She learned to love him before he thought it was even possible, so he didn't have a chance to hide & mess it up & while it was a little scary at times, mainly he could not even imagine the world without her there.

Mac’s Apartment
Georgetown
1715

She was laying on the couch with her legs flung over the back and her head hanging down. Her hair almost brushed the floor as she swished it back and forth.

She had taken a week of leave. She didn’t know why it just seemed like a good idea at the time. A whole week of sleeping in late, instead she woke up 0530 every morning. A whole week of no work, instead she was bored to tears with nothing to do. A chance to take a short road trip, instead her car needed work and was in the shop. And it was only Tuesday.

Suddenly, someone was banging on her door. She nearly fell on her head. She had to fall to the floor before she was able to get up and get to the door. Peeking through the peephole she saw Harm. The peephole gave him an oddly large nose and small eyes. She snorted. She pulled the door open as he raised his fist to beat on the doorjamb again.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself. What were you doing in here,” he asked as he pushed past her. “Sounded like you dropped the couch.”

“Nothing.”

He saw the blush rise a little. “You were sitting upside down again weren’t you.” He didn’t ask, just stated.

She ignored the statement. “So why are you here?”

He settled onto the couch. “Thought I’d see if you wanted to take a road trip.”

“Don’t you have to work tomorrow?”

“Nope. I took the rest of the week off. It’s not like the joint will fall apart if I’m gone a few days. Now if I took a whole week, like some people,” he trailed off.

She flopped down on the couch and sprawled out across him and the couch.

“So, where are we going?”

“I thought we’d head for the shore. Maybe a day over in Ocean City and then to Chincoteague.”

“Chincowhat?”

“Chincoteague Island. It’s just on the other side of the Maryland/Virginia border. Have you ever heard of the Pony Swim?”

“Oh, yeah. Where they round up those wild ponies and auction them off.”

“Let’s go.” He bounced her head with his knee.

“Now?”

“Yeah, it won’t take us that long to get over to Ocean City. We could roam the boardwalk tonight and then head down to Chincoteague tomorrow morning.”

“Let’s go pack me up.”

Wednesday
Ocean City, MD
Best Western
0900

“So how long is it going to take to get down there?” Mac asked. She threw her wet towel at Harm where he still lay in bed.

He burrowed under the covers. “Only about an hour,” came his muffled reply.

“I’m going to the lobby to see what they have on their continental breakfast.”

“Mmph.”

“Does that mean you want me to bring you something back?”

“Mmph.”

She let the door swing shut with a thud.

1000

“Let’s get this show on the road.”

He had managed to shower and load the car in the hour she had spent eating cereal and reading the local newspaper.

“You’re awful chipper all the sudden.”

“Is that bagel for me?”

“Yes, yes, it is.”

He took the bagel from her and climbed in the car. She hopped in the other side. He stopped at the lobby to check out. She screwed up all his preset radio stations while he was gone.

Wallops Island
1130

“What does NASA do all the way up here?”

“They do test flights I think. At least that’s what they used to do back in the early days.”

She stared at him.

“What?” he asked, after he felt she had stared long enough.

“How do you know stuff like that?”

“What do you mean ‘stuff like that’?”

“Really useless information that no one else gives hoot about.”

“I read it.”

“You read it? In what, The NASA Times?”

“In ‘Space’.”

“What? Did you just look up at the stars and see it spelled out?”

“No. The book ‘Space’ by Michener.”

“Oh. Was it a good book?”

“Yeah. Why are we having this discussion?”

“Because you know too much useless stuff.”

“Whatever.”

Chincoteague and Assateague Islands beach
0300

“Aaahhh!” she screamed as she came running back out of the water. “That’s damn cold.”

“Well, the sign back there said the water temperature was 68 degrees.”

She just stood there shivering in her red bikini. He tossed her the extra shirt he was carrying. He was carrying a lot of stuff. She wasn’t real sure what most of it was.

She pulled the shirt over her head while he stuck the beach umbrella in the sand. She took the towels from him when he pulled them out of the bag. She spread them out and continued pulling stuff out of his bottomless beach bag. The book that she had thought she left at home, a portable CD player with headphones, a box of Little Debbies, and a kite.

“A kite?” she asked as she tried to settle down on her towel.

“Yeah, there’s always a great wind out here. Maybe this time I’ll actually be able to get it up. It’s a trick kite and I’ve not learned how to use it real well yet.”

“Can I try later?”

“Sure.” He picked up the sunscreen and poured some in his hand as smeared some on her legs. “Scoot forward.” He kneeled behind her and coated her back.

“I’m having a good time, Harm.”

“I’m glad. We’ve spent too much time having less than what we deserved.”

“I thought this was an impossible relationship.”

“You thought wrong.”

The end

Author’s notes: How weird was that? I sat down with no plan in mind and wrote five pages. Funky. Well, if you made it this far: thanks so much for reading. Did you like it or were you trying to figure out what the heck I was doing? Let me know at virtualjag@yahoo.com

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