When Andy got home his girlfriend was with him. It was getting on towards dinner time and I was about to start cooking something so I naturally asked if she was staying for dinner. It turned out she was so I just expanded what I was preparing enough to cater for three.
Apart from that I basically ignored Tiana and Andy, figuring that they were quite capable of looking after themselves. About ten I decided that I might as well go to bed and stopped to say goodnight to Andy, slightly surprised to find that Tiana was still there.
I guess Andy must have noticed the surprise.
"Ah, I told Tiana that she could stay the night," Andy told me, blushing slightly.
Once again it turned out that my reactions were totally readable by my son (and by Tiana, from her blush).
"It's not like that," he said quickly. "Tiana will be staying in the spare room. Her parents are away and she was a bit nervous about staying home alone, what with that thunderstorm forecast. Tiana doesn't like storms."
Uh-huh. She's eighteen and her parents aren't home and suddenly she's scared of thunderstorms and needs to stay at her boyfriend's place. I could understand that. No hanky-panky intended, just a need to feel secure.
If Tiana wanted to be in a position where she could possibly put a little pressure on Andy who was I to say no? Well, I was his father, but in this situation I'd keep my mouth shut. I liked Tiana and the boy could do a lot worse. I toddled off to my own bed.
I went to bed and promptly fell into the sleep of the fair and righteous. So there I was, sleeping peacefully, while outside the forces of hell gathered. I was woken in the wee small hours by a mighty clap of thunder that sounded as if it was right outside my window. This was followed by the sky lighting up from a tremendous lightning flash, with the resultant thunder promptly booming forth once more.
I said a few choice words about the devil's weather and rolled over to go to sleep again when a nagging though occurred to me. Had I heard another noise when that thunder cracked? I had this feeling that yes, I had.
I reluctantly staggered out of bed to check on the children. Andy, as expected, was sleeping the sleep of the dead and deaf. There hadn't been a force nine earthquake so he naturally kept on sleeping. Alone, I also noticed.
I wandered over to the spare room and walked in, flicking on the light as I did so. Tiana was sitting up in bed, looking towards me. The initial look on her face was both fearful and hopeful. I suspected that she was genuinely afraid of thunderstorms and was relieved to find Andy coming to her rescue. There again, seeing her expression change to one of irritation it's possible I might have been wrong.
Now I could have just asked if she was OK and then beat it back to my own little bed but that would have been rude. Tiana was, after all, my guest, and it was up to me to ascertain that she was OK. I strolled over to the bed and sat on it, reaching out to take hold of her hands at the same time.
I will confess to having two motives for taking hold of her hands. The first was to give her comfort. The second was to trap her hands so that when she remembered that her top was undone to a certain extent, and gaping wide enough to completely expose one very nice breast, she wouldn't have her hands free to start doing up buttons.
"I heard a scream," I said, speaking in a soothing voice, as though to a child. "I came to make sure that you were all right."
"Ah, yes, I'm fine," she said. "Um, you don't need to stay. I'll be OK. It was just that the thunder shocked me."
I saw her eyes dart downwards and then back up. She now had a bit of a flush on her face and was trying to draw her hands out of mine. I guess she'd just realised that her top had mysteriously come unfastened. I didn't let her hands go. I was enjoying the sight of that breast.
"Andy's dead to the world," I told her. "It would take a good deal more than a little thunder or a ladylike scream to wake him. Possibly a major earthquake might do the job but it would have to work at it."
