I borrowed Janet Evanovich's characters and someday I'll return them. They were bored, so I created some people for them to play with. I don't make anything off this.
Since the original publication of this story Downtown Disney has been renamed Disney Springs and Disney Quest is no longer in existence.
At five o'clock Ranger called quitting time. He said that if we didn't blend in and play a little bit that other people were going to be suspicious of how we were spending our time here. So we all agreed to head to Downtown Disney and have dinner and hit Disney Quest. Disney Quest is their virtual theme park. You can build and ride your own virtual roller coaster, shoot virtual ghostly pirates and save your own virtual ship, go white water rafting (virtually of course) to avoid lava and certain death and all kinds of things. You can also eat…and that's not virtual food, but the real deal. That's never a bad thing. So we'd get to play at Disney World, but first we'd have dinner.
I put on one of the sundresses and Ranger put on shorts and a tropical button up shirt that felt like sin under my fingers. He looked good enough to eat. I almost forgot about dinner again. I would have forgotten to eat again, but my husband was hungry. What kind of crap is that? He also reminded me that by the miracle of our liaison Karen we'd been able to get a reservation at Fulton's Crabhouse for seven o'clock with Tank and Lula. I had to grudgingly accept that there was more to life than our sex life even if I was on my damn honeymoon.
We took the bus to Downtown Disney and were seated almost immediately. They ordered a bottle of wine and I got some water and we studied the menu.
"Oh damn, this is expensive," Lula blinked.
Ranger smiled, "this entire trip is free Lula. They're picking up our entire tab. Eat whatever you want."
"Oh damn," she blinked and studied the menu.
I folded my menu.
"You've decided already Steph," Tank grinned.
"Crab and Lobster Bisque, Cowboy steak with Rosemary demi glace, a baked potato and Milk Chocolate Crème Brule. Yea, I've decided," I grinned and leaned on my elbows on the table.
He chuckled and went back to his menu and reached around to touch my back. Ranger's hand caressed my back gently. Yea, this is how I always thought it should be between us. I always thought marriage should be this comfortable easy feeling with just a hum of sexual tension beneath the surface and occasional arguments. This was perfect. I turned to beam at him.
"What," he smiled.
"I love you," I smiled back.
"I love you too," he leaned over and kissed me.
"Man," Lula put her menu down and grinned at us, "I never thought I'd see the day. I remember oh so many moons ago when you'd get heart palpitations and flaming panties when he'd come into the room."
"I still do," I shrugged.
She laughed, "Okay…but back then, he was just a dream. Now he's…," she waved her arm dramatically, "he's your husband."
"I know," I grinned.
"Do you like being married," Tank asked.
"I love it," I smiled. "I mean we had a few hurdles to get over and it took some work, but we managed it. I love him even more now."
"What about you Ric?"
"Yea," he grinned and leaned back in his chair, "I had no idea what I was missing. It's the best part of my life. I'm happier than I've ever been. I can't imagine how much happier I'll be when the bean is a real person and not just a kidney bean on a piece of film."
Lula sighed, "I want a baby."
"I know you do honey," I reached for her hand across the table. "It will happen for you."
"No," she said sadly, "it won't."
"Sure it will," I said and frowned when Tank shook his head.
"Ramirez…he did some damage," she said softly and tears filled her eyes. "I won't ever be able to carry a baby."
"Oh honey," I whispered, "I'm so sorry."
"Me too," she said drying her eyes. "I have the eggs. I have a uterus even though it's scarred beyond all repair and I have the desire, but I'll never have a baby."
"You can adopt," I said softly.
"Who's going to let an ex ho adopt a baby," she said and wiped at more tears.
"Then you'll do a private adoption or a surrogate," I said seriously. "Don't give up Lula. You're going to be a great Mom someday. You have so much love in your heart."
"That's what I keep telling her," Tank said gruffly. "We'll figure something out. We just found out ourselves that we can't do it the old fashioned way. We just need to do it some other way."
"There's bound to be a way," I said softly. "Talk to Kate, maybe she can help you. She probably knows girls who can't keep their babies or even don't want them. Ric has strings; hell…Tank has strings he can pull. Don't give up."
"You really think I'll be a good Mom," she whispered.
"Absolutely," Ranger leaned over the table and put his hand on hers gently. "You'll be a great Mom. You won't judge your child too harshly. You'll give them room to grow and teach them right from wrong. You'll be the perfect Mom."
She put her head on the table and squalled.
"Thanks man," Tank said putting his arms around Lula.
"It's true. You'll be great parents," he said. "Something will work out. You'll see."
I relaxed back against my husband with a satisfied smile. I know I love him. I know all the reasons that I love him, but sometimes he makes it even better than I could have hoped. Sometimes he's beyond even my wildest dreams. And my dreams are pretty wild.
"So Tank," Ranger began after we'd ordered, "I've been thinking about our recent influx of cash from the George incident."
"Yea, I've been thinking about that too. What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking we need to diversify," he grinned at his friend.
"I was thinking that too," he nodded and grinned back at Ranger.
"I think that Mike's a great way to start."
"I know where you're going with this and I'm with you," Tank grinned. "If we become restaurateurs we'll pad our portfolio even more."
"Really," I beamed at them. "You're going to help Mike?"
"And he's going to help us. I think we should go into military towns first," Ranger said seriously. "We should take advantage of what we know."
"Oh hell yea," Tank nodded. "We should start with the big ones first and see how that goes. I think we should hit Norfolk and San Diego."
Ranger nodded, "it's a good idea."
"It's a great idea," he agreed.
Ranger and Tank grinned and shook hands and that was that. They were now in the restaurant business, assuming that Mike wanted their money. Granted, they'd be the money, but that was good enough for them.
"I just think that we've been thinking inside the box," Tank sighed. "You have Sizzlin. That's outside the box. It's doing great."
"It's doing amazing," Ranger agreed. "Women need panties."
"Amen to that," Lula said as the waitress put our appetizers down on the table.
I had the bisque. Ranger had the house salad. Tank had the crab cakes. Lula had the shrimp cocktail. For a few minutes we just ate and of course I moaned and Ranger shook his head.
"I just think we really need to diversify our business," Tank said seriously. "The more we diversify, the better we're cushioned for issues in the economy…issues like this one."
"I agree," Ranger nodded. "And it's a good time to buy companies too. That's why I thought Fenton would be a help to us. The man can smell a good idea a mile away. I told him we were interested in expanding, but I didn't think about diversifying as much until the opportunity with Mike came along. If you're with me on this, I say we send him out to find us new ventures."
"I'm totally with you man," Tank nodded. "And damn these crab cakes are good."
"So is my bisque," I moaned.
"Babe," Ranger raised a brow.
I grinned and gave him a taste.
"Moan away," he sighed. "It's pretty damn good."
"Darn good," I reminded him.
"Right…the bean…right," he nodded.
"You're not cursing around the fetus," Tank raised a brow. I could see he was fighting the urge to laugh.
"Right," I nodded. "We don't want to be a bad influence on our unborn child. The bean can hear us."
"See there, that's smart," Lula said nodding her head and tapping Tank on the arm. "They're thinking ahead. Their baby probably don't have ears yet and they're watching their language. But once it does have ears, they'll be good and practiced and they'll be watching their p's and q's and it won't even be a problem to avoid saying fuck."
"Thanks Lula," I smiled.
"And you know it's gonna take some time to clean up Stephanie's mouth. I ain't never heard no white girl with a mouth like that on her. She scared me and I don't scare easy. It's just wrong coming out of that mouth."
"Sometimes," Ranger grinned.
Lula blinked at him then burst out laughing and slapped at his hand, "Ooooh Ranger, you like some dirty talk in the boudoir. I knew it!"
He just laughed at Tank's aghast expression.
I watched the two men communicate silently as they both chuckled and sighed. "So…how did you two meet anyway," I asked pushing my soup bowl aside.
"We met at boot camp," Ranger grinned. "I was a bossy street guy and Tank was this big guy who'd been watching himself forever."
"All I heard growing up is 'Pierre, you're the biggest boy out there, you need to be careful with the other boys'," he rolled his eyes. "I got to boot camp and all I could hear was my mamma's voice in my ear, 'Pierre Jean Luc Thibodeaux…don't you hurt that boy. His mamma isn't gonna like that.'"
Ranger laughed, "So…he wasn't doing so great."
"I sucked," Tank admitted.
"So I asked him why he was like that," Ranger grinned.
"And I told him," Tank sighed.
"And then I told him…"
"He told me 'son, your mamma ain't here. What she don't know won't hurt you. If you don't get your ass in gear…you're gonna be in deep shit'," Tank shrugged.
"So what did you do," Lula leaned forward with big eyes.
"I got my ass in gear," he laughed.
"Once he realized he was supposed to inflict damage, he was fine," Ranger smiled. "He forgot he was in the Army I guess."
"I guess," Tank nodded.
"Anyway, after that we were friends. Everybody thought I was a punk…and I was. They thought he was a pansy, and then they were terrified of him. So we just ended up on our own little team. Then they processed us into Ranger school and everybody was like us. But we still stuck together, we just added friends to our group."
"Good friends," Tank nodded.
"Brothers," Ranger agreed and the men bumped knuckles.
"I think it's cool," I admitted. "I mean I have Mary Lou and you know I've known her forever, but I don't hang out with that many of my old friends. I don't even hang out that much with Mary Lou anymore. She has her own life and I have mine and when I didn't become burg…I guess we just drifted apart. These days…my friends are all of you guys. But sometimes I wish I had connections that lasted that long that were good."
"Me too," Lula admitted. "Not many of my girls are still alive," she shook her head sadly, "if a john didn't get em…drugs, AIDS or their old man did."
I sighed, "thank God we have each other."
"Amen," she said and we high fived.
A couple with young children walked by our table and Lula sighed. The little boy, of about four, was skipping and holding his daddy's hand. The mother was carrying a two year old girl and had a baby bump as well. Lula gazed at them so wistfully. It almost broke my heart. She'd tried and tried to get pregnant and here I was pregnant with no effort. Well, there was effort…there was good effort, but I mean to say that Ranger's super sperm got me pregnant over birth control that had worked for me forever.
I reached for her hand. "Does it bother you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Seeing the families," I sighed. "And having friends that are pregnant?"
"I get sad," she shrugged.
"I saw that. Are you okay with being around me? Would you rather kind of stay away for a while?"
"Oh heck no," she winked. "I'm gonna love being Auntie Lula until we get something worked out. Besides, me and Tank haven't been married that long. We probably need a little more alone time lovin first. You know just till we get the vocals down a little bit."
"You're probably right," Tank nodded solemnly.
I laughed, "Well, you never know when your circumstances are going to change Lula. You probably need to go on and make some changes yourself."
"You're probably right girl," she groaned. "There's no telling. You know miracles happen all the time."
"Yes they do," I nodded.
"Tank," she said with narrowed eyes.
"I'm on it," he said enthusiastically, "I'll watch my language."
"See that you do," she said seriously.
He nodded.
I have to say, I don't think Tank curses that much to start with. I mean he doesn't do it much around me. If she thinks he needs to watch his mouth, maybe he's different at home. I have a feeling that it's probably more of a sexual thing. But I could be wrong.
The waitress deposited our dinner in front of us. I'd chosen the Cowboy Steak with Rosemary demi glace and a baked potato. I figured it had protein and probably some iron. Kate said I needed to eat that stuff, so I was determined to do my part. Ranger order Lobster and crab with steamed in season vegetables. Lula had the Fulton's Crabhouse Seafood Trio. It included season swordfish, grilled shrimp, lump crab cake with basil cream and Yukon gold whipped potatoes. It was a lot of food. I was wondering how she was going to finish it. I needn't have worried. Tank had the Cowboy steak too, but he added a lobster to his. He's a growing boy. He needs to keep his energy up. He's married to Lula.
For a while there were no sounds but chewing, shells breaking, forks on plates and groaning and moaning. Most of the moaning and groaning was coming from me and Lula. We were fine with that. I knew we were attracting stares from the other diners, but I was used to that. Quite frankly, I didn't care.
When she took our plates away, I will admit it…I thought about passing on dessert. I was pretty full. Then I reminded myself that I was eating for two. So I convinced everyone else to order dessert to keep me from feeling bad. So I had my Crème Brule and Ranger had key lime pie. Lula had a Classic Tollhouse Cookie Sundae and Tank had the Banana Cream Pie.
When we left the restaurant to walk to Disney Quest, I have to tell you…I was considering begging Ranger to give me a piggy back ride. I was so full I thought I'd burst. But…I was a big girl and we walked from the edge of the Market Place over the bridge and to the West Side of Downtown Disney. We gaped along the way. The place was lit up like a Christmas tree. Then we stopped and looked up at the five story building that housed Disney Quest.
"What time do they close," Tank frowned.
"Midnight," I swallowed.
"We don't have enough time," Lula sighed.
"Then we need to stop wasting our time then," Ranger grabbed my hand and headed for the door.