Summer 1985
Day 1: Thursday
Since I started university, I'd lived off-campus in an 'in-law' apartment. I put the term in quotes because it wasn't a
proper
in-law apartment, I suppose. It didn't have its own separate entryway, but the living space, itself, was properly isolated.
My apartment was actually the
entirety
of their third-floor attic. It wasn't like I was renting out a single bedroom in among their own second-floor living space. It was a complete and functional stand-alone apartment, with its own kitchen and bath, but I
did
need to use the owner's side entry which opened into a small den that was used as their living/family/TV room.
The owners had their own full, formal living room at the front of the house, but I always figured that they regularly used this smaller den due to its convenience to the kitchen and dining room. Its tiny porch was at the side of the house with rough concrete-slab walkways that led to the street from one side and the parking area in the alley behind the house from the other side. Basically, I'd have to tromp though their 'living room' to get to the stairway, which they also used as their own primary stairway to the second floor, to climb to my third-floor apartment.
The rent was surprisingly cheap, so it was easy enough to put up with it.
On the whole, this arrangement was actually a good thing, as I got to know the family reasonably well that way and they were nice people. I'd often waltz in and have to walk past most, if not all, of the family as they watched TV and I'd chit-chat with them frequently, instead of simply hearing from the owner once in a blue moon only when something went wrong.
The owners, a late middle-aged couple, had three older kids. A girl, Lisa, not
quite
a year younger than me, and her brother, Don, who was maybe two years older than me, lived with them at home. One other brother, Jim, was maybe three years older than Don, lived on his own, but visited often.
They'd told me that they and the boys would be going on an out-of-state road trip to the small cabin on a lake they owned up north and wouldn't be returning until at least Tuesday. More probably Wednesday. Lisa wasn't going with them, instead going on a "girl's weekend out" with her college friends as well. She never struck me as a 'party-girl,' but she probably wouldn't be above some light bar-crawling and/or trolling for guys, or attending reasonably sedate parties where her friends could goad her along.
As a renter, I already had a key to their door, so I could get in when they weren't around on those rare days where they actually locked it. They really didn't need to tell me ahead of time, but it was nice to know.
This weekend I could have the place to myself and have it quiet — not that I could ever really hear them from upstairs, I don't think I ever had — from Thursday to at least late Sunday when Lisa and her cohort were due back.
I decided on staying in town, instead of going back home for the weekend.
* * * * *
After work that evening, I walked in through the side entrance into the den only to find Lisa sitting there, off to my left, wearing her familiar summer outfit of a loose-fitting linen blouse with roomy half-sleeves reaching almost to her elbows and light, tan shorts, bare feet folded up under her in her usual viewing pose, curled up watching TV.
I say 'watching TV,' but it really seemed to be a confusing mix of her reading a book
while
the TV ran on its own. Then again, I've done pretty much the same thing, myself. It only comes across as confusing when someone
else
does it.
It was still fairly bright outside and I hadn't really noticed that the light was flickering through the door's large oval central window before I burst in on her.
I stopped and looked at her in surprise. "Hey, 'Junior!' I thought you were going away for a long weekend tonight? Or is that tomorrow?" I said to her with a raised eyebrow. "I figured that I could sleep in all weekend, with no one here to bother."
"Go ahead. I won't stop you. And stop calling me that!" she add with a touch of tart in her tone. "I won't be a junior until fall classes restart."
"You're no longer a sophomore, so that makes you a junior, Junior! You'll be 'Junior' for the next year, better get used to it now," I warned with a laugh.
Lisa snorted at me, then explained. "We
were
supposed to go tonight, but Nancy's car broke down - again. Getting it looked at tomorrow, probably. Depends on the garage's schedule. Getting it fixed? Given how often problems strike it,
maybe
Monday or Tuesday.
"Its problems usually weren't too bad, just frequent," she tacked on a bit defensively.
"What would ever possess you to go out of town in such an unreliable car? Do you
want
it to break down
at your destination
? Wouldn't
that
be fun?" I said with a laugh.
"She has the roomiest car," she explained, as if to a small child. "We all decided that it would be easier to just push back the trip for a weekend or two than to make the trip in two cars."
"At least if you went in
two
cars," I countered, "you'd have a fallback option available after her car's inevitable breakdown."
I looked at her for a few moments longer and said "On the way home, I was debating about whether I wanted to go out for dinner tonight. I hadn't settled on it, so I'm glad I swung by here before deciding. Have you eaten yet? Wanna do pizza with me, tonight? You know how I live on that stuff.
"Or maybe something else? I
do
eat other things on occasion, after all. Rarely, but it
has
been known to happen," I added with a grin.
"It beats eating alone," I added, softening my tone a bit.
"No, I haven't eaten yet," she said. "Sure! Pizza sounds fine. Thanks."
"Great! I'll be back down in a few minutes, then, if you're ready to go now? Or would you rather wait a bit? Finish what you were watching?" I asked.
"Sooner is better than later, I suppose," she said, "and I only have the TV on as background noise, not really watching it. There's no particular rush, though."
"OK, then. I'll be back down in about ten minutes," I said as I turned to continue my interrupted walk to the stairway.
This was far from the first time we'd done this. Over the last two years, or so, we'd gone out together plenty of times - movies, an occasional weekend day-hike, a couple of spring evening walking trips on the beach. Pizza-runs were a semi-frequent, but irregular thing. Nothing new here.
What we'd sometimes do together was never overtly, officially
date
-ish - and we certainly never got physical - just two people who like each other spending free time together when nothing better was in the works.
And it beats eating alone.
Honesty compels me to admit that I had a semi-
sorta
-crush on her, in the sense of 'she's a cute girl, I like her, I get along with her, she usually puts up with me, but that's about all' because I really didn't want to risk any suggestions or actions which would likely lead to me alienating her and/or her parents and losing the apartment if things turned sour on me.
I'd basically
