Becoming Juliet

discuss switching off driving responsibilities, Juliet had been secretly relieved. But for both of their sakes, she had put her foot down on the amount of road time they would cover each day. As a result, they came to an agreement on eight hours of driving per day with that time broken up with stops for meals, pee breaks and leg stretches. As Juliet watched the landscape change from glittering frost to luxurious green grass, she couldn’t help but think about the last time she had taken a road trip and how this was so much different. How she was so much different. Now, on the final night before they reached their destination, they decided on a motel just off the highway. And as luck would have it, there was a well-lit restaurant just across the street. Since it was convenient and they were both starving, P.J. and Juliet decided to have their dinner there. It was Sunday and the place was packed. Unless they wanted to wait an obscene amount of time for a table, P.J. and Juliet had been advised by the hostess to grab a seat at the bar. Juliet followed hesitantly as P.J. made his way through the crowd to the back of the room. After a long day of driving, Juliet did not relish having her dinner while eating on a stool. But to her pleasant surprise she found that the bar chairs were highbacked and cushioned. In Juliet’s opinion, that made all the difference in the world.

It turned out that The Stadium was more of a sports bar than a restaurant. It seemed to be a local watering hole and the kind of place where everyone knew everybody else. And it appeared to Juliet that at least half of the people there were wearing a Washington NFL jersey. The bartender was busy taking bets and when P.J. put a hundred dollar bill on the counter, Juliet looked at him in alarm. It was not the money…the money was his to spend after all, and after spending the last couple of months in a relationship with P.J. she had come to learn that money was definitely not an issue for him. But although Juliet actually liked football, there was no way she wanted to sit in a bar all night and watch a game. Not after driving all day.

“What?” P.J.’s eyebrow lifted.

“I don’t want to sit here and watch the game for the next three hours.” She admitted.

“You don’t?” The astonished look on P.J.’s face made Juliet giggle.

“It’s like this…remember how you didn’t want to go on that tour yesterday when we drove through D.C.?” Juliet had known it was a long shot asking P.J. because D.C. was not a scheduled stop on their trip. And she had come to understand that he was definitely an A type personality when it came to schedules and appointments. But she had so wanted to see those monuments.

“Yeah. This isn’t the same though.” P.J. lifted his hands palm up as if they were weighing scales. “Boring bus tour.” He slowly pulled his left palm down. “Patrick Mahomes playing against Tom Brady.” His right palm shot up high in the air.

“You got that right, brother.” The bartender took P.J.’s money and winked at Juliet. “Your man has his priorities straight.”

“How about we have something to eat and stay for the first quarter?” P.J. asked.

“Sure.” Juliet compromised reasonably. If P.J. wanted to stay longer after that, she was fine to walk across to the motel by herself.

“I’m gonna step outside and make a couple of calls. Order us up a basket of wings, a large salad, a couple of drafts and whatever the hell else you want.” P.J. said. Then he gave Juliet a quick kiss and headed for the door.

Juliet ordered the food then watched with interest at the news show being aired before the game. It had been a while since Juliet had felt the need to connect with current events. In fact, she avoided it. She had had enough of daily broadcasting during the trial. More than enough actually, and that more than enough had sent her straight to the looney bin…literally. But now, Juliet munched on her salad and looked on with mild curiosity while the announcer commented on American politics, an extreme snow blizzard in Montana, and a sink hole that appeared out of nowhere and took out a whole neighborhood somewhere in California.

During a commercial break, the wings were delivered and P.J. still hadn’t returned. She could see him through the wall of windows with the phone plastered to his ear, his hands gesticulating wildly. Juliet naturally assumed that P.J. must be talking to a family member, and his dramatic movements made her smirk. Over the last few months, she had overheard bits and pieces of conversations that P.J. had had with his family. His Uncle Diego, in particular, seemed to have a special tendency to exasperate him. But the love that P.J. felt for all of them managed to shine through all the snarls, growls, and grumbles. In truth, Juliet was really curious to meet them. Tomorrow would definitely be an interesting day. Juliet looked dispassionately at the news show while she sipped on her beer and waited for P.J. to finish his call.

“What the hell? This asshole again?” The voice of the man sitting two seats away from Juliet broke into her thoughts. “Damn maniac. Thought he was behind bars?”

“Yeah, me too.” The bartender turned from where he had been wiping down beer glasses. Juliet followed his gaze to the flat screen television behind him. Kenny Brewster’s face was being flashed across the screen, and the broadcaster was talking about the second upcoming trial. “My sister was a freshman at the college when all that hell broke loose.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, no shit.” The bartender shook his head. “Luckily, Shannon is on the timid side. She really wasn’t