Sunday
Nick awakens in the still of the night to the sound of jazz and Deej sawing logs. He realizes she had been vague and passive about going to her grandparents and they fell asleep after some more rummy, a decent frozen pizza and splitting that beer. At some point the gang stopped by, that is, the remaining four that had joined them the other night, the highlight of which was checking out Curt’s uncle’s ‘73 Mach II that they were plotting to restore. That made Nick wonder how the Cordoba was coming along as the other dudes would go into their radio DJ act, which, probably stemmed from some Dan Akayoid or Joe Piscapo sketch. At least it made their dates giggle.
Once things died back down, our heroes felt romantic again and turned off the lights to semi-retire upstairs, where Deej had them lie on their sides, him in back, to try a special something she’d been working on now and then, and she even had a little tube of KY. As she lifted her leg a certain way the gradual insertion was easy and they took their time, to both of them seemed all new and when the moment arrived Deej applauded and the ensuing laughter made it a challenge for Nick to keep from slipping out early.
And so that, after a long fulfilling day, and the beer, and the brief influx of visitors, and mostly, the jazz had lulled at least Nick into one of those half waking states with a strange glow, somewhere, in the conscience, like the neighbor’s porch light that assures civilization is nearby, which, at least sometimes, is nice.
At this point the glow has been replaced with that slight twinge of uncertainty over Deej’s whereabouts, and any uncomfortable conversations ahead, but then again, things always seem so cool with her grandparents that this is probably just as well. He slips from beneath the blanket for a quick pee, unbeknownst to his guest then makes sure she’s covered.
In milestone moments like this one tends to sum up their life thus far, and naturally it’s a logarithmic speed that slows down just after a rather uneventful Christmas with Tim back for a few days, then Nick got in not a few extra hours at Rad Shack and then continuing the winter term, then just starting the next set of classes when he fatefully ran into the mystery blond he’d encountered in high school, and the rest is history.
He had set a goal to earn his own tuition for at least a quarter and ended up paying most of his second year, thanks to some scholarships kicking in.
The next thing he knows the gal stirs in the morning light around his shades and he hears the weekend news program. His clock says 8:07 which is just about right.
“Morning glory,” he starts.
“Mmmm, this is nice, except, gotta pee.”
She offers a peck, hops up and finds her shirt and ducks into the hallway john. Does that make hers at home a jane?
Nick flips off the stereo and gets halfway decent enough to trek downstairs for his own nature call, but asks,
“You want coffee.”
After a pause, over the stream, “Actually yeah.”
He house-dresses and hits the downstairs half bath, then starts the coffee and eggs for himself.
Pretty soon she joins him but rounded out with sweat bottoms and what may be his socks, and offers a lingering embrace.
He has to ask, “So I take it you’d planned to stick around here?”
She giggles and shrugs, “Woops.”
“Mmmm hmmm. Doesn’t sound like we’ll get interrogated?”
“Nope.” she pecks his lips and takes a seat as he stirs his eggs.
“Want me to throw in an extra toast?”
“Yeah why not.”
So they do some chewing, she fixes a heavily doctored coffee and he asks,
“When should we head over?”
She holds up a finger to finish a sip, “Whenever, I’ll call over there first. Umm, if you bring your guitar and amp you may be in for yet another surprise.”
In a Jed Clampett tone, “Doggies!”
After a few moments he sees her stare at her mug and grinning.
“What are you thinking?”
She looks up at him with the same grin, “How did we get to this point?”
“I know.”
As Nick puts his plate away, “How bout a little silly TV before we get ready?”
“You got it.”
They set up on the couch and he finds something on the comedy network and they take that in as he plays with her hair, she dozes off a bit, and as the hour wraps up the phone rings.
Nick answers, figuring he’s in for a tricky conversation, but, a female voice “Nick? Is Danni there?”
“Yeah, right here.”
He hands her the phone with a shrug since he can’t quite place it, then heads upstairs and flips on the Icom to see if there’s any waves to catch. There’s the usual stray signals, but also that net they do every morning, mostly to the south and east but he has been meaning to join in, just seems since his license arrived life has really taken on a life of its own. He listens to the net for a couple rounds, nice weather reports from Alabama today, one in Florida, then one in Michigan, all of which more or less match what he sees outside when adjusted for latitude. Need to get a thermometer outside the window, seems his station would stay here a while even if he got his own place or such.
Deej comes in the room with a blank expression and he turns down the receiver.
“Do you mind if she joins us today?”
“April?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t recognize her voice for some reason.”
“Well she’s tired…and…sore,” with one eyebrow raised.
Nick looks puzzled.
“From last night…”
“Oh…oh, is that why you girls got quiet and had funny looks on your faces when we came back in.”
This gets a half grin.
“Gotcha.” His blood gets a little cold.
She sighs and looks to the side, “Well it’s pretty much what she wanted, those two joked about blowing off steam and them all ending up at Vance’s.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” She brightens up and sits on his lap, “I’m not killing you am I?”
“You’re just right, babe.”
Pretty soon they head out, and she asks, “Oh, been meaning to ask, wasn’t there a girl at your school who - “
Right then a dog runs out in front of them, Nick swerves and stops in plenty of time but is thankful for a distraction, for now, at least.