This was ridiculous. She didn’t want to know this crap. “Andwhat?”
“At first, I thought she was one of those people who feels sorry for me. Because I’m blind. I get some of those. But this woman, she getsclose.”
“Close?”
“It makes me uncomfortable.” Growing up with Granddad, who wasn’t a people person to say the least, meant I hadn’t brushed shoulders with too manyfolks.
“Like, sexual harassmentclose?”
“She’s interested. That’s all. She wears this perfume and it’s…” I coughed, picked up my beer to find it empty and stood. Jesus, I was bad at this talking to women bullshit. No wonder Granddad gave up on finding anyone after Grandma died. Self-sufficiency had been his motto.Don’t need anyone. Ever.“You wantanother?”
“Sure.” She put her bottle in my waiting hand. It seemed messed up to wish our fingers would touch after complaining about Donna from down thestreet.
Inside, I checked my messages—I had two queries out on Veronica’s opponent. Nothing. I grabbed the bottles, popped them open and headed back out, filled with an unfamiliar, but giddyuncertainty.
“You said visitors,” she said as I handed her the beer. “With an s. You get harassed alot?”
“Over the years, yeah.” I shrugged. “I guess women think they need to be more aggressive with me. Since I’mblind.”
“And you’re not…into that?” Her voice was hesitant, but I got the feeling this was big—her asking me such an intimatequestion.
“Even when I was younger, girls liked me for my looks. I used to play down the road with the neighbors. At one point, thingschanged.”
“And you didn’t likeit?”
“It was fine, sometimes. But I didn’t always like the girls who likedme.”
“So the overgrown, dilapidated thing is a cover, right? You like going unnoticed. Nobody comes up here if it’s a mess. Nobody bugsyou.”
I didn’t reply. Why deny what was so obviouslytrue?
After a couple sips, she asked, “Are you registered tovote?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“You’ll win.” Ismiled.
“You thinkso?”
“Ido.”
“It feels like cheating,though.”
My head swiveled to face her. It put us so close our breathsmingled.
“Whatdoes?”
“You getting all those students tohelp.”
“Having a team of volunteers is cheating? You think your opponent doesn’t have plenty ofhelp?”
“But I didn’t recruit them! I didn’t design those flyers or think of those tag lines or any of the things you did formy—”
My hand on her arm cut her off—and shocked the hell out of me. I could barelybreathe.
I leaned in farther. “Why do you think you have to do all the things? It’s a campaign. You have a manager,right?”
