Making Me Believe Read Free

What was she missing?
    “I’m taking over the world.  Did you already forget?” he asked. 
    All of the dryers started buzzing, and they got down.  He restarted his, and she took her clothes out and folded them neatly, putting them on hangers, and resting them in the laundry baskets she’d brought with her. 
    He watched her work, and finally said, “I need to get some of those things.”
    “What things?” she asked.
    He pointed at the basket.  “Those things.  Then my dirty laundry would stay contained and not threaten my apartment the way it usually does.”  He joked about it, but he really wasn’t exaggerating.  His apartment was downright scary to walk into.
    She looked up at him.  “I like you.  You scare me, but I like you.”  She picked up the first basket and started toward the door to the laundry room.  “Watch my other basket for me.  I wouldn’t want the stampeding herds of people who come here to do laundry on Friday nights to steal my clothes.”
    He picked up her other basket.  “I’ll just carry it for you.  That way I’ll know where you live, and won’t have to hunt up your apartment tomorrow night.”  He wanted to see her space as well.  He expected it to be neat as a pin, but wanted to know.  He wanted to know everything about her.
    “Okay,” she agreed.  She wasn’t going to argue with that.  She hated walking through the parking lot alone after dark anyway. 
    He followed her across the wide parking lot and down a level to her apartment.  She unlocked the door, and he followed her in, putting the basket on her kitchen table for her. 
    “Is it always this neat?” he asked.  He’d expected it, but he was shocked by just how neat it was.  There wasn’t a single dirty dish in the sink.
    “Well, I’m the only one who lives here.  I’m capable of picking up after myself, so it just doesn’t get dirty,” she said.
    “Remind me to never show you my apartment,” he told her.  “I think you’d be pretty disgusted.”
    “Typical male?” she asked.  He struck her as someone who could be very organized and take care of things well, but he had to care first.  She doubted he cared about how his apartment looked.
    “Yeah, I’m afraid so.  My sister used to try to hire cleaning girls for me, but they’d take one step inside the door and run away screaming.  It was sad.  She stopped trying,” he said.
    She rolled her eyes at him.  “Go back and babysit your laundry,” she said.  “I’ll see you tomorrow night.”  He was halfway to the door, when she stopped him, “What should I wear?  Jeans okay?”
    “Yeah, jeans are fine.  We’ll go somewhere casual.”
    “Sounds good,” she said as she shut the door behind him.

Chapter 2
     
    Rose got up early to get done with her chores the following morning. She didn’t really have anything that she wanted to wear on a date. Since she’d graduated from college two years before, she hadn’t been willing to spend any more money than absolutely necessary. Work clothes were a necessity. Workout clothes were a necessity. Workout clothes could be worn for laundry and errands. Why did she need nice jeans?
    Tonight, she needed a nice pair of jeans. She needed a pretty blouse.   She may even need some cowboy boots. She’d moved to North Texas when she was sixteen, and had gone to college in Arlington, where she still lived. Her parents had long since moved back to Illinois where she’d grown up, but she’d stayed for college, and had found a job in nearby Fort Worth when she’d graduated.
    Every extra dime had gone straight into savings. Maybe it was time she lightened up and lived a little. She could spend a little bit of that savings. Rose spent the afternoon wandering around the mall, looking for just the right clothes. She found a pair of jeans that fit her body snugly, but not so tightly that she couldn’t breathe easily. She hated jeans that were that tight, and couldn’t understand why any