Jim stood across the room with his back to her. She admired his naked back in the moonlight as he shuffled around in the dark, attempting to put a record on the turn table. The needle skiffed across the vinyl and caught the groove, beginning to play as he ambled back to bed. He spread across the bed next to her and reached across her to retrieve his cigarettes off of the nightstand next to her. Tom Wait's 'Ol 55' began playing and she shot him a grin. He smiled around his cigarette, the cherry glowing brightly in the dark.

"You remembered!"

"I never forgot." He replied, crossing his arms under his head as he rested against the headboard. Joyce closed her eyes and hummed along, loosing herself in a memory.

.

Sitting at the quarry on a dark night in his car, her bare feet crossed on the dash. He took a mighty drag beside her and passed the joint to her, exhaling slowly and watching the smoke drift from the car. She inhaled to deeply and began coughing and sputtering, much to his amusement.

"Slow down there tiger." He teased over the music.

He offered her the bottle of cheap whiskey between them and she brushed it away, passing him the joint as she continued to clear her lungs.

"What's this guy's name again?" He asked when she caught her breath, referring to the music playing.

"Tom Waits. This is his first album, 'Closing Time'. Isn't he great?" She replied, her words tripping over each other.

"I guess so." He replied before taking a swig from the bottle.

She shifted and lay across the bench seat, laying her head on his thigh before reaching up to take the joint from him. His hand grazed her breasts and came to rest lazily above her heart. When she passed him the joint back he made a show of blowing smoke rings and she watched them float out of the window and disappear into the starry sky.

"Hey Jimmy, can we stay like this forever?"

.

Jim reached for her hand and brought her back to the present. 'Closing Time' still played softly in the background, just like it had all of those years ago. "I bought the vinyl when I lived in the city. Sometimes I'd listen to it and think of you." He confessed.

"Seems like the older I get, the more I like it. I guess I needed a few years to really get it, ya know?"

Joyce threaded her fingers through his as they both smoked in silence for a few moments.

The song 'Martha' began playing and Jim sang around his cigarette. "And those were the days of roses. Poetry and prose and Martha. All I had was you and all you had was me. There was no tomorrows. We'd packed away our sorrows and we saved them for a rainy day. And I feel so much older now and you're much older too. How's your husband? And how's your kids? You know that I got married too? Lucky that you found someone to make you feel secure 'Cause we were all so young and foolish. Now we are mature..." He stopped singing and chuckled before kissing the back of her hand.

"I guess this song is about us in the grand scheme of things, huh? You're my Martha. You have no idea how many times I thought about calling you over the years."

Joyce outed her cigarette and moved into his lap, turning so that she could look into his eyes. "I pushed you away for so long, but I always wondered what could have been."

He outed his smoke too and ran his hands through her short hair, pausing to cup her cheeks before he pulled her close to kiss her. "You can't get rid of me this time." He teased.

She grinned as 'Ice Cream Man' began playing in the background and he kissed her smile. "You're ice cream man's back in town." He said playfully, biting his bottom lip before rolling them over onto her back.