Sunday dawned with rain hammering the big windows and lightening and thunder crashing. I like rainy days but, summer storms this close to the coast in Florida; can sometimes be severe. I rolled over and gazed at the clock and was surprised to see it was after 9:30. I usually wake up earlier but I must have been more tired than I thought last night.
After the morning routine I climbed up to the deserted kitchen and fixed myself coffee and waffles. Marie had not shown her face. With Louise in Atlanta, I was alone in the house. I decided it would be a good day to spend in the video room getting ready to erect the equipment mounting racks.
We made great progress yesterday and I took measurements for the glass panels, which would fit into the frames in the wall looking into the stage area. We had a long way to go before we would be ready to shoot a movie, but I felt good about the work. I finished painting the wallboard in the room and started to move the metal pieces closer to it, so we could assemble them inside. The day seemed to slip by unnoticed and when I took a break for a beer, it was already after five.
I was sitting at the bar when the phone rang and Louise came on the line. "Hi Brat," she yelled into the phone.
"Nice talk," I replied, "but I guess you know the truth."
I heard two people laughing and surmised that Camille was close at hand. "Hi, Cammy, you miss me?" I asked.
"Every minute. You taking good care of Marie?" she asked.
"You know it, Brown Sugar. But without my two favorite darkies, I'm a lost soul," I answered.
"You big bull shitter, you getting' so much trim it's almost against the principles of man," she wailed.
She had me there. I'd been overrun with opportunities lately. I'm not gonna complain, it would do no good; I was alone in the house.
"So when you coming home to bug me?" I asked.
"My furniture gets picked up Wednesday morning and we'll leave as soon as the movers are gone. So late Wednesday evening," she answered.
"I'll be here with bells on," I said.
"You had better be there with a big hard-on, White Boy, we're gonna be wantin' some leg when we get in. Understand?" she said.
"Perfectly," I answered, "loud and clear."
"Gotta go, Hon, see ya soon," she finished and we hung up.
I stood up and walked to the door and looked out at the river. The rain had persisted all day and it was still drizzling. I noticed Chrissie's car down at the boathouse and Denny's lights were on. As I turned, I nearly ran over Marie. She had come in unnoticed. "Hi," I said, "I'm always trying to run over you it seems."
"Long as you fuck me when you knock me down, it's okay," she explained. "What'cha doin' for dinner?"
"I was thinking about driving down to Kings and have a Shipwreck. Join me?" I asked.
"Give me a minute to powder my nose," she stated and disappeared.
I changed pants and found a shirt and was ready by the time she returned. I fired the big Chevy engine up, in the Nomad, and we drove south to Flagler Beach. Marie had doused herself with some very exotic perfume and I was heady with her scent. We pulled into Kings lot and had the place to ourselves. We ordered a Shipwreck pizza, and sat looking out the window at the Atlantic Ocean. The waves were about four feet high and breaking way out. I'll have to check in the morning and if it's like this I might bring my board down and surf for a while. Marie smoked a cigarette and we talked about our music and Camille. She was curious how I felt about her wanting my baby. I told here I really hadn't gotten over the initial shock, but I guess it was all right. I told her Camille and Louise would make great parents and she kicked me under the table.
Our pizza arrived and we ate in silence until Terry and Al came in and asked to beg off on the job at the White Lion, so they could get ready to leave for college. I told them it was all right and asked Marie to remind me we needed to contact Jeff and Ronny.
"That's a good deal," I said, "we need to start working with the new guys as soon as we can."
Marie was thoughtful and then asked, "How would you feel if I started to look for some bookings in Daytona or Orlando?"
I told her I thought that was fine and we needed to start playing some bigger arenas if we wanted exposure. She agreed and we finished our pizza and got up to leave.
We drove back to the house and I couldn't believe we hadn't had a sexual encounter the whole time we had been out. "Not feeling well?" I asked as we entered the studio.
"Fucking period," she complained, "started this morning. I'm off line until Friday at least."
"Oh well," I said.
"I can still suck dick, though," she laughed. "C'mon upstairs later and let me buy you a drink for a change."
"Deal, give me a while, I want to work on a melody I've been chewing on for a couple of days and I'll be up," I said.
She nodded and was gone. I switched on the tape decks and picked up the new Jazzmaster guitar and started the song Marie and Dennis and I had been working on most recently. I listened through a headset for a few minutes, rewound to the beginning and muted the lead track and played a new track along with the vocal and rhythm tracks still audible. I rewound again and picked up my old bass and played a new bass track. After putting a new tape on deck two, I started deck one and mixed the new tracks with the original five tracks and left the first bass track out altogether. It sounded like a completely different song. I'd had this lead line buzzing in my head for days and it really added to our mix. Oh what joy, a plan comes together.
It was almost an hour before I climbed the stairs to Marie's apartment. I had not been in here since she moved in. I could see she had been busy settling in. She was evidently serious about fixing things up, because everything in the living room had been stacked in the middle of the room. She had been making small repairs in the plaster and touching up the woodwork. Her workmanship was very nice and I was glad to see it taking place. She came into the room, from the bedroom, wearing a slinky robe, and crossed over to me. She gave me a warm kiss and then walked into the kitchen. She mixed me a nice Johnny Walker Black over a couple of ice cubes and handed it to me. She even has my brand.
"Good choice, how'd you know I like Scotch?" I asked.
"Woman's intuition," she smiled.
I should have known. We walked back through the living room into one of the bedrooms, which she was using as a den. I settled into a chair and enjoyed my drink.
Marie sat across from me and said, "You must think I'm some kind of a rotten filthy slut, the way I've been acting around you."
"Hey, like I explained to Camille about Dianne," I said, "some people just have different ideas. You like it a little sleazy. Dianne has her thing, and Camille wants her brother to father her baby. Just think about mom and dad and Louise, and me and Louise and the girls. Who cares as long as nobody gets hurt?"
"I know I'm running crazy these days, like a pony that got out of the fence," she said. "If I do something to offend you, let me know, Okay?"