Chapter 17

I felt Mel stir and then the two of us needed to go to the bathroom.

I followed her in and watched her perch on the toilet cutely, peeing forcefully into the bowl while I waited my turn. She wiped, and then got up, lifting the seat out of courtesy. That impressed me. Most women I’d known wouldn’t have thought of that. She moved to the sink and washed her hands while I pissed. I took a bit of toilet paper and wiped the last drop from the head before I flushed our combined urine and went to wash my hands, noticing that she was watching me with some interest. That was understandable. I was always curious about how women managed, so it was natural that she had some of the same inclinations. We returned to bed and drifted for a little while longer before I woke up again. Her blue eyes were watching me, and she broke into a smile when she saw me looking back.

“God! You’re so beautiful!” I told her. “Do you have any idea what most women would do to look that good first thing in the morning?” I asked her.

She blushed, making her look even better and shook her head.

“You’re gonna give me a swelled head if you keep talking like that,” she warned me. “I’m not all that special. I mean, I know I’m not hideous or anything, but I’m just me.”

“And I love you,” I said simply. “Swelled head and all.”

That got her laughing and she kissed me before stretching, her body still pressed to mine. We got up and showered, discovering the only problem with the new shower: the hot water tank wasn’t designed for a double-head shower. We barely made it out before the water turned icy.

“I’ll take care of it,” she promised. “I’ll call the contractor tomorrow about a tankless water heater.”

“Yeah, I was going to look into one when the current unit gave out,” I admitted. “It never seemed like it was worth a big change if the tank was working. I guess it’s time to get rid of it, though.”

She nodded, and we got dressed. I’d been away from the gym for three straight days and I felt completely lazy. My last workout was Friday’s yoga class. We packed a bag for me, including a few sets of workout clothes and traveled to Mel’s place. It was weird having two places to call home. Not that I really thought of this place as my home, but it was technically half mine once probate was finished. I knew that, while it was a formality and will take many months, it was in the lawyer’s hands.

Eliza and George were just getting back from shopping as we arrived, and they greeted us warmly.

“There’s really not much in the kitchen to eat,” she admitted regretfully. “We didn’t know when you’d be back for sure.”

“That’s fine. We’re just here to use the gym and get a few of Rand’s clothes into the house,” Mel said dismissively. “We can eat out or at his place, until you can restock the kitchen,” she said lightly. “Don’t worry. He’s almost as handy as you are around the kitchen.”

“I’ve noticed that he’s willing to help,” Eliza nodded, the two of them chatting about me pleasantly as if I wasn’t there.

“Get used to it,” George told me wisely. “Until your input is needed, you’re a conversation topic, not a conversation participant.”

“Isn’t there a football game you could be watching?” Eliza asked him sharply. “Rand doesn’t need you corrupting him. He’s nice, useful in the kitchen and almost half-trained.”

George grinned and gave his wife a kiss on the cheek, before shrugging apologetically at me and retreating to their apartment. I chuckled and got my bag out of the car to carry it into the house. Eliza walked with us, keeping up the conversation with Mel.

“The kitchen isn’t the only place he’s handy,” Mel giggled, blushing.

“He’s up to the tasks you’ve set for him so far?”

Eliza gave me an appraising look as if she was weighing and measuring me. I was starting to blush almost as much as Mel was.

“He wore me out last night. Thank the Lord, I decided to install the extra sound-proofing in the bedroom. Otherwise the neighbors might have called 911 on us.”

I guess that explained why it had taken five days and the bedroom didn’t look that much different.

“Well, I guess all those muscles are good for something,” was all she said, but I could tell that she was amused as the three of us walked into the house.

“I’ve been meaning to ask what you wanted done with Stan’s clothes and things?” Eliza asked.

“I’m sure there’s a charity that we can donate most of his things to,” Mel said, her mood dampened by mention of Stan. “Donate his clothes and all his pillows, sheets, bedding and towels to charity. Maybe someone else will get some use out of them.”

She nodded. “I didn’t think you’d want to keep them, and they’d have to be altered heavily to fit Rand here.”

I touched Mel’s arm lightly. “Jason’s not that much different in body type than Stan was. He might be able to use some of it, especially a high-end suit or two.”

She thought about it and nodded. “I never thought about that. Jason would kind of be perfect.”

I was sent to Mel’s room to change and see if I could find a spot for my clothes. I was in my workout gear and looking around for an empty drawer or space in the closet when she came in.

“Jason and Steph are going to stop by after dinner to look over what he might like from Stan’s wardrobe,” she told me and laughed at the trouble I was having finding somewhere to unpack. “I guess I’m a clothes-horse, huh?”

I shrugged. “Is this going to be our room or are you planning on us taking over the Master Bedroom and turning this one back into a guest-room?” I asked.

“We’ll probably move in there,” she allowed. “There’s more closet space. But before we do, I want to give it the same treatment we gave your bedroom. I wonder if any of our other friends need beds.”

She was clearly musing about that while we were working out. I pushed harder than normal, wanting to make up for the missed days on my workout. I particularly appreciated the stair-climber. I could feel the burn in my legs and glutes when I was done with that machine. If there was one complaint that I had about the gym, it was that there wasn’t enough weight for my liking, but that was to be expected. Stan hadn’t been shopping with an eye toward making Mel a power-lifter.

I did what I could with machines and the weights that we had on hand and made a silent promise to order more as soon as I could. After my workout, I noticed that Mel and Eliza were watching me move around the room with purpose. I smiled as they whispered together. Eliza had done a little shopping and had put together a light lunch for us before we went to try out the theater and watch a movie together. We spent the afternoon like that, holding hands and talking quietly about the movie as we watched it. It was a perfectly relaxing afternoon.

We went out for an early dinner and then back to the house to go through clothes with Jason and Stephanie. It was tedious work, but every time that we cleared a drawer, I was tasked with packing the contents and carrying the bags down to Jason’s car. When the trunk was full, I started packing them in the backseat. We were about half-done when I told them that the car was full. Melody quickly volunteered my car to help.

By the time we were done, we were all starved, so Stephanie suggested we all go for a late meal. We dropped all the clothes off at Jason’s apartment and decided to try sushi. I was skeptical, but Craig had encouraged me to add more fish to my diet. I was told there was a lot more to it than just fish. I think the funniest thing about the whole trip was how miserable poor Jason was. This was definitely not his preferred way to dine. I wasn’t a fan either, but I didn’t hate it like he did.

“So, you two are pretty serious, huh?” I asked Stephanie when we were settled.

“Yeah. Meeting parents, telling our friends, though I do want to know how long you’ve known,” she commented.

“Not nearly as long as Terri,” I chuckled. “She started pointing out the clues to me a few weeks ago.”

“Yeah, Jason hasn’t been very good at subterfuge,” she said dryly.

“Maybe not, but it was you that I noticed first,” I told her. “Every time he slipped, your eyes came out of your head and I could picture steam coming out of your ears. At first, I thought you were pissed at him for something, but then I started to pay attention to when he’d get dirty looks and it started to come together for me.”

She gaped and then looked around the table at us. Mel hadn’t been around to see it, so she didn’t know, and Jason had always been too busy cringing from her ire to notice the quiet looks of amusement that Terri and I had shared. She started trying to speak a few times, stuttering to a halt right away before she deflated.

“Okay, I guess we were both bad at covering it up,” she admitted.

Jason wisely kept his mouth shut. He probably knew that her instant reaction would be to slug him if he said anything wrong. Instead, I shrugged.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” I admitted. “You’re both adults and both of you have every reason to want to celebrate your happiness. How long have you two been seeing each other anyway?”

“About four months,” Jason admitted. “We started shortly before you joined the group. We were actually considering dropping out of the group but when you fell into our laps as a miserable mess, we decided to stay and help.”

“Thanks,” I said dryly, but laughed with the rest of them. “I wasn’t that bad!”

“Dude!” he protested. “You fainted. If there was ever a checklist of the signs that you’re a mess, you aced it.”

We laughed about it, and admitted that I had indeed lost consciousness, but I asserted that it was because Mel was so beautiful. That earned me a kiss - and the declaration that I was full of shit. We had a pleasant evening, talking through our meal about nothing in particular and enjoying the company. Jason and Stephanie were very affectionate, reveling in the freedom of not having to hide their relationship.

When we split up, we promised we’d see them after the holidays and watched them drive away.

We decided to spend the night at my place since there was food for breakfast. I warned her that I was an early riser, but I might be convinced to sleep in a little. I was working tomorrow before we shut down the plant for the holidays, but after that, I was all hers. We curled up on the couch and watched a couple of movies before turning in.

The next few days were sort of a blur of work, gym, Mel and shopping. We got new smart-watches for Bella and Mary. I picked them out specifically because they were supposed to have a great app for the gym. For Stephanie, we got a set of china that we thought she’d appreciate, since she was the kind of woman to cherish things like that. Claire was a little more difficult to shop for, but we got her a wine of the month club membership for a year. We figured a similar gift for Jason would get us shot by Steph, so we got him something he’d love even more.

Jason was a huge wrestling freak. We lived in Charlotte, which was the home of wrestling legend, Ric Flair. I was never a huge fan, but Jason would often invite me over for Sunday night to watch wrestling events and would wax poetic about the “golden age” of the 1990’s, so I went to the WWE shop and bought him a championship belt replica, complete with the side panels that supposedly go with it. Express shipping would have it at the house before we got back from DC ... I hoped.

Terri’s gift was going to be a little more difficult. I told Mel that if there was one person that I’d want to go overboard on for Christmas, it was her. She agreed. Theresa had been an incredible friend to both of us and we wanted to make her feel our appreciation for all that she’d done for both of us. Mel promised that she had an idea, but DC was the place to get it, so that set my mind at ease.

I’d gotten Glen his new sand table, along with an impressive kit of materials for putting together his first battlefield diorama. In this case, I’d selected Gettysburg, but I’d also included a book of battle plans for famous battles - and not so famous battles - that was said to be the gold standard for the purposes of these types of tables. It covered battles from ancient times right up to Desert Storm and laid out the geography and troop placements for each one. There were materials and guides for building models and constructing terrain and all the trimmings. Even if he hated it, at least I tried. If this week went bad, then at least we could promise each other not to repeat the experience next year, but I didn’t want there to be the slightest reason for anyone to turn snide over our visit. Even Beth had no reason to be upset by Mel’s presence.

“What about your parents?” I asked the night before we were driving to Atlanta. “Shouldn’t we have bought for them?”

She shook her head.

“Nope,” she said lightly. “We agreed a while ago not to bother with gifts at Christmas. They don’t even know you’re coming yet, sort of like Beth’s not expecting me.”