by Beth Burnett
“Are you trying to remember who I am?” She sounds curious, but not angry.
“No, I remember us rock-climbing.”
“Then I guess I wasn’t that memorable in bed.”
“I don’t remember having sex after rock-climbing.”
“We didn’t. You picked me up in a bar a few weeks before that, and we went back to your place and had sex.”
It seems familiar. Not just getting drunk and going home with someone, but specifically, getting drunk and going home with this woman. I have almost placed her.
“It must have been a bourbon night.”
“There were many rounds of shots.”
She still doesn’t sound mad, so I decide to risk a joke.
“Maybe it would jar my memory if we did it again.”
She laughs. “At this point, any self-respecting woman would slap you in the face and storm off of the dance floor.”
“Are you self-respecting?”
“I am.”
“Well then.”
She reaches up and touches my face. “How soon before we can leave?”
Chapter Two
I blink in the sunlight coming through my window. My arm is asleep. I go to straighten it and feel the warmth of a body next to mine. Davey. I spoon around her and press my lips against the back of her neck. I’m coming out of that state of half-sleep, and I have already realized it isn’t Davey before my face encounters the long mane of strawberry blonde hair. Heather. That’s the redhead’s name. After we danced last night, I brought her back to our table to introduce her to the ladies.
She came with me to drive Leah, Lynne, and Sarah back to Davey’s apartment. Davey wasn’t there. I resisted the urge to drive past Danny’s house when we left the party. Leah and Heather made polite small talk on the way home, but I could tell that Leah didn’t approve of me going home with someone. Leah has never been one to disapprove of sex, so she was probably irritated because she thought I should come home with her, drink hot chamomile tea, and talk through my feelings. I, on the other hand, didn’t have any interest in talking through my feelings or drinking tea. And, if there is one way to make sure I don’t spend the night tossing and turning and thinking about Davey, it is to spend the night making love to a beautiful woman.
She is beautiful. I look at her face in the dappled sunlight. She has a bit of an upturn to her nose and a smattering of freckles. She is amazing in bed. She didn’t hold back anything. I can’t believe I can’t remember having sex with her before. I must have been really drunk. Yet another reason to not drink so much.
I jump in the shower, throw on shorts and a tank, and perch on the edge of the bed to lace my running shoes. Heather rolls over as I sit.
“Good morning,” she says sleepily.
“Morning. Going for a run. Unless you want me to take you home first.”
She sits up, letting the sheets and blanket fall away from her body. I contemplate taking her back to bed for a while, but decide against it. I need a run.
“I’ll run with you,” she says, swinging her legs out of bed.
“I doubt you can hang.”
She arches an eyebrow at me. “I’ll take my chances.”
She rummages in my drawer for shorts and a tank. “Do you have any shoes I can borrow? I somehow don’t see myself doing a serious run in those fuck-me shoes from last night.”
I wear a men’s nine. Her feet look a lot smaller than mine. “What size do you wear?”
“Seven.”
“Men or women.”
“Women, of course.”
Of course. I go to my closet and pull out a pair of shoes. “These are Davey’s. You can borrow them for today.”
“Davey. That’s your best friend, right?”
I nod and leave her to get dressed. Grab a bottle of water for me and an extra for Heather. I don’t have long to wait before she comes out, ready to go. I glance at her feet. Looks like Davey’s shoes fit her perfectly. My clothes are a little big for her, but she looks cute. I lean in and kiss her on the mouth.
“Let’s go.”
We take a gentle pace on my block and head toward Lake Road. I figure I’ll run a couple of miles to Huntington Beach and then take the hills back over to Wolf. If she is still with me at that point, I’ll make it a nice easy pace back to my house. We make the turn onto Lake and pick up the speed. She’s pacing me easily and hasn’t even started breathing heavily yet. I pick it up a bit. She’s only a bit shorter than me and her long legs are having no trouble matching my pace.
“There’s a key hidden in the milk chute. If you get tired, you can turn around and wait for me at my house.”
She grins. “I think I’ll be fine.”
“We haven’t hit the hills yet.”
“I usually run at Rocky River reservation. Your Huntington hills don’t scare me.”
I laugh and put on a burst of speed. She catches up, and we race toward the hills. I make a sharp turn onto the walking path and slow down a little bit for the downhill into the little valley. Running uphill is one thing, but downhill is hard on the knees, and at forty, one of the sad realities of life is that I have to think about crap like knee pain. Heather pulls in front of me as we hit the bottom of the hill and pounds the pavement as we head up. I’m distracted for a second by the view of her butt muscles gliding sexily under my running shorts. She takes a lead on me by several feet, but I throw some extra wind into it and outpace her. She catches up. We’re both running up the hill full speed, breathing heavily. My calf muscles are screaming, but I am not giving her this hill. Finally, right at the top, I kick it in and pull ahead of her by about three feet. We make the hill and easily run to the intersection at Wolf Road. I slow down to an easier pace, still running but trying to get my breath back. Heather is sweating. She looks hot with my shirt clinging to her. She grins at me.
“Nice job on the hill.”
I nod.
“You should come running with me at my usual spot,” she continues.
I nod again. “Maybe.”
“So what happened last night?”
“In what way?”
“I saw you dancing with your friend. You looked pretty cozy.”
“We’ve been dancing together for years. We always look cozy.”
“Do you always make out?”
“Not always.”
I take a detour down a side street and guide us over to Osborn.
“So what happened?”
She’s persistent. Why do women always want to know about stupid details?
“It doesn’t matter. It didn’t work out. Can we just run?”
“We are running. You should be able to carry on a conversation while you’re running. Otherwise, you might be over-extending yourself.”
I ignore her and put on a little speed. She easily catches up again.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. I just wanted to let you know I won’t judge if you do want to.”
“Davey and I have been best friends forever. Last night, I let myself forget about that fact that she is straight.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“Yes. We went to prom together in high school. Well, sort of.”
I was already living at Davey’s grandparent’s house by the time we went to prom. Gramps was a champ. I had to give credit to the grumpy, old republican. He was always more of a father to me than my own father was. In fact, he and Gram took me in long before my parents officially kicked me out when Davey first started bringing me around. Gram treated me the same way she treated Davey. She admonished us to do our homework, she fussed if we stayed out after the street lights came on, and she loved us unconditionally. Gramps was gruff and distant in some ways. He spent a lot of time in the office, but when he was home, he would often throw the softball for me, or teach me the rules of football. As I got older, he taught me how to play poker and sometimes let me sit in on games with the guys. He and Gram loved each other in a respectful, but obvious way tha
t did not exist between my parents. They flirted with each other, and they made each other laugh. I think they were the first example of a love relationship that I ever experienced, and it was good. I didn’t want to be my parents. I wanted to be like Gram and Gramps or I wanted to be alone, like Leah.
Heather interrupts my thoughts. “You sort of went to prom together.”
“Well, we tried.”
“What happened?”
“It wasn’t meant to be.”
I had dressed in my rental tux and went downstairs to wait for Davey to come down. Gramps sat with me and tried to give me advice.
“Don’t drink and drive,” he had warned.
“I won’t drink at all.”
“Don’t stay out all night.”
“I promise.”
“Don’t listen to anything Leah told you.”
I had laughed. “Gramps, Leah is a good mother.”
He shook his head. “I love Leah. She is the joy of my life. But she is not a good mother. She is a good friend to Davey, but she has not been around enough to be a good mother. Not that that’s a bad thing. Davey had a chance to grow up in a stable environment. I certainly wouldn’t have wanted Leah to take her off to some commune where the children run around naked and smoke pot all day.”
“Gramps. Come on. Give Leah a break. She was sixteen when Davey was born. And she’s a free spirit. She wants to experience everything there is to do in life. I get that. I want to experience everything, too. I’m just not particularly interested in the same experiences that Leah is.”
We were interrupted by Leah coming down the stairs. “She’s almost ready!”
I remember looking up and being awed into silence. Davey looked phenomenal. She was wearing some shiny dress with big sleeves. It was blue. I don’t know if I truly remember her dress, but Davey still has the pictures and we look at them every once in a while. Now we laugh at how gangly I looked in my rented tux with the shiny blue cummerbund and bow tie that matched her dress, but back then, I thought I looked pretty sharp. And Davey’s hair was huge and hair-sprayed into oblivion, but I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. In fact, she was. I watched her coming down the stairs and I was breathless.
Gram and Gramps took too many pictures, and Leah fluttered around, laughing and joyous. Of course, Leah was happy that her daughter was going to prom with another girl. Leah believed in challenging the system in about any way possible. Being gay was a bonus in her book.
I escorted Davey into the car and went around to the driver’s seat. She was smiling and glowing as we drove to the school.
“Davey.” My voice cracked a bit. I cleared my throat. “I didn’t get a chance to tell you this at your house, but you look beautiful.”
“Really?” She looked up at me, her eyes shining. “Kevin Newton is an asshole. He did me a favor by breaking up with me.”
“You deserve way better.”
She looked doubtful. “Maybe.”
I took her hand and kissed it. “Davey, you do. You deserve the very best.”
We got out at the school, and Davey nervously straightened her dress.
I took her arm and escorted her into the gym. We walked past the snooty in-crowd types and wandered over toward the tables. I looked around at the dance floor. There were a few people dancing, but not many. I wasn’t ready to get out there yet. Davey was holding my hand, so I knew she was nervous.
“Everyone is looking at us,” she whispered.
“Not everyone.”
“Most of them.”
“Not even most of them. And even if they are, who cares?”
“It just makes me ...” She was cut off by the principal, Mr. Hadley, approaching with one of the teachers.
“Ladies,” the principal said, “You are going to have to leave.”
“Leave?” I was defiant. “We aren’t doing anything.”
“You’re causing an uproar by being here.”
“There doesn’t seem to be an uproar.”
Hadley glared at me. “Young lady, you will leave this prom, or I will have you both suspended.”
“That doesn’t make sense!” I was seriously pissed by now. “We aren’t even doing anything wrong.”
The teacher stepped forward. It was Mr. Jenkins, one of my favorites. “Andy, I’m sorry. It would be better for you both if you just leave.”
“I don’t understand.” I looked at Mr. Jenkins, my teacher and coach.
Hadley spoke from clenched teeth. “We do not allow girls to go to prom with other girls at this school.”
“That’s bullshit. There are a lot of girls here with other girls.”
Davey pulled at my hand. “Come on, Andy. Let’s just go.”
I looked down at her and saw tears shining in her eyes. I turned back to Hadley, but Mr. Jenkins was blocking my way. “Andy, I can’t do anything about this. Don’t get yourself into trouble. He won’t bend.”
I cast one more look at the principal and turned around. I held Davey’s hand tightly as I stalked out of the school. Back in the car, Davey cried the whole way home.
“Davey, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say. Please don’t cry.”
“It isn’t your fault.” She grabbed a tissue from her purse and blew her nose. “How horrible do I look?”
Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and there was some mascara smudged around them, but she still looked beautiful to me. “You look gorgeous.”
“Thank god Gram took all of those pictures before we left.”
I pulled into the driveway and hesitated. “Maybe we should just go somewhere else.”
Davey sighed. “No, let’s just go in.”
Leah met us at the doorway. “What happened?”
“We got kicked out,” Davey said, tearing up again.
“What? Let’s go right back to that school. Who kicked you out? I’ll take care of them!”
Davey shook her head. “No, Leah. I don’t want to fight.”
I nodded agreement. “We really don’t want to deal with it.”
Leah looked steadily at both of us and then nodded. “All right. Go down to the basement. I’ll meet you down there in a few minutes.”
We went into the basement and sat on the couch. Gram and Gramps’ basement was the coolest hangout in the world. It had this ugly remnant carpet that Gramps got cheap somewhere. Lots of big, ugly thrift store furniture pieces that were big and squishy and perfect for curling up to listen to records or read. Gramps had a weight set in the corner and a big stereo along one wall with more records than we had ever seen in one place. Davey and I kept our records here, too, and we had been known to spend hours down here listening to them. Davey actually got a CD player for her sixteenth birthday, but we hadn’t amassed much of a CD collection yet.
The basement was the place to be anyway. This was Gramps’ place. Gram didn’t have anything to do with it. There was even an accordion door that separated it from the other side of the basement so Gram didn’t have to look in when she was doing laundry.
“Here I am!” Leah was tramping down the stairs, carrying a huge tray full of food and drinks. She cleared some papers off a table in the corner and laid out soda, ice, candy, chips, and some dip.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Davey said.
“It’s Leah, not mom. And I’m throwing you a prom.”
“A prom?” Davey looked skeptical.
I remember being flooded with joy and love. Leave it to Leah.
Leah walked over to the record player and started rummaging around. “Let’s start with a little Duran Duran.”
She put on a record, and I stood up. “Come on, Davey. Let’s dance.”
I come back to the present as Heather and I run around the corner and end up back on Oakmoor. I slow us down to a jog, and then a walk. “Let’s cool down before we get to my house.”
Heather nods. “You were lost there for a while.”
“I was thinking about the prom.”
“So what happened?”
“We were kicked out for being a same-sex prom couple.”
“Davey is straight?”
“Yes.”
Heather looks thoughtful. “I would have sued.”
“By the time you were in high school, it was probably a lot more acceptable to be a lesbian.”
“Not really. I’m only eight years younger than you.”
“We didn’t sue.”
“So what happened?”
“We went back to Davey’s house and her mother played records for us all night. At the end of the night, she put on “Almost Paradise,” told us it was the last dance, and left us alone.”
“Sounds like a nice mom. Bad taste in music...but nice anyway.”
“It’s a sappy song, but Davey loved it.”
“So you slow danced.”
“We slow danced and when the song was over, she looked up at me and told me that it had been the best night of her life.”
“A sure invitation to a kiss if I’ve ever heard one.”
“I took it as such. I kissed her and she kissed me back. Then she went to bed.”
“And the next day?”
“She stuck her head into my room and asked if we were still best friends. I said that we were. She smiled and said, ‘Good.’ The end.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
We turn up my driveway and walk into the house. Heather faces me as we get into the kitchen and puts her arms around me. She looks up at me seriously, but with a small smile playing at the side of her mouth. “That was the best run of my life.”
I grin down at her. “That’s an invitation to a kiss if I’ve ever heard one.”
“Then shut up and kiss me.”
I lean in and kiss her, softly at first. She opens her mouth and I play my tongue lightly over her lips. I shift her slightly so I can reach my arms around her and press my hands against her hips. She groans lightly against my mouth. I pull back, smiling.
“I’m a sweaty wreck. I need a shower before this goes any farther.”
Heather smiles impishly. “I need one, too. Let’s conserve water by taking one together.”
“I’ll race you.”