Chapter 5

Chet's first clue about the girls' plans for the evening came when Rhonda answered the door. She was wearing a big grin and a cheerleader's outfit that was an exact match of Lori's, right down to the extremely short skirt.

The skirt was showing off some surprisingly shapely legs. With the shapeless clothing Rhonda usually wore, the formfitting scooped neckline top gave Chet the best view he'd had of her surprisingly full chest in years. And her glasses were missing, revealing some very pretty oval-shaped dark brown eyes.

Chet was frozen with is mouth open, which made Rhonda's grin grow even broader. "That's about the way Jimmy looked when I put this on," she chortled.

He raised his eyebrows suspiciously at Lori, remembering her story that her current cheerleader uniform was 'in the wash.' She looked back innocently.

Then he noticed that most of the furniture in the room had been pushed to the walls. There was a large screen plasma television on one wall, and facing it were two love seats, one immediately behind the other.

Before Chet could ask about the set-up, Rhonda reached to take his hand.

"Thanks for bringing my date, Lori; yours is in the kitchen. Come on in!"

When they entered the kitchen, Chet burst out laughing. Jimmy was wearing a football uniform, complete with shoulder and thigh pads. There was a helmet resting on the counter where he stood working to open a bottle of wine, an obviously unfamiliar task.

When he turned to greet them, they saw he had eye black on his face just below his eyes, like players wore to deflect the sun during a game. If you didn't know him well, you could mistake his nervous gaze at Lori as intense and assertive.

He glanced at Rhonda briefly for encouragement. "Hey, uh, baby," he said to Lori in greeting.

He put down the bottle and walked to her, reaching to grasp her hands. Lori grinned and leaned forward and softly kissed his cheek, which turned a soft pink. Rhonda didn't help his composure by giggling at them.

Chet grinned and rolled his eyes at Rhonda. "All right you guys," he said, addressing the girls, "what's the plan for tonight?"

"Dinner and a drive-in movie, of course," Rhonda replied.

Chet took a peek back around the corner at the love seat arrangement in the living room. "So that's the drive in?" he asked.

"Of course it is, honey," she replied.

Lori grinned, Jimmy still holding her hands. Chet felt protective for a moment. He worried their conversation about their relationship might now make her uncomfortable with being Jimmy's 'date, ' no matter how whimsical.

But she turned to look at Chet and smiled, completely assured. He relaxed. Whatever the game was that she and Rhonda had cooked up – bring it on!

He jerked a thumb over her shoulder at the 'drive in.' "What's playing?"

All of them laughed and grinned at each other, eyes shifting from face to face, all seeing in the others a shared playful anticipation.