The phone rings before either of them are close to awakening. Noreen picks up in the middle of the third ring.
"Hello...well it's about time...yeah it's the motel right off 258....right, on the main drag...lemme make sure..."
She puts down the receiver and hops over to look out the window. Nick is barely awake and still facing the wall.
"Yeah plenty of room to load up, we pushed it, easily, yesterday, from across the lot....OK, we'll be ready and then check out when you get here, we might - huh? Yeah, and we might run and get something to eat or whatever, if I can wake his butt up-"
"I'm awake," Nick groans.
"Well howbout that, OK, you know the way...alright, byes."
"Yayyyyy. What time is it?"
"Crap, yeah that might be helpful to know." She rummages through her purse and finds a watch, "looks like it's somewhere around 20 after 6. We better be ready to roll just after 7:30.
"Sounds about right. Coffee sounds about right. Is it daylight yet? If we take a walk I'll get a little hungry, unless we'll stop on the way."
"Yeah it's light enough to hoof it soon, lemme get ready then we can go whenever."
She disappears into the bathroom and Nick dozes off again, to awaken to feel her towel get whisked off the bed.
"OK I'm up."
"No hurry there."
"Well no use holding up the show, early to bed early to rise and all that."
Nick gathers up his things into his bag, including what's left of the shampoo for some reason, goes ahead and brushes the teeth. "I think that's everything, so we can grab n go."
This time she whips around and points a warning finger.
"What?" he asks knowingly, and gets a two-beat morning kiss.
"Ready for a stroll to get the blood pumping? We can always doze off along the way, Bart's not a big time yapper."
She's back in her suit, tank top and shorts, plus her watch, and keeps track of the hotel key again after they lock up. It's shaping up to be another nice morning, fewer clouds than yesterday.
They continue hand in hand and decide to try the little bakery behind the row, surely they are about open by now.
"You know..." Noreen purrs.
"Yes dear?"
"Well...when you were asleep earlier I got dressed out in the open."
"Damn."
"I know I promised but...it just was different to get to do that with someone in the room."
"Glad I could help. Do you know how to grunt or whistle?"
"You just put your lips together, and -"
Nick pulls her about and plants a good one on there, akin to the way they put the punctuation on graduation day nearly a week ago. They embrace for a good while in front of a vacant storefront while a couple early risers drive by in their own universe. After a quick squeeze they are back on their way. He finds his hand on her opposite hip and she doesn't bother to move it.
"I kept expecting someone to tell us to get a room."
She punches his ribs, "Ba-dum crassshh. I have to ask..."
"Anything."
"How sure are you, about us."
"Sure enough to know I'll call you before long."
They walk on a little bit before she replies. "The crazy thing is, we're, what, six years apart and both late bloomers, if you don't mind me saying."
"That's fair. Anyone else saying that I might mind, but I think you nailed it."
"Um, and if you don't mind, you last had someone in your life, what, a year or two ago?"
"Sheesh, yeah, that was when I started on campus. She worked at the snack bar, where we talked, but ended up quitting and I think she moved over to Indiana, family stuff. It wouldn't have really worked but, you know."
"What was she like?"
"Well, quite beautiful, she had asked me to help out with some things at her house and we ended up watching a movie I rented. It got pretty...interesting, then we talked about it later, but then I couldn't get a hold of her for a while, then things got busy with classes and I wasn't going to ask about her where she had worked, she just wasn't there anymore."
"Was she your first?
"In some ways yeah, we had that one night, and she was older - and I mean, slightly older than my parents."
"Wow, Nick..."
"Well I never really had much interest in girls at school, we didn't have much to talk about, and Rosie and I just clicked."
"Did it hurt?"
"It was confusing, when it just faded out like that, but then it became clear that things would have gotten, you know, weird or awkward, maybe she knew that too and didn't know how to say it."
"Well she was lucky."
"I'm lucky now."
They walk on and find the bakery already open and serving, coffee smells great, they get a bag full of fresh goodies and head to a bench to consume.
He asks, "Who was your last interest?"
"Nick it was probably a guy I met through my freelance writing gigs, he would call me once in a while but I could never tell what he wanted. I'm not sure if he even knew, we would talk about going out then he'd never ask, and I wasn't going to. He didn't really stir anything in me, so I eventually just stopped answering and returning his calls, and that was that."
"I could have been that guy, to someone else."
"Now it just feels like I'm in a whole new season, a renaissance, professionally and otherwise. Nick you know I don't have expectations for us, just hopes, and I don't know what shape or form, just...just know I look forward to more."
"More will hit the spot."
They gaze for a while, Nick caresses her hair, then he stands and takes her hand, they start back.
The walk lasts just as long as their coffee, then MST3k is somehow back on the TV again, She has the curtain pulled back. Nick calls home like a good son, then before long a red full-ton pickup rumbles in towing a two-wheel hauler. "Our chariot awaits."
They grab their stuff and head to the truck and Noreen throws it onto the truck's passenger floor. Bart introduces himself to Nick with a firm handshake, he's a tall, tan, boisterous king of the backwoods with a hard-working build.
"You boys get that thing ready and I'll go settle the room."
"Don't worry, dude, she's always this bossy."
Before long they are pulling out of the lot, windows down, Bart holding a lit Swisher Sweet between two left fingers, never minded the smell of those, but Noreen insists on opening the back pane to keep clear of it. She doesn't hesitate to put her legs on his and sit facing the window and they settle in.
"So did you two kids just talk last night?"
"No we got down with whips, chains and Great Danes."
"Hey you're too young for that shit."
A couple intersections along, Bart tries again, "So Nick, see that rig there holding up those stop lights, how it stretches out over two lanes?"
"I reckon I do."
"So, uh, if you were to drop your breeches how would things compare to all that?"
"Well, maybe in colder weather..."
That's as far as he gets before Bart explodes into a fit of coughing guffaws and eye rubbing and the whole bit. "Son you're all right and sis you're all set to go with this'n, Lord, almighty."
Somewhere in all that Noreen just shakes her head and pleads not to encourage him.
From here they pick up to highway speed, Bart asks, "Did you guys hit all that construction yesterday? Hell of a mess."
Noreen answers, "No, nothing, they must have just started."
"Oh Nick, you should have seen this critter back in high school, with the lime green hair, wanted to be a Talking Head."
Noreen: "So I idolized Tina back then, even got a bass for Christmas that year but Mom couldn't stand it, even on low, just set her off so I put it away."
Nick: "Are there any pictures?"
Noreen: "What? You say you wanna walk home?"
Nick licks her nose.
Gradually things quiet down save for the low big-block rumble and rush of the wind. Nick is just about to doze off again when she whispers,
"Do you have any idea what I was thinking about last night."
"English accents?"
"It has nothing to do with the English language...more body language..."
"You may have to teach me that language."
"I think you have already taught me more than I can teach you, but I'm willing to try...I'll try anything, give you anything..."
"Noreen you know I'm just glad to be here with you."
"I know you are, but...(sighs)...we've proven we can behave and respect each other's space, and when a man can do that, you have absolutely no idea...the effect that has on me..."
"Well, it seems neither of us are in a hurry, I hope I'm not holding you back-"
"Nick...(kisses his cheek)...Nick you've treated me with immeasurable respect, you know when to say things, when to listen, and...you just...sometimes a girl runs out of words, and then...."
"Body language..."
"So do you have any idea...Nick until we met three years ago I had thought I had dried up...do you know what i mean?"
"Interest?"
"Think what you were playing with in the water yesterday...."
"Oh..."
"Yeah that...back then I had just started feeling tingly here and there, but I didn't have anyone in mind, then I saw you that night, you did what you did and it hit like a tidal wave..."
"Well, I remember...if I can say it..."
"Say it...."
"I remember it sounded sloshy down there, when you were, you know..."
"Nick it was a freaking mess down there, sloppy, slippery, slidey..."
"Wet banana."
"Oh I'd get your banana wet alright."
"I'm still not used to the idea that girls...women really like that kind of thing."
"Nick if it's the right guy then we want it ten times, a hundred or thousand times more..."
"That's not fair."
She muses, "you're sweet for saying that but fair or not, I could really put you through the paces if you don't watch out, those boxers, I wanted to reach in there and get it ready and jump on and ride, just ride, and bounce and ride into the sunset."
"Ride 'im cowgirl, but I wouldn't have lasted long."
"Then I'd ride your face."
"That would work."
"Nick you would drown under there, god...have you ever seen an orange juicer, the kind where you push the orange onto it over a glass..."
"I'd love to be your juicer."
"Oh I could grind on you for hours, we'd stick to everything, just remember if you get too close it might squirt you in the eye."
"I have an eye that might squirt back."
"Your eye can squirt anywhere, inside me, outside me, I'll take you in my mouth and then have something of yours to keep."
"There's lots of cream in the filled stick."
"Mmm I want your cream. I could have jumped in the shower with you last night, sucked all the cream out of your stick, or maybe, I'd drop the soap and pick it up for you, let you do what you want..."
By now she's fidgeting with his shirt, he presses on, "I love your cupcakes, with the candy on top, seems nice and chewy."
"I want your cream all over my cupcakes, chew on the candies, squeeze my cupcakes, give 'em everything you-"
Bart fires up, "HAND CHECK!"
Nick raises up his hands, Noreen just holds up a middle finger. She readjusts to get her mouth closer to his cheek.
"Where were we...oh, yeah...your beard is always just right, I'd let you rub it all over me."
"I'll rub it in your beard, down in the promised land."
"What else you gonna do in the promised land."
"I hear there's some great pie there."
"Honey I got all the pie you'll ever want, fresh and tangy."
"Like a grapefruit, might get a squirt if I'm not careful."
"I'll squirt in your mouth if you're not careful."
"Fair is fair, you can squirt anywhere anytime."
"You have no idea how bad I want you inside me, right now, if we were alone, you'd be all mine, I'd melt all over you."
"I'd eat your cupcakes and pie first, I'd eat you all over, even around back."
"You can have around back whenever you like, but you know what I really want."
"I really want you to squirt for me."
Right about then they hit a series of bumps and the truck slows down, Nick opens his eyes to see the construction crews ahead. The flagger is waiving them through, more bumps, more bumps, Noreen gasps and he things he felt something against his left leg, like a twitch, and it had gotten pretty warm down there. After a couple miles they clear the work area and she's sound asleep, Nick tries to settle in place despite the dire need to readjust his hardware.
After a couple short dozes, Bart asks, "Are we dropping Nick at the schoolyard?"
Noreen stirs and clears her throat, "Yes."
They take a turn toward familiar skies.
She gradually stretches and comes alive, and Nick realizes he's picking up a slightly sour, earthy aroma he hadn't known for over three years, almost too subtle to detect.
A bit too soon they are pulling up next to the Cordoba, Bart motions, "Does it rock?"
"Not bad for a 318 but needs love."
"Bring it our way sometime we'll see what's what."
Nick grabs his things and exchanges a up and down hi-five with the driver, "Catcha down tha road."
"Later days."
Nick forgoes the better lays part given the circumstances. He and Noreen step out next to the truck. "Did you get your keys," she motions to the poor jeep.
"Yeah all set. You look tired."
"Just very....relaxed."
They hold a gaze, she says, "You go home and tell your mother that you were the perfect gentleman, and-"
HOONNNNNNNNNK
Noreen turns to the open door, "FUCK OFF!"
She closes her eyes and draws breath with the look of about to murder a fool, then pulls it together,
"Nick you were beyond my wildest dreams, seriously, tell your mom I said that, you are wonderful and she should be proud."
"I will. Do you have a lot to do today?"
"Just get home and try to salvage these shorts," as she subtly brings his left hand to meet with the promised land, which feels like an oven-fresh buttery roll. She raises an eyebrow coyly.
Nick's eyes get huge once he puts it all together.
She grabs a two-beat smooch. "Do like I told ya," then smacks his ass, hops into the truck, slaps the dashboard, "Home, Jeeves," as she pulls the door shut.
He just steps back and watches as the truck goes into gear, she turns his way with a commanding look, points at the car, at him, then the road.
As they drive off he gets into his car, well rested, feeling more human than ever, starts it up, fastens his seatbelt, thinks a minute, takes a long whiff of his hand, then drives over to the other lot to see if Goody is around.