Chapter Thirteen #2
Lisa thankfully interrupted my thoughts. She was lying on my sofa, her head near me, scrolling on her phone. “Oh, well, look at that.”
“Huh?”
“Happily, I’m not diseased.”
I closed my laptop. “What?”
“Results from the gyno. Shit you have to do from time to time when your husband is a whore.”
“Oh my God.” I hadn’t thought about that. “Ex-husband,” I reminded her.
“Ex-husband.” Lisa gave a wry laugh. “Thank the good lord. Not that I remember the last time we had sex.” She stretched her arms back and squeezed my leg. “So have you ever been with a man?”
I felt my nose wrinkle. “I kissed a couple boys when I was a kid, but I haven’t slept with a man.”
“I wondered because you’ve never written a straight scene.”
“You write what you know. Anyway, my publisher probably wouldn’t go for it.”
“You do have a target audience.”
“For the romances, anyway.” My phone buzzed then. Mom.
Lisa smirked at me. “Take it.”
“I so don’t want to, but I think I know what it’s about.” I sighed, steeled myself, and clicked the button. “Hi, Mom. How’re you?”
“Hi, Samantha. We’re well, thanks. Missy’s mother has Covid so we’re taking Jeremiah while Missy’s at class.”
“That must be fun.”
Mom made a noise which suggested it was not fun. “Your father likes to bounce him around, but it makes him spit up.”
“He’ll survive. Dad did that with all of them.”
Dad’s voice carried from the other side of the room. “Don’t rat me out.”
“She should bring him to class. I have babies come along from time to time. They’re no trouble.”
“Well, that’s a little…Different.” I could see the look of distaste on Mom’s face. I was pretty sure Lisa could hear because she gave me a look and sat up.
“No, not really. Unless she’s in practicum or something. Then it probably wouldn’t be okay.”
Mom sighed like I was being stupid. I mouthed “I’m funny” to Lisa. She grinned and looked away.
“How’s Dad?”
“He went golfing with the district superintendent the other day.” She went on to describe how important that was as though Dad wasn’t retired, then talked for several minutes about how sunburned his bald spot got and how she knew someone who got brain tumors from melanoma.
“I think he’ll be fine.”
“Well, you can’t be careful enough. Are you doing anything special for your birthday?”
Lisa turned to me quickly and I looked away. “No plans yet. As Dad says, it’s just another day.”
“No, no, it’s a big deal. Have you gotten our card?”
“Not yet. I’ll look for it.”
“The pastor says happy birthday and so does the rest of the staff.”
Goody. “Tell them thank you.”
“I will. Well, have a good day.”
“I’ll try. Talk to you later.”
“Okay then. Bye.”
Lisa threw a pillow at me. “When the fuck is your birthday?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Were you planning on telling me this?”
“I don’t know…I guess. I mean it really is just another day.”
“No, it’s a cake day. That is very important. We at least need to have cake.”
I had to laugh. “I teach tomorrow.”
“When are you done?”
“I’m usually home by eight thirty.”
“Well, we will have cake at eight thirty. Jesus. You don’t miss a cake day. Chocolate or white or?”
“Chocolate is always good.”
“I’m April fifteenth, by the way,” Lisa said. “Another cake day.”
“I will not forget.”
“Good. Now why does the pastor say happy birthday?”
“My mom works in the church office. I grew up in that damned building.”
Lisa’s face went white. “I’m so sorry if I’ve said anything to offend you.”
“Don’t worry at all. I don’t subscribe.”
“Did you when you were younger?”
I thought about that. “Not really. It was more so a source of trauma than anything else all along.”
Now, Lisa looked even more horrified. “I assume they are not queer friendly?”
I shook my head. “A bit hellfire and brimstone.”
“That must have been hard.”
“That wasn’t the hard part of it.” I waved that away. “I’m where I am now, I’m good with it, and I just avoid going when I’m home.”
“Good. I’m glad you are where you are now.”
I felt the look she was giving me from head to toe. “I’m glad you’re where you are now.”
This kiss was completely different from those before. Warm and confident and sensual and it didn’t stop. It went on until my fingernails dug into my jeans leg and I could feel my heartbeat everywhere. It went on until I felt a paw thump onto my lap.
“Oh, Ollie,” I groaned, pushing him onto the floor. Veronica and I had spent most of our time at her place or out and I hadn’t been thinking about his fondness for joining in hugs. “God, I’m sorry.”
Lisa was laughing. “It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not.” I grabbed a stuffed ferret and threw it into Ollie’s crate. “Go on.”
While we returned to kissing, it wasn’t nearly as serious. We were still laughing, and before I could get back into it, Ollie dropped the ferret back in my lap. I looked at him, wanting to be furious, but his tongue was hanging out sideways and he was panting, very excited about our game.
Lisa slid one finger down my cheek and grinned. “It’s late…I should go anyway.”
“Next time we’re at your house,” I muttered.
“With cake.”
I stopped over at Lisa’s after class Thursday night, where we had chocolate cupcakes. She apologized, saying she would have baked but she’d had a meeting and gotten home late. I didn’t care and they were from the good cupcake place just north of our neighborhood anyway.
The next night, we went out to a little bar and deli in midtown. I drove, and when Lisa turned on my radio to see where it was set, she laughed again to find it on the XM eighties station.
We shared cheese fries that Veronica would have turned her nose up at, ate sloppy sandwiches, and drank beer from the bottle while a local blues band played on the tiny stage by the door.
I hadn’t had such a good time out on the town in years.
I’d enjoyed being with Veronica, but I’d always felt that I had to be a little bit on guard so as not to do the wrong thing.
I felt like I could do or say anything around Lisa and it would be okay, even if I ended up hiding under the table for a few minutes while she laughed.
When a table came open, she nodded to the game room. “Do you play pool?”
I did from time to time with guys like Paulie back when I was able to show my face in that crowd, but not tremendously well. I agreed at once, though, and went up to the bar to switch to Coke. “Do you want another beer? You don’t have to stop just because I did.”
“I guess…”
“Unless, of course, you have somewhere to be.”
Lisa came up to the bar to accept her own beer and swatted me gently on the ass. “Somewhere to be.”
She was good. After I broke, she sank three stripes before it was even my turn again. I wondered if she’d played with Corey or if this was something she’d done in lesbian bars in college. I didn’t ask, but I did watch everything she did.
Oh, she was gorgeous. Her jeans were tight and ripped in the knees, and although her shirt looked fairly conservative upright, I could see ample cleavage when she bent to take a shot.
She caught me looking at one point and gave me an eyebrow cock and a little smile that resonated throughout my body.
I wanted to be defiant, but I missed my next shot.
To my horror and delight, Lisa came up beside me. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“You could save it for when we’re alone.”
Her eyebrows jumped. “You want to go home?”
It was my turn. “Hmm, I still have half a Coke left and you haven’t cleared the table.”
“Give me one more turn.”
“Shut up.”
We didn’t end up leaving, but we did keep flirting through another game.
We brushed arms, teased one another, and when I made a particularly good shot, Lisa pulled her arm around me and stayed there until both of us got nervous someone unsavory would look.
Then, another couple named Raptor and Domino joined us for a game of doubles, which we won handily.
When those two hung it up for the night, we closed out our tab and headed back to the car.
We bumped shoulders walking; it could have been because it was dark in a slightly sketchy neighborhood or that it was getting chilly and smelling like rain, but I sensed that she was feeling as cuddly as I was. She took my hand in the car. “I guess some of this isn’t too bad.”
Def Leppard was playing. “Are you kidding? This is classic. This is great music.”
“I wouldn’t call it classic…”
“Well, it’s on. When you drive we can listen to Nirvana or whatever shit you like.”
“Ah, or we could listen to it now.” With a snarky grin, she brought my hand up to the radio and nudged it up to the nineties station. Sheryl Crow was on. “See, this isn’t so bad.”
“Okay, I’ll go with it.”
We were quiet for a while, but Lisa kept my hand. Her thumb stroked gently, absently. It made me crazy. I finally leaned over to kiss her at a stoplight.
“Green,” she said lightly. I figured she was messing with me again, but we kissed again at the next stoplight, and she even snuck one at a stop sign once we got into our neighborhood.
A misty suggestion of rain was falling, not enough to deploy windshield wipers, but not enough to let it go.
I reached over the steering wheel to hit the lever from time to time so I could keep Lisa’s hand.
When I pulled into her driveway, Whitney Houston was just starting. A thought popped into my mind, a tiny flicker of an idea, a rudimentary sketch in black ink on white paper. “Can I pull all the way in?”
Lisa’s driveway ran past the side of the house to where her garage sat. “I guess. I mean, you can stop by the walk.”
I nudged past that, stopping the car right in front of the garage door. I could tell she recognized the song, “I’ll Always Love You,” and I saw a little smirk, as if she knew I couldn’t help but like that one. I shut off the lights but left the car running. “Do you like to dance?”
Lisa looked at me, looked deeply into my eyes as if searching not just for what I was thinking but reading my soul. It ignited a tiny spark in my stomach and the flame began to spread. She gave just a tiny nod.