Headliner

Chapter 8

Sara and Nick sat on her couch with their feet up on the coffee table. Each one held a beer. A bowl of popcorn sat in between them. The television was on but it was muted.

"I don't know how I could've forgotten, Sara. It makes no sense," Nick was saying.

"Nick, don't beat yourself up; it was sixteen years ago."

"Still, a person generally remembers who they slept with." He took a swig of the brew.

"Unless they've done it a lot." She caught a look. "Not that you have. Do you remember anything about that night?"

"I'm starting to, now that I've actually tried."

Sara tipped her head back. "I had my first martini that night."

"Really?"

She nodded. "At the restaurant you were trying so hard to guess what kind of meal I would want. I was so impressed by your chivalry that I agreed with everything you said."

"What did I order you to eat?"

"A hamburger."

"Ah, jeez. I was an idiot. You're a vegetarian."

"I wasn't then." She laughed at his frustration.

"Oh, right, no dead pigs."

"Not yet."

"I remember telling you that you couldn't walk back the hotel by yourself."

"You said that you hadn't taken me to dinner so I could get killed an hour later."

Nick took another sip of his beer. "How was it?"

"How was what?"

"Being pregnant."

"I remember being upset with myself at first. I wondered how I could have been so stupid. Everything I'd ever learned flew out the window. There I was, twenty years old and pregnant. Not exactly the highlight of my life. I remember the first time, no, the second, that I was tempted to use the number you gave me. I was two months pregnant. I had rearranged my whole class schedule because I couldn't go in the morning. I had been cooking and felt the sudden urge to puke. I think my entire stomach was on the floor of that bathroom. I hadn't been able to make it to the toilet. So there I was, laying the floor of the bedroom with tears running down my face. I got up and pulled the note off the bulletin board. I dialed every number except the very last digit. I sat there for a minute with my finger stroking the button. Phones don't like to wait that long and it started to beep at me. I hung up, put your note back on the board, and climbed into bed. My roommate wasn't very happy to come home and find my stomach contents everywhere. She cleaned up, left a note on the pillow, and was gone the next morning. Said she couldn't handle a pregnant roommate."

"Were you ever tempted again?"

"Oh, sure. Plenty of times. If I had a hard day, or a hard night, or a hard something, I pulled that note off the board. I never got as far as the fifth digit though. By the time I was six months pregnant, the note was gone completely. I'd put it away. I had convinced myself I could do it alone."

"Tell me about her. What was Lexi like as a little kid?" Nick asked.

Sara placed the empty bottle down on the table. "She was perfect. I'll never forget it. One time, when she was about eight, she took this forensics book off the shelf and sat on the couch reading it for hours. She didn't understand it, but was so excited to tell me everything she'd learned."

"What was her first word?"

"Mama."

"And the second?"

"I really don't remember. I've got it written down somewhere. I recorded as much as I could."

"Did she ever ask about her father?"

"Sure. The first time was when she was five. A dad had taken his daughter to kindergarten and she wanted to know where hers was."

"And you told her?"

"That her daddy had to leave."

"So she spent the past sixteen years thinking I left her?" He was becoming agitated.

"No. She asked me again when she was seven. I told her that her dad was a perfect gentleman, but things just didn't work out. I made it very clear that you were not a bad person."

"Thank you for that."

"And I didn't even know you then." She got up to grab more drinks from the fridge.

"Sara, what are we going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

"This whole week on week off thing isn't working."

"Are you crazy? It's working just fine."

"No, it's not. I don't sleep at all. I don't sleep when she's with me because of the music; I don't sleep when she's not because she's not there."

"I know the feeling. I miss that kid every second she's not around."

"Sara?"

"Yeah, Nick?"

"You should move in with me. You and Lexi. I've got the room. That way we'll always be able to sleep."

Sara jumped off the couch. "Nick, do you have any idea what you're saying? Of course you don't; you're drunk."

"I'm not drunk, Sara; I only had one beer. I didn't ask you to marry me, I asked you to move in with me. We can be roommates, like you and that girl in college. That way Lexi's got both of us all the time."

"Nick, we can't move in with you."

"People do it all the time."

"Yeah, if they're in love or psychotic."

"Well, become one of those things and we'll be all set. We may not love each other, but we love Lexi. Isn't that enough?"

"Nick," she started to speak.

"Sara, you think I'm drunk. You think I'm out of my mind. I'm going to go to sleep right now. If I wake up in the morning and still want this, will you consider it?"

She shrugged and walked to the closet. She threw him an extra pillow and blanket and went to her own room.


Meanwhile, Lexi was sitting straight at her computer. She had finished telling Greg about her trip and paused to listen to the conversation between her parents. She knew eavesdropping was wrong, but she just had to know. She was sick of secrets, sick of finding everything out last. The end of the conversation had set her off. She was telling Greg every word she could pick out. It was everything she had ever wanted.


"If I wake up in the morning and still want this, will you consider it?"

The words echoed in Sara's head. Yes, she loved Lexi, and Nick was certainly a nice guy, but would all of them living together be the answer? Deep in her gut she knew that Lexi wasn't completely comfortable with seeing her father only every other week. Sara also know that she herself wasn't comfortable letting her go for a week at a time.

"We can be roommates, like you and that girl in college."

Her eyelids grew heavy.

"Will you consider it?"

She drew the covers over her.

"Will you consider it?"

She was asleep.

"Will you consider it?"


A/N: Mostly a conversational chapter. It's something new for me, but I think it worked out. What do you think?