She leaned back into me and we kissed. It was one of those long, lingering kisses, full of the promise of many more to come. When we finally broke apart, those eyes were staring right at mine.
“Jeremy, I just thought of something else we didn’t do on Saturday night.”
I smiled.
“Besides that, I mean,” she grinned. “You haven’t seen my bedroom.” She snuggled even closer to me, and her lips caressed mine as she continued. “Would you like to see my bedroom? There’s a bed in there.”
Enough is enough.
I stood up, holding her as I did. She giggled as I turned her around so that I was carrying her in both arms. Then I walked down the hallway to her bedroom. When we got there, I saw that it, too, was lighted by several candles, and the same piano music was playing softly from speakers in the corners of the room.
In a very soft voice, almost a purr, she pointed and said, “There’s the bed.”
Two minutes later, we were in that bed, lying side by side, naked.
“You know,” she said, “at the end of each week, if the children in my kindergarten class have been good, I give them stickers.”
Then, after a pause, during which her body began to press up against mine, she asked, “Have you been good this week, Jeremy?”
“I certainly hope so,” I replied.
“Wonderful,” she said. “Now, with the children, I put the stickers on the backs of their hands. I was thinking that you deserve a sticker this week, but your hands . . . umm . . . seem to be occupied at the moment . . . oh, my, yes . . . so maybe I could find somewhere else to put your sticker.”
The fingers of her right hand touched my cheek and drifted slowly down across my lips.
“Let’s see,” she said. “I could put a sticker here.”
“Hm-mmm.”
Then her hand moved further and began tracing lazy circles on my chest.
“Or perhaps here.”
“Hm-mmm.”
“Or,” she murmured as her hand went even further down my body, “maybe . . . here.”
Apparently, I had been very good that week.
Chapter 43
Some time later, we fell asleep in each other’s arms. There was no question or awkwardness about my spending the night. We both knew we’d be together the next morning. I woke up around one o’clock and went into the bathroom, and when I climbed back into bed, Laura turned so that her back was to me and she moved closer and we spooned. I don’t know if she was even fully awake at the time. Her eyes never opened, but the way we fit together seemed more natural to me than anything else I’d ever experienced in my life. I awoke once more, this time at five, and when I opened my eyes, Laura was lying on her side facing me, those eyes staring into mine with an intensity that was almost overpowering.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi. Been awake long?” I asked.
“Just a little while. I’ve been watching you.”
“Really? See anything interesting?”
“Mostly you were just lying there, although a minute ago, I put my hand on you, and that seemed to provoke a response.”
“That probably explains the rather naughty dream I had just before I woke up.”
“Probably,” she said. Her face was very close to mine, and as I looked at her, for the first time in my life, I fully understood what it meant to lose oneself in another person’s eyes.
“Jeremy,” she said, “I’m only going to say this once. I don’t think I could go through another situation like the one with David . . .”
I put a finger up to her lips to quiet her.
“Somebody recently told me that I wasn’t this David person, and that somebody never said anything truer in her life.”
She smiled then, and nodded.
“Where did you say you touched me?” I asked.
“I didn’t,” she said, and her smile got wider. “But I believe a little demonstration might be arranged.” Her hand glided over to me. “Or,” she said, “perhaps not so little.” Then, seemingly without effort, suddenly she was on top of me, our bodies touching everywhere. And now that smile had just a touch of wicked to it.
* * *
Laura had an extra toothbrush she gave me, and she also let me use her deodorant. I applied it quickly and without looking at the colorful collection of lilies on the container, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t take too big a drop on the machometer. I had to put on the same clothes I’d worn the night before, but then I hadn’t had them on all that long.
We drove to Monroeville Mall and held hands as we walked around and window-shopped. A little after noon, we had lunch at a place called the American Café. It was nice. Of course, with Laura sitting across from me, I’d have thought a place called Barf It Up was nice.
After lunch, we walked some more until she said she had to go home because a friend of hers was dropping her four-year-old off for Laura to babysit that night. When we got to the lobby of her building, I put my arms around her.
“I’ll call you,” I said. “Soon.”
“I know,” she said. Then she stretched up and kissed me lightly on the lips, smiled that smile, turned and walked up to the elevator. I watched her all the way, and when the elevator door closed, I finally exhaled.
* * *
When I got home, there were three messages on my machine. One from Dennis, telling me they still hadn’t found Manny, one from an earnest young woman who apparently believed the world would be a much better place if only I would switch to Sprint, and one from Irv, telling me he had cracked Terry Pendleton’s password.
“Legal Eagle,” Irv said, as he settled into the overstuffed chair in my living room. When I called him, he’d offered to stop by on his way to Starbucks.
