Chapter 8
The following day dawned cold and damp and the riders left their bunks among grunts and yawns. Dark clouds threatening with rain hovered above in the sky, leaving the inside of the bunkhouse dark and in shadows. Jimmy lit a lamp which brightened the large room with its dim light, and it was then that his eyes fell on Kid, who was getting dressed in silence.
Unsure of how to address his friend, Jimmy stared at him for a few minutes and finally decided to say the first thing that crossed his mind at the moment. "Hey, Kid, we didn't hear you come back last night." When they had gone to bed, the Southerner hadn't been back yet, and Jimmy had feared that his words had caused more havoc than he had intended.
"Uh... no ... I lost track of time and ... well... it was a bit late," Kid replied clumsily, not getting into much detail about the previous night. In fact, he had been so wrapped up in his animated conversation with Lou that before either of them realized it, it was quite late. Kid couldn't say he regretted losing some of his so much needed sleep as he had really enjoyed her company. Despite the fiasco of their first encounters, they had really got on well last night and he felt laid-back and comfortable in her presence. They had been joking and talking about a bit of everything for hours and not even the coldness of the night had bothered them any.
"Kid..." Jimmy continued awkwardly. He knew he had to apologize to his friend, something he never felt comfortable doing but he needed to do so this time. "I'm sorry about what I said last night. I had no right to stick my nose in your matters."
"You're right," Kid simply said, not completely over his irritation about what had happened the night before.
"We made a mistake," Buck added. "Doritha is your girl, and we respect that."
Kid nodded and his coldness melted at his friends' sincere words. "It's all right, boys. Let's just forget about it."
All the riders, except Ike who had left early on a ride, smiled and carried on getting ready for the day. The bunkhouse was in complete silence, but the quietness didn't last as Cody piped in, "So Kid, where did you go and lose yourself to last night?"
The question did not catch the Southerner off guard as he expected the questioning from his friends. "Nowhere especial," he muttered as he smoothed his mattress and rearranged the bedding on his bunk.
"Doritha came here looking for you," Noah added as he did up the last buttons of his shirt.
At Noah's words Kid stopped the task at hand and turning to him he asked surprised, "Did she?"
"The poor girl went crazy when we told her that we didn't know where you were," Cody continued, admiring his own reflection in the small mirror on the wall.
Kid resumed the rearranging of his bunk and didn't try to say anything. He would have a word with Doritha later, but at least he was glad that she had come for him last night. Maybe she wanted to straighten things out between them.
"You didn't take Katy," Buck insisted. They were all curious where their friend had mysteriously disappeared. Usually when Kid became angry or had a bad day, he either took a ride with his mare or spent hours with her in the stables, brushing her down. Yet, last night it had been out of the ordinary as Kid hadn't come any closer to his beloved horse.
"I simply walked to town," he answered, disregarding the whole thing.
Cody smirked at his words and as usual his mind and his mouth traveled faster than his common sense. "So did you have a nice time at the saloon?" he asked, mischief showing in his bright blue eyes and his smirk.
"I didn't go to the saloon," Kid exclaimed, walking to the pegs by the door and grabbing his gun belt.
Cody exchanged a knowing look with his fellow riders and continued in the same teasing tone, "Don't worry, Kid. We won't tell Teaspoon, will we, boys?"
Kid puffed in exasperation and tired of Cody's comments he snapped, "I told you, Cody. I didn't go any nearer the saloon."
"Really?" Cody responded, not completely believing his friend. It was Kid they were talking about and he never frequented the saloon, but well... after all he was a man and the flesh was weak. It had been his birthday last night, and after arguing with his girlfriend, nobody would blame him for trying to find some entertainment and maybe company somewhere else. "So where did you go then?"
"I just walked, I told you," he replied in a low voice, tired of the conversation.
"All that time?" Noah asked this time, as curious as Cody was.
"Kid, you were gone for hours," Buck added.
The Southerner rolled his eyes at his fellow riders' avid curiosity; definitely there was nothing secret in this bunkhouse of theirs and knowing that they wouldn't give up till he talked, he simply said, "I bumped into a friend." He hoped that they left the matter then and there; he didn't want to talk about Louise as he knew how they would react if he mentioned anything about her. He knew them well enough to guess where their thoughts would go.
"What friend?" Jimmy asked with a frown. He didn't remember Kid talking about having any other friends in town apart from themselves. Obviously they knew people but they were mere acquaintances, nobody they had any friendship bonds with.
"A friend of mine," the Southerner muttered, fearing that his evasive replies would fuel their curiosity even more.
"Who?" Noah insisted.
Kid let out his held breath in exasperation and this time his answer came out in a loud tone. "Look. You don't know her…" His reply came in a rash and when he realized what he had clumsily said, it was too late to take it back. So the reaction he had dreaded was almost automatic.
"Her?" the four riders exclaimed in chorus.
"A girl?" Jimmy asked, his lips twitching with amusement.
"Good going, Kid. That's really my kind of night," Cody quipped, snickering.
"Stop getting those ideas," Kid warned them. "We simply talked."
"I heard that's what they call it nowadays," Noah added, which sent his friends in a fit of laughter.
"Of course," Jimmy continued, "if my girl won't talk, I'd look for some good conversation somewhere else."
Their hints and insinuations were starting to irritate the Southerner. He didn't like them to imply that he would deceive Doritha with another woman. Besides, it wasn't right they talked about Lou like that. What they had last night had been clean and without any other intentions, and nobody should stain it with that kind of insinuations. Moreover, Louise was a good and decent girl and his friends had no right to imply anything about her along those lines.
"Will you drop it?" Kid barked furiously. "Nothing happened. We talked and that's it. End of the discussion!"
"Don't get so riled up," Buck tried to soothe him, feeling that they had gone too far with their silly comments. "You know, it's just men talk."
"Talk about something else for a change then and leave me alone, will you?" the Southerner retorted coldly.
Cody took a seat at the table and muttered, "We never believed you could pull that one anyway. You're just too damn honorable."
Kid didn't try to retort Cody's comment and instead glared at him, not happy how he made everything sound so cheap. Of course he was a man of honor; that was the way he had been raised and it angered him how some of his friends sometimes made it sound as if it were an insult. Things were different here, but Kid just couldn't forget those values that he had grown up with. He believed that men should treat women in a certain fashion no matter the circumstances. If that was his sin, so let it be. He wasn't going to be ashamed for feeling the way he did.
In that moment the door opened and Rachel appeared. The tension in Kid's expression didn't go unnoticed by the lady and she asked, "Kid, everything all right?"
"Yes, Rachel," he replied, trying to shush away his growing irritation and went to sit at the table, as far from Cody as possible, at least for the moment. He was sick and tired of all these out-of-tune comments and being the center of his friends' tease.
Rachel eyed him curiously but as the rider didn't elaborate any further, she decided to dismiss the whole matter and addressing all the riders she said, "Boys, when you finish breakfast, we need to go to town for provisions."
Her words followed a stream of protests from the riders as going to the general store in food expeditions wasn't their favorite activity at all. "But Rachel, the weather is awful!" Cody complained loudly, voicing what his fellow riders were also thinking. He wasn't happy with any extra job, but going to Tompkins' store and loading the wagon under the rain wasn't something he was looking forward to even though it meant going to town. Today he was supposed to have a real quiet day; he had no rides scheduled and all he initially had to do was clean the tack room in the cozy warmth of the stables.
"Mr. Cody, you should be the last one to moan by the way you gobble," Rachel replied, not surprised by her charges' long faces at all. "Next time you sit at this table and there's nothing on your plate, I don't wanna hear any of your protests."
"Yes, ma'am," The blonde rider let out with a very unhappy expression.
An hour later they were all on their way to the general store. Even though the station was just at the other end of town, the riders took their horses while Noah drove the buckboard with Rachel sitting by his side on the seat. A continuous fine rain was falling over Rock Creek and the town main street was almost empty of its usual flow of people coming and going in their daily activities. Folks had run to find shelter away from this damp weather and the only people in sight were the Pony Express riders approaching the local store. Cody hadn't stopped whining about Rachel's "bright" idea of choosing today for this errand, but of course careful that his words didn't reach the station mistress's ears; he didn't want to spark her anger once again. The others listened to his protests without uttering a single word since they knew that their whining wouldn't take them anywhere, and they would end up doing the job anyway. Noah drove the wagon a few hundred feet ahead of them while the other four riders followed behind. As they rode past the hotel façade, something or rather somebody caught Kid's eye.
At that moment Lou stepped out of the hotel, carrying a bucket and some cloths. Without much delay she left the pail on the floor and started cleaning the windows. She grunted and moaned in a low voice while she performed the task, not understanding why her boss made her waste her time and efforts in such a useless chore. Only a man would consider it appropriate to clean the windows in this awful weather.
Kid stopped Katy in the middle of the street and kept staring at her as she soaped the big widows with great energy, oblivious that somebody across the street was watching her with deep interest. Noticing that the Southerner had fallen behind, the three riders stopped their horses and turning his attention to him Jimmy called, "Hey Kid, what on earth are you doing?"
The sandy-haired rider shifted his eyes to his friends and fumbled to find an excuse to his behavior. "Uh... you go ahead, boys. I'll catch up with you later," he finally said, unable to come up with anything better.
"Where are you going?" Buck asked.
"Uh... I ... I need to see to something. Won't be long," Kid replied clumsily, indecision clear in his stance.
His words didn't sit well with Cody at all and the blonde rider added in a whining voice, "Good try, Kid, but you won't get out of this so easily. Don't you think we'd rather be lazing around somewhere cozy and warm as well?"
"Cody, I'm not planning to skip out of our responsibilities!" Kid retorted, really tired of having to offer so many explanations about what he did or didn't do. He just wanted to go up to Louise and have a few words with her. Yet, he didn't dare voice his true intentions to his friends, especially after the hard time they gave him this morning when he had clumsily mentioned her. As soon as they learned that his 'mysterious' friend from the night before was a 'she', they had all jumped to the same conclusions. And all because it was a girl! Couldn't a man and a woman be just friends? He really liked Louise; she seemed very nice and amiable, and after their conversation from last night, Kid knew that she didn't have any friends in Rock Creek. Apparently, she had barely been living in the town for three months, just a bit longer than Kid had himself.
The three riders didn't make the least attempt to continue riding towards the store and with a bitter gesture Kid said, "Will you please go off? I will follow straightaway!"
"All right," Jimmy replied as the three of them turned their horses in the direction of the mercantile but before they set off, Cody said, "I warn you, my friend, if you don't turn up in ten minutes, I won't let you live this down."
"Go!" Kid spat and finally the three friends rode on and when he made sure they weren't paying him any attention, he slid off Katy and tethered the horse to the hitching post. Louise hadn't noticed his presence yet as she was very intent on the chore she was carrying out. Kid approached her slowly from behind and called her name softly, "Louise?"
Lou swirled around in a flash, almost startling him while she barked loudly, "What now?"
"It's just me. Kid." the rider said, lifting his arms in surrender. "Please don't hit me."
Realizing who was behind her, she relaxed and chuckled at his remark. "Sorry," she let out in a tiny voice as she looked him up and down. All his clothes were soaking wet from the ride under the rain that continued falling steadily. They were in the middle of the covered walkway and a puddle of water was forming on the wooden floor at Kid's feet.
Noticing where her eyes were, Kid added teasingly, "Don't worry, Lou. I won't step on your clean floor inside. I learned my lesson the first time. You made me understand it very clearly."
Louise chuckled, embarrassed at remembering how awfully rude and unladylike she had behaved when she had first met the man in front of her. She always tended to be a bit too temperamental and felt unable to control her gut reactions. Louise hadn't thought much of Kid back then, but now she saw him with new eyes. Last night she had really enjoyed his company; sometimes she felt quite lonely in this town, and even though she was very scrupulous about whom she allowed coming closer to her, she had let her guard down with Kid. He seemed quite a nice fella and there was nothing wrong in sharing a chat and some laughs with him.
"Having a bad day?" Kid asked, referring to her rude response when he had first approached her.
"Figures," Lou muttered, her lips stretched in a thin line. "Washing the windows in this rain; my idea of great fun."
Kid grinned at her exaggerated pout and asked again, "How come?"
"How come? Well... just because my boss is a moron, that's why!" she exclaimed loudly, not caring to lower her tone; her eyes shining with anger and frustration.
Kid burst out laughing at her reaction, and Louise couldn't help but unwillingly join in his mirth. "You'd better not let him catch any of this or you'll be out of a job," he offered while the girl simply shrugged her shoulders in indifference. Kid thought that definitely he had never met any woman like her before. She was so passionate in her opinions and so sure of herself that filled the rider with genuine admiration. Obviously, there was no guessing as far as she was concerned; everything was straightforward, no mixed truths and she obviously spoke her mind no matter the consequences. "Anyway," he continued after a while, "I came here to thank you for keeping me company last night ... and for dinner."
Lou raised one eyebrow while she peered at him with a skeptical expression. "For cold sausages?" she asked, her hands resting on her hips.
"Well... there was nothing better, was there?" he replied. "You should come to the station one day and try Rachel's cooking."
Lou smiled at him, well aware that she wouldn't be able to accept his invitation though his offering was genuine. He was engaged to be married, and even though she usually didn't care what was proper or what people might think, she didn't consider it appropriate to hang out with him more than what was acceptable. "By the way," she continued, trying to change the direction of the conversation, "did you sort out things with your friends?"
"Uh huh," Kid nodded and Louise asked again, "And with your girl?"
"Well... not yet," he let out with a serious expression, still unsure how he felt about the fight he and Doritha had the night before.
"You scared?" Louise insisted, her eyes gazing into his with a mixture of amusement and curiosity.
"Guess so," Kid admitted with an ample smile. "Definitely you're a clever girl."
Louise laughed heartily and picking up the cloth from the pail, she resumed her cleaning. She didn't want to risk being caught chit-chatting and getting another scolding. So if Albert or Mr. Grigson suddenly turned up, they wouldn't be able to say anything against her if she was doing her duty. At least, the task was more tolerable having the company of Kid for the moment.
While the Southerner and Louise were having this conversation, the three riders reached the store where Rachel and Noah were already waiting. Noticing the group of riders reduced down to three, the blonde woman asked, "Where's Kid, boys?"
"He said something about seeing to something there down the street," Jimmy explained as he pointed at where they had left their friend a minute ago.
Rachel turned her eyes to the direction Jimmy had motioned and the other men followed her example, trying to catch sight of Kid. From their position they could see their friend in animated conversation with a girl at the hotel front.
"Who is that?" Rachel asked with a frown, not peeling her eyes off the pair.
"Must be his 'new' friend," Buck answered with a knowing smirk.
"What new friend?" the blonde station mistress continued, her curiosity suddenly perked by the riders' information.
"Apparently he hung out with her last night," Noah explained, "or at least we gather it's her."
"She's nothing much to look at," Cody remarked, trying to get a good view of the girl but from their position at the door of Tompkins' store all he could see was a petite young girl still in braids and a very unbecoming dress. "She's still a child."
"Cody, don't be so mean. It's not very gentlemanlike to talk like that about a girl you don't even know," Rachel chided and as an afterthought she added, "Besides she's not that young. I think she might be around your age." From what little she could make out, Rachel was sure that this girl was older than what people could first think. Her appearance could be somehow deceptive, but there were features and signs that any woman could clearly see.
Cody shrugged his shoulders indifferently, losing his interest in this girl Kid seemed to have befriended. When the Southerner had mentioned her this morning, Cody's imagination had run wild and all kinds of juicy thoughts had invaded his always active mind, but watching the reality now, Cody felt betrayed and disappointed. She looked like somebody's little sister and nothing at all like the image of the woman he had imagined to be like.
"If I'm not wrong," Jimmy started when an idea had crept into his mind, "this is the same girl he told us about a while ago, the one he apparently had an argument with, remember, Cody?"
"No," the blonde rider replied, not making the slightest attempt to refresh his memory.
"Come on, boys," Rachel said. "Let's go. I guess Kid wouldn't appreciate being spied on like that by all of us. You heard him last night."
The four riders nodded, and they all started walking towards the inside of the store, but stopped short as Jimmy's voice sounded enigmatically, "Oh oh."
"What now?" Rachel turned to him with a quizzical expression.
"I'm afraid our friend's in deep trouble," Jimmy explained as he stretched his hand towards the other end of the street. Four pairs of eyes followed his lead and they instantly understood what Jimmy was referring to. Doritha was walking towards where Kid was, still in conversation with this new girl, and as soon as his fiancée spotted him, there was no doubt that she was anything but pleased. Her steps quickened and her whole demure became stiff.
"Kid's a dead man," Cody remarked with a serious expression, but secretly enjoying the spectacle they were up to see. Even though he hadn't been open to express his feelings about Doritha Simmons, there wasn't much difference from what his friends thought. It was high time that Kid showed the girl that she wasn't the only woman in the world. Cody had the impression that Kid's fiancée acted as if she had the Southerner for sure and didn't really care about what he felt or thought. She really needed a good lesson. His train of thought was cut off by Rachel's voice.
"All right, boys. Let's finish what we came here for," she said. "Leave Kid to deal with his own problems; he's a grown-up man."
Cody made a disappointed face and wailed exaggeratedly, "Oh, Rachel! Not now that it was getting interesting!"
The lady couldn't help but chuckle while she rolled her eyes. These boys could be such a handful and got on her nerves most of the time, but she wouldn't have them any other way, even Cody. He could be a bit too much sometimes, but this family wouldn't be the same without the blonde rider's special humor and wisecracks. "Come on, Mr. Cody," she said as she placed her hands on the boy's back and forced him to step into the store. "I'll buy you a book to keep you entertained."
"Why, thank you, Mrs. Dunne," Cody retorted as he let her steer him inside the mercantile, away from the scene that had stole all his attention.
Meanwhile, Doritha made her way down the walkway, red with anger. As soon as she woke up this morning, she was determined to go and talk to Kid about last night's disaster. Things had gotten out of hand and she regretted losing her temper like that. Despite his soft and noble nature, Doritha knew that Kid was a proud man and wouldn't appreciate her talking like that. Her mother always said that women could do with men whatever they wanted. All they needed was a great dose of subtlety and persuasion. Doritha knew that was a great truth as she had personally used her womanly powers to get everything she put her mind into. Obviously she had tried to use Kid's love for her to her own convenience, but it was clear that her fiancé wasn't as pliant as she had thought. So when he had left her house all fiery-like, she had lost no time to excuse herself with her guests and searched him out at the station. To her sheer dismay he wasn't there and all through the night Doritha had wondered where he had wound up and especially with whom.
This morning Doritha had woken up earlier than usual and after having a few bites for breakfast, she had headed for the station once again, ready to talk to Kid. When she got there, nobody was around, so she imagined they would all have gone to town. The blonde girl decided to leave her wagon there and continued her search on foot. It had been an arduous task to drive the wagon in the rain as the ground was all muddy and slippery. Doritha wasn't very good at carriage-driving since she was used to having somebody doing the job. In Virginia Luther, one of the family slaves, used to do the job and Doritha wished she could have those standards here in Rock Creek. Anyway, on any other occasion she would have made Mary drive the buggy, but she didn't want anybody to tag along when she talked to Kid. Mary was quite an efficient maid, but she tended to gossip around much to Doritha's dismay. As a matter of fact, she had caught the maid one day backbiting with the cook more than once.
Doritha crossed the station yard, holding her unfurled parasol with one hand over her head and the other hitching up her long skirt, trying to avoid getting it smeared with mud from the ground. Finally, after avoiding all the muddy puddles, she reached the covered walkway and hardly had she walked a few hundred feet before her eyes spotted Kid straightaway. She smiled widely in contentment, but suddenly that grin turned into a scowl as she spied him talking to that common girl from the hotel again.
Her steps quickened as her anger built up. They had already argued about this once before, and she had clearly stated that she didn't like him talking to that horrible girl. There was something in her that Doritha disliked, and it angered her to think that Kid had turned a deaf ear to her words and was chitchatting with her behind her back.
Kid was so wrapped up in his conversation with Lou that he was oblivious to anything else around him. He hadn't noticed that Doritha was walking towards him at all, much less noticing she was in a foul mood and only when loud steps reached his ears, he turned his eyes towards those sounds and literally paled when he saw his fiancée. Noticing that he had stopped short in what he was telling her, Lou directed her gaze to him and following the direction his eyes were looking at, she spotted that girlfriend of his plodding towards them. In no time the furious lady reached them and Louise was quick to come up with a way to steer clear of the couple.
"If you don't need anything else, sir, I need to go back inside," Lou muttered, collecting her bucket.
"Uh ... no," the Southerner mumbled clumsily, "Thank you" He tipped his hat to her and exchanging a quick look with him, Louise headed inside. On passing by the blonde lady, Louise lifted her head proudly and never flinched when Doritha glared at her in such a way that expressed her clear desires that the brown-haired girl was swallowed by the earth for ever.
Kid was glad that Louise had covered for him even though it seemed that Doritha's mood hadn't changed with her words. He knew that there was no shame or harm in having an innocent conversation, but something told him that his fiancée wouldn't see it in the same light. Turning his eyes to the blonde girl, he greeted her with a nervous smile, "Hello, honey."
Doritha didn't respond to his greeting and instead she asked coldly, "What were you talking with her about?"
"Nothing special," he let out gravelly.
"Why is it that whenever I turn away, you're talking with her?" she barked furiously.
"That's not true and you know it!" Kid defended himself, dumbfounded at her illogical accusations.
"We already talked about this, and you promised me you wouldn't come near her again!" Doritha continued, her eyes bright with sheer anger.
"I didn't do such a thing!" Kid retorted, hating to hear her making up words he had never said. He had never promised her to stop talking to Lou, but rather the opposite. He had clearly stated that he didn't like anybody telling him who he should or shouldn't talk to. "She's just somebody I know, and I don't understand what all the fuss is about!"
"I don't like her!" she growled, her words filled with resent and venom.
"Yes, you clearly let me know yesterday that you don't like any of my friends. You don't need to remind me," Kid drawled sharply, his blue eyes watching her with a very cold shine.
His words were like a slap and Doritha sobered immediately. "I talked without thinking, Kid!" she excused herself. "You angered me and ... I don't know what came over me!"
"You said some terrible things about the people who mean a lot to me," Kid insisted, not softened by her apologies at all.
"I know," Doritha whispered. "I didn't mean any of that, honestly."
Kid kept staring at her skeptically; those comments weren't ones to be made in the spur of the moment, but rather something that she had let come out in the open willingly. Nobody could speak with that fierceness and security and not feel those words as true. Yet, Kid knew that he couldn't be angry with her much longer. As Lou had well said the night before, there was nothing he could do if there were no warm feelings between his family and Doritha. You couldn't rule people and force them to feel something that they didn't.
"Please Kid, forgive me," she said, her eyes pleading with him.
His irritation vanished as he thought he could hear the sincerity behind her words. Maybe she didn't like his friends, but obviously she wanted to repair whatever harm she had caused with her behavior yesterday. "I have to apologize as well, Doritha," he said, "I got all fired up and should learn to control my temper. We need to be able to work things out by talking and not by arguing."
Doritha smiled brightly as he granted her his pardon. "Well, let's not argue any more!" she exclaimed while she hooked her arm around his and they began walking down the walkway. "I feel so terribly unhappy and lonely when we fight."
"Me too," Kid admitted softly.
They strolled for a few minutes in silence and then the blonde girl said, "I came looking for you last night. I wanted to talk to you straightaway."
"I know," Kid simply said.
"Where were you?" she asked. "Your friends told me that you hadn't stayed for dinner at the station."
Kid had dreaded her mentioning last night and for one moment he thought that everything was sorted out and they wouldn't have to talk about it. Yet, his hopes were dashed as she brought up the issue. The Southerner knew that he couldn't be sincere with Doritha, especially after the way she had reacted on finding him talking to Lou. He just couldn't tell her that he had spent the night much in the same way as he was this morning; he didn't want to have another argument, so he fumbled for an explanation.
"Uh... nowhere special."
"But where?" Doritha insisted, frustrated by his attempts to brush her off.
Kid knew that he was a terrible liar and like with his friends, nothing suitable came to mind. It was out of the question to tell her the truth. It would sound as bad as it had this morning when he had told the boys. He just didn't want to apologize or argue for something that meant no harm to anybody.
"Kid?" Doritha called as he wasn't talking, which was making her uneasy. "What aren't you telling me?"
They had stopped walking without realizing it and were now facing each other. Her eyes pierced into his and after a few seconds' hesitation Kid finally said, "I just went for a walk. I was so bothered that I didn't even know where I was going!"
His words seemed to satisfy Doritha and tightening her hold on his arm the girl exclaimed as they resumed their strolling, "Kid, you scared me! For one moment I thought you had wound up in the saloon or something worse!"
Kid sighed wearily, hating that she and his friends had to jump to the same conclusions. Why was it so hard to believe that other women or alcohol weren't the best company when one was troubled? Talking to Lou had been a help to his confused soul then, and it didn't matter if she was a woman. He had needed somebody to talk to and she had been there for him. "You know I would never do that," he stated seriously, feeling remorseful for not being completely sincere to her, but he couldn't do anything else. They continued walking arm in arm, and the black cloud hovering over them suddenly seemed brighter and even the rain falling didn't bother them any. Everything was fine now and the rest didn't matter