All That She Desires: The Stranger Read Online Free

still asked him to drive back to the lake.
     
    It was late afternoon when they arrived. Mike helped
her get the groceries inside, and then told her that he would carry on with
painting the cottage in the morning. "Okay," she said. "What are
you going to do now?"
     
    "I'm going to go back to my place," he
said. "I've got my own stuff to do. What are you going to do?"
     
    She shrugged. "I don't know," she said.
"Just hang out, I guess. There's no TV, I've got no internet. Maybe I'll
just sit on the freshly painted deck and look at the lake."
     
    He nodded. "Okay. Look, I'll be back early
tomorrow, so don't freak out if you hear me or see me."
     
    "Sure," she smiled. "I'll have
something on."
     
    He left, and she found herself alone in the cottage.
She sighed. She wasn't used to being on her own, having to do things for
herself, entertain herself. Fiona rolled herself a joint and leisurely smoked
up, then floated around the cottage for a while, gradually straightening away
the mess she'd made the night before and putting everything away in the
kitchen. She even did the dishes, which was something she wasn't in the habit
of doing. In fact, she probably hadn't done the dishes for herself in the last
couple of years.
     
    When everything was done, she drifted around the
cottage looking for something to do. There was a two-shelf book case in the
living room. It had a bunch of kid’s books on the lower shelf. The top shelf
was stuffed with broken-spined paperbacks: legal thrillers and historical
romances. His and hers, apparently. Fiona opened one of the romances and
started to read. She was still high, and nothing really made sense. She tried a
thriller and it looked like it was written in another language. She took a kids
book, something about middle school animal kids solving scientific mysteries.
She sat on the couch and started to read.
     
     
    *****
     
     

Chapter Three
     
     
    Fiona woke up. She was still on the couch with the
animal mystery on her lap. She'd finished about half the book before dozing
off. She figured she could live without knowing how the story ended, and tossed
the book back onto the shelf.
     
    It was nearly dark, and the lake looked calm, like a
blue-gray mirror reflecting the darkening sky. Fiona went out onto the deck
that looked over the lake. It was nice there, and the silence was powerful. She
couldn't hear a car anywhere. She was used to hearing the dull background roar
of traffic in the city. Yes, it was nice, but she was already bored. She was
alone with nothing to do. Usually she was never alone, and she always had too
much to do. It would be hard to sit around just looking at a lake.
     
    She thought of Mike. He said his place was just a
few doors down the road. Maybe he wanted to hang out. She liked him, she
decided. He took her seriously and listened to her, and he didn't try to
bullshit her. And he didn't seem to want anything from her. That was very
unusual. Fiona was used to everyone wanting something from her.
     
    After having a sandwich, Fiona did her makeup again
and changed, putting on a blue dress that ended above the knee. She rolled a
few joints, slipped the open bottle of vodka into her big handbag, grabbed a
bag of chips and went out looking for Mike's cottage.
     
    The first cottage on the right was dark, and so was
the second. The third had lights on, and there was a group of older folks
sitting around a table on the deck, player cards. Fiona kept going. The fourth
cottage was small, and not as fancy as some of the cabins in the area. It was a
plain, boxy little affair, painted dark green, with a red front door and a
light on in the front window. In front of the cottage was parked a small blue
sedan.
     
    Fiona walked up to the door. She could hear music
inside. She listened, and recognized one of her songs. "Son of a
bitch," she said, and knocked on the door.
     
    The music stopped. Mike's head appeared in the
window, and then he opened the front door. "Fiona," he