Chapter 11 - Robert
When I left that message for Andrea telling her that I had a surprise for her, I really didn't have anything specific in mind except take her someplace nice out to dinner, pull her chair out for her, open doors for her like men do on real dates, which was something we never had before. Since I hadn't heard from her in several days, I knew I had to do something different and more direct. I hadn't planned on whisking her off to her bedroom, but it worked out better than I expected.
Instead of leaving after we had "come and done" like I normally did, I stayed, and we talked a great deal during the night about everything and nothing at all. We drank that bottle of wine and started on a second. I played what little I knew on the guitar for her. We sang bad songs from the '70's. We confessed about our first sexual experiences. She asked me about the most public place I had sex.
"In the coat room in the banquet hall where we had our engagement party," I said.
"Oh, you and your ex?" she asked. "I didn't know ..."
"It didn't last long," I said. "I never thought it was worth mentioning. You?"
"Well, I've always wanted to do it on the roof," she said with devilish look she had when she lowered her head and cast up eyes up at me.
Nothing else had to be said. We threw on the barest necessity of clothing, picked up a blanket and some pillows, and she practically raced me to the service stairs that led another two stories up to the roof.
It turned out we weren't the only ones with that idea.
There was another couple who were sitting together gazing into the night sky. They looked as if they were in recovery mode. We were about to turn around until we heard the guy say, "Come over if you want."
The guy threw on his shorts, the woman wrapped a side of the blanket over herself. Ironically, it was the same guy who took that bottle of wine off my hands to let me in. His name was Tim. He said just moved in from Charlotte about two months ago and lived a floor above Andrea. His friend's name was Shelly, who was a hairdresser. The two of them were an attractive couple about our ages.
"Did you try that wine?" I asked him.
"It was awesome. We'd offer you some, but ..." he said, waving an empty bottle.
I asked if they smoked. They both said, "Sure."