Chapter 14

"Katie told me that you've been fucking, Leslie, is that true?"

Danny was helping Hector and I unload the back of the second truck we'd filled and emptied since this morning. I'd bought a lot of government surplus crap at an auction held out at the old March Air Force base by Moreno Valley. Most of it was pure crap, with a capital "C", but it was heavy crap, and I planned to make all my money back, and a whole lot more, just from what the majority of it would bring me as scrap metal. We'd brought up two full truckload's today, and tomorrow we'd fill at least another two, maybe more. I had seventy two hours to get all my purchases out of the base warehouse, where they were being stored.

"Your wife has a big mouth. Where'd she hear something like that?"

"She said Bridget told her that you guys have been keeping house together, down in the garage. Katie wants to know if you're ever going to go back to living in the upstairs part? Said I should ask you if you'd mind if we spent some time living there next month when we're getting our trailer fumigated?"

"Hell yes, I'd mind. She's got a lot of nerve putting you up to asking me something like that. I'm still spending a lot of time living there myself. You tell her there's no way I'd ever even consider it."

"I knew you were going to be like that. So, is it true or not, about fucking Leslie?"

"If you worked as much as you flapped your gums, I'd be a lot happier about paying you, come Friday. Bridget's just making up things because Delilah found out that Leslie bought herself a new bed, and Bridget jumped to some wrong conclusions. If you want to find out anything else about what Les has been doing, you're going to have to ask her about it yourself."

"If you weren't fucking her, you'd just tell me you weren't. Since you didn't, I'll have to go by what Katie told me. Is it any good? I mean with her legs being like they are and all?"

"You aren't going to give this a rest until you force me to fire your ass, are you?"

"You can't fire me for asking you a question."

"I can and I will. You think I'm paying you so you can sit around gossiping about things your wife tells you? I don't waste your time asking you about how many other guys she's fucking at the moment, do I?"

"You have no call to bring Katie into our conversation like that, Jim."

"You brought her name up, not me. I didn't even want to be having this conversation in the first place, but you seem to think everybody should go around talking about who everyone else is fucking. We get finished with your wife, we can get around to talking about what you've been up to. Someone told me that you were seen getting cozy with that little brunette over at the titty bar in Victorville, the girl who's husband is locked up down at County. He said you were buying her drinks, and asking about driving her home after her shift ended on the night you told me you had all that trouble with the truck. He told me that was the real reason why you ended up getting back from Barstow so late that night."

"Don't you go spreading those kind of rumors about me, Jim. You know how crazy Katie is liable to get if she was to hear any of those kinds of stories?"

"Yes, I do know, and I know it gets even worse if the story turns out to be true, like this one is."

"I was just kidding with you, that's all."

"Me too, Danny, me too. Let's stop kidding, okay? We still have a lot to do today."

It wasn't like I was ashamed of what Leslie and I were doing. I've always been something of a private person, and I didn't like people going around telling stories about me out of school. We weren't kids anymore, and Danny should have known better than to bring any of that up in the first place.

Leslie had asked me about whether either of us should tell anyone about what we'd been doing. I'd told her to wait before she started talking about anything. When I got back home that evening, I was going to find out whether or not she was the one who put that particular bug in Bridget's ear.

"Danny asked me today if we were fucking."

"What did you tell him?"

"I didn't tell him anything. Nobody's business if we are or we aren't. He shouldn't have asked me, and that's what I told him."

"You sound pretty mad. He knows about you being with Dee and Bridget. How come you aren't hiding what you do with them too?"

"Who said I was hiding anything? I don't have to hide anything I do. Those girls lived with me for eight months, and Bridget is Kaitlyn's sister. Of course they know about them. No way to keep it quiet under those circumstances."

"I'm not sure why you're mad then."

"I'm going upstairs tonight. I don't want us to have a fight about any of this."

"Running away from this isn't going to settle anything, you know?"

"Don't push me on this, Les. I'm just not in the mood for it. Let me take some time to think about things, about how much I want people knowing about my private business."

"We could stop too, you know? Nothing says we have to keep doing what we've been doing."

"That's always an option too. If you feel like we should consider that, I'm willing to treat it as an option."

"You're acting just like a ten year old, Jimmy. Calm down so we can talk about this."

"I'm going upstairs for tonight. I'm all talked out about it for right now. Maybe we can talk about it more tomorrow, we'll see."

"You think I've been telling people, don't you?"

"I don't know. Have you?"

"I may have said something that might have given it away, to Bridget, on the phone yesterday, when she called about them wanting to come over here today."

"What was it you said?"

"I said that I'm your girl friend now, and that you weren't seeing other people like that anymore, sexually I meant."

"Remind me again of when we ever decided any of that?"

"I know. It just came out is all. I didn't mean to tell her that. It just slipped out of me."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, Leslie. Doing what you did was a big mistake, if you expect to continue being friends with me. I'm not usually in the habit of letting other people make those kinds of decisions for me. You seem to be taking one whole hell of a lot for granted, and I really don't like it much."

That was the start of more than a week long estrangement from her. I had decided that I wasn't going to be the one to back down about any of that. She'd been totally out of line with what she'd done. The next day I called Delilah, at her work, and made a date for Bridget and her to go out to dinner with me that night. We ended up just going out to Alberto's for burritos, and the three of us laughed about Leslie thinking she could decide who I could see, socially, or try to dictate to me what I could do with anyone else.

I felt better that they both seemed to understand that all those things were totally up to me to decide. Right before I said goodbye to them, after our meal, Bridget asked me if I had found any place where the three of us could go to spend a fun weekend yet? I told her that I'd been too busy, with work, to spend much time thinking about going on any more trips. She looked at me in a funny way, after I told her that, but then Delilah grabbed her shoulder and reminded her that they needed to get going.

I found that I really missed all those business discussions that Leslie and I used to have in bed at night. I also missed the mattress on her new bed. It was a lot more comfortable than my old one was. I was considering buying a new bed set, with a mattress just like hers, only bigger, but I wasn't sure yet if I should do it right away, or maybe wait to see if I could pick one up on the cheap. I usually bought all my furniture at those bankruptcy sales and dealer auctions that I went to. I already knew the brand name of the mattress, and knew I'd save myself a bundle if I waited

I had gone back to using my front door again, mostly to avoid having to inconvenience or embarrass Leslie. I sent her all the updated purchase manifest's by scanning them onto my computer and then emailing them to her. We still spoke on the phone several times a day, but both of us were careful to keep the subject of the calls strictly about business. Our conversations were somewhat strained, but I didn't believe the business was suffering much because of it.

Danny got himself picked up for his second DUI, and was taken down to the County lock up. He was going to get a big fine, and thirty days in jail, at the bare minimum. I was still pissed with him for bringing up the subject of whether or not I was fucking Leslie. If he'd just kept his mouth shut to me about it, none of the problems I was currently having with her would have needed to happen.