CHAPTER 1: Blind Dates Suck Monkey Balls
It was another failed blind date, how many single men could be left in the town, she thought taking a sip of her expensive wine. It seems every date gets cheesier than the last. Her mother set her up with this one, he was an upstanding republican who had his eye on a seat in the state legislature and on her breast. He was a decent guy, considering all guys obsessed about breast, who like most men his age was stuck on himself and even more so since he was a republican. She heard everything about his plans in the first ten minutes of the date and the past hour had been a review session of those plans as if they had changed in the short of a time. She got a free supper and a night to feel like a woman again and not a mother. There was a difference and she had never known there had been until she became a single mother. She had wanted to come to this restaurant some time and try the food so she couldn't complain about the person who get her there. What he was talking to her?
"You there." The man said kindly, "I wanted to know if you wanted to go with me to grab a night cap at a bar next door?"
"Sure." She needed something strong after this date, why not take it a little farther she hadn't gotten a nice meal like this in awhile and if her mind had not been consumed by work he might have been semi-interesting. He was a kind man even if he was stuck on himself and her breast. And now that she was to old to admit to herself her age, should she just fine the best man and settle with him with the hope that her ex-husband would finally see that it was over, she would never take him back. He daughter needed to understand love did exist even if her mother had not been able to find it. She didn't want her daughter, at her age now to become the bitter woman, like her mother was. Now to Lisa love was a for letter word she stopped looking for just after she found her husband with her best friend in their bedroom, with her than six year old daughter playing in the next room.
She got up and put her coat on over her short black dress. She loved the way the dress made her hips and butt look in it. Black was a slimming color that always made her feel sexy. It was the color she could wear the same exact dress in a different color and not feel the same way she did. She looked almost like she had a petite figure in the dress. She walked out of the restaurant with the man and the block to the bar. They were in downtown Peoria.
Peoria was not a small city, but it wasn't a big one. It was a nice size to have some variety, but not big enough to have anything worth wild. She walked into the smoky bar with the man who's name she hadn't remembered. Would that be a problem she didn't even know his name and she had been on a date with him for an hour now? She was horrible when it came to remembering names, and she found it to not be too bad because she remembered the names that she had to.
He ordered them drinks, another thing that got on her nerves he was so arrogant that he ordered for the both of them. That had been one of her pet peeves with her ex-husband he always ordered for them, what was so wrong with a woman ordering her own food?
She sipped her drink, and than saw him moving his arm towards her bare leg. She swiveled in her chair thinking, keep dreaming buddy. She finished her drink and looked at her watch it was nine her daughter would be waiting for her to get home to hear another postmortem.
"I really have to get home. Tonight was lovely thank you."
"What's the rush?" The man asked.
"My daughter, Elizabeth is home alone." She said getting up smiling at the look of shock when she mentioned her teenage daughter. Every man seemed to be afraid of a child, every time she brought Elizabeth up the man freaked out and that usually ended the date.
He didn't offer to call again and she was happy she wouldn't have to screen her phone calls. She smiled as she walked out of the bar. Where did she park her car? Shit it was still all the way down at of Main St. by the river. She'd have to walk the six blocks to her car. Walking down the unpopulated street seemed a bit creepy she began to wish that she would have made the date on a normal Friday, when the streets of downtown Peoria were more populated, instead of a Tuesday night when the streets were dead.
She reached in her purse and grabbed her keys and maze out. She hated walking down the dark road alone, but she wasn't about ready to ask him to walk her to the car either. She was halfway there when a man came running up to her. She turned around and sprayed him in the face with the maze. While he was still stunned by the masce she kicked him in the groin punching him in the face as he fell to the ground with a groan.
"You dropped your wallet!" The man said his voice holding a high pitch. He never once reached up at his eyes to clean out the mace, like most attackers would not knowing it would only make it worse. The man cringed in pain she had a hard kick, and a nice punch he thought as he stood up. He knew he'd have a bruise on his face, but besides the monumental pain of being kicked in the groin he was fine.
"Oh god I'm so sorry." She said feeing stupid for attacking him.
"It's ok I shouldn't have run up on you like that." The man said his eyes burning and he could barely see through the blurred vision. He smiled at her even though it was clear he was in pain, and as quick as he came he left again limping away towards the alley behind the bar.
She called to him, "I'm really sorry."
When he diapered down the alley she assumed into a bar, there seemed to be at least fifty of them on downtown Main St. she saw his wallet on the ground. She picked it up and walked towards the bar through the front door rather than the alley entrance. She looked around in the inside not finding him. Where could he have gone? She didn't just want to leave his wallet on the ground or with someone. She would have to try to find him tomorrow she needed to get home.
She walked to her car once she was inside she locked the doors and she opened the wallet and looked for the licenses. She found it, shit he was from California what the hell was he doing in Peoria? How in the hell was she going to find him now? She put the wallet in the seat beside her, forgetting about it nothing she could do now. She drove home smiling thinking about the unknown man. He seemed really kind, most people would have jut kept her wallet, but he actually ran up to her and gave it back. He was even kind after she attacked him really for no reason.
She pulled into her small neighborhood she had lived in almost her entire life. She left it for college and had stayed away after she meant her ex-husband. They had lived in L.A. but thing went sour and she left to go back home to Peoria. He followed closely behind never one to give up even after someone had given up on him. She bought the house down the street from her mothers house that was on the corner. Her mother was happy she was back in town and she helped her with the than little Elizabeth. Her asshole husband never really wanted to have much to do with their daughter until the divorce than that was all he wanted. Lisa believed in her heart, as much as she hated to, that the only reason he wanted something to do with Liz now was because he could see Lisa in the process. She knew she was blessed to have her mother to help her because she was able to reset up her career in Peoria. She was a now a respected distract attorney. It was a change at first when she got to town going from a high publicity major law firm lawyer in Los Angeles to being a small town distract attorney, if not just for the big town to the small town mentality the pay changed.
As she walked into her house she almost tripped over Liz's shoes "Elizabeth pick your shoes up. How many times do I have to tell you that we don't leave our shoes at the back door?"
"Sorry mom" Liz said sarcastically. She was a younger version of her mother, at least that was what everyone said. Liz was not fond of that observation, but no teenager was ever enthusiastic about looking like their parents. She grabbed her shoes and asked, "So how did it go?"
"Like the rest." Her mom said with a smile. "But something interesting did happen. I was walking to my car and this blonde guy comes running up to me. I thought he was going to attack me so I sprayed him with mace and than kicked him trying to incapacitate him. He was just trying to give me my wallet back I must have dropped when I pulled out my keys."
"You didn't mom?" Liz said horrified for a mother. Liz was a sixteen year old who was very intelligent. She was in all advance placement courses in her high school, and she maintained an A average if she would have tried a little she probably could have a 4.0 GPA, but she was a slacker at heart. She wasn't a preppy teenager she enjoyed her black clothes, but she also enjoyed dressing up occasionally. Her hair was cut short like her mothers. "Mom how are you ever going to get a man when you attack them?"
Liz would be happy if her mother never found a man. She knew what had transpired between her parents years ago, and she hated her father for it. He was still doing it now trying to run her mothers life and sleeping with anything that wasn't a man. "Mom when are you going to let me go get my licenses? Everyone else already has theirs. It's not fair." Liz hoped maybe was a good time to bother her mom with her feeling bad about attacking some unsuspecting stranger.
"Liz you will thank me one day for making you wait awhile." Lisa said walking into the bedroom to get out of her clothes.
"But mom it's so not fair. You could at least take me driving sometimes."
"Liz I'll think about it. Did you clean your room and get the laundry done?"
"Yes." Liz said with a sigh she knew her mom and she wouldn't get her licenses until she was eighteen probably.
"Did you get your homework done? I ran into Mr. Quaker earlier today and he told me that you didn't turn in a paper for him on Hamlet."
"He would just have given me a B and say I should work harder on the paper. I could spend a week on it and it's never good enough for him. And really what is there to say about Hamlet? He's a pussy who can't make his mind up so he acts crazy? Was he on drugs or what?" Liz said smiling she hated Hamlet she was more of a Macbeth person.
"What are you reading now?" Her mom asked this was the typical parent needs to know about child's life so ask a few questions to act like you care.
"Pride and Prejudice. Not to bad, I really like the Darcy guy and everyone else thinks I'm crazy for liking him. He acts stuck up, but he really isn't like that, he's just afraid of being himself."
"Very observant what makes you think that Liz?" Lisa asked smiling she had thought the same thing about him when she read the book. Liz had a lot in common with her mom, Lisa hoped not the disdain for love.
"Just the way he is. I think he is the strong and silent type that needs a little push." Liz smiled at her mom, "Can we rent the movie this weekend?"
"Will you have finished the book?" Lisa knew Liz just wanted to watch the movie so she didn't have to read the book. She did it to her once already doing it with Romeo and Juliet and the little sneak got an A on her paper only having seen the Leonardo film.
"um Sure." Liz said smiling she knew her mom had her.
"After you take the test we'll rent it. Now go to bed it's late."
"Mom it's only 9:30 it's not late."
"Fine go to your room than give me some peace lady."
"Night." She said hugging her mom before rushing off to her room to blast whatever music she was listening to that week.
Lisa walked down the hallway to her small bedroom. She sat on the bed exhausted from the days work. She had ten court cases going on at once. Most of them were gang related crimes, which made it extremely hard because most people did not want to come up and speak out against the gangs. She didn't blame them most of the police in Peoria were less than par, and the gangs ran the south end of town.
She sat on her bed with her boxer shorts and tank on. She grabbed her laptop and looked over the case information for the trail that would start in a few days. She reviewed all the information from witness reports to evidence reports and made a few more notes. She looked at the clock it was now 1 a.m. she had to be up by six. Where did the time go? She turned her laptop off and placed it back on the bed side stand. She turned the light off and curled up in her queen size bed. She hated sleeping in the big bed alone, it always made her feel extremely alone. She tried to put pillows in the bed with her, but that never worked. She always toyed with the idea of getting a new bed, but she always held out on the hope that she would find someone to share it with, and she loved the bed she had now. She would be damned if she got rid of the one possession left from her marriage that she loved. She thought about the blonde man as she drifted off to sleep. He seemed nice and he wasn't from Peoria, which held some hope for him.