Epilogue - Eight months later.
I eye it critically, going around one way, then the other. I guess it was his turn to surprise me . . . They brought it and . . . What are those things? Elephants?
The eyes of the two little stone statues look at my ankles wordlessly, of course wordlessly -- they're stone. Stone with a big slab of rounded glass . . . What a coffee table.
Yikes.
I sit on the couch and stare at it. When he and Kevin brought it in I think I had his shock over the couch beat, not because of what kind indication it was for our relationship, but because . . . The thing is actually kind of creepy. I'm truly going to try and convince him to return it because . . . Yikes.
"Hey."
"Hi, baby," I smile at him from the couch and I don't bother to move, just beckoning him over. You'd think this whole sex frenzy would cool way more than it has, which is hardly any, and that's when we are too tired to move from working. . . And I have to go in at eight tonight and I am *not* missing out.
Being a waitress at the club doesn't pay as much as stripping, but stripping didn't pay as much as private dancing, I got over both financial temptations because I just didn't want to do either. I know it's different with everyone, and I'd never lecture someone, saying that if their relationship is serious and intimate they shouldn't be stripping - that was just how I saw it for my relationship. It doesn't take much to make me change my ways - just a complete upheaval of life, falling in love . . . Maybe a robbery.
That's all.
But the bills get paid anyway, my mother's insurance most importantly . . . I haven't seen her since that night in July and I'm trying to respect that, as hard as it is. But her hospital bill is finished and I have some extra money to take the business classes a Rechen. I don't know what I want to be yet, but business is always a safe start.
Harry smiles, dropping his briefcase and throwing off his jacket on the weird table. "Hard day?"
He takes off the gun holster, setting it on the table too. I eye it as he talks; it's kind of sexy when he wears that. That's Harry, my teacher boyfriend, all danger, baby.
"I had a good day. 'Course I got in trouble."
"You? You're kidding. My epitome of perfection?" I tease as he sits beside me, pulling me over his lap, a leg on either side. "What for?"
"Simple exercise in overreaction."
"You pulled the gun?"
"I pulled the gun."
I laugh and finger his buttons. Plain white shirt, it's a pretty nondescript thing to get heated up over but . . . He makes it easy. "You gotta quit that."
"It was on safety," he says like it is therefore a non-issue.
"Right," I smile, kissing him.
"I love you."
**
"I love you," she says. Just like she tells me before I leave for work, and when she comes home at night. She touches the front of my shirt and sighs a little, rolling her hips into me . . . She looks into my eyes the whole time, real soft like she'll love me no matter what I do. And over the past eight months I probably tested it a couple times.
This is why, when Lisa finally decided to dump him, I couldn't point out to Milton what a simpleton he'd been. If it had been me, I'd be devastated. I can say that now, admit that kind of stuff - mostly in my head, but it's something.
I got a lot of flack for a while when the news hit Winslow, Dana Poole, ex- student living with her ex-teacher, I had a lot of explaining to do to Steven, then again with Guber - that's the part I really hated. Harvey proclaimed that if Dana and I ever have a child it would give the 'Village of the Damned' kids a run for their money - It's Dana and me; I'd expect nothing else.
It's all calmed down now, everyone moving on to the fact a student, Jeremy White may have kept his mother locked in the basement and may have cut off her hand - Yet the woman is still as emotional as an ice cube and working at Winslow. Go figure. Course Lauren still does that uncomfortable shuffle when she sees me coming.
"Wanna break in the table?" I smile. It's two elephants side by side, with a thick piece of glass settled over it and, on second thought, may not be the strongest thing to be thrusting on.
"About that table," she smirks.
"I bought that for us. Like the couch." That should get a point.
She stares at me, sighing a little without saying anything before, finally, "It's a great match."
I know she thinks it's hideous, after all this time, I can tell a lot about her, but it is a cool table, and I did get it for us.
"Like it?"
"It's so, *SO* intriguing." She hates it and she's letting me know it now, that raised eyebrow letting me know she's caught on to my minor manipulation.
"So what do you say?"
"I say . . . we'll have to break it in by making love beside it since it's glass and I'm not too keen on shards in my backside . . ." Her voice is sexy, but everything else about her is hinging on a laugh as she tilts her head and smiles.
I actually feel the curve as it moves across my mouth. Dana, the surprise . . . With our couch, our bed, our *home*, and our table. The coffee table with stone elephants and the kind of eyes that follow you . . . She hates it, but I like it . . .
And she loves me.
The End.
I eye it critically, going around one way, then the other. I guess it was his turn to surprise me . . . They brought it and . . . What are those things? Elephants?
The eyes of the two little stone statues look at my ankles wordlessly, of course wordlessly -- they're stone. Stone with a big slab of rounded glass . . . What a coffee table.
Yikes.
I sit on the couch and stare at it. When he and Kevin brought it in I think I had his shock over the couch beat, not because of what kind indication it was for our relationship, but because . . . The thing is actually kind of creepy. I'm truly going to try and convince him to return it because . . . Yikes.
"Hey."
"Hi, baby," I smile at him from the couch and I don't bother to move, just beckoning him over. You'd think this whole sex frenzy would cool way more than it has, which is hardly any, and that's when we are too tired to move from working. . . And I have to go in at eight tonight and I am *not* missing out.
Being a waitress at the club doesn't pay as much as stripping, but stripping didn't pay as much as private dancing, I got over both financial temptations because I just didn't want to do either. I know it's different with everyone, and I'd never lecture someone, saying that if their relationship is serious and intimate they shouldn't be stripping - that was just how I saw it for my relationship. It doesn't take much to make me change my ways - just a complete upheaval of life, falling in love . . . Maybe a robbery.
That's all.
But the bills get paid anyway, my mother's insurance most importantly . . . I haven't seen her since that night in July and I'm trying to respect that, as hard as it is. But her hospital bill is finished and I have some extra money to take the business classes a Rechen. I don't know what I want to be yet, but business is always a safe start.
Harry smiles, dropping his briefcase and throwing off his jacket on the weird table. "Hard day?"
He takes off the gun holster, setting it on the table too. I eye it as he talks; it's kind of sexy when he wears that. That's Harry, my teacher boyfriend, all danger, baby.
"I had a good day. 'Course I got in trouble."
"You? You're kidding. My epitome of perfection?" I tease as he sits beside me, pulling me over his lap, a leg on either side. "What for?"
"Simple exercise in overreaction."
"You pulled the gun?"
"I pulled the gun."
I laugh and finger his buttons. Plain white shirt, it's a pretty nondescript thing to get heated up over but . . . He makes it easy. "You gotta quit that."
"It was on safety," he says like it is therefore a non-issue.
"Right," I smile, kissing him.
"I love you."
**
"I love you," she says. Just like she tells me before I leave for work, and when she comes home at night. She touches the front of my shirt and sighs a little, rolling her hips into me . . . She looks into my eyes the whole time, real soft like she'll love me no matter what I do. And over the past eight months I probably tested it a couple times.
This is why, when Lisa finally decided to dump him, I couldn't point out to Milton what a simpleton he'd been. If it had been me, I'd be devastated. I can say that now, admit that kind of stuff - mostly in my head, but it's something.
I got a lot of flack for a while when the news hit Winslow, Dana Poole, ex- student living with her ex-teacher, I had a lot of explaining to do to Steven, then again with Guber - that's the part I really hated. Harvey proclaimed that if Dana and I ever have a child it would give the 'Village of the Damned' kids a run for their money - It's Dana and me; I'd expect nothing else.
It's all calmed down now, everyone moving on to the fact a student, Jeremy White may have kept his mother locked in the basement and may have cut off her hand - Yet the woman is still as emotional as an ice cube and working at Winslow. Go figure. Course Lauren still does that uncomfortable shuffle when she sees me coming.
"Wanna break in the table?" I smile. It's two elephants side by side, with a thick piece of glass settled over it and, on second thought, may not be the strongest thing to be thrusting on.
"About that table," she smirks.
"I bought that for us. Like the couch." That should get a point.
She stares at me, sighing a little without saying anything before, finally, "It's a great match."
I know she thinks it's hideous, after all this time, I can tell a lot about her, but it is a cool table, and I did get it for us.
"Like it?"
"It's so, *SO* intriguing." She hates it and she's letting me know it now, that raised eyebrow letting me know she's caught on to my minor manipulation.
"So what do you say?"
"I say . . . we'll have to break it in by making love beside it since it's glass and I'm not too keen on shards in my backside . . ." Her voice is sexy, but everything else about her is hinging on a laugh as she tilts her head and smiles.
I actually feel the curve as it moves across my mouth. Dana, the surprise . . . With our couch, our bed, our *home*, and our table. The coffee table with stone elephants and the kind of eyes that follow you . . . She hates it, but I like it . . .
And she loves me.
The End.
