Traces of Desire
Copyright© 2025 by Big Ed Magusson
Chapter 13
We woke up late and barely made it to breakfast before the cafeteria closed. We didn’t see Liz or Sandy, thankfully. Neither of us wanted the drama that would entail. We ate in silence, partially because Len was lost in thought and partially because we were both still pretty tired. I clutched my coffee like it was my new best friend. He kept fiddling with his fork when he was chewing.
When we got back to the room, we stacked our dressers so we could put the TV and VCR at a height where we could both see the screen from our beds. Len bounced around the room as he tried to determine the best position where the most people could see it. We’d just stepped back to admire our handiwork when the phone rang. Len jumped for it before I could react.
“Hey.” Then he actually grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, great. Be right down.”
He hung up and turned to me. “Lori’s here!”
My pulse jumped a notch.
“Let’s go!”
We reached the roundabout in front of the dorm to find Lori leaning against a green compact car, which somehow suited her. Her arms were crossed and her eyes hidden behind large sunglasses, but she stood up straight and waved vigorously when she saw us.
Her smile matched the sun and my heart skipped.
“There you are!” When we approached, she gave Len a big hug. Then she turned to me.
“Mike!”
I got a slightly gentler, much quicker hug.
I loved it. The warmth of her body touching mine, even briefly...
“C’mon,” she said, “I’m not legally parked.”
“Use the meters down the street,” Len said.
“Duh.” She added, pointedly, “Maybe after you two unload?”
He laughed good-naturedly and waited while she opened the trunk. As he bent in to get the TV, I noted the car’s name. It was a Volkswagen Jetta, which didn’t look at all like the Beetle. This was ... classier. She turned to me.
“So, Mike. It’s been a week and you haven’t strangled my baby brother.”
Len squawked pro forma. He stood up holding a TV that wasn’t as small as I’d expected from his phone call home.
“Or maybe you have?” She said with faux-innocence.
“He hasn’t done anything worth strangling.” I grinned at her.
“You sure? He snores.”
“I do not!”
“Do too.”
“Do not.” He nodded for me to get the VCR.
“You did the last time we were at the cabin. You kept me awake.”
“I had a cold!”
She laughed. “I thought I was sleeping with a buzz saw.”
He glared at her and she just laughed again. That melodic laugh that made me smile.
“Let’s go,” he said to me. Then to her. “You can pick on me later.”
After four flights of stairs carrying the stuff, we just set the VCR and TV down and took a short breather. I figured we could set them up later, since Lori was waiting. So we turned and headed back down the stairs.
“Snoring, huh?” I teased as we walked.
“One time,” he said. “One! And I had a cold.”
I chuckled. “Uh-huh.”
“Besides, it’s not like Lori hasn’t done the same.”
I grinned and decided to let it drop.
We walked out of the courtyard to spot Lori strolling down the sidewalk towards us. The morning sun shone on her face and she looked downright radiant. Gorgeous. I sucked in my breath.
I also missed a step and stumbled, Fortunately, I didn’t fall and break my neck.
“You okay?” Len asked.
“Yeah. I need to pay more attention to where my feet are.”
He chuckled.
“What?”
“You.”
My face reddened but he didn’t press the point. Before I could think of a retort, we’d closed the distance with Lori.
“So where are we going?” she asked. “I’m starved.”
“You skip breakfast again?” Len teased.
Lori shook her head. “Dad left at seven.” When she saw my confused look, she added, “I had breakfast with him.”
“Where’s he off to?” Len asked.
“San Francisco.”
“How long’s he gone this time?”
“Three weeks.”
He groaned.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Mom doesn’t like being home alone,” Lori explained.
“That’s an understatement,” Len muttered.
I furrowed my brow. I hadn’t been to their house but I assumed they lived in a safe neighborhood.
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s a long story,” Len said.
I put two and two together. “So is that why she wants you to come home next weekend?”
“Yep.”
“So...,” Lori said, “Food...? I’m starving.”
“This way.” Len pointed toward The Hill.
“So what are we having?”
“What do you want?”
“What are my choices?”
“Well...,” he said, “there’s a Round the Corner if you want burgers. There’s a sandwich shop and a Dairy Queen. Oh, and Herbie’s Deli, which really isn’t a deli.”
“Isn’t a deli?”
“Nope,” I chimed in. “It serves most of your regular diner fair. It used to be called The Sink back in the Sixties and the current owners changed the name.”
“Which was stupid,” Len said. “Robert Redford worked there when he went to school here.”
“How do you know this stuff?” she asked with amusement.
“It was in the campus orientation stuff,” I answered.
“Ah. Herbie’s Deli it is.”
Lori fell in between us as we walked. She and Len bantered easily, mostly about him living on his own for the first time. I watched and enjoyed their obvious camaraderie. It reminded me of Michelle and me when we were out on our own, away from our parents, though perhaps with less teasing.
Once we were seated at the restaurant, Lori shot her brother a playful grin.
“So...,” she teasingly asked, “how many girlfriends do you have?”
He snorted and rolled his eyes. “As if.”
“You’ve been here a whole week.” Her eyes sparked as she smirked. “So ... you have seven?”
“No.”
“Five.”
“No.”
“Two?”
“Not your business, Lor.”
She laughed. Then she gave me a sly grin. “Methinks he doth protest too much.”
I held up my hands. “Don’t look at me!”
“Does he at least let you back into the room when he’s done or do you have to sleep somewhere else?” Her eyes darted to her brother even as her words were aimed at me.
“Didn’t he just say it wasn’t your business?” I shot back.
“See?” Len said. “Someone’s got my back.”
“Oh, you know I’ve got your back.” She picked up her menu. “But food first.”
Fortunately, the server was approaching then and Len ordered an appetizer. After the server left, Lori looked at her brother.
“So,” Lori said, “tell me about these girlfriends of yours.”
He chuckled, but it was defensive. “You just won’t let it go.”
“Nope. It’s my job as your sister.”
“I bet Michelle doesn’t do it to Mike.” They both looked at me expectantly.
I blinked at the fact that Len had remembered Michelle’s name after meeting her just once. My own memory for names wasn’t so good.
“Do what?” I asked.
“Pester you about your love life,” Len said.
“God, no.”
“Hmm,” Lori mused with a devilish look in her eye.
I returned her look warily and took a sip of water.
“So, Mike ... how’s your love life?”
I choked on my drink and almost did a spit take. We were never that direct growing up.
“Wow,” I said when I’d recovered.
“So...?” She asked.
“Well ... same as last week, I guess.” My own flippant tone surprised me.
“Oh. So you’ve got a girlfriend at home.”
“Had.”
“Had?”
“We broke up,” I explained.
“Ah. Sorry to hear that.” Except she didn’t sound at all sorry.
“Met anyone here?” She slyly gave Len a look I couldn’t read, but in turn he shot one at me that I could read. He was silently daring me.
“Yeah...,” I said. “I’ve met someone I really kind of like.”
“Oh? Tell me about her.”
“Mmm ... I don’t know how she feels about me.”
“So you’re not going to tell me anything?”
“Well ... she goes to CSU.”
My heart was hammering as Lori’s eyes widened, but before she could say anything, Len jumped in.
“Speaking of which, how about you, Lor?”
She gave me a reassuring smile before focusing on him.
“Remember Kent? From last year?”
“Sort of.”
“Moved back to California.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Len said, though his tone was more perfunctory than anything.
“We weren’t that serious anyway.” She shrugged and glanced at her menu. “So what’s good here?”
We perused the menus and talked about food for a while. Unlike me, their dinner hadn’t been on the table at exactly six every night.
“Mom got involved in her projects,” Len explained. With their dad on the road all the time, the kids had learned to cook.
“Leanne got really good,” Lori said. “She made a lot of Italian dishes using this cookbook she got from a friend.”
“Pasta until your eyes bugged out,” Len joked. “But it was really good.”
“Especially her pesto sauce,” Lori said.
“Oh my God,” Len said. “That was amazing! So, so creamy!”
“And garlicky.” Lori smirked. “Leanne really liked garlic.”
It took me a minute to remember that Leanne was their oldest sister who now lived in California.
“What’d you make?” I asked Lori.
“Oh, all sorts of things.”
“She makes this killer guacamole, and her margaritas ... oh, yum!” His tone was exaggerated enough to make Lori laugh.
“Well, you and Dad like them,” she admitted.
My eyebrows shot up. While the drinking age was 18 for 3.2 beer, it was 21 for margaritas. They’d certainly grown up in a more permissive household than I had.
Lori interrupted my thoughts. “What about you?”
“Mom did all the cooking,” I said and then felt sheepish. Were we really that old-fashioned? “Oh. Except sometimes Dad and I grilled.” Well, I’d helped him, even if it wasn’t that much. Mom still did most of the work.