Chapter 5

Lee caught me and Sherry talking about dinner and untypically asked if she was invited.

I say 'untypically' because Lee's kind of withdrawn. A variety of introverted. I think it's a combination of her uncertain and spotty family situation and oversensitivity about her looks. Of course, that's my opinion and what the hell do I know? I'm an electrical engineer, not a psychologist.

Anyway, I looked at Sherry. Sherry smiled.

"Come on," I said.

I argued the waitress into seating us off in an isolated corner under the lure of an extra large tip.

Sherry zipped right into the middle of the minefield. Giggled, then announced to Lee, "I'm pregnant."

Lee's face fell.

Sherry stomped around in the minefield a bit. "No, it's NOT Lane."

Lee's mouth flopped open like she was going to say something.

"I know you know about me and Lane, but we never did THAT. This is mine and Ted's."

Waitress showed up with our appetizers.

When she left, Lee's speech centers spooled up. She fixed me in that brown eye that I knew had gold flecks in it. "You told her I knew?"

I nodded.

"Sherry, this guy's seriously disjointed in the head."

"I know," Sherry said. "He's my friend. People learn that about their friends."

"He's my friend, too. Maybe not QUITE as friendly..."

I'm finding myself on the sidelines here. When the elephants fight, the mouse is wise to stay out of the arena.

"Oh, THAT! Lee, you're a smart girl. THAT is only a slice of being a friend. Lots of friendships between people of the opposite sex don't include that. It can be complicating."

I'm thinking that Sherry's the first woman I ever ran into who categorized oral sex the way she did, but I kept my mouth shut. Well, not at the appropriate moments, you know, but right now I'm not saying ANYTHING.

"Lane says y'all set limits."

"Uh-huh. Never went all the way. Never had intercourse. That's why when I'm pregnant, I KNOW it's Ted's baby. Lane never got his ... He never got close to that. The rest?" Sherry smiled and said "Just a little bit friendlier than a goodnight kiss on the cheek. We know about kisses on the cheek, don't we?" Sherry's eyebrows arched significantly emphasizing that last statement.

Lee's cheeks reddened when she realized that Sherry knew about the kiss on the cheek. She skewered me. "You told 'er that I kissed you?"

"Hon," Sherry interrupted, "I have windows, you know. Sometimes I see things out of them. I was moving laundry to the dryer and I caught the light when his door opened. You were going home. You kissed him on the cheek."

"Oh." Lee's comment was delivered tersely. She looked at me. "You get to skate on that one, buddy..."

"I'm the innocent one here..." I said. Got giggled at from both ways.

"So is Ted gonna keep following the pipelines?" Lee asked Sherry.

"For a while. When I start showin', he's coming home for good. They've been trying to hire him at one of those fabrication shops. The money's not quite as good, but it's not bad, either. And he can stay home and be the good daddy and I can be the good mommy, and you can be Aunt Lee and he can be Uncle Lane."

Sherry's statement about Aunt Lee and Uncle Lane, while it didn't deliberately tie Lee and me together, put us in some elevated level of proximity in the conversation. Lee's look, tossed my way, affirmed that she made the same connection. There was an enigmatic little smile incorporated into that look.

The main course arrived and conversation ranged from school to work and what Ted and Sherry did on their week's escape.

Sherry was effusive. "Wonderful! We went to this casino package deal and got the rooms really cheap. We could eat there or go running around looking for places..." she kept on and on. "Wonderful for a couple to just get away."

I'm thinking 'Yeah. If you can find the other half of your couple.' I note Lee's expression. She's tripping along in the paths of Sherry's story. Oh, well, I guess Sherry has a little role as 'big sister' in Lee's life, although Sherry's views of sexual limits are, in my previous estimation, pleasantly unconventional, at least until today's announcement. I was going to miss those happy sessions.

"Look at 'im," Sherry giggled. "He's feeling all left out."

Lee smiled. "Awwwww. It's okay, Lane. We still love you."

"Just not THAT way," Sherry giggled.

"I guess I'll just be that guy who's every girl's friend."

"Yeah, we'll let you take us to movies and we'll hang out with you and talk about other guys that we REALLY like but who'll treat us like shit and let you sit there with your heart breaking the whole time," Sherry laughed.

Lee looked perplexed and Sherry caught it.

"Lee, honey, it happens. I've seen it. Group of friends where one of 'em is a guy who is in love with every one of the girls in the group and none of 'em will give him a second look while they chase losers or guys who think they're too good to date 'those girls'." She smiled at me. "Lane, I don't think you're that, and you know it. And if you want me and Lee to be your friends, we're good with it."

Driving back into the trailer park, I asked Lee, "Drop you off at your house?"

"Oh, Gramma's not there. Do you REALLY want me to go home?"

I thought I heard a stifled giggle from Sherry.

"No, we can find a movie..."

So there's where it was for the next couple of weeks. Seems like my friendship with Lee escalated. Yes, she still did the housework, to my eternal gratitude and to a small dent in my pocketbook. I paid her for her hours and tossed in a bit extra for just about anything I could use as an excuse.

There was a noticeable effect of that money hitting her pocketbook. A couple of new outfits showed up, and lo and behold, absent the floppy togs she was affecting before, she actually had a shape, and it wasn't as I previously imagined, overweight. Well, maybe ten pounds.

Second thing was ... I walked in on her one day. The previous day she'd begged off and hadn't shown up at all. Today she flashed a look and tossed her head. Cut and groomed head. Neat. Her slight amount of natural curl framed her face, just a bit shy of collar length, and she sported a set of bangs, heavy, perfectly straight and perfectly charming. Okay, tell me YOU don't have a weakness.

Bad thing is, I'd NEVER said anything to her about it. I do know somebody that I did mention that fact to in the midst of a conversation at a restaurant.

"You like it? Or does it make me look stupid?"

"Looks charming in a Bailee sort of way."

"What's THAT supposed to mean?"

"You're you. Unique..."

Giggle. "Just like everybody else," she said.

"You don't LOOK like everybody else. I'm sure your friends will find you charming and will be happy that you're spending less effort hiding it."

"What does THIS friend think?"

"I told you. Charming."

"Not pretty. Not cute. Charming."

"You got the sequencing wrong. It's not a scale. I didn't find you abhorrent in the first place."

"Lane, stoppit! Nobody ever said I was abhorrent."

"So you heard THAT, but 'charming' missed you completely?"

She looked terribly pleased, grinning as broadly as I've ever seen her in the few weeks since I've been paying attention.

Also during that week, Sherry remains a friend, but now it manifests as her and me and Lee watching a movie, eating popcorn or one or the other versions of some of my bachelor dishes – easy to cook, fast, and expandable.

On the other hand, though, I appear to own Lee's most desirable venue for the treatment of homework. Most weekdays she's there, including days that I have to work out of town and don't show up at all.

"You sure you don't mind?"

"Not unless you and some friends back a truck up to the door and empty the place."

"Even if I DID have friends who I'd invite over, I'd never do it while you're not here."

I noted the 'Even if I did' statement. "It's my little castle," I said. "I like it. You're free to use it just like you've been doing. Others might not feel that way."

"I know. And I'm glad you trust me, me being one of those irresponsible teenagers an' all," she giggled. She knows that I have long ago accepted her as a responsible person, whether that was an aberration or not.

I also know that when I came back from an overnight trip last week, the pillows on my bed were not in the same place that I'd left them the day before. And there was a delightful bit of a perfume on those pillows. And what was that saying about my frequent visitor? I'm not going to ask.

I am going to listen to her discover what's in some of those books she organized.

"I heard about Robert Heinlein in class," she said. "Supposed to be libertarian."

"I like his stuff. You want libertarian, read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress. Libertarianism is a thread in a lot of his books, but in his later stuff, he gets off in the woods over sex."

"Sort of like real life, then?"

"Huh?"

"People getting off track over sex." She's got this little smirky thing that she's been using a lot more since she got comfortable about talking with me. And her eyes. They laugh. I know I'm being prodded.

"Anyway, little princess," I fired back, "you know where the book's at."

"What about the weird sex stuff?"

"Stranger in A Strange Land. Time Enough For Love. Second one gets into incest and probably pedophilia, always in the context of it being acceptable in terms of the contemporary mores."

"And we know this..." she smirked.

"Because I read the whole bunch. Love is my favorite."

"I will read them."

Two days later I came in and she was sitting there with a little girl of elementary school age.

"Hi," I said.

"Hi, Lane. This is Marie. Her mom had an emergency and needed me to watch 'er. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I don't."

"Marie, this is Mister Lane. This is his house."

"Hi, Mister Lane."

"Hi, Marie."

"I'm gonna take 'er to Gramma's now," Lee said.

"If you wish," I said. "I'm sorry. I don't have much for Marie to play with here."

"TV," Marie said. "You have TV. Lee's watching things with me."

"National Geographic Channel, Lee said.

"You're welcome to stay, you know. I'm gonna be back in my bedroom for a while washing up. I'll be out in a bit."

"Marie's mom called me," Lee said. "She'll be back in half an hour."

"Good. Gives me time to clean up." First time I showered with Lee in the house. Milestones.

When I walked out of my bedroom door, dressed, fresh shaven, there was Lee, lounged sideways on the sofa with Time Enough For Love in her hand. She saw me note the book and grinned.

"Lane porn," she giggled.

"It's NOT explicit," I said. "It's talked about, flirted with, alluded to, but not explicit."

"Seeing as how it's a shelf paperback, I didn't think it would be. Besides, I look at the publisher's date. You couldn't get by with much in those days."

"You're right."

"SO!" she said, "Dinner?"

"Hungry?"

"Italian?"

"Works for me," I said.

"You're easy."

"I haven't had Italian since the last time you and I ate there."

I let her out the door. As she squeezed past, she sniffed. "Mmm. You smell good."