Chapter 57
Maureen realized she had been playing on the Internet for over two hours when the phone ran. "Hello?"
"Something is wrong with the door. Throw down the key."
"Oh, um, okay." She picked up one of the new keys the locksmith had left, opened the window and leaned out, looking for Collins. She waved at him and Jason and dropped the key down. A few minutes later they were at the loft.
"Hey Mo. What's up with the door?" Jason asked.
"Oh, Cass had Mark call the locksmith as soon as we got back. Apparently she set it up yesterday. Had him waiting for everything to get signed. She changed the front door and every apartment as well. No more Benny just walking in." She grinned.
"Just a little déjà vu instead." Collins laughed. "At least until everyone gets a key again. Or the speaker box is fixed."
"Yeah she said that should be soon, once the contractor gets started."
"So Jen doesn't have a key yet?" Jason asked. "Or Ginny or anyone?"
"Um no, they are all right here." She pointed at all the envelopes on the counter with apartment numbers written on them. She had helped Mark put them together earlier when they came back from lunch. Letters saying the sale had gone through and telling about the renovations to come. Also how there would be no rent increases at this time either.
"Wow," Collins said sitting at the counter putting down the letter. "With Cass as a landlord, I may actually miss living here." He laughed. "But if no one has a key, maybe we should prop the downstairs door and leave a note telling everyone to come up here for their keys."
"Oh crap!" Maureen exclaimed. "I was supposed to do just that, like three hours ago!" She hopped up, grabbing the note and ran down the steps.
"I wonder what she's doing here?" Jason asked, falling on the couch.
Collins got up and moved over next to him, setting the bag they carried on the floor. "Knowing Maureen, she was looking for trouble."
Jason laughed. "Too true. I wonder how many times she and my sister have spoken since the closing this morning?" Just then the bedroom door opened and Cass came out. "Hey sweetie. We're sorry if we woke you up."
"Oh, um, no you didn't wake me." When she went to sleep it was daylight and now it was dark out. She felt much better and her headache had died down a lot, but she was still a little dazed and confused from sleep. "Um, where's Roger? And Mark?"
"They're gone I guess."
"They're gone?" She was very confused. "He left? Wait what day is this? How long was I asleep?"
Jason started laughing. "It's still Friday Cass don't worry. You didn't miss much. It's only going on seven at night. Maureen was here. They must have just run out for awhile. Everyone else should be getting here eventually."
"Oh." She picked Roger's green pullover up off the chair and put it on, sitting on the other end of the couch, tucking her feet up under her.
Maureen came back in then. "Okay took care of that. Hey Cass. Do you feel better?"
"Uh huh. Much. Where are Roger and Mark? And how long was I asleep?"
"Um, I don't know how long you've been asleep. We got back here a little before two. And Roger got up at four. They went to the laundry mat and the Food Emporium. They should be back soon."
"Oh. So I was asleep for almost five hours?" She shook her head. Why are you still so tired then? Oh yeah, body over taken by alien life form. Good Lord, she thought, now it must be messing with your brain if you're thinking thoughts like that. She pushed herself more into the corner of the couch and pulled the blanket off the back of it over her legs.
She sat there zoning out and trying to wake up in front of the TV as Maureen and Jason handed out keys to various tenants of the building. She hadn't realized she had dozed off again until the cold hands that touched her neck about made her jump off the couch. "Jesus Roger! Your gonna give me a heart attack."
"Sorry Babe." He was laughing as he kissed her. "But at least you're awake now."
"Awake and starving. What are we doing about dinner? I'm finally hungry."
"So you feel better?"
She nodded. "My migraine seems to be gone too." While she had fallen asleep Jen and Leslie had arrived. "Yeah, what are we eating? I'm starved too." Jason asked. "It's your birthday, you pick."
"How about pizza? Order enough for Izzy and Krystal, they should be here soon." Roger yelled back, walking into his room followed by Cass. He threw the laundry bag on the floor and fell down on the bed, pulling her down onto his lap.
"Where have you been? I didn't even know you were gone until I got up. A mere five hours after we laid down." She smiled at him.
"Good." He grinned at her insidiously.
"Good what?" she asked him, puzzled.
"Good that you slept for five hours. You'll need it." He shifted over, pulled the laundry bag closer and pulled the shopping bag out of it, dropping it into her lap. "I went shopping."
Opening the bag, she peered in. "Gee Roger, couldn't you find a bigger box?"
"Nope, biggest one they had. But even on my best night I don't think even I could use all 24. But I'm more than willing to try." He grinned at her.
"I don't know if I'm that ambitious, it was only a five hour nap."
"But Baby, it is my birthday."
"So I've heard." She grinned at him, running her finger up his chest, under his shirt. "Maybe we'll have to do something for that." She started kissing his neck as her hand went back down and into his pants. She heard him give a slight moan as she ran her tongue up his neck to his ear and gently bit it before starting to suck on his earlobe and play with his earrings with her tongue. All the while she still had her hand in his pants.
"Yo! Get the fuck out here or I take your birthday present home!" Izzy yelled as he pounded on the wall.
Roger's eyes flew open as Cass pulled her hand back out. "Later, I promise. Buying the building won't be the only good investment you made today." She winked at him, standing up.
"God his fucking timing sucks! Again! As usual!"
Cass just laughed at him as she dropped the box into the bottom drawer of the dresser.
******************
"So you're actually going to convert the whole fourth floor into one giant apartment. Wow. Space. In New York. Who would have thought." Krystal joked, picking up another slice of pizza.
"Not that much space. At least storage space. I can't figure out how to work in more closet space without yanking the elevator. But if we do that, we could turn the elevator space into storage on each floor for the two smaller apartments."
"That would be great. It's not like it works anyway." Leslie added.
"That's true. And bringing that thing up to code would be expensive. And it's low on the list of priorities. What would you rather have storage or an elevator?"
"Elevator." Mark, Roger, Jason and Collins all said at the same time, surprising everyone and causing all the girls to laugh.
"Lazy asses." Ginny told them, biting into her pizza.
"A- we live on the fourth floor. B- think back to who had to carry half your crap up to your apartment when you moved in. And C- it's my birthday so either give me a present or be nice to me for one fucking day a year!" Roger told Ginny.
"Yeah." Mark added.
Roger just looked at him then back to Ginny. "Screw that, you should give me a present and be nice to me."
"He's right. We're the ones that had to move all your crap up two flights of stairs." Mark said to her. "And don't any of the three of you forget that stupid dresser either."
"What dresser?" Cass asked.
Mark looked at Roger who started laughing. "You tell her. I'm tired just thinking about it."
Mark looked at Ginny, Leslie and Jen who were sitting next to each other, refusing to make eye contact with anyone at that moment. "Okay, so basically, Mimi's gonna move up here and Ginny's gonna move into Mimi's apartment. Should be simple right? Well as soon as those three got involved," he pointed at the girls, "it got complicated."
"Real fucking complicated." Roger shook his head.
"Complicated, but highly amusing." Collins laughed.
"Thank you so much Mr. Jason-and-I-can't-help-because-we'll-be-in-Atlantic-City-that-weekend." Mark scoffed at him. "Okay so we move all Mimi's stuff up here. Not so bad. But then, the Witches of Bitchwick and Mimi all get talking. Mimi was leaving some of her furniture down there for Nurse Cratchet, but they want us to move what's left out into the hall so they can paint."
"Notice he said 'they'." Roger pointed out to her.
"Anyway, we get stuff moved around and it suddenly goes from they to us. So first we have to move it, then paint, then move it back."
"But what about the dresser?" Cass asked.
"Oh he's getting there." Collins laughed.
Mark gave him a look again, this time even Roger laughed. "So we move it all back in. But then we gotta move Ginny's stuff in. So Mimi left this very big-"
"It's not so big." Ginny said sarcastically.
"Did you ever move it?" Roger asked.
"Anyway," Mark continued, "very big, very awkward, very heavy dresser. Well, it and Ginny's stuff won't fit. So Ginny tells us to take it up here. So like idiots we do. But we get it here and then Leslie tells us 'oh I was supposed to tell you to take the big dresser to Jen's, Ginny's dresser up here and Jen's to Ginny's. Got to go to work. Bye.' So now we are playing musical dressers."
"Musical heavy dressers that cover three floors."
"So being that we are total shmucks, we move them all. Again."
"Ask him which dresser up her was Ginny's old one Cass." Jason said grinning.
"I don't know what you're ginning at, you had to move all Jen's crap in originally on your own." Mark said to him dryly.
"So which one?" Cass laughed.
"None of them." Roger glared at the girls.
"What?" Cass was cracking up by now.
"None of them." Mark said in an almost defeated tone. "In the end, we had to move the big dress back downstairs to Leslie's right next door to where it started. Ginny's from here down to her place, and Jen's back down to her place." He sighed as everyone stared laughing.
"You mean after all that only change was from Ginny's right next door to Leslie's?"
"Yup." Roger told her. "That and we had to move an entirely different dresser somebody at the club gave Mimi all the way up here. So that's why we say elevator. You four can buy less crap and you won't need more storage. An elevator is useful."
"I'll keep that in mind Baby." She laughed at him.
"Yeah by the way, I'm thinking of getting a new couch." Jen laughed.
"Yeah I'm gonna buy a new bedroom set." Ginny joked.
"Well then you two better start dating more, so you can find some sucker to move it all for you, cause we're done." Roger told them.
"Bite me!" Ginny told him.
"Be nice to me Super Witch, it's my birthday."
"I'll try and remember that." She laughed, walking to the fridge. "Who wants a beer?"
"Okay, pizza's done. I suppose we should give you an actual present now, huh?" Mark joked.
"Cool, presents." He pulled Cass closer and kissed her on the cheek.
"Oh, we should have gotten ice cream. Chocolate, no coffee ice cream with chocolate in it. No wait, coffee, with Oreo's, no with chocolate in it and Oreo's on top. With chocolate syrup. And whip cream." Cass looked around at everyone looking at her. "What? I said I felt better."
"Apparently." Mark said getting up off the floor and walking to his room.
"Here. Krystal said I had to shop so, well, you know." He handed Roger a brown paper bag that had been twisted around a bottle.
Roger pulled the bottle out and looked at it. "Vodka. What a surprise. How did you ever guess?"
"Well, while we're at it. Here's from Ginny and me." Leslie handed him another bag wrapped bottle.
"Ew, let me guess. Could it be vodka?" He pulled the bottle out of the bag. "Or, half a bottle of vodka." He laughed.
"Ginny!"
"Shit I knew there was something I meant to do." She looked from Leslie to Roger. "Sorry, I had a date the other night." She shrugged.
"And here I thought that was just dogs howling at the moon." Roger teased her.
"Enough." Jen handed him a gift-wrapped box. "Happy birthday. And it's not Vodka."
"I can tell." Roger opened the wrapping paper, sticking the bow on Cass' head. "Cool. Coffee cups. I don't know what happened. We used to have a ton and all of a sudden we've got like three. Thanks Jen."
Jennifer shook her head. He had no clue how many busted coffee cups she'd cleaned up off the floor in the last two months.
"Okay here. Mark handed him a Quick Print bag. It's from me, Mo and Joanne. Maureen made it at the copy shop."
"Well I transferred it. We got a new machine. Makes iron on transfers. Mark found the originals. And Joanne figured out what to put them on!" Maureen almost couldn't contain herself.
Roger reached into the bag and pulled out about the littlest piece of clothing he had ever seen.
"It's for the baby!" Maureen explained, as if none of them could figure it out. "Look at the other one too!"
Roger handed the first little outfit to Cass and pulled out the second one.
"Show them what it says!" Maureen told him.
"Wow. One says Artie and the Iguana's and the other says the Well Hungarians."
"They look like tiny little band shirts. Those are so cute." Jen cooed.
"Yup. And those things are called onesies." Mark said, very knowledgeably.
"And how do you know that?" Jen asked him.
"Well, Joellen told me. But the point is, I know. And according to the lady at the store, you're gonna need a bunch of those."
"Okay." Collins said standing up and getting the bag he walked in with. "They say knowledge is power. And no offense, but you getting your baby knowledge from Mark worries me. So," he tossed Roger a plastic bookstore bag. That's from us. And just so you don't feel left out…" He tossed one to Mark as well.
"Roger that's a book. And those little squiggly things inside are called words. Be nice and maybe Cass will read it to you." Ginny said sarcastically.
Roger ignored her and pulled the yellow book out of the bag. "Pregnancy for Dummies. Cute. Real cute. What's the other one?"
"The Idiot's Guide to Pregnancy. Oh you guys are real funny. Completely correct and accurate, but real funny." Mark laughed.
Cass pulled the blanket up over her legs and cuddled in closer to Roger trying to get warm as they all sat around talking. She looked over his shoulder as he flipped through the book. She heard the phone ring and felt him shift on the couch. "I'm awake." She said as her head bobbed up as Roger tried to slide out from next to her without waking her.
"Sorry Baby." He told her as he got up and walked into Mark's office, picking up the phone and closing the door to hear over the talking and music.
"What's going on?" She yawned. "God, why am I so tired? Mark who's he talking to?"
"His mom." Mark told her. "She just called."
"Oh." She yawned again.
The office door opened and Roger leaned back in the chair and called out. "Mark did I get any mail?"
"Um, hold on." He got up off the floor, went to the desk and picked up the cards, taking them to Roger in the office.
"You okay Cass?" Maureen asked her. "You want something to drink?"
"Yeah. I'll get it. Maybe it'll wake me up." She went to the kitchen and got herself a drink. Leaning on the counter she watched Mark come out of the office with a strange look on his face. He walked over by Collins and sat down.
"Wow, I don't believe it." Mark said to Collins.
"What?"
"His mom and his grandmother. They each sent him twenty bucks. Cash."
"Wow. Impressive." Collins said.
"What's the big deal?" Jen shrugged. "So they sent him twenty dollars."
"Doesn't she usually send him gift certificates for Food Emporium?" Maureen asked.
"Uh huh. And his grandmother would sometimes send him movie rental tickets, but mostly Food Emporium certificates. But actual cash. That's good." Mark got a small grin on his face.
"So what's so impressive about a lousy twenty dollar bill?" Ginny asked.
Cass listened to all this from the kitchen. She didn't know all that other stuff, but it all clicked and she understood the astonishment Mark and Collins seemed to feel.
"Yeah, I don't get it." Jen said, looking at them confused.
"The big deal is you don't give an addict cash." Cass said form the kitchen. "You can give them gift certificates to the grocery store and hope they eat and not trade them out. But you don't give them cash and make it easy for them." She took a drink of her ginger ale. "Unless of course you're my father. Who gives you a thousand dollars cash and says go buy something that will make you happy sweetheart."
"You're kidding." Mark said wide-eyed.
"He really did that?" Maureen asked. "What did you do?"
Cass shrugged as she walked over and flopped down on the couch. "Went out and bought myself something to make me happy." She laughed, realizing not everyone got the joke. "You know." She sniffed twice and rubbed her finger under her nose, laughing.
"Don't do that!" Mark snapped at her.
"Sorry sweetie." Cass yawned.
"Well, I gotta go. I gotta do a late set at the club." Ginny said standing up.
"Yeah we gotta go to." Izzy said. "We gotta go to the bar and close up."
"You gotta close up, not me." Krystal said standing up. "Tell Roger we said good bye. And happy birthday."
After a few minutes Roger came out of the office and sat down on the couch, pulling Cass almost on his lap. "Hey are you going out with Joellen later?" He asked Mark.
"No she's working late and then going home. She's gotta do something early tomorrow morning before we go out."
"Oh." Roger looked at Cass as he ran his fingers up her arm. "So you guys want to go out? Get a couple of drinks?"
"Sure." Maureen agreed, looking to Jen who shook her head.
"Cool." Roger reached into his pocket and pulled out some money. "Here's twenty bucks. Have fun and be quite when you come home." He told them handing the money to Mark.
"I think we just got kicked out." Mark laughed.
"Uh huh." Maureen agreed. "Definitely kicked out."
"I still gotta pack and stuff."
"More and stuff then pack I'm sure." Maureen said sarcastically.
*********************
Cass lay on the bed and watched him pack while she flipped through one of the books. "It's kind of funny what you got for your birthday. Vodka and baby stuff." She laughed.
"Uh huh." He grinned, closing up the bag and setting it on the floor. "Last year all I got was alcohol." He sat down next to her on the bed, picking up one of the baby outfits. "I can't believe we have actual baby stuff. It kinda seems more real now then before. Sitting here looking at it, knowing it's gonna be an actual little baby."
"I know what you mean. Are you okay with this still?"
He looked up at her from the clothing he was holding. "Yeah I guess. It's just a little freaky. I mean look at this thing." He held up the Well Hungarians outfit. "It's so tiny!"
"From a baby perspective, I can see that, but, ah…"
"What?" He grinned at her pulling her close to him.
"Oh don't know. I guess form the perspective of getting it from in here," she pointed to her stomach before running her hands over the outfit, "to out here, it looks a little huge to me."
Roger started laughing as he kissed her.
"It's not funny Roger. It's really gonna hurt. Don't laugh at me!"
"I'm sorry Baby. Really." He ran his fingers up her back.
"Tell me about the Well Hungarians." She said, resting her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around his waist.
"It was a band I had. Actually a good band for awhile. Most successful one I ever had. And we lasted a pretty long time too. Until I fucked it all up."
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "Too wasted to get to practice. Stuff like that. And then April…" He trailed off.
"I'm sorry Baby. But now look at what you're doing. Going on a tour! You've come such a long way. I'm real proud of you. I'm going to miss you terribly, but I'm really proud of you."
He smiled a little knowing she couldn't see his face. "Thanks Baby." He played with her hair for a few minutes. "My mom sent me twenty dollars for my birthday. It's been a really long time since she did that."
"I know. I heard Mark and Collins talking. That's good. That means she trusts you again."
"Yeah, I guess it does." He ran his fingers through her hair again. "She's got this crazy idea about me coming to dinner on Thanksgiving." Roger told her hesitantly.
"Oh."
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing. I just was kind of hoping we could do something for Thanksgiving together. I've really only ever had a couple Thanksgiving dinners in my life."
"Well, I didn't say I was going, and if I did, I'd take you with me silly. How have you only had a few Thanksgiving dinners?"
She shrugged. "I was always either in the wrong country, or no one was around. We went to Paulie's mom's once. I was kind of looking forward to a turkey and that red stuff. I've never had that red stuff before." She grinned.
"You mean cranberry sauce? Yeah, real food sounds good. And my mom is a really good cook too. Ask Mark."
"How long has it been since you saw her?"
He kept playing with her hair as he stared out over hr head. "I don't know. Six or seven years. Maybe more. Before April..."
"Well, maybe now would be a good time to see her again."
"Maybe. I don't know, let me think about it. Maybe we could go. We'll see. I wouldn't mind seeing her again. Someday. It would be kinda nice for her to meet you too. Prove I'm not a total fuck up."
"You're not a fuck up Roger." She said softly, running her hands over his stomach. "You've just made some not so great choices and had lousy luck because of those."
"That's the polite definition for fuck up."
She sighed, knowing she'd never be able to make him think otherwise. "Roger does she know about me?"
His hand went down her arm to her hand where he intertwined their fingers. "She knows you live her and your name. I guess that's about all." He told her apologetically.
"Does she know I'm pregnant?"
"I haven't told her. And no matter what, it wouldn't change anything between us. We'd still be you and me and the baby. Our baby as far as anybody is concerned."
"I love you Roger." She said softly as a tear ran down her cheek.
"I love you too Baby. I don't know what I'm gonna do for two whole weeks without you." He ran his hand up her back, under her shirt. "Now what about the rest of my birthday?" He asked, grinning.
Cass sat up and shifted so she was straddling his lap. "So what do you want for your birthday?" She asked him, running her hands up under his shirt.
"What are you offering?" He asked, giving her that incredible grin of his.
"Whatever you want." She told him wiggling around on his lap.
Roger kicked off his boots as he grinned up at her. "For what I want for my birthday, you are way overdressed." He ran his hands up her back and in one motion he undid her bra and pulled her shirt off over her head. "That's much better." He smiled at her as his hands grouped up her chest. "God you are so beautiful." He told her.
"If I'm over dressed," she slid off his lap onto her knees on the floor, "then so are you." She undid his jeans and slid them off him, leaving him in his boxers and tee shirt.
Quickly he yanked his shirt off and lay back on the bed. Cass started to crawl back up onto the bed, leaning on one hand while the other went up the leg of his boxers. Leaning forward her nipples brushing across his skin as she moved up to his mouth, kissing him hard and wantingly.
He started to kiss her back, but she pulled away and grinned at him, shaking her head. She started to move down his neck, towards his body alternating between kissing, sucking and biting at his skin. She pulled off his boxers and she kissed back up his thigh.
A low moan escaped his lips as his eyes squeezed closed under her touch. He felt her tongue run up him as her mouth closed down over him. God that felt so good he had almost forgotten what it felt like to be touched like that without condom between them. Suddenly his eyes flew open. "Cass!"
She knew immediately what he had been thinking. She could tell by the tone in his voice. The way he said her name. Not with passion but panic. "Shhh Baby, it's okay, we'll get one before we get that far. Don't worry." She felt him lay back down the rest of the way, but he didn't relax. "It's okay Baby." She moved to the dresser and opened the new box. "It's okay."
"No it's not." He told her pulling her up to him on the bed, kissing her. "But I really love you."