I look forward to that sound every day, Tory. And then, one day you fell into my lap and...well, I wasn't lying when I said that it was truly my pleasure."

  Tory's mouth gaped open and she was momentarily speechless. No man had ever said anything so sexy to her in her entire life! She was practically trembling with emotion—and another, more earthy, sensual feeling that sprouted from her stomach and spread warm fingers between her thighs and across her puckering nipples.

  She finally blew out a slow calming breath and looked at Lee who was still awaiting her reaction. Swiftly she leaned over to kiss his cheek.

  He turned to her, surprised, his mouth slightly ajar, lips full and delicious; so much so that Tory could barely take her eyes from them.

  "You are very sweet." He said honestly. "Can I see you?"

  She searched his face before answering. "Yes."

  Lee reached out tentatively. His fingertips came in contact with her cheeks first. Lightly he traced its contours. His eyes took on a distant expression as he concentrated. His fingertips moved lightly to her ears and then down her neck and up the back, over her hair line which was pulled up into a French twist. Quickly he rubbed a few strands of her hair through his fingertips.

  It wasn't fine like his hair or his sister's hair. Did he even know that she was African American? Did that matter to him?

  His fingers moved to her forehead and then ever-so-lightly over her eyes, nose, than lips. At her lips he hesitated and then using one thumb, dragged her bottom lip down slightly.

  Before thinking, she lightly drew her lips together and kissed the tip of his finger, then she flushed, embarrassed. What was she doing?!

  Lee tilted his head, perhaps thinking the same thing. But then his fingers traveled across her shoulders, boldly grazed over her breasts—which caused her breathing to become heavier. His hands, still travelling downward moved over her belly and then lightly up her sides.

  By that time, Tory could barely catch her breath. She didn't want him to hear her breathing heavy because she knew that's how he 'saw' her, with his ears and now with his hands. But wishing something didn't prevent it from happening and her nipples ached to be touched, the space between her legs thrummed almost painfully.

  "Thank you." He whispered while allowing his hands to drop from her body.

  "I...better-" She stood, "it's getting late." She picked up her purse with shaky hands and began digging into it for money. "How much is this-?" She was incredibly uncomfortable.

  "Tory, it's on me. Please. Let me walk you to your car or call you a cab."

  She shook her head. "No. I can just take the bus."

  "Are you sure?" A look of disappointment crossed his face.

  She nodded. When he didn't respond she quickly said yes.

  "Well let me at least walk you to the bus stop-"

  "You don't have to do that."

  He suddenly looked unhappy. His expression fell and a shadow replaced the disappointment. She suddenly realized that it appeared as if she was giving him the brush off, or that she didn't think that he was capable of escorting her. In actuality, it was something much more basic; Tory was so turned-on that she thought a strong wind might send her over the edge! She just wanted to get away from the source of her torment as quickly as she could.

  "Actually...it is pretty dark. Would you walk with me?" He nodded and reached into his pocket for his wallet, pulling out several bills, which he dropped onto the bar.

  "You can be my cane tonight." He held out his arm for her.

  His cane! She hoped she wouldn't cause him to trip! She slipped her fingers around his arm, unable to stop herself from brushing his biceps with the back of her fingers. Hmmm, hard as a rock.

  "Just walk at a normal pace." Tory headed to the entrance. The hostess gave her an appraising look before telling them good night.

  "Is that one of your sisters?"

  "No. That's Rosalind. I grew up with her, though." Tory wasn't very swift with certain things, but she could easily see when a woman felt that she had a stake in a man, and Rosalind had that

  look. Tory paused and slowly stepped across the threshold. He crossed smoothly a moment after her.

  "I'm sorry about making you u
ncomfortable in there." She was about to deny it but he continued. "We discussed some things that I definitely would not have touched with a ten foot pole until…I knew you a lot better." He glanced at her and innocently licked his lips, causing a strange effect in the pit of her stomach; it felt like someone had touched her with a tazer! He wanted to know her better…

  "It's ok." She responded too quickly. "It's just that all this time I thought I sounded like a fat lady breathing heavy." He didn't respond and she covered the uncomfortable silence. "I don't remember seeing you on that bus before. I don't ride it every day..." but she would have remembered him.

  "I moved here from across town. I used to come this way to eat at the Jewel a few times a week and to visit my sisters. I think I just decided to sacrifice proximity to work for proximity to family. It was a smart move."

  "What do you do?"

  "I work for a publishing company converting books to Braille. We work with a lot of instructional manuals, and teaching aids, but also on demand. If someone wants the latest...Stephen King novel then we will convert it for them."

  "Do you like doing that type of work?"

  "I love it. I can set my own hours, work from home when I want. All I need is to meet my deadlines. Plus I get to learn new things. I converted an instructional manual for how to build a kit car. I don’t know too many visually impaired car builders but…hey."

  Tory chuckled. Lee had a sense of humor and he didn’t seem to view his blindness as an untouchable topic. They came to the curb marking the end of the block and Tory abruptly stopped walking. "Okay, in about three steps from here we're going to come to the curb."

  Lee's lip curled in amusement.

  "Thank you, Tory. Just take the step first and I'll follow." She did and smoothly he followed. She gave him an impressed look.

  "What?" He asked, turning to her.

  She was speechless. Sometimes like this, it was like he could really see her. "How did you know that I was looking at you?"

  Once she had guided him back to the next curb and stepped onto the walk, he stopped and turned to her. "Close your eyes." She did, after a slight hesitation. "Are they closed?"

  "Yes." He didn't speak. She concentrated on the darkness. Then she felt something move past her face and her head flinched back a fraction of an inch.

  "Did you feel that?"

  Tory opened her eyes, "Yeah. What did you do?"

  "What did it feel like I did?"

  She thought for a moment. "You waved your hand in front of my face."

  "Munte bom!" He said. "Very good. That's exactly what I did."

  "Moon-te..." She tried to repeat.

  “Munte." He corrected her pronunciation. “Moo-in-two bom. Very good."

  "Munte bom," she said.

  "Very good, bela."

  "Bela?"

  "Beautiful."

  She grinned shyly.

  "It's the first thing a person wants to do when they find out you're blind. So, to answer your question...if you could sense that after being blind for five seconds imagine how much I can sense after being blind all of my life."

  "Wow." He took her arm and gently wrapped it around his and they continued walking.

  "Tory?"

  "Yes?"

  "Why do you run for the bus every day?"

  She laughed. He was not letting that go. "Because...I'm a procrastinator. Okay? Time seems to slip by me despite my good intentions. Besides," she continued shyly. "If you didn't hear me breathing heavy in the morning you'd have to rely on the hoochie Mama from the bus to titillate you."

  He chuckled. "Or I can just wait for the bus driver to take off real fast and cause you to fall into my lap again."

  Tory squeezed his arm in good humor and he sighed. "Tell me about yourself; everything. I want to feel like I know you--more than I already do."

  As they walked the remaining eight blocks, arm in arm, Tory explained about being an only child. She thought he was so lucky to have such a big family. She hadn't really been anywhere exciting, not much further then the same city where she had been born and raised. Her job was pretty boring which made it tedious. She spent all day on the telephone doing customer service and filling orders for a major department store. And her love life...well she didn't even bring that up.

  Lee was the one to stop when they got to the bus stop; Tory had been so preoccupied answering his questions that she had forgotten all about leading him and it seemed that it was he that was now leading her.

  "Tory, I can't believe that you've never been further than Kentucky!" He led her to the bench and they sat down. She winced. Her feet ached and her body was tight.

  "Not having a car has made that difficult." He just raised a brow.

  "When will your bus arrive?" She dug into her bag for the bus schedule. "Less than ten minutes."

  He reached for her hand. "Tired?"

  She smiled shyly. "Yes. This is quite a walk for me." She looked at her hand in his; hers brown and his much paler.

  "You were limping near the end. Maybe next time we can meet...some place closer?"

  "Oh." She tried to stay very cool but her heart was beating a mile a minute. "Like, where?"

  "Well, I don't go out all that much. But I do like live music. Club Kat is right across the street..." She glanced where he gestured. She could hear a live band playing. It wasn't what she would normally listen to but the beat was hard and it made her want to move her body. She turned to him in time to see an expectant, hopeful look on his face. Was that a look of insecurity? How is it that a man as sexy as him could ever be insecure? She gripped his hand.

  "That sounds like fun, Lee."

  He seemed to relax. "Tomorrow is Friday; how is that?"

  "Can I ask you a question first?"

  "Certainly."

  "What's your full name?"

  He gave her a twisted smile. "I'm so sorry. I've asked you out for a date and you know nothing about me." The bus rounded the corner and Tory's smile dropped. "Let me introduce myself before that bus whisks you away. I'm Leandro Eduardo das Torres...or just Lee Torres." He frowned and cocked his head, standing with her hand still clasped in his. So, give me your phone number and I'll call you later tonight."

  "Just call it out to you?"

  "Yes." He smiled. "I have a great memory." She did as he asked and watched him repeat it once before nodding his head. The bus pulled up in front of them and she reluctantly slipped her hand from his grip.

  "Bye, bela."

  Her body tingled at that word. "Bye, Lee." She climbed onto the bus and watched him until the bus rounded the block. A date. Oh God, a date with the sexy man from the bus; Leandro Eduardo das Torres! She closed her eyes, collapsing back against the seat.

  Tory got home and didn't know what to do with herself. He said he'd call tonight. She changed out of her work clothes—especially the shoes, putting on her furry slippers. Then she sat curled up in her armchair with her cell phone right at her finger tips. She replayed her entire evening with him, blushing when she said something foolish, tingling when he did something sexy.

  "bela..." She said quietly and then the phone rang. She jumped, sending it falling to the floor. "Oh no!" She leaped up and went scampering for it, hoping that it hadn't shattered! It rang again and a relieved gust issued from her lungs.

  "Hello?" She said, trying to sound calm.

  "Ola, Tory."

  It was him! "Ola, Lee."

  "Were you busy?"

  "No." She started pacing nervously. "I was just relaxing." She sat down quickly and pretended to relax.

  "Thank you for coming out. I enjoyed spending time with you."

  "Thanks for inviting me." She said shyly.

  "Tomorrow, meet me at the club. I'll be outside waiting for you. Is that okay?"

  "Okay. That sounds great."

  "Did you want to meet right after work...or did you want to go home first...?"

  "Umm. How about right after work? Then there's no chance of me missing the bus and
leaving you waiting." He chuckled.

  "Sounds like a plan."

  "Then I should see you a few minutes after six."

  "Okay. Adeus, Tory."

  "Adeus Lee." She hung up the phone and shook her head, a smile still on her face. She could not believe how things had worked out.

  CHAPTER 4