“How about after a few more times?”
“I don’t know,” Peace admitted, leaning closer. “I’ve never made it past the first time. Maybe we could experiment and see if I turn suave and sophisticated after a few more dates.”
“I like you just the way you are,” Jill whispered, kissing Peace as they both leaned across the narrow booth table.
The waitress cleared her throat as she held a coffee pot in her hand, causing Jill and Peace to pull away reluctantly. Grinning, Gracie turned their coffee cups right side up from where they were already set, and filled them with coffee. “Sorry to interrupt. Your cheeseburger will be coming right up, Jill.”
“Thanks, Gracie,” Jill acknowledged, glancing up as she poured a sugar packet into her coffee. Gracie nodded, and walked back to the kitchen. Jill added cream from the creamer the waitress had brought over.
Jill looked up again at Peace, as she leaned back to sip her coffee.
“You don’t put anything in your coffee, tough guy?”
Peace sipped his coffee with satisfaction, and shook his head. “I used to, but the guys raked me so much about it, I had to give it up. Besides, this is great coffee. A whole lot better than that sludge Bull makes.”
“I make good coffee,” Jill commented. “Want to hang around till morning and see?”
Peace set his coffee cup down, and folded his hands in front of him on the table as he watched Jill solemnly. “You don’t kid around, do you, Jill?”
Jill smiled, seeing the waitress coming, carrying her meal. She stayed silent as Gracie placed the plate down in front of her.
“I’ll be around with the coffee in a bit. If you need anything else sooner, just give me a yell.”
“We will, thank you,” Peace replied.
Jill took a big bite of her cheeseburger, and then sipped her coffee. “Did you want me to pretend I didn’t want you, after I’ve been tracking you down all this time.”
“No, I just figured you’d want to get to know me first.”
“You think I’m a slut, don’t you, or maybe a Seal groupie?” Jill asked, watching him closely as she took another bite of her cheeseburger.
“Nope, the Seal groupies all hit on Bull, and the sluts are partial to JT.”
Jill laughed in appreciation. “I bet you’d be in trouble if I repeated what you said to Bull and JT.”
“It’s common Seal Team Six knowledge,” Peace shrugged with a grin. “They’d just laugh, and brag about it. If you go to dinner with me at Dan’s tomorrow, he’ll back me up.”
“You’d take me with you? You didn’t seem too happy with the idea when Dan mentioned it,” Jill pointed out, taking another huge bite of her burger.
“I’m already starting to rethink the offer after watching you eat.”
This pronouncement caused a mild choking attack on Jill’s part, as Peace hurried over to pound on her back, and she tried to sip her coffee at the same time. After she managed to swallow a few times without coughing, Peace returned to his seat, where Jill shook her finger at him.
“I was starving,” Jill said defensively.
“I see that,” Peace laughed. “I heard you tell Dink you had already eaten so I was surprised when you ordered a meal here.”
“I didn’t want to eat with those clowns. Although I’m sure they would have been more gallant about my eating habits.”
Peace laughed loudly in appreciation of Jill’s dig. “Sorry, I couldn’t keep my obnoxious nature in check. You’re just too good looking. My built in inferiority complex took over before I could clamp my mouth shut.”
Jill nodded, seemingly satisfied with his explanation, because she took another huge bite of her remaining burger, and then stared at Peace as if daring him to say anything. When he just kept smiling and sipping his coffee, Jill turned her attention to the homemade fries on her plate. They sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes it took Jill to finish her meal. She leaned back with her coffee cup cradled in her hands.
“You may speak now.”
“Oh, thank you, Princess,” Peace retorted. “I loved every moment, watching you eat. You’re gorgeous, even when you chow down like Porky
Pig.”
Jill laughed in delight at this statement. “That would be Petunia Pig, PP.”
“Hey, now we can have the same initials, Petunia.”
“I… I feel like I’ve known you all my life. Doesn’t that seem strange?” Jill asked hesitantly.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Peace replied immediately. “If you think I plan on dissecting your every motive, imagined or real, for hooking up with me, forget it. I plan to ride this wave of gratitude until it crashes into the rocks.”
“So, you do believe I’m just a grateful, starry eyed, blonde ditz?”
“Yes to all but the ditz part,” Peace replied truthfully. “You really need to see this from my perspective, Pet. If you consider all the facts from my viewpoint, you would see how I could formulate an opinion as
I have.”
“Pet?” Jill chuckled.
“Sorry, just a brief backslide towards my obnoxious side. I love the name Jill. You’re the first Jill I ever met. It’s not a common name anymore. I assume it’s short for Jillian, right?”
“Very good, Sherlock.”
“What’s your middle name?”
“Alicia, after my Grandmother,” Jill answered. “Jillian Alicia
Gregory.”
“Beautiful,” Peace proclaimed simply.
“What’s your middle name, The?” Jill quipped.
“No,” Peace laughed. “I refuse to answer on the grounds of right to privacy from ridicule.”
“I bet that doesn’t work with your friends, now what is it, PP?”
“You’re a demanding date, JAG,” Peace replied, evoking a laugh from Jill, over his stringing her initials together.
“Quit dancing, and tell me your middle name,” Jill demanded.
“Elvin,” Peace admitted.
“You mean like the chipmunk?”
“Elvin with an E, not Alvin,” Peace corrected her.
“P…E…P, PEP, I can’t do anything with that. Did you somehow anger your parents before you were born?”
“I have an idea,” Peace replied. “Let’s forget it altogether.”
“What fun is that?”
“I could forget about how you inhaled that cheeseburger and fries like a Third World starveling,” Peace pointed out.
“I thought you loved watching me eat.”
“Watching and describing are two different things.”
“Okay,” Jill sighed. “I’ll forget your middle name, but what will we talk about next?”
“What’s your major in college? What part of the country do you come from? What do your parents do for a living? Do you like animals? Do you like…”
“Oooohhhh…kayyyyyyyyyy,” Jill laughed. “I see I will have to be careful asking rhetorical questions around you.”
“We will have to cover some of those areas in the future, but I’ll try to slip them in on you without making it sound like an interrogation,” Peace replied.
“Then you’d like to continue this relationship for a while?”
“It won’t be me who ends it.”
“I could be a serial killer,” Jill said, reaching across the table to put her hand in his.
“You would never have ended up in a Terrorist camp in Chili, if you had been,” Peace pointed out, kissing her hand. “Hey, I smell cheeseburger.”
Jill yanked her hand back in mock indignation.
“I like the smell of cheeseburger,” Peace protested. “You smell delicious.”
“You are a little too proficient in the art of double entendre, Mr. Peacenik,” Jill laughed, putting her hand back within his grasp.
The waitress came back around to fill up their coffee cups, which they held out appreciatively for her. After she walked away with a smile, Peace began putting quarters in the jukebox link at their table. He p
unched in some selections, and waited for the music to start. When Jill heard the song Alley Oop, she laughed, nodding her head in agreement with his choice.
“I love this song. My Dad used to sing it to me when I was little. What was that other oldie by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs? Little…”
“Hey There Little Red Riding Hood?”
“That’s it,” Jill nodded excitedly. “Dad used to sing that one to me too.”
“I played that one next.”
“What are you, some kind of mind reader? What about Unchained
Melody by the Lettermen, wise guy?” “Playing fourth, my dear,” Peace laughed.
“What else did you play, smarty?” Jill asked.
“House of the Rising Sun and Sixteen Tons,” Peace replied, a little smugly.
“What, no Motown?” Jill retorted.
“Next five quarters, if you have another cup of coffee with me,” Peace stated. “I saw they have the Temptations’ Standin’ On Shaky Ground, and Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It. I’ll let you add three of your choices, just so long as two of them are by the Four
Tops.”
Jill laughed appreciatively. “Oh thank you, but you’re doing okay so far.”
“In that case, how about the Tops’ Reach Out, and Standing In The Shadows Of Love, and I’ll end the selections with Aretha Franklin’s Respect?
Nodding in agreement, as she started to pantomime with Sam The Sham, Jill kept beat with the song on the tabletop.
“With all the coffee in us, how will we ever get to sleep?” Jill speculated, batting her eyes comically at Peace.
“Decaf,” Peace replied.
“You really aren’t planning on keeping me company tonight, are you?”
“Only because I want to see if you’re still around here tomorrow night, when I pick you up to go over Dan’s,” Peace answered, just as the first strains of Unchained Melody began. “If you haven’t hopped the first plane out of here in remorse over your activities so far, we’ll have another good time tomorrow.”
Peace stood up, and pulled Jill out of her seat. “Dance with me.”
“I can’t move very well with this cast on,” Jill protested as Peace pulled her into his arms.
“Who said anything about moving your cast around,” Peace replied, pulling her tight to him, his strength making Jill feel as though her feet barely touched the floor.
Unchained Melody played on, as the heat from their embrace pulsed tantalizingly through the couple swaying in rhythm to the old classic. Jill heard Peace singing the words in a tenor voice so blended and in sync with the song, a chill raced up her spine from the soles of her feet to the nape of her neck. She closed her eyes in complete abandonment until the final strains of the song passed completely. Pulling away until she faced Peace, Jill kissed him gently on the lips, fire from their touch sweeping them into a passion only the first notes of House of the Rising Sun ended gently.
“Can you do House of the Rising Sun too, PP,” Jill whispered.
“You betcha,” Peace replied, drawing her to him again.
Gracie had started across the empty restaurant from the kitchen with a fresh pot of coffee; but when she saw the two dancing, she sighed and returned to the serving bar. She saw Tony, the cook, peering over the partition between the kitchen and the serving station at the dancing partners. He was smiling. When he saw Gracie watching him, Tony waved a little salute.
“Sort of like Beauty and the Beast, huh Gracie?”
Gracie nodded, glancing over her shoulder at the odd pair. “Yea, ain’t love grand?”
“I saw that boy’s face. He looks like somebody worked him over with a chisel,” Tony added, shaking his head. “She’s a doll.”
Turning to face her boss, Gracie shrugged. “It ain’t always in the wrapping, Tony.”
“Maybe not,” Tony laughed, “but I always heard ugly goes all the way to the bone.”
“Only in the case of Neanderthal cooks,” Gracie retorted, as Tony laughed appreciatively at her familiar taunt.
“If that song don’t end soon, you’ll have to get a bucket of ice water for those two cats in heat,” Tony speculated. “That kid can sing.” “He sure can,” Gracie agreed, as the song faded. She waited until she saw Peace and Jill slowly pull apart and sit down before journeying over with fresh coffee. They looked up as she approached, and held out their coffee cups for her to fill.
“You two looked good together,” Gracie commented. “Have you known each other long?”
“We’ve met twice,” Jill replied, glancing at Peace with a smile.
“Tony, the cook and owner, said I should keep a bucket of ice water handy if you two dance again,” Gracie joked.
Jill and Peace both laughed in enjoyment of the Gracie’s dig.
“Uh… that won’t be necessary, Ma’am,” Peace assured her, as Sixteen Tons began playing in the background.
“I liked your singing, young man,” Gracie complemented him. “Sing along with Tennessee Ernie on this one.”
Peace was up in a flash, balling his fists up, his scarred countenance jeering in preparation to the first words from Tennessee Ernie Ford’s bass voice. Jill and Gracie were already laughing, as he acted out the part of a nothing to lose coal miner. His tenor voice carried impressively with Ford’s melodic bass, and his acting out of the song’s lyrics drew Tony out of the kitchen to watch. When Peace stretched out the ending chord even past Tennessee Ernie’s ending, finishing with a fist raised upwards in a final defiant gesture, his audience trio applauded wildly.
“That was great,” Gracie said as Peace sat down. She patted him on the shoulder. “You have talent.”
“Thanks Ma’am, I never pass up an opportunity to make a fool out of myself,” Peace quipped.
Gracie and Jill both laughed, and the waitress returned to the serving bar, still chuckling over his remark.
“Are you going to play all the Motown selections now?” Jill asked, grasping Peace’s hand again.
“Sure, just so I don’t have to sing them all,” Peace replied, focusing on the juke box selector. “Can you give me change for a dollar.
I’m fresh out of quarters.”
“It’s on me this time,” Jill replied, opening her purse and taking out five quarters. “I’ll get the songs, and you get the tip and the meal.”
“Gee, what a bargain,” Peace laughed, punching in the selections.
“How do you know all these songs?” Jill asked.
“Photographic memory, remember?”
“That doesn’t explain how you hit all the right notes. You must have some music ability.”
“I play piano, trumpet and saxophone,” Peace admitted. “My folks made me take piano, and as in a lot of things parents force their children to do, I ended up liking it. I played in the orchestra at school, so I picked up trumpet and sax too.”
“Do you play much?”
“You probably didn’t notice the piano in Ed’s restaurant. That was my idea. I play over there all the time, and jam with some guys I know on Friday and Saturday nights. We play mostly rhythm and blues, with jazz mixed in. They all play in local bands, but don’t get to play the old stuff enough, so they play over at Ed’s.”
“I didn’t see the piano,” Jill replied. “Where the heck was it?”
“At the opposite end of the room. You can’t see it from where you were sitting at the bar. It’s sort of partitioned off from the bar a little, so the noise doesn’t upset our diners. Ed’s little dance place in the back is pretty popular now.”
“Is there anything you don’t know how to do?” Jill laughed.
“I can’t down a cheeseburger and fries in under two minutes,” Peace replied, ducking back from the halfhearted slap, Jill launched as she tried to act indignant. The deep beat of the Temptations’ Standing On Shaky Ground began reverberating into the room. “Now, how about you,
Princess? What talents do you have?”
“I’m tone deaf, so I don’t
sing or play instruments,” Jill admitted. “I can enjoy music; but when I try to do anything close to reproducing what I hear, it comes out sounding like fingernails on a blackboard. I’m pretty good at sports, at least before I took off for Chili. I played soccer, softball, and I ski pretty well. I’ve studied dance, and my instructor thought I could have danced professionally.”
“So that’s where all the calories go,” Peace smiled. “How about your major in college?”
“I’m in my last semester of law school, and I wish I had your photographic memory.”
“Wow, law school,” Peace exclaimed, obviously impressed. “You must have a pretty good memory to make it through law school.”
“I minored in English. I figured if law didn’t work out, I could get my teaching credential.”
“What type of law were you going to practice?” Peace asked.
“Criminal law,” Jill answered. “My Father owns his own law firm in LA, but I’d hoped to get into the DA’s office after I graduated. I’d like to make it on my own first.”
“Rough place to start your career.”
“More opportunity though,” Jill pointed out. “Besides, I attended UCLA, and I really love it in Southern California.”
“I can’t fault you there. I never want to go back to the Midwest,” Peace agreed. “You’re not very far away. Maybe I can come up and see you during your last semester.”
Jill squeezed his hand as Tina Turner’s What’s Love Got To Do With It started to play. “I’d like that a lot, Peace. Are you sure you won’t change your mind about staying with me tonight?”
Peace leaned back in his seat. “I don’t think so, Pet. I’m an idiot for not staying, but I just don’t want to move that fast. I want to savor all we’ve shared since I met you only hours ago.”
“I’ve never been rejected like this before,” Jill pouted. “You’re killing my self esteem.”
“Really,” Peace replied, leaning forward and grasping both of her hands. “Just how many times have you propositioned a stranger into going to bed with you?”
“Counting this one?”
“Yep.”
“Once,” Jill whispered.
“With all you went through in Chili, I think you’ll be okay.”
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