"Good morning beautiful." Roger whispered as he kissed Gina.
"Mmm, now this is how a girl should wake up. In the arms of the man she loves." she said as her eyes fluttered open seeing Roger.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked pulling her closer to him.
"I don't think I have had a better nights sleep since the last time your parents went away for the weekend to your grandmothers the weekend after the prom and I told my parents I was sleeping over Kirstens house." she said leaning her chin on his chest.
"That was a great weekend." he said smiling thinking back.
"This is gonna be so cool. You and me alone for the whole weekend in this big house. It'll be practice for when we get married." Gina told him sitting on the couch laying next to Roger watching tv.
"Oh yeah? Are you gonna nag me to pick up my socks?" he asked kissing her ear.
"Oh God no. We are just gonna make love all weekend." she said turning to face him to kiss him passionately.
"I like the sound of that." he said as he pulled her closer to him and they began to make love on the couch.
"Roger, all we did was make love in every room in your house." she said laughing at the memory.
"Yeah, and? Is there something wrong with that?" he asked laughing with her.
"You have always had a one track mind Roger Davis." she laughed kissing him.
"And you love me anyway." he teased pulling her on top of him.
"Yeah well. I can't help it. It was the leather jacket. And those gorgeous green eyes. They were always my kryptonite." she told him kissing him as his beeper went off. "What's that?" she asked confused as she looked around the room.
"AZT break." he told her as she got off of him and he threw his clothes on.
"Where are you going?" she asked confused as she threw her robe on and followed him into the living room.
"I gotta go upstairs and get my AZT. You wanna come? We can grab some breakfast." he asked smiling at her.
"Sure. Let me just jump in the shower and get dressed and then I'll be up." she said approaching him and wrapping her arms around his waist and pulling him into a kiss as he pulled his shirt over his head.
"Uhhh, you in the shower. That is not a visual that is gonna motivate me to leave here." he joked pulling her into a passionate kiss.
"OK, so I'll just throw some sweats on, go up with you, eat breakfast and then we can come back down here and shower together." she told him seductively biting her lip.
"I love that idea." he told her picking her up by her waist and kissing her before letting her down so she could get dressed. "Or maybe I could just run upstairs, grab my pills and then come back down here and we could spend the day in bed?" he suggested as she got dressed.
"No good. Your luck, Mark and Collins will be up and they'll keep you up there on purpose to torture you. They strike me as those kind of friends." she said laughing pulling on a sweater and running out to Roger jumping on him as he stood in the living area waiting for her. "Are we ready?" she said laughing as Roger held her in his arms.
"Let's go." he said laughing before kissing her and carrying her to the door.
"You can let me down Roger." she told him with her arms wrapped around his neck tight and her legs wrapped around his waist.
"I don't wanna. Last time I did that, I didn't see you for 7 years. I'm never letting you go again." he told her carrying her up the flight of stairs leading to the loft.
"OK, that works for me." she said kissing him while laughing.
"Morning guys." Roger said carrying Gina into the loft seeing Mark and Collins sitting at the metal table.
"Morning Rog. Hey, do you know you have a girl growing on you?" Collins laughed as he sipped his coffee.
"Yeah. Sorry." he said letting her down as they laughed.
"Did you take your AZT?" Mark asked reading the paper.
"That's why we came up dad." Roger said going into the kitchen cabinet to get his AZT bottle.
"So what do you two have planned for today?" Collins asked as Gina wondered around the loft looking at everything.
"A little of this. A little of that. I wanted to catch up some more with Gina." Roger said taking his pill.
"Oh yeah, translation: Roger wants to get his freak on again." Collins answered as he and Mark laughed hysterically.
"Collins, you are crude." Roger told him as he walked over to Gina, who seemed to be surveying the loft for redecorating ideas.
"Am I lyin?" he asked turning to him as Roger smirked at him.
"What are you doing Baby?" he asked putting his arms around her waist from behind her.
"Just checking stuff out. Can I see your room?" she asked turning to him.
"You may not be able to see the floor though." Mark commented drinking his coffee.
"Oh I remember how Roger kept his room." she said laughing as she wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her tippy toes to kiss him.
"Is this pick on Roger day?" Roger asked pouting.
"Oh, we're sorry sweetie. Right guys?" Gina said running her fingers through his hair as she looked at Mark and Collins.
"Yeah man. We're sorry. We're just playin with you." Collins told him laughing.
"Why don't we go in my room?" Roger said taking Gina's hand and leading her into his room.
"I am getting a lot of ideas for this place." Gina said following him in.
"Yeah, so am I." Roger said as he closed his bedroom door behind him.
"Well it's not as messy as your room was in high school. This is a really cool room, but Roger, why is it so dark in here?" she asked looking around as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him.
"Mmmm, who cares about how my room looks. I can think of better things to do in here." he said kissing her passionately.
"But Roger, Mark and Collins are in the next room." she told him getting weak from his kisses.
"They're not invited." he whispered as he carried her over to the bed and gently laid her down.
"Do you have..." she asked as he took a condom out of his bedside table.
"Got it." he said kissing her more as she submitted to him.
"Oh Roger." she moaned quietly as he kissed her neck.
"Gina, I love you." Roger said moving down to kiss her stomack as he slipped off her sweatpants.
"Roger, your boots again." Gina told him giggling quietly.
"Oh shit. See what you do to me?" he told her laughing as he sat up and untied his boots then kicked them off.
"I know." she laughed as he took his pants off and laid down next to her.
"Now, where were we?" he asked kissing her again. As he put his condom on he began making love to her. He was just as gentle and caring as he was he night before. Gina grabbed at his back as she bit her lip. He caressed her face and leaned down to kiss her as he took his time before climaxing. Gina held on to him tightly he whispered in her ear. "I love you." before kissing her ear.
"I love you too, Roger." she told him before he moved off of her to lay next to her.
"I so don't want to let you go." he told her holding her tight.
"I'm not going anywhere Roger. I found you and I'm not leaving you. Not again." she told him burying her face into his chest.
"I hope not." he told her kissing her head.
"Why don't we go get some breakfast and then we'll just spend the whole day in bed? Just you and me." she suggested looking up at him.
"That is exactly what I was thinking." he told her sitting up and putting his clothes back on.
"Roger, why don't you bring some things down to my place? And your meds?" she told him smiling at him as she put her clothes back on too.
"Good idea." he said zipping up his jeans before putting on his boots.
"I could really do a lot with this loft. It is amazing how much potential it has." she told him watching him get some clothes out of his dresser.
"Yeah, but one problem, no money." he told her shoving his clothes into a duffle bag.
"That's OK. I can get you some stuff second hand and we can fix it up." she told him smiling at him.
"Oh? Since when do you fix up crappy second hand furniture?" he asked turning to her.
"Rehab. I was in for a month before I got here. They taught me ways to occupy my mind until the cravings subsided. I chose woodworking. That was before I started writing again." she told him sitting on his bed.
"Did it help?" he asked joining her on the bed.
"I'm still clean, aren't I?" she told him looking down at the floor.
"That's really cool. But I'm sure you were glad to be writing again. I mean, I remember in school you never went anywhere without a pen and a notebook." he told her leaning over to kiss her.
"I was. I mean, I had some wicked writers block. It was the worst time of my life." she told him caressing his face.
"Are you ready?" he asked holding his hand out for her.
"Yeah." she said smiling up at him as she took his hand but leaned over to the bed side table to retrieve the remaining condoms from the drawer and shoved them in his bag.
"Good idea. We only have 2 downstairs." he told her laughing.
"That was the idea." she told him looking up at him.
"The bad times are behind you, you know? I'm not gonna let anything happen to you anymore." he said sweeping her into his arms and kissing her.
"I know. I always felt so safe with you." she whispered to him as she pulled him into a firm embrace.
"And you always made me so happy. I don't know, whenever I looked into your eyes, you gave me this feeling of hope." he told her smiling down at her before opening the bedroom door. "I guess they left." he said looking around the loft not seeing Collins or Mark.
"Yeah well, they probably figured out what we were doing in there and decided to make themselves scarce." she joked as he went into the kitchen to grab his pill bottle.
"Probably. Let's go back downstairs." he said as they went out the door.
"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked as they entered her apartment.
"Why don't you relax and I'll make breakfast?" Roger told her dropping his duffle bag by the door.
"How about a Davis special?" she said plopping on the couch.
"Oh my God. I haven't made one of those since..." he began until Gina cut him off.
"Morning after graduation?" she cut in looking back at him.
"Right. The last time I made it for you. I don't even know if I remember how to make it." he told her leaning on the breakfast bar.
"I don't even think I have all the ingredience. I have a whole bunch of stuff in there. We can just have toaster waffles." she told him getting up and going into the freezer to get the frozen waffles out.
"I haven't had these in ages." he told her sitting at the breakfast bar.
"Do you want coffee?" she asked reaching into the cabinet.
"Yeah, I could use a cup." he said leaning his chin on his hands.
"Do you want flavored or regular?" she asked holding two cans.
"You have flavored coffee?" he asked in disbelief.
"I just got into it. I have french vanilla." she told him laughing.
"I'll try it." he told her leaning down to take off his boots.
"You are really gonna like it. It's sweet." she told him as she began to make the coffee.
"Gina, can I ask you something?" Roger asked as Gina put the waffles in the toaster.
"Anything Roger." she said turning to face him before sitting on the stool across from him.
"Did any of the guys after me, abuse you?" he asked getting serious.
"Yeah. The only one other than you. We dated for 5 years and he got me hooked on coke. He had me so scared. It took me 4 and a half years to get up the courage to quit using and leave him." she told him beginning to cry.
"Gina, I'm so sorry." he said going around the breakfast bar to comfort her.
"It's not your fault. You always treated me like I was a princess." she told him looking up at him, tears were forming in his eyes.
"I'm sorry we broke up like we did. I wasn't being fair to make you chose between your future and me." he told her pulling her into an embrace.
"Roger, it doesn't matter now. None of this does. All that matter is that we are both here now. We found each other and we aren't gonna blow it again." she told him wiping her eyes dry.
"Now can I ask you something?"Gina asked looking up into his green eyes.
"Sure." he answered putting her hair behind her ears.
"What was Mimi like?" she aked as he sat next to her.
"She was a stripper at the Cat Scratch Club a few blocks down. I met her on Christmas eve 1989 and she got me out of the loft, where I locked myself after my last girlfriend, April slit her wrists and left the note telling me that we had AIDS. But I knew right away she had a drug problem. I tried to get her to stop, but then when Angel died, I left for Santa Fe. I couldn't watch her kill herself. But I couldn't deny my feelings for her so I came back to find her, but when I got back I found out she went into rehab then ran away. Christmas Eve last year Maureen and Joanne found her living in the park. I wrote her a song and sung it to her and we thought we lost her, but she came to and lived in the loft with me, Mark and Collins for almost 6 months. Then I just woke up one morning and she was gone. No note, nothing. She just left. We looked for her, but no one found her. She decided she needed her drugs more than me. So here I am. I've been writing songs, I'm performing again and I want to start up a new band. And I'm here with you." he told her as her eyes filled up with tears again.
"Wow. I'm really sorry Roger." she said crying.
"Hey Baby, don't worry about it. Really, I'm fine. Just think of it as the road I had to take bringing me back to you." he said taking her in his arms again.
"I know. I mean, we've both been through so much. Sometimes I think of how my life might have turned out had we stayed together back then. I mean, I'm sure we would have been married and maybe had a couple of kids too." she said wiping her eyes as she looked up at him.
"We don't know that Gina. We could have broken up and never got the chance to appreciate each other the way we do now." he told her caressing her hair.
"Maybe. But it sucks that we had to go through all that just to get back to where we started from." she said giving him a weak smile. "I'm glad you got to meet your friends. They seem to really love you." she told him caressing his chest.
"Yeah, we're like a family." he told her smiling at the thought of his friends and all they mean to him.
"Who was Angel?" she asked tilting her head back.
"Angel was Collins boyfriend. He was a drag queen. He helped all of us realize that everyday is a gift. A nicer guy you couldn't meet. He would have liked you. It was tough when we lost him. I think especially on Mimi. They were best friends. He died of AIDS." he told her looking down sadly.
"I'm sorry I never got a chance to meet him." she said lifting his chin up with her hand and kissing his forehead before bringing him in to an embrace.
"Me too. But it seems like everyone else likes you." Roger said caressing her cheek.
"And why wouldn't they." Gina told him laughing.
"No reason. I mean, I love you so why wouldn't they all love you?" he answered pulling her into a passionate kiss.
"Oh no, we're not starting this. I'm starving. Eat first, that later." she said laughing at him as she got up and got the frozen waffles out of the freezer.
"Oh come on Baby. I love being with you. I have 7 years to make up for." he joked wrapping his arms around her waist from behind.
"We have plenty of time for that. Don't worry Roger. I'm not going anywhere." she said turning around in his arms and leaning up to kiss him.
"I know. But why put off for later what we can do now?" he told her nibbling on her neck.
"You are just as persistent as you were when we were in high school." she joked kissing him again.
"Yeah well. You know me." he said letting her go so she could make the waffles.
"Yeah I do. That's probably why I love you so much." she said putting the waffles in the toaster and pressing the button down.
"Do you get home much?" he asked sitting on the stool.
"No. Remember how my parents hated you?" she asked sitting next to him.
"Yeah, how could I forget. It was your dad who talked me into breaking up with you." he answered getting up to get the coffee mugs out of the closet to pour the coffee.
"He did what?" she asked turning to him confused.
"At our graduation party, he pulled me aside and started telling me about how much potential you had and he didn't want to see you go to a community college or throw your life away on me." he told her looking down at her seeing how hurt she was.
"Oh wonderful. Well Glenn, my ex from hell, they loved him. My dad kept pushing me to marry him. Glenn was an accountant at my dad's firm. That's how we met. My dad would see the bruises he'd give me but kept telling me that I was probably being over dramatic and stuff. So needless to say, I left and never looked back. They have no idea where I am. And I'd like to keep it that way." she said really angry.
"I'm sorry." he said holding her in his arms.
"Yeah, the one guy who ever treated me right they drive away, the guy who treated me like a punching bag they want me to marry. Go figure." she said hearing the waffles pop up.
"Your parents were always strange creatures." he said getting plates out of the cabinet for her to put the waffles on.
"You're not kidding. I mean, I can't believe he cornered you at our party like that. If I was still talking to him I would call him and give him a piece of my mind. But in rehab I learned that I should stay away from triggers. My parents were definitely triggers." she told him reaching into the cabinet for the syrup as Roger went into the refrigerator for the butter.
"Now you know ordinarily I would have told him to piss off, but he told me if I loved you I would want what's best for you. And that really made me think. If I stayed and worked, all I ever would have been was a mechanic and I thought you deserved better." he told her putting the butter on the counter as she grabbed his shirt.
"Roger James Davis, you listen to me. You are the man I love. The man I've always loved. I didn't care if you're a mechanic. You always made me happy. Why is it that everyone tried to do what they thought was best for me, but here I am. Just got out of an abusive relationship with a guy who got me hooked on coke. Oh yeah, great move guys. Really." she cried as she buried her face in his chest.
"Gina. Gina, I'm sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. I fucked up. With everything. I should have talked to you before leaving. We were so in love, I know we would have figured out a way to make it work. I thought I was being responsible. I thought letting you go was the best thing for you. I was wrong." he said holding her as she shook.
"But Roger, I can't believe you fell for what my father told you. Going to community college was my choice. We made those plans together. You were gonna work during the week and play clubs on the weekends and then when I got out of college we were gonna get married and move to the city, where I was gonna be a CPA and you were gonna follow your dream. Instead, I was stuck going away to college and meeting Glenn, who worked for my dad, summer of my junior year and when I graduated I had to work for my dad because that's where Glenn worked and he made my life miserable when I could have been living my dream here with you." she said looking up at him, her blue eyes were red and irritated.
"I know. I was an idiot. He got me on a weak moment. I'm so sorry I hurt you like that." he said bringing her into an embrace.
"Roger, I was weak too. I mean I needed you and you left me. The day after we broke up, I called your house and you were gone. Your mom said you went to the city and she didn't know where you were." she cried into his chest gripping on to the back of his shirt.
"I couldn't stay. If I did I would have begged you to take me back. I'm sorry. I love you so much Gina." he told her rocking her back and forth in his arms.
"And I would have taken you back too. I love you too Roger. I'm just glad we found each other again and we have this chance." she told him wiping her eyes with her hands as she sniffled.
"Me too. You don't know how happy I was to see you last night." he told her handing her a napkin from the counter.
"I'm sorry, I'm messing up your shirt." she said starting to laugh.
"That's OK. You just owe me a shower." he joked as he began to get up only to be pulled back down by her.
"Roger, I'm sorry I yelled at you and had my little meltdown. You must think I'm nuts." she told him starting to laugh a little.
"Gina, it's me. Don't ever be sorry. I deserved it. I was an asshole to break up with you." he told her as he pulled her into another embrace.
"Yes you were, but we're here now to make things right. We both made a lot of mistakes these last 7 years. " she said wiping her nose on the napkin.
"I'm never letting you out of my life again." he said kissing her head as she hugged him again.
"There's something I need to show you." she said going into the bedroom.
"What is it, Baby?" he asked following her.
"You'll see." she said pulling a jewelery box out from under the bed. "I still have all the things you bought me." she said smiling up at him as she took a smaller box out of the larger box.
"The double heart ring with our initials, the double heart anklet with our initials, the heart locket with our initials and the pictures of us in it, and the little ring I bought you for graduation?" he said as she handed each piece to him smiling.
"Yup. Everything." she said as she took each piece from him and putting them on.
"I can't believe you kept all this." he said smiling up at her.
"And I have everything you ever wrote me." she said pulling out another box from under the bed filled with papers.
"I can't believe it. Those were some of the best songs I ever wrote." he said taking papers out of the box and reading them.
"I know. You wrote them for me." she said with tears filling her eyes as she leaned in to kiss him.