Beards

by Serena J Bishop

  Stevie shrugged. “I asked Dad a couple of months ago. He said that just because it makes sense to us, they might not see it yet.”

  Devin saw that the conversation was gradually bringing his friend down. “Hey, do you want to go to your room and play Guitar Hero?”

  “Yes!”

  ***

  As Devin and Stevie rocked out with Deep Purple and plastic buttons, the adults took it upon themselves to discuss the finer points of American culture. When Debbie became engaged in a conversation about local museums with Becky, Gina took the opportunity to refill her wine. She wasn’t expecting to see a shapely, emerald green silhouette when she entered the kitchen. “What’s that you’re making?”

  Roni poured orange juice into her flute. “It’s called a fuzzy mimo and it is freaking delicious.” She held the flute out for Gina to sample.

  Gina took a sip of the offered beverage and instantly tasted the intense sweetness. “You can drink all of that? Makes my teeth hurt.”

  “I can drink all of that. In fact, this is my third.” She saw a look of worry pass over Gina’s face. “Don’t worry, it’s half orange juice. So, it’s healthy,” Roni finished with a smile.

  “Speaking of healthy, I do have to say that you look,” she gesticulated towards all of Roni, “spectacular.”

  “Thanks.” Roni gave her a warm smile. “I feel good. I started doing dance aerobics at the gym. You’re looking really fit yourself. May I get a ticket to the gun show?”

  Gina flexed with a modest grin. She felt Roni’s hand lightly squeeze the different portions of her arm. “I had some plantar fasciitis so I’ve been doing more weights lately and less running, which also why I’m sticking to wine tonight. Less carbs.”

  Steven was very amused by the scene in front of him and cleared his throat to get their attention. “Hey Roni, if you’re done feeling Gina up, Tammy would like to know the approximate calories in the quiche bites and if you made them with whole eggs or egg whites.”

  “Seriously?” she asked annoyed while her hand was still on Gina’s arm. She gave Gina’s bicep one last squeeze before letting go. “We’ll catch up later. I have to go find the box my homemade quiches came in.”

  ***

  Catching up with one another occurred sooner than either of them would have thought.

  “I found Paul, he’s smoking a cigar outside,” Gina informed Allison. Her husband had disappeared and Gina offered to find him while she was on another drink run. “What are you two talking about?”

  Allison and Roni simultaneously answered, “Work.”

  “You aren’t allowed to talk about work at a party,” Gina playfully admonished. “Unless, it’s very good news.”

  “Don’t worry, it is,” Allison confirmed. “I’m trying to convince Roni to throw her hat into the ring to be the building principal for the new elementary school that opens in the fall.”

  “You should apply,” Gina said more enthusiastically than usual.

  “I don’t know,” Roni said with trepidation. “I’m still new to the district and I’m in a comfortable spot right now,” she downcast her eyes into the almost empty flute, “even if they did turn down my last idea.”

  “What did they turn down?”

  “I wanted to do a huge Harry Potter theme for the school. Since my building is a third through fifth building, they’re the perfect age for the earlier books. I wanted to use the books to teach about confidence, diversity, bullying...you get the idea.”

  Gina listened with rapt attention. She would have loved that as a kid. “I think that sounds great.”

  Roni drank the last of her fuzzy mimo. “Thank you. Stevie gave me the idea. He just loves that series so much and he’s had some unique insight regarding their world.”

  “Maybe it was the therapy?”

  “Maybe,” Roni reflected seriously. “He also sees the secret life of Hogwarts like how he grew up.”

  Allison saw that their attention was only for the other. She quietly slinked away to where Early was showing off his suit lining. “Okay, I’m throwing my ten dollars in. They didn’t even notice that I left!” Allison explained to Early. “Talk about being in their own world.”

  “What were they talking about that made them so giggly?”

  “Harry Potter.”

  Early ate a meatball pensively. “Makes sense. They do love to talk about books or they used to love to talk about books.”

  “I like to talk about books too. I’m the token hetero in Roni’s book club. In fact, I just hosted.”

  “How’d that go?”

  “Well, let’s put it this way, my five-year-old was very upset that she was not invited to the ‘party’. I would have let her stay except we were discussing The Road—not very kid friendly. Next time it’s my turn I should just pick a restaurant.”

  “Oh, come to my place! I’ve been trying to get Roni to bring the club, but she gets all ‘conflict of interest’. Sometimes she can be such a tight ass.”

  “She can be,” Allison readily agreed. “But that’s a great idea. You don’t mind a bunch of rowdy women in a small room?”

  “Honey, what do think my life in drag was like?” He spied Becky and Gretchen coming closer. “Oh, get over here, I want to introduce you guys properly.” Early stood in the middle and draped an arm over both the newcomers shoulders’. “Allison this is Becky and Gretchen. I have no idea what we would have done had these two not entered our lives.”

  “Hello, I’m Allison. Thanks for helping out Roni when I couldn’t be there.”

  “The pleasure was ours,” Becky added. “We’ve heard a lot about you.”

  Gretchen decided she liked Allison. A lot. “Are you the sorority sister?” she asked and then polished off the rest of her fuzzy mimo.

  “Guilty as charged.”

  “I bet you have some fantastic stories,” Gretchen said with a mischievous glint.

  “Nothing too bad.” Allison tossed her blond hair over her shoulder and laughed. “But we did make out once for an auction. The bidding started at fifty dollars.” She proudly added, “The whole fundraiser collected five thousand dollars for the local animal rescue.”

  Sounded more like female exploitation to Becky, but she played nice. “I’m glad that the money went to such a worthy cause.”

  Gretchen pictured the scene vividly. “That sounds like a great event.” Becky shot her partner a pointed look. “Because puppies need homes too. Hey Steven, get over here,” Gretchen requested, hoping to divert attention from herself. “What’s the latest?”

  Steven smiled broadly and rubbed his hands together. “I just got a new high score when I checked on the boys. Also, I got another bottle of champagne from downstairs.”

  “Already?” Early asked and then cocked a tweezed eyebrow towards Gretchen.

  “What? It’s not like I’m the only one drinking them.”

  ***

  In the far corner of the living room, Tammy tried to understand the appeal of the beverage Roni was enjoying so much. Each drink was easily two hundred calories, which meant that she was approaching the thousand-calorie mark. Roni was going to have to do a lot of dancing to burn that off, not to mention the other treats she seemed to enjoy. “Movie theatre popcorn is the single worst thing you could possibly eat,” she pointed out to Roni.

  “But it’s so good. Stevie and Gina always get popcorn when they go to the movies. She takes him and his friend Devin to the movies every other weekend,” she sipped and then chuckled, “she ended up seeing Talladega Nights three times this summer.”

  “It’s only because I felt guilty for being away for so long,” Gina said over Roni’s shoulder, and close enough for Roni to feel the heat of Gina’s breath against her neck.

  When Roni turned slowly towards Gina, Tammy sighed and stepped away.

  Debbie watched Gina, from the other side of the room, talk to Roni. Again. She had been thrilled to finally have a date to something and the most excitement she had gotten out of the ev
ening were the excellent meatballs.

  “You look how I feel,” Tammy commented to Debbie.

  “How’s that?”

  “Annoyed at your date.”

  Debbie nodded. “That’s putting it mildly. Not only has she ignored me for the past three hours, but she’s drunk too. There’s no way she’ll be able to drive me home and I have a group run I need to get to by nine tomorrow morning.”

  “Group run? Nice.” Tammy understood exactly where she was coming from. “Well, I’m equally ignored, but I’m my own ride. Would you like a lift home?”

  “Now?” Debbie asked, surprised. It was fifteen minutes until midnight.

  Tammy pointed across the room to where Roni and Gina were talking and giggling. “Would you rather ring in the New Year with her or with me?”

  Debbie eyed Tammy up and down. She sounded reasonable, wasn’t drunk, and, in the past, had settled for worst. “Let me get my coat.”

  ***

  Gretchen held her hand out to Steven as they watched Debbie and Tammy leave the party together. “Told you mousy and butch would end up together before midnight. Pay up, Shaft.”

  Steven reached into his pocket, pulled out a ten, and slapped it into Gretchen’s hand. “We still have that other bet going on. And don’t call me Shaft.”

  “Can I still call you ‘big man’?” Early asked mischievously.

  Steven smiled. “Only if you go upstairs and take Stevie and Devin away from their game for ten seconds. The ball is going to drop soon.”

  Early saluted and left while Becky replaced him in their small group. “This ought to be interesting,” she added to the conversation.

  “What will?” Gretchen asked.

  Usually, Becky didn’t agree with spying on friends or betting on their lives, but this was just too good. “Well, it’s almost midnight and Roni and Gina’s dates are gone. You do the math.”

  ***

  Where is she? Roni had checked the kitchen, dining room, and knocked on the bathroom door in an effort to find Tammy—it was almost midnight. “Hey Allison, have you seen Tammy?”

  “I did,” she answered slowly. “The last time I saw her she was talking to Debbie.”

  “Where was that?”

  “In her car,” she enunciated slowly and smiled at how dense her friend could be. “They left, Roni.”

  “They left? Together?” Roni was already on her way to find Gina before Allison could respond. Gina had just stuck her head around the corner when Roni spotted her. “There you are.”

  “Have you seen Debbie?” Gina asked.

  “Allison just told me she left with Tammy.”

  “Debbie left?” That just didn’t make sense. They were having such a great time.

  While Roni and Gina brainstormed the different reasons why they were ditched before the stroke of midnight, the living room erupted with, “Three, two, one, Happy New Year!”

  Roni stared at Gina.

  Gina stared at Roni.

  Becky pulled back from Gretchen’s lips with a smile. Early finished kissing Steven with a playful touch to his nose. Allison lowered herself from her tips toes after kissing Paul. Other scattered couples were basking in their moment when they were all surprised by Stevie’s loud gasp.

  Several pairs of eyes joined what he and Devin were watching—Roni and Gina kissing by the bay window.

  ***

  It was one of the best mornings of Stevie’s young life. He crushed Devin at Guitar Hero, fooled everyone into giving him sips of what they were drinking, saw Gina and his mom kissing, and now Early was making him chocolate chip pancakes for brunch. Early made the best pancakes.

  “I can’t believe Mom’s still sleeping. She’s always awake before us.”

  Early tested the edges of the pancake. “I know she got up to make coffee. She probably went back to bed to sleep it off.”

  “Sleep what off?”

  “The revenge of the fuzzy mimo,” Early said with a smirk.

  “Oh. She has a hangover.”

  Early chuckled. “Probably, but it’s in our best interest not to point that out to her.” He flipped the pancake on the griddle.

  Stevie knew from movies and TV that people who were drunk sometimes did things they regretted. He really hoped that wasn’t the case with what he had seen. “Early, do you think Mom and Gina are back together?”

  Early sighed. He still wasn’t sure what to make of that display himself. “I don’t know, honey. It’d be nice if they were, but I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”

  “But the way they kissed. That’s not how friends kiss,” Stevie tried to rationalize.

  “True, but it wasn’t like a crazy, passionate, tongue kiss either.”

  “That’s gross.” The whole using one’s tongue to kiss was just too weird for him to comprehend. “I guess I just don’t understand how they could kiss like that and not be going out on dates.”

  Early laughed at his naiveté. “Oh, Stevie. Stevie, Stevie, Stevie. Do you not know how those two originally got together?”

  Stevie nodded, but didn’t understand why that was so funny. “Gina and Dad came to Mom’s apartment because she was being loud with her friends.”

  “That’s how they met,” he said pointing with his spatula, “but they didn’t become an item until months later.” Early dished out the pancakes on the serving platter. “Go wake up your Dad, and we’ll tell you the real story over breakfast.”

  Stevie was intrigued. He raced out of his seat and down the stairs to get his father. He was going to learn how Gina and his Mom got together and then he was going to make sure it happened again.

  And so was everyone else.

  THREE MONTHS LATER, MARCH 2007

  “WELCOME TO ‘THE CLUB’,” EARLY said and swept his arm across his body to show off the cozy space he and Roni had entered. A corner fireplace roared to chase out the rainy day humidity. Copper and silver framed abstract art decorated the walls. And in the center of the room was a table set for six, each place setting easily recognizable by a linen napkin folded into a pyramid.

  Roni was in awe of the transformed space. “This was a closet.”

  “And now it is a fabulous room for small gatherings. I had never thought of it before, but talking to Allison made me realize that advertising a small club space would be the perfect way of bringing in mid-week business. I even made a specials menu for the room.” He handed Roni a simple leather fold. “Drinks on the left, food on the right. I’ll come back at the end of your evening to get a report.”

  Roni took the seat nearest to the fireplace and was both amused and impressed by the selections. She was debating between the Early’s Bird Special and the Book Club Sandwich when Allison arrived.

  “Ooh-la-la. Early has outdone himself,” Allison said and took her seat. “I can’t believe he’s the manager here. This place is fantastic.”

  “I know. He’s worked really hard from the ground up. When I met him, he was the bartender and before that he was a dishwasher.”

  “Impressive, and speaking of work,” Allison leaned in closer as if the news she was going to share were a secret, “I happen to have it on excellent authority that you are the number one internal candidate to be named principal at North Mountain Elementary.”

  “Yay,” she said with a little dance in her seat. “That school would be so perfect for me. The age range matches with what I’ve always wanted to do. Plus, I can always draw on my experiences when Stevie was that age and in school.” That had been a better education in the politics of school than her Master’s degree ever was. But pretty soon, Stevie would be in high school and she had no idea what to expect when that time came. “God, I can’t believe he’ll be twelve. He’ll be driving and applying to colleges before I know it.”

  “He looks fifteen. But I have a feeling he’ll be dating before he’s driving.” She plucked a garlic roll from the basket that had arrived.

  Roni chuckled, “I hope not, but I think you’re right. He’s been as
king questions lately like ‘how do I know if a girl likes me? How do I let a girl know I’m interested in her?’ Stuff like that.”

  Allison bit into a warm roll. “And what did you say?” she mumbled with her hand blocking her full mouth.

  “You know, the typical stuff. Does she get nervous when she talks to you? Does she ask you questions? Do you ask her questions? Does she flip her hair or touch your arm—” Allison’s laughter interrupted her list. “What’s so funny?”

  “I’m just wondering when you’re going to listen to your own wisdom?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. Forget I said anything.” She held the basket out to Roni, “Have a roll. I think there might be Parmesan inside.”

  Roni did take a roll. “No really, please explain what that means.”

  “Fine.” Allison folded her hands neatly in front of her and spilled the truth. “You are completely in love with Gina and she is completely in love with you. There I said it. Now, tell me what Water for Elephants is about before everyone else gets here.”

  Roni choked on her bread. “Gina is not in love with me. What would ever make you think that she is?”

  “My eyes!” Allison responded as if the question were a no-brainer. “You should have seen the way she looked at you at New Year’s. It was like you were a piece of art she could look at, but not touch...until she actually started touching you and putting her lips on your face. That was a pretty big giveaway. But I also ran into her at the mall.” The gaping mouth indicated that Roni was amazed. “Surprised me too, but she was on duty with her partner. How old is that guy, anyway?”

  “Jack? He’s up there and retiring at the end of the month.”

  “That explains it. Anyway, while Matlock went off to Orange Julius, Gina took the time to ask me all of these questions about what to get you for your birthday. Did you still like j’adore? Were there any new stores you liked? Had you ever shown an interest in starting a charm bracelet?”