Rooftops and Invitations 5

Monday morning

"I'll call you later, for sure," Carlos said as Stephanie slid down from the high seat of his Explorer.

She was still a bit lightheaded from the stirring, open-mouthed kiss he'd just bestowed on her, but she managed to turn and narrow her eyes at him. "If you don't, you'll be in for a major ass-kicking."

He grinned. "And you're just the woman to do it, Babe."

She couldn't help but grin back as she slammed the door shut and gave him a small finger wave.

She stood on the sidewalk in front of her apartment building in New Brunswick, watching until the back of the SUV was lost from sight. Things between them were different, she thought as she walked into her lobby, had been different ever since Saturday night. As she waited for the elevator to take her to the fourth floor, her heart gave a little flutter at the thought that Carlos loved her, that there was a commitment between them, a relationship. How quickly things could change.

She was still in the big bed Sunday morning when he'd kissed her goodbye as he left for the beach. When he'd said to her, "Babe, I want you to stay here with me tonight, every possible night. There's an empty dresser. Would you pack the rest of your things from the apartment so we can bring them over?"

She'd been so happy she thought she was going to cry, but she'd managed to nod her assent. Last night they'd moved all her clothes in, and even the plastic drawer unit that contained her cosmetics, hair products, tampons. She'd be spending every weekend with him. She felt like she was buoyed up by a vapor of happiness, her feet not touching the ground.

And last night in their big bed in the room on Ocean Avenue, she'd even felt confident enough in their connection to let him know how upset she was when he didn't call on Thursday. "You need to let me know if your plans change," she'd told him, "so I don't worry."

Thus his promise to call her later today, for sure. He was going to see the registrar at Rutgers New Brunswick and see if he could enroll in some classes. He didn't want to officially transfer, because then there would be a record at Newark, a possible trail the bad guys could follow to find him. Even though Stephanie didn't know much about his Newark business, it concerned her that he was being so cautious.

"Hey, Steph, did you have a good weekend? Ready to go to class?" her roommate Amy asked as Stephanie walked into the apartment.

"Two minutes," Stephanie answered, hustling into their bedroom. It was good to have a friend with the same major and most of the same classes, she decided as she sorted through notebooks, picking out the ones she'd need for the day and stuffing books into her backpack. Amy was a good student, took copious notes, got decent grades.

Stephanie was determined to do better this year than last. She'd spent her freshman year, her first year away from the strictures of her mother and the Burg, sowing enough wild oats to feed the state of New Jersey. This year she was going to actually go to classes, do her homework, not wait until the night before a test to try to learn all the material.

"So how was the weekend?" Amy asked. "Make lots of tips?"

"Almost three hundred dollars," Stephanie answered. "The restaurant was pretty busy. There are still lots of people at the shore."

"You should have been here. There was a great party at Zeta on Saturday night…"

oOo

"…and Bunny hooked up with this guy from Sig and never came home until ten o'clock last night."

Amy kept remembering more and more things Stephanie had missed during the weekend, and she was still talking as they walked from the campus toward their apartment after their last class. It had been a long day, and Stephanie was thinking she might take a nap. She'd had to get up a lot earlier than she was used to for the drive from Point Pleasant to get to her nine o'clock class. And the timing had put them right in the middle of rush hour into New Brunswick. Traffic had been sucky, though Carlos had been in this kind of driving zone, in his own little world, and it didn't seem to bother him.

The moment she and Amy turned the corner onto Bayard Street Stephanie felt the little lurch in her chest and her eyes raked the block for the figure dressed in black. Ah, there he is, she thought, spotting the silhouette leaning against the black SUV, arms crossed on his chest. He looked relaxed and yet alert, and now his head was turned toward her, watching her walk down the street.

"Holy shit!" Amy exclaimed as they got a little closer. "Wow! That is one hot guy. I've never seen him before. I wonder what he's doing in front of our building."

"Umm…" Stephanie began, but trailed off. She hadn't mentioned Carlos to Amy, to anyone. It was all too new, and she was afraid she'd jinx it if she talked about it.

"Kind of scary looking," Amy babbled on, clueless. "Dangerous, all dressed in black like that, so serious. Do you think he's a drug dealer or something?"

Carlos pushed off the car and started toward them with long-legged strides, his dark eyes locked on Stephanie's, his face blank.

"Holy shit," Amy muttered under her breath, and then Carlos was there.

"Babe," he said as he grabbed Stephanie and picked her up, one hand under her butt for support, the other around her midsection, elbow bent so the hand gripped the back of her neck. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist and just had time to whisper, "Batman," before his mouth crushed hers.

"Holy shit," Amy said for the third time.

Fifteen minutes later they were up in Stephanie's bedroom. Carlos was reclined on her bed, leaning on his elbow watching her throw things into a suitcase while Amy sat across from them on her bed, asking question after question. Carlos answered those directed at him in as few syllables as possible, and Stephanie wasn't much better.

"So Carlos, where are you from?"

Carlos: "Newark."

"Where are you guys going?"

Stephanie: "Point Pleasant."

"How'd you two meet?"

Carlos: "Beach."

"How long have you been together?"

Stephanie: "A couple months."

And on and on and on.

"Whew," Stephanie sighed, waving goodbye to Amy on the sidewalk in front of the apartment building as Carlos pulled the Explorer away from the curb. "Quite the inquisition. Sorry about that."

"De nada, Babe."

Most of Stephanie's clothes and all of her books were in the back of the SUV. She'd left just a couple changes of clothes, minimal cosmetics, and all her pajamas in case she ended up sleeping over in New Brunswick some night. She didn't need any pajamas in Point Pleasant, she thought with a secret smile.

She looked at Carlos. No expression. As usual. But she was learning to read him from his eyes, his body language. He seemed relaxed, at ease. "So how many classes did you pick up in New Brunswick?"

"Three." Carlos turned east toward the coast.

"That's great. What about the ones left in Newark?"

"I'll audit in New Brunswick and just go up to Newark for exams." He didn't move a millimeter, but somehow there was now tension in his shoulders.

Stephanie worried about him going to Newark, worried about the bad guys, even though she didn't know who they were or what the danger was. The uncertainty was worse not knowing. But questioning him would do no good, and she didn't want to be a nag. He'd tell her when he was ready, not before.

As they entered the highway Carlos reached over and took Stephanie's hand, surrounding it with his and holding it on his thigh. Stephanie glanced over and saw that he was in that driving zone, so she leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

TBC