This is a work of fiction and any resemblance by any character or situation to any actual person or event is purely coincidental. All characters presented in this narrative are over the age of 18.
Chapter Eight - Vignettes
Alexandria, Virginia, Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022
-- The smell of a freshly opened bag of Starbucks Café Verona blend brewing in my kitchen awoke Lisa this morning. She had covered her nakedness in the duvet cover. I walked to her, took her into my arms, kissed her forehead, her eyelids, her cheeks and finally, sweetly, on her lips.
"Morning, baby. I love you," I said as I held her close. "I hope to tell you that for a long time to come."
She just breathed deeply and exhaled, each of us content to start the day in each other's arms.
I poured us cups of the dark Italian roast that Sis had recommended on Friday that I buy along with a handful of Lisa's preferred shampoos, conditioners, snacks and creature comforts to make her feel at home for our first real night together not on four wheels on a crowded, frozen freeway. The BBC News was playing on my TV and we took our coffee there as English muffins toasted and bacon broiled in an air fryer.
I joined Lisa beneath the thick duvet cover. She climbed into my lap, looped her arms around my neck and just smiled.
"And I look forward to hearing that from you every morning for a very long time," she said. Her head relaxed against my chest and neck until the chime from the toaster alerted us that the muffins and bacon were done. When apricot jam dripped off her muffin onto her upper thigh, I took the napkin from her and instead licked it up. And continued licking.
The muffins and bacon were never finished. We spent the rest of the morning in leisurely lovemaking, culminating in the shower where we slowly kissed and washed each other's every contour and crevice.
It was early afternoon before we finally left the apartment for a stroll down King Street to the Potomac and back, a distance of nearly two miles round-trip. By the time we returned, the sun was ready to plunge behind the western horizon, so we decided a lazy day deserved a lazy end. We ordered out for pizza, retired to my apartment and turned the thermostat up to the point where we could comfortably lounge around naked, alternately streaming "Bridgerton" episodes when we weren't teasing one another to orgasms. We were both sound asleep again by 10 o'clock, quite certain that nothing in the world outside this apartment mattered.
●●●
Irvington, Virginia, February 14, 2022
-- Lisa and I took personal days off, giving us our first long-weekend getaway for our first Valentine's Day as lovers. We drove down U.S. 17 and crossed the Rappahannock near its mouth into Chesapeake Bay for a three-night stay in a waterfront room at the posh Tides Inn.
We got out of the room and away from each other's bodies long enough to take a walk around the resort grounds on an unseasonably warm, sunny February afternoon on Sunday. There, I gave her a necklace with a gold medallion on which the date of our snowbound I-95 adventure was engraved on one side. On the other was a space for another date intentionally left blank.
"What will this say, Jake?" she said of the uninscribed side before I fastened it around her neck.
"Whatever we decide, Lees, but it has to be special. Very special," I said.
Today is actually Valentine's Day, but we both had to be back at work the next morning so we were driving back to Washington.
"It's getting to the point where I feel depressed knowing I've got to drop you off, even if it is with my sister," I told her. "What would you think of switching roommates from one Gordon twin to the other?"
"I'd be open to it, but ... how would I break it to Janine and how would she manage the rent without a roommate," Lisa asked.
"Let's see what I can work out," I said.
I walked Lisa up to the apartment and helped her carry her bag inside. The living area was quiet, the TV off and the kitchen was dark. On the coffee table was a hand-lettered note from Lisa: "Love birds, Marcus and I are making an early night of it so keep it down PLEASE."
Lisa and I smiled at each other. We had the same idea -- maybe this roommate issue for Sis will resolve itself. We watched the 11 o'clock news together before I kissed her goodnight and drove to Old Town.
●●●
Raleigh, North Carolina, March 12, 2022 --
As she had several times, Lisa was a weekend guest in the home of John and Evelyn Gordon. Usually, it was just the roomies, Janine and Lisa, though I had been there a couple of times -- things like a Memorial Day or Thanksgiving weekend. So Mom and Dad didn't think much of it that I was there.
They had come to think of Lisa as their third child because of the close bond she and Sis had formed. Lisa fit the role of kid sister perfectly. They hadn't been kept up to date on all the developments that would alter, but further solidify, the relationship.
Sis had let them know that Lisa and I had gone out a time or two. They had no idea how serious things had gotten.
We were sitting around a propane fire pit on the deck overlooking a small lake in a development outside Raleigh after Sis and I got our degrees and took good jobs in D.C. For appearance sake, Sis and Lisa stayed the first night, Friday, in the same room. This was Saturday. Lisa sat between Sis and I on a large porch swing hanging one of the beams on the pergola suspended over the deck. It was Mom who noticed Lisa leaning against me as the sun sank and the chill reclaimed the night after a balmy day. She smiled as her brow furrowed as the puzzle pieces snapped better into place in her mind.
"So what's up with you kids?" she asked.
Janine was the first to speak.
"It looks like I might be losing my roomie," she said, regret blended with anticipation etched on her face. "Marcus has asked me to move in with him, and ... our relationship has reached the point where it feels right. He has a brownstone on Capitol Hill Northeast that his mom put in his name after she moved to a retirement development in Maryland to be nearer Marcus's sister."
A moment of silence as Mom's eyes scanned the three of us, unsure how this disruption between her twins and second daughter would play out. She had become deeply fond of Lisa over the years.
"So?" she asked, rolling her hand to get elicit more information.
"So my lease in Georgetown runs through April and I will move in with Marcus by the first of May," she said.
"And that leaves Lisa to find another roommate?" she said, concern now apparent on her face. Dad, by far the more laconic of the two, leaned back puffing his pipe, not sure what was next and paying attention, but sensing a big turn in the story..
"Yes, she'll have another roommate," Sis said. "But I think it's going to work out well. Lisa and I will still stay in close touch, guaranteed, and so will you, Mom."
"How can you be so sure?" Mom asked.
By now, Lisa was blushing and had gripped my hand. It was my turn to pick up the thread.
"Because Lisa's new roommate is me," I said.
Mom froze. Her jaw dropped and her hands grasped her cheeks. Dad's pipe fell from his mouth and clattered to the deck floor, scattering smoldering tobacco on the boards. It was their moment of epiphany as the last pieces of the puzzle snapped into place. As we abandoned the business-as-usual charade, I wrapped Lisa in my arms and kissed her forehead.
"Oh my
God
