Marie
(Well… that was special, to say the very least. Is everyone okay? Did we lose any readers to the showers or to their unsuspecting boyfriends? Just checking. We won’t go on until we get everyone back. You there! Back away from that Phantom poster right now! That’s better! Now that I’ve got everyone’s attention…)
The sound of the front door clicking shut alerted me to Lisa’s final arrival at about eleven o’clock the next morning. I leaned back in my chair at the kitchen table to peer around the corner to see her tossing her coat and herself on the couch lazily.
“Hey there, noisy.” I greeted her cheerily.
“Morning…” she said with a blush in her cheeks. She then checked her watch, realized that it was upside-down, switched it and then read the time correctly. “Sort of… morning, that is.”
“Yup… of course, if I had been up until God only knows when doing those kinds of activities, I’d have slept until eleven too.” I teased her, watching her ears turn red.
“I didn’t sleep until eleven.” She said after clearing her throat. “I was up at eight.”
“Morning nudge?”
“Excuse me?!”
“You know what I mean.”
“Um… yeah.” Her entire face and ears were red… it was steadily creeping down her neck too. This was fun!
“How sweet. So tell me… what was he like?” What was it like?” I asked, sitting cross-legged on the floor next to her.
She looked down on me incredulously. “What is this… story time?”
“You call it what you want… I prefer to call it indirect research.” I shrugged.
“Well, take everything you’ve written and read… and every thing that I’ve written… and scrap it all! It’s a lot better than that! Although… kudos to you for writing some wonderful pointers. Erik did his homework.”
“Huh? What do you mean by that?”
“We could call parts of the evening… re-enactments. I’m really glad you asked Erik to proofread the final version of Black Velvet.” She grinned.
“Ack! You’re joking! He did not!” I demanded.
“Didn’t what?” she asked innocently.
“I wonder if Brooklyn can do that with talons?” I asked, remembering a line from Cassie.
“It certainly works without talons.”
“Well… what about other things… did it hurt at all?” I asked, fidgeting a little where I sat.
“No… I’m a little sore now… I mean, one time wouldn’t have been too much… but three? I’m just not used to that sort of exercise.”
“Three? Jesus H… the man’s a machine…” I commented dryly.
“We took a lot of breaks.”
“Oh good.” I sighed. “Well… is it anything like what I read about… and write?” I asked.
“How do you mean?”
“Well, some people have said that it’s not nearly that romantic or all-consuming. It’s messy, it’s exhausting, etc. Know what I mean?”
“Well, one; they weren’t doing it right and, two; haven’t they ever heard of showers and naps?”
“How do I know?” I shrugged. “I’m the innocent one now.”
“That’s frightening… really frightening.”
“Hey… I make this stuff up… I’m guessing here.”
“You guess pretty good.” She yawned.
“That’s comforting… I’ll probably never find out on my own how accurate I am being.”
“If I wasn’t so damn tired, I’d reach over and smack you.”
“It’s true.”
“Look, if I finally got some… you’re bound to get some.”
“Whatever… go to bed, chickie.” I hauled her off the couch and pushed her in the direction of her room.
“Yes, mother…” she grinned, following my directions nonetheless.
Once she was snoring (ten seconds later) I decided to go see Erik and see what his version of events might be. (I’m kidding people… geez… yes, I’m really going to ask the Phantom of the Opera how he enjoyed boinking my room-mate… Really, people…)