This Darkest Man Read Free

you get an electrician to come in the morning?” he asked after he’d
finished his meal. He relaxed back in his chair and sipped his wine, but I was
so aware of his eyes keenly on me. It was good thing that the electricity had
gone out and left us with only dim light, that way he couldn’t see me blush
every time he asked me a question.
    “Usually,
they come back on by themselves. I need to get it sorted out eventually but
it’s such a big job that I need to make sure that I have all my aunts financial
affairs in order first. She left everything in a bit of a mess.” Plus
they’re going to sell everything out from under me…
    “Were
you close?”
    I
laughed at the absurdity of the idea, or maybe it was the wine going straight
to my head. “No. Definitely not. She didn’t like children, or anyone for that
matter. My parents use to dump me on her every summer and she made it pretty
clear that she didn’t like company, and I could either stay in my bedroom or
play in the basement if I wasn’t outside.”
    Clay
arched an eyebrow. “Really? She sounds a bit of monster.”
    “Oh,
that’s a common family trait.” The wine really had gone to my head if I was
speaking about family in such a derogatory way. A good family name was
everything, even when those family members did terrible things. He was staring
at me intently as if waiting for me to explain what I had just said, but of
course I wouldn’t. I straightened and began to gather the plates.
    “Here,
I’ll help you,” he offered, taking the wine glasses that were now empty, but I
waved him away.
     “No,
I’ll do it. You made us dinner, I should do the dishes.”
    He
cleared the table anyway. “Do you mind if I take a shower?” he asked.
    “Of
course. There are candlesticks in the bathroom to light your way. Take this.” I
pressed the smaller candelabra into his hand. “Can you believe our ancestors
used to live like this all the time?”
    “There’s
certainly something quaint about it,” he said, taking it from me as he turned
for the stairs. I watched him go, surprised at myself for actually enjoying
having company in the house. It probably wasn’t healthy for me to be so
isolated out here. Then again, I’d really been isolated most of my life, even
when I was in a room filled with people I never knew how to act or what to say.
Isolation was my friend, along with the dark, and I mustn’t forget that.
    I
cleaned the kitchen thoroughly and made sure that everything was well ordered
and tidy, just like my aunt liked it. I didn’t know why I bothered; the bitch
was dead, but it was hard to get out of the habits of a lifetime. When Erin and
I moved in together in our final year of college, I had to catch myself from
mimicking my aunt’s tone in response to Erin’s slovenly ways and try to loosen
up. There was nothing about that woman, or anyone in my family for that matter,
who I would ever want to end up like.  The last thing I did before going
upstairs was to put the empty wine bottle in the trash. I wasn’t a big drinker,
but had drunken that wine with ease, and what’s more, embraced the loose,
careless feelings that it had instilled in me.
    Clay
must have lit the candles that sat in the iron holders along the walls,
lighting the way for me. I snuffed each one out on the stairs as I passed it
but left the ones in the hallway glowing for Clay. The bathroom door at the end
of the hall opened, and steam escaped as Clay stepped out. Just a towel was
loosely wrapped around his hips, which put his body on display. For a second, I
couldn’t drag my eyes away from his well-developed chest and arms that were
still wet and seemed to shine in the candlelight. He was such a contrast to
Josh, whose intelligence and wit made up for his thin body.
    “That’s
a great shower.  I wasn’t expecting that.” My reverie was broken, and I
blushed, ashamed at having been caught staring. He was rubbing at his hair with
a towel and had a wide smile on his