Chapter 6

As we were all walking out of the funeral home, I asked Joey if he would take me to the mall before it closed at ten. I addressed the question in a way that included my parents.

“I need a couple of things for the funeral tomorrow, and I don’t want to make my mother and father drive me,” I said casually.

Joey agreed and my folks were okay with it. I hugged my parents and told them I’d be home by ten-thirty at the latest. We were in his truck and on the road two minutes later.

Joey walked with me through the mall and it seemed natural for me to hold his hand. True to his word, Joey had been there for me when I needed him most and his presence was comforting. We made a quick stop at Macy’s where I bought a pair of black pantyhose for the funeral and dropped by Claire’s for a black ribbon for my hair. Shopping complete, Joey drove me home. It was the first time Joey had been to my family’s home.

Joey pulled into the circular drive in front of our house.

“Nice digs,” he commented.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

I didn’t want him to leave so I reached over and turned off the ignition.

“Stay here and talk to me for a few minutes, okay?” I said.

He took my hand in his again, “Sure, Andie.”

In spite of everything going on, I smiled because it was the first time he called me Andie in six months. I flipped up the armrest between us and slid closer to him. He draped his arm across my shoulder and I nestled against his side with a contented sigh.

“I miss this,” I said wistfully.

“Not as much as I do,” he countered.

I snuggled tighter against him. His closeness and the feelings he stirred in me made up my mind about Michael. My next conversation with him would be our last. I decided to let Joey know that.

“I’m breaking up with Michael. I can’t believe what a jerk he’s become.”

Joey nodded.

“He’s a snake, Andie. You don’t need him in your life. So where does that leave me?”

That was the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question wasn’t it? Regardless how I felt about him, fundamentally nothing had changed.

“I don’t know Joey,” I answered honestly, “but I want you in my life.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

We sat in companionable silence until ten-thirty then Joey walked me to the door. He kissed me on the cheek and waited until I was inside the house before walking back to his truck. I popped by the family room with my bag from Macy’s to let my parents know I was home before heading off to bed. Another difficult day was behind me with a worse one on tap for tomorrow.

Robert’s funeral and the grave side service were the saddest things I have ever endured. The finality of closing the coffin and then watching it being lowered into the earth left me numb. I was on autopilot supervising the caterers at Roy and Yolanda’s house, but they came through as promised. I think the time we spent sharing happy memories of Robert eased some of our grief and I was in a better state of mind when we went home.

After the hectic week I was feeling at loose ends, desultorily fiddling around on my laptop, when Joey called. He inquired about how I was doing and listened to me as I poured out my feelings. I felt much better just having someone with whom to vent. He said the right things too, and after fifteen minutes my mind was much more at ease. When I finally let him off the phone, he had me laughing and I had an invitation to dinner.

“Nana is making a roast tomorrow,” he said, “and she’ll even bake an apple pie if you come join us.”

I arrived at Joey and his grandmother’s home at ten minutes till two Sunday afternoon. I tried to wait and arrive at the agreed on two o’clock but I was too anxious. Even considering the extra time I spent primping and dressing, I was still ready to go at one. I was wearing a new above the knee sun dress because Joey loved me in them. This one was yellow with little white daisies. It had a woven jute belt and I had on a pair of medium tall wedges that matched the belt. My hair was soft and glossy and I had on just a tad of make-up. I looked good and just a little hot.

Dinner was delicious. To me, Sarah’s simple home-cooked meals were far superior to the fare prepared by the trained chef’s my mother employed. While Joey and I were devouring a slice of oven warm apple pie, Sarah was busy loading a picnic basket with plastic containers of leftovers from our meal.

“I’m going to run these over to Calvin,” she explained. “If I don’t feed him all he eats is take out barbeque and junk food. Oh, and afterwards I’m going to Kohl’s and the outlet mall.”

With a wave and ‘a see you later’, Nana bustled out the door.

Joey shook his head and looked sad.

“What’s the matter?” I worriedly asked.

“Nana took the rest of the pie,” he said with a hang dog look towards his empty desert plate.

I laughed and wrapped my arm around my half-finished plate. I forked a gob of gooey goodness towards my mouth.

“Poor baby,” I teased as I pushed the forkful into my mouth.

After I finished desert, we sat on the couch with our sweet tea. I felt pleasantly full and completely relaxed.

Joey took a swig of his tea, sat the glass down and turned towards me. His face wore a serious look.

“So where do we go from here,” he asked.

In that instant I had an epiphany.

“You know the world I live in, and you know my family’s expectations, but I want to be with you Joey. I trust you completely; so I’m leaving it up to you to make this work,” I said.

Joey smiled, leaned over and kissed me.

“Open your eyes, Andrea,” he said when he broke the kiss.

I blinked them open and looked straight into his hypnotic eyes.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked.

I nodded eagerly.

And just like that we relived our first wonderful time all over again.

Friday night, for our official first date in our hometown, Joey took me to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop where we geared me up to go surfing with him. Everyone at the shop knew Joey so we received plenty of help. Joey waved over an attractive Polynesian looking woman and introduced me to her.

“Kalani this is Andrea, she’s a Kook so hook her up,” he said.

Kalani nodded and Joey wandered off to rent me a board.

“A Kook is a new surfer,” Kalani explained as she led me to lady’s swimwear.

Kalani was the perfect person to help me because she was about five-ten and although she looked very fit, she was full figured like me. She looked me over good then showed me a rack of one piece suits in our size.

“You need a supportive one piece so your girls don’t pop out,” she said then added. “Pick a solid color so you can get some colorful board shorts.”

With her help I found a flattering gray suit and a pair of snug fitting pink and white board shorts. I also picked out a pink halter top to match the shorts. I snagged me a big tube of waterproof SPF 50, a beach wrap and a floppy hat as she walked me to the customer service counter.

She rang up my purchases and I was about to pay when I noticed a locked display of Ray Ban sunglasses behind the counter.

“Throw in two pair of those tortoise shell Wayfarers,” I said as I handed over my American Express card.

When we left Ron Jon’s Joey took me out for a burger at this diner he knew about then drove me home. He took me home early because we were going to the beach at the ungodly hour of six AM.

“The forecast is for seven-foot swells with a ten second period,” he said excitedly.

“Cowabunga Dude,” I said, mimicking his tone but clueless to what he spouted.

Now understand, I am not and never have been a morning person. Yes, I can function in the morning but I am much better company if I can sleep until eight or nine. So I grumbled when my alarm went off at five and hit the snooze bar. I did that until five-twenty then rushed around like a crazy woman getting ready. I was only ten minutes late getting to Joey’s, which I thought was a major accomplishment.

Joey is a morning person. He wakes up at the crack of dawn all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. He knows, however, to tone all that sunny disposition down until I’ve had a serious jolt of caffeine. He was waiting for me when I pulled up, and the first thing he did was stick a cup of Dunkin Donut coffee in my hand.

“Coffee, light and sweet, just the way you like it,” he chirped brightly.

I grunted some sort of thank you as he transferred my beach bag from the Beemer to the back of his truck. I made him stop at a Seven-Eleven over on A1A for a coffee refill so by the time we reached the jetties I was wide awake.

I had Joey slather me in sunscreen then grabbed my rented board and followed him into the shallow water. He was an excellent teacher so by the time I paddled out beside him to try my first wave I knew the rudiments.

Despite being a big girl I’m very athletic and it only took me half a dozen tries before I was able to pop up on the board and actually ride a wave. I didn’t stay upright for more than a few seconds but I was stoked at my small success. Joey, who had been patiently sitting on his board watching me struggle, was too. He waved me the pinky finger and thumb ‘hang loose’ sign and we caught the next wave together. This one I rode in almost to the shore.

I’m not trying to say here that I was Queen of the Surf, but I had a blast and did ride some good waves. Of course, I also made more than a few other surfers dive for cover because I wasn’t very good at cutting left or right. You could actually see the fear in their eyes as the big black chick bore down on them as they paddled frantically to get out of my way.

When we came out of the water because the waves became choppy it was almost eleven and I was starving. I grabbed my beach bag out of the truck and handed Joey a pair of the sunglasses I bought us and slipped the other pair on. We were just too cool when we walked down the beach towards one of the concession trucks. Lunch was hotdogs and French fries at a table under an umbrella. We ate and chatted with some other surfers. Well, Joey chatted but I just mostly listened because surfers, when talking about surfing, have their own language. Joey’s surfer friends treated me as if I was one of them from the start. I picked up on a little jealous evil-eye from a few of the beach bunnies that hung around the surfers, but it didn’t bother me, I just snuggled closer to my guy.

Wednesday, ten days after Robert’s funeral, Michael called me. I was surprised at his call because after so long, I figured he was as through with me as I was with him. I was wrong. Michael, being Michael, did not apologize for not calling or for his crappy conduct at the viewing. Instead, he was all lovey-dovey.

“Hey Drea, how bout we go out Saturday night and you come back to my place,” he said suggestively.

His cavalier attitude pissed me off so badly I thought my head would explode. I had planned on being civil when I broke it off with him but his condescending smugness put an end to that plan. I gritted my teeth and willed my temper down to below boiling.

“I’ve got a better idea,” I said coldly, “why don’t you go fuck yourself instead.”

That got his attention.

“Jesus, what crawled up your butt?” he asked peevishly.

“You did. We are through Michael and I never want to see you again.”

Michael changed his tune at that.

“Come on, Andrea, you are still upset about your cousin dying. We have a great future ahead of us and the family wants us together,” he cajoled.