Chapter Five #2
Nate removed himself from her embrace and stepped inside. “Sadly.”
“Is that Nate?” Tony yelled from deeper in the house.
“Nawh, it’s Clarissa’s boyfriend,” Nate yelled back.
Clarissa playfully pushed Nate’s shoulder and relieved the beer from his grasp.
Tony came around the corner and the two of them did the hug with an overzealous pound on the back.
“Damn, look at you,” Tony said. “You still have your hair.”
The same couldn’t be said for Tony. “I don’t have a wife and kids to help me pull it out.”
“Don’t blame me. His dad hasn’t had hair for fifty years,” Clarissa chided.
Tony motioned Nate into the house. “I was surprised to hear you moved back. I thought we lost you to DC forever.”
“Not even the president stays in DC forever.”
In the back of the home stood a great room. The kitchen ran into a formal dining room, which ran into a living room. A large sectional squared up with a television that took up nearly the entire wall.
Playing on it was the preamble to the game.
Primary color plastic toys were scattered about, played with and forgotten before being left behind for the next shiny object. Somewhere in the house was the three-year-old responsible for the Fisher-Price chaos.
“I thought all government fraud investigators had to work in DC,” Clarissa said from where she stood in the kitchen.
“A lot do, but since I’m no longer working for the government, I can be anywhere.”
Tony and Clarissa both looked surprised.
“Did the girlfriend get you fired?” Tony asked.
Nate placed a hand on his heart as if he’d been wounded. “No one in their right mind would fire me.”
Tony didn’t look convinced.
“There’s more money in the private sector,” Nate went on to say. “I could have stayed with the government job, caught a decent salary with a nice pension . . . and then hope it lasted when I’m old. But after the shutdown and working from home, going back to the office every day sucked.”
“You can’t work from home when you’re making parts for Boeing,” Tony said.
“Nate?” Clarissa waved one of the beers he’d brought in her hand.
“That would be great,” he said. “My job is flexible, and fraud is everywhere.”
“And Monique?” Tony asked.
“Intra-office relationships are always a recipe for disaster.”
“You knew that going in.”
Clarissa handed him the beer and said, “Her loss.”
Nate shifted the subject. “This place looks great. Nice neighborhood.”
“Thanks. We love it. The HOA police are stricter than nuns in a Catholic school, but no one is painting their house orange and purple.”
Nate moved toward the back sliding-glass door that was half open. “What are you on, an acre?”
“Yup.” Tony pushed the door open wider and stepped out.
A freestanding hot tub sat under a built-in gazebo. A small outdoor kitchen framed a set of table and chairs.
“This is ideal in the summer,” Nate said.
“We got the hot tub last year. Clarissa wants a pool.”
“You have the room for it.”
“She wants TJ to start taking swim lessons now so when it goes in, he’s ready.”
Nate looked around, saw more toddler toys. “Where is TJ?”
“Napping. This is the best part of the day, trust me,” Tony said, smiling.
“He’s a handful?”
“Just like me, according to my mom. When people tell you kids are exhausting, listen to them.”
“Good thing you only have one, then.” Nate tilted his beer back, took a drink.
“That’s about to change.”
Nate’s gaze shot to his friend. “Clarissa’s pregnant?”
“She just passed three months.” For all of Tony’s bravado about exhaustion, he was beaming.
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks, man.”
Clarissa stepped out the back door and handed Tony a glass filled with what Nate assumed was a mixed drink.
“And you.” Nate looked Clarissa up and down. “Tony just told me.”
Clarissa placed a hand over her flat stomach. “What can I say.”
“Are you ready to do it again?”
“Ready or not. I blame Tony’s mom,” Clarissa said.
Nate’s brow furrowed. “I hope she wasn’t in the room.”
Tony laughed. “That’s a nightmare thought.”
“No, she offered to babysit for the weekend, this one decided we should rent an Airbnb on the coast. It rained nonstop the entire time we were there.”
Nate laughed. “And there was nothing else to do but . . .” He left off the obvious activity they’d chosen to fill their time.
“Exactly.”
Tony circled a hand around Clarissa’s waist and pulled her to his side. “You enjoyed every moment of it.”
“Good thing or you’d never hear the end of it.”
While Tony teased his wife and kissed the side of her face, Nate couldn’t help but wonder if he’d ever been in their situation.
For a while he thought that might be Monique.
He should have realized it was never going to happen when she refused to move in with him. She liked her independence and her condo. “Why ruin a good thing,” she’d always say whenever Nate suggested moving to the next step.
Something closer to what Tony and Clarissa had. Nate wanted someone to build a life with, depend on . . . grow old with.
“Mama . . .” the sleep-filled voice of a child called from inside the house.
Nate looked around Tony to find a pint-size version of his friend standing in the doorway rubbing his eyes.
“Look who’s up.”
Tony set his glass down and reached for his son. “TJ, this is Nate.”
“Hey, little guy.” Nate wasn’t versed in what to say to a three-year-old.
TJ plopped his head on Tony’s shoulder and eyed Nate wearily.
“Don’t let this quiet moment fool you,” Clarissa said. “He’ll be running circles around you before the game starts.”
“You obviously love it, or you wouldn’t be doing it again,” Nate said.
Clarissa touched TJ’s bare foot and gave it a tickle. “I wouldn’t change it for the world.” She reached for her son to take him from Tony’s arms. “You might want to fire up the grill if we’re going to eat.”
They all moved back into the house.
Nate stood by and watched the interplay between husband and wife . . . and the slowly waking up toddler who was already scrambling out of his mother’s arms.
He wasn’t naive enough to think this was always rainbows and roses, but it was pretty damn nice.