*Part One*
"Another beer?" the bartender asked me.
"Yes. Two please."
He looked at me suspiciously.
I smiled. "One for me and one for my friend...who should be here shortly."
I was waiting for my friend of twelve years, Charlie. Charlie was thirteen years older than myself, and had been a friend of my family for years. He had worked closely with my father for many years and had become close to us after my mom had left us. At the time I was only seven and my being surrounded by my three older brothers, Charlie, at the age of twenty at the time, kind of had a weak spot for me. I think he felt my mother's leaving had hit me the hardest. As a child, I regarded him as a strong, handsome adult. My Dad still had his old record player from when he grew up and we (Charlie and I) listened to records and danced. They were fond memories I had.
But during my teenage years I drifted from him very intentionally...
During those teenage years I didn't want to be close friends with him anymore. He tried to give me advice and to advise me, very gently, not to go out with so many boys, but my ears were closed to his suggestions. At thirteen or fourteen, I thought I had everything figured out and that I didn't need Charlie or my brothers or my father even. I didn't want to be advised or coddled or told what to do. I often sought the company of boyfriends or girlfriends or the solitude of my room when he came over. But those were my adolescent years.
Being twenty now, I would say I was far from a perfect person, but I had gotten over my massive ego that I had had in my teenage years. The last year or so Charlie and I had picked up on our friendship. I still needed advice about men and a companion - and he was one of the greatest friends I had.
Flirtatiousness did not elude us, though. We were both attractive adults, we were aware of the other one's attractiveness and flirted some but had never gone out as a romantic couple. I don't think it ever crossed our minds. He was a strong male figure during most of my childhood and I still looked up to him rather than fantasized about him.
I felt a pair of hands cover my eyes. "Guess who?"
"Bernie Madoff?"
He laughed and sat next to me. "Close."
"That's what girls do," I laughed.
Our beers arrived just then and we drank and talked. He drank and eyed me closely with a smirk.
"When are you going out with Lenny again?"
I looked at his smirk. "What are you laughing at? Just because he's older, I mean, so what?"
He laughed. "You're right. Sorry. I went for older when I was your age. Older women, that is."
I nodded. "So I remember," recalling a time he had brought one of his older girlfriends over to the house one time when I was a child.
He drank more and then eyed me again. "Are you sure you know what you're getting into, Ann? I mean, I do worry about you sometimes, getting hurt. He doesn't seem like a nice guy, just one of those out for young stuff."
"Will you stop?" I asked. "You don't know him. Now, onto other subjects," I said, breaking the conversation up. "You were in college once. I need help with my calculus - would you be the man who could help me?"
He laughed. "Sure, sure, no problem. When?"
"Saturday night, 9 p.m.? My apartment?"
He nodded. "Sounds good. I'll be there. I really should get paid for it," he said. "You can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, as frustrated as you get."
I pushed him playfully and laughed. "And that's what girls do. Now buy me a few games at the pinball machine."
Connected to the bar was a giant game room with pinball machines, pool tables, and such. We walked over to the arcade and bought some golden coins to use on the pinball machines and cashing in our dollar bills to use quarters for the pool table.
The rest of the night we played the pinball machine, pool, arcade games. We were always kind of loud and rambunctious out in public, but it was a bar, so it was acceptable. At the end of the night we hugged rather awkwardly and went on our separate ways.
*Part 2*
I had a rather odd sleeping schedule. Insomnia, you might say. With work and with school, some nights I could sleep a heavy-duty ten hours, and other nights I wouldn't go to bed till four a.m. and then I'd be exhausted the rest of the day.
Saturday night, shortly before I was expecting Charlie, I found myself in my nightgown, snoozing on the couch. I had a little apartment of my own, nothing fancy, but then I didn't need much anyway, just as long as I had a working toilet.
There was a knock on my door. I startled awake and opened it. Charlie wasn't phased by my nightgown. It was a rather conservative nightgown, being rather fluffy and ending at my ankles. I invited him inside.
"Sorry about the nightgown," I said. "I've had kind of stomach thing today, not really sure what it is. Hope you don't mind."
He put his hand up. "Not a problem. I brought some of my old college notebooks with me," he said, holding them up. "I was hoping they'd bring back some old calculus memories for me. Remember, I barely passed that class, too."
I nodded and we sat ourselves at the kitchen table. "I know. If I do well on this test that's coming up, that'll be sure to raise my grade a whole bunch, but if not, well, I'm doomed."
He laughed and we got to work. With open notebooks and textbooks before us, I was determined to get the hang on this calculus thing. I had a mind more for history and science than I did for math. While we worked I brought up an old memory.
We sat side-by-side at the table, our knees occasionally touching each other than quickly pulling away. I smiled.
"This reminds when I was in third or fourth grade and you were trying to teach me long division."
His eyes met mine. His eyes were a deep, velvety brown. He smiled. "I remember. You were so determined, but so frustrated. I remember back then your feet swung back and forth underneath the chair. You were so little, they didn't touch the floor."
"They're still like that," I said to him saucily.
He blushed and looked away. He continued. "But I do remember when you finally got the long division thing. I could see a light bulb go off in your head. A very cool moment, indeed."
I agreed and got up to pour us a couple glasses of Coke, mine with a straw, if you must know. I was kind of embarrassed about my remark about my feet not touching the floor, but sometimes, just sometimes, his good looks would make me forget my platonic state of mind and those eyes would defeat me. But, as always, he remained a gentleman. He just turned thirty-three a few months ago, yet I saw in him a maturity that surpassed Lenny's.
Sucking on my soda and chomping on the bag of chips I had brought out from the kitchen, Charlie and I somehow got distracted and he pretended to be a parent, bringing a chip to my mouth, saying, "Here comes the airplane!"
I laughed and pushed his hand away, but he aggressively fought me. I laughed harder. "Stop!" It was impossible for me to keep my lips sealed when his goofiness made me laugh so hard.
"I thought you liked chips," he said, taking his large hands and trying to move one of mine out the way.
"I do, but not that way!"
"Which way do you like it?" he asked.
We stopped for a moment at his comment. He blushed, but I just giggled. I held his hand that was resting on the table.
"Hey, it's okay," I said gently.
He looked at me. His eyes had a weakness to them. I leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. I slowly brought my head back again and I could feel the closeness of him, the narrowing of his eyes on my face. The tender moment was interrupted with a knock on the door. It was nearly eleven o'clock and yet someone was at the door.
I got up from my seat. "Who is it?"
"It's Lenny," said the voice on the other side.
I opened the door. Lenny stood there, his hair grayed and his expression stern. "Come on in," I said. He did so and saw Lenny sitting at my kitchen table. The two eyed each other suspiciously.
Lenny then looked at me in my nightgown. "I was just in the neighborhood, I wanted to stop by to see if you needed anything for you stomach." He paused. "Is this how you normally receive your male guests?"
"Lenny, it's not a big deal," I said. "This is Charlie, the friend I told you about. He's helping me study for my calculus exam."
"You always keep your hair immaculate," Lenny continued. "Yet tonight I see it is out of place. How'd it get that way?"