The
Light Fantastic
Part XVI - Ladies and
Germs
Chloe was in the interior
waiting area of her doctor's office, writing a check for her co-payment to the
doctor. From her vantage point, she could see the waiting room, and was
amused to see that Sara was leaned, legs sprawled out, head tilted back,
rather unglamorously snoring in a chair with a opened magazine in her lap.
There was a two year old little girl standing in the chair next to Sara, her
head just inches from Sara's face, intently studying the inside of the
slumbering woman's nose. The little girl's mother, familiar with her
daughter's usually benign curiosity, but unaware of the depth it was now
achieving, was sitting on the other side of the little munchkin, perusing a
magazine with one hand, and her other hand was placed firmly on her daughter's
behind to steady and insure her safety during her unnoticed exploration of the
tall snoring woman's nasal cavities.
Chloe stood, fascinated, and
watched as the little girl dipped her head lower, ostensibly to peer farther
up Sara's nostrils. The receptionist, taking Chloe's check, noticed
Chloe's attention was fixed elsewhere, and she followed Chloe's grinning gaze
out to the waiting room. The receptionist giggled when she saw what was
happening, and shared a grin with her. Marcy appeared at Chloe's right
elbow, having finished her own check-up with the doctor, and joined the two
women in their rapt fascination of what was happening in the other room.
She smiled, too, when she saw the little girl looking deeply into Sara's open,
snoring mouth, apparently trying to find out where that awful growling racket
was coming from within Sara's body. Sara's mouth closed in her sleep,
and the little girl, fixing on a plan, cautiously and carefully began to
stretch her hand to Sara's nose. Marcy silently elbowed Chloe, and the
receptionist put a hand over her own mouth in an effort to muffle the giggles
that were threatening to erupt full force. All three women watched,
transfixed, as the little girl carefully inserted a tiny finger into Sara's
nostril, and held it there, delighted to see that it was a perfect fit. The
mother of the little one, diligent in her daughter's safety, finally looked up
from her magazine, and a horrified look covered her face.
"ASHLEY!" she hissed,
and pulled her daughter toward her. Unfortunately, the little girl's
small finger was still lodged deep within Sara's nose, so when the little girl
was being hauled into her mother's lap, she, by extension, brought Sara's head
along with her. Sara woke up to the very strange sensation of falling to
her left, a strange object up her nose. Sara reflexively pulled
back the other way, the foreign object was removed, but by then she was
teetering on the edge of her chair, and she lost her balance, and slid with a
thud onto her rump to the carpeted floor. She blinked, and heard
riotious laughing coming from the receptionist's area, but from where she was
sitting, she didn't know who was the source of the laughter. The
startled woman looked at the staring little girl being held in her mother's
arms, and figuring them as the culprits responsible for her current situation,
she raised a single eyebrow high, and gave them a rather scary, feral look.
The two year old immediately burst out in a terrified wail, and buried her
head into her mother's shoulder. The mother quite prudently and
efficiently lifted daughter and purse, and found some empty seats as far from
the dark haired glowering woman as the small waiting room would allow.
Sara was just pushing herself
off of the floor and back into her seat, when the door to the waiting room
opened, and two madly grinning women appeared and walked towards her.
Perfect. They saw everything. My life is complete. She settled into
the chair and reached to grab Chloe's and Marcy's coats, and thrust them at
her silent, but wildly amused friends. Sara, still groggy from her nap
in the chair, and her rather unpleasent awakening, frowned her most
terrorizing of glares at both of them, and stood up to put on her own coat.
Chloe and Marcy gave each other little knowing smiles; it clearly wasn't smart
to tease Sara about this ... yet.
The path to leave the office
crossed directly in front of the mother and her terrorized, still whimpering
little girl. Sara, leading the group to the door, paused in front of the
little girl, and feeling badly about scaring her, stopped a moment and gave
the little one her best and gentlest smiles. As Chloe, Marcy and the
mother watched, the little girl took a long look at Sara's smiling face, and
then proceeded to wail anew. Chloe and Marcy burst out in renewed fits
of laughter, and Sara just threw up her hands in defeat and pushed the door
open so they could all exit. Just as the door was closing behind them,
they could hear a final comment from the toddler, speaking in a rather loud
voice. "GROWLY. She's GROWLY."
Sara slumped her shoulders and
walked to the Subaru ahead of two women who were sounding like they wouldn't
be able to stop laughing anytime soon .
Chloe slid into the booth, and
immediately began fiddling with the knob on the side of the little jukebox so
she could look at the song titles flipping by. Marcy settled into the
bench across from her, and Sara sat down next to Chloe, smiling at her utter
enthusiasm for the old-fashioned music player.
"Ooh!" said
Chloe, her voice still shredded and coarse. She looked at Sara and demanded,
"Gimme some quarters. I want to play something."
Sara put a hand in her jeans
pocket, and pulled out a handful of change. Chloe dug around, and took
several quarters. Sara, curious, said, "What're ya going to play?"
Chloe sighed happily and said,
as she inserted the coins into the slot, "Patsy Cline! I love
Patsy! It should be a law that every jukebox in America should have
Patsy on it." She pushed a few buttons and completely missed the
looks of surprise, pleasure and chagrin that passed over Sara's face.
'I Fall to Pieces' began to
play softly through the diner, and Chloe happily settled back into her seat.
"So," began a
sarcastic Marcy, "I assume we're allowed to talk now? Is that all
right with you, Princess?" She dropped her eyelids at Sara, and
patiently waited for her to answer.
"Hmmph." said a still
growly Sara in reply. "OK, what's the prognosis? Everyone going to
live?" She took the menu that Chloe handed her, and began to study
it.
Marcy looked to Chloe, and
grinned. "I'm fine, the doc thinks it's some stomach virus. He did
some tests, and I'm supposed to call back on Thursday. I get to take one
more day off, though. Back to the grind on Thursday. How about you,
Chloe?"
Chloe, noticing that Sara was
staring at the menu, winked a conspiratorial grin at Marcy, who winked back in
understanding. "Well, he did a throat culture on me, and it seems that I
have mono."
"REALLY?", gasped a
perfectly playing along Marcy. "Oh shit! That sucks!"
Sara, feeling like she missed
something while she was looking at the day's specials, and hearing the
surprise in Marcy's voice, looked up and said, "Huh? Excuse me,
what did you say, Chloe?"
Chloe looked her in the eye and
said ominously. "Mono."
Sara dropped her menu onto the
table, immediately forgotten. "Mono? As in mononucleosis? The
'kissing disease'?" That's what Sara recalled it being called when
she was a teenager long ago.
Chloe nodded and replied,
deadpan. "Yup. Mono. The doctor said it was contagious, and well, I'm
afraid ... well, you know ... I have to cut back on certain activities,
to make sure I don't overdo ... "
Sara's eyes were getting wider
with every word that was coming from the little librarian's mouth. "What
activities, and for how long?"
Marcy settled back further into
her seat to thoroughly enjoy the little show that was playing out across from
her. 'Crazy' began playing on the jukebox.
Chloe, looking troubled, stared
down at her folded hands on top of the table, and crooked her mouth into a
frown. "Well, I can still work, and work with the play, once the sore
throat and cold settles down. I'm going back to work on Thursday,
too." She glanced up at the disbelieving Sara, and continued,
working her face into an even more pronounced frown. "As for ... other
things ... I'm not allowed ... I can't ... you know ... " She saw
the look of comprehension and its resultant unhappiness show up on Sara's
face. "I'm contagious. Highly. I tire easily. I can't get into
situations where ... I may be able ..." She stopped there, and
shrugged at Sara.
Sara exclaimed, her voice
seemingly erupting from the depth of her bowels. "SITUATIONS?"
Marcy helpfully answered that
question for Chloe. "Swapping spit. Right, Chloe?"
Sara shot Marcy a murderous
look, and then looked to Chloe for confirmation. Chloe shrugged again, and
hoarsely affirmed Marcy's answer. "Yeah. That and ... any other
situations ... that would logically follow from the 'swapping spit'
scenario." She pursed her lips and gave Sara an apologetic look.
Sara, whose hormones were
screaming madly in denial of this new information, breathed out another
phrase. "For how long?"
Chloe took a sip of her water,
and tonelessly replied, "Six weeks." She paused a heartbeat, and
then continued. "At least."
Marcy was thinking she should
duck out to the ladies room so she could release the laughter she was
desperately trying to hold back. She looked back and forth at the two women
across from her, admiring the way Chloe was so downright convincing in her
little lie, and also at the total air of despair and desperation that was
encompassing the whole of Sara. Oh, Chloe, you are good. Now how long are
you going to torture the poor woman?
Sara was unable to form complete
sentences at this point, so she said the word that was foremost in her brain.
"Nothing?"
Chloe clenched her jaw, and
repeated Sara's meaningful word. "Nothing." She sighed, and
then looked up at the approaching waitress. If I look at Marcy right now,
we're both going to lose it. Big time.
Sara's attention was captured by
the numerous furious little voices in her head, demanding that she go down and
strangle the doctor who had diagnosed Chloe with this horrible news,
effectively ruining all the naked Chloe 'scenarios' that had been fermenting
in Sara's sexually charged brain. She was killing the doctor for the
third time, in a new and more imaginative way, when Chloe's voice cut through
to her vision, stopping it without a satisfactorily grisly ending.
"Um, Sara, she's waiting
for your order.", nudged Chloe, whose eyes were tearing at the effort she
was applying to keep a serious countenance.
Sara looked up dumbly at the not
too patient looking face of the waitress. "Chicken. I'll have the
chicken."
As Sara numbly was finishing
giving the rest of her order to the waitress, Chloe finally felt strong
enough to look at Marcy across the table. Marcy rolled her eyes and
tapped Chloe's leg with her toe under the table. She couldn't help
herself, she just had to contribute to this bit of fun. "Jeez, Chloe, six
weeks ... or longer? Wow, how are you guys going to manage that?"
She looked quickly out the window to maintain her composure.
Chloe took her cue, sighed, and
then said confidently, "Oh, we can wait. I mean, we've waited this
long, right?" She looked at the very frazzled Sara. "We're
both grown-ups, we can manage to control ourselves for that long."
She mentally berated herself for doing it, but she plunged ahead anyway.
"Or if longer, if need be, right, honey?" She gave a sweet
smile to Sara, full of expectant trust that her sweetie would agree with her
confidence in her.
Sara, taking a quick glance
around to make sure no one was in the way of the power of the answer she knew
was going to come tumbling, forcefully, out of her mouth.
"HELL, NO!" she
roared. "No way, no how, no, no, not going to happen. No. I don't care if
you are contagious, I don't care. You got me, Chloe? Six weeks? Get
real. Not possible. Nope. I won't be able to survive that long. I'll die
first, and I'd rather die of mono. Got it?"
Marcy blew a mouthful of her
iced tea clear across the table and right onto Chloe's sweater. She started
laughing, a good cleansing laugh that was ridding her of all the tension she
felt from holding it back . Chloe, momentarily stunned by both Sara's
and Marcy's reactions, wiped at her sleeve, and finally began laughing
herself, and then turned her giggling gaze to her glowering girlfriend, who
still wasn't aware that she had been the victim of a well played out prank.
Chloe was laughing so hard, and her throat was still rough, so the waves of
mirth coming from her sounded much like that of a braying donkey. Those sounds
made Marcy laugh even harder yet, and she finally broke down, and quickly
excused herself to the ladies room.
Sara watched and listened, and
slowly the truth began dawning on her. She took a breath, and carefully
measured her tone and words. "What is it, really?"
Chloe wiped a paper napkin
across her eyes, grabbed another and blew her nose into it, taking that time
to settle herself before she answered, her face softly glowing, her eyes not
being able to disguise the twinkle within, "Strep. Just like I
thought. I have to take antibiotics for a week."
Sara propped her elbows on the
table, and steepled her hands, and squinted at the vacated bench across from
her, before carefully turning her head to meet Chloe's eyes again. "You,
you little shit, are in deep doo-doo here, you know that, right?"
She watched Chloe blink, and then smugly grin at her. "I just might make
you wait those six weeks ... " Sara said in measured, serious tones, and
internally enjoyed the wide eyed response that statement elicited from Chloe.
"Yeah ... I'll have to think about it..." She gave Chloe one
more meaningful look, and finished. "I'm a grown-up. I can
wait."
Chloe had to physically stop
herself from leaping into Sara's lap right there in the tiny diner, and
kissing that serious look off her girlfriend's face, strep germs, or no
strep germs. "Sara ..." she said plaintively, begging to be
absolved from Sara's threat, "I don't want to be a grown-up."
Sara started laughing herself,
freed from the bleak future of a false diagnosis, and took pity on the now
contrite Chloe. She slid a hand onto Chloe's thigh under the table, high, then
higher yet, reaching for the interior of that thigh, and then gave a measured
and deliberate stroke there. Chloe jumped a little, got a sexy little smile,
and heard Sara say, "Nah, Chloe, I don't want to be a grown-up,
either."
Sara put the remains of her
chicken dinner in the styrofoam container provided by the waitress. She
looked sheepishly at Chloe, who gave her a small wink before she chided the
tall woman next to her. "I thought it was a little weird, you ordering
chicken, since that's pretty much all we've eating for the last three
days." She turned her attention to her friend across the table, and
cocked her head at her. "How's the stomach doing, Marse?"
Since Marcy had been subjected
to Dave's somewhat limited variety of chicken soup products over the same time
span, she had the presence of mind to order a beef vegetable soup, with some
homemade rolls as a side. Marcy groaned but her face held a wan smile.
"If I eat soup again after all this clears up, it'll be too soon. Stomach
is fine, so far. It doesn't feel like it wants to make a return trip out the
same way it went in." Marcy saw the 'ews' that appeared on both her
friends' faces. "It's been hell. What goes in, wants to come out."
Marcy felt much worse than she was letting on, she still felt very tired, and
was glad that they would be heading home soon. She wanted nothing more
than to crawl into bed and close her eyes for many comforting hours.
Chloe stretched her hand across
the table and gave Marcy a reassuring pat. "Well, old girl, we'll have
you home shortly. Can you handle it a little longer, so I can get a piece of
pie, or do you want me to get it to go?"
Marcy sighed. "No, have it
here. It's nice to be out of the house.", she lied, knowing that Chloe
and Sara wanted to spend some more time together before they dropped off Sara
at the school to direct the Tuesday play practice. It was after three
o'clock now, and Sara had to be there at four.
Chloe could tell that her friend
felt bad, and was putting up a good front. She smiled at Marcy in knowing
appreciation, and waved down the waitress and ordered a piece of pecan pie for
herself, and a piece of cherry for Sara.
Sara thanked the waitress for
the pie, and then began speaking. "Well, since I'm fill-in director for
the rest of the week, and you two are merely my useless lackeys, is there
anything I should know, or get done for you, Marcy, while I'm there?"
"Yeah, just make sure a
tree looks like a tree, will ya? I don't want any comments from Doris
this year, or I'm blaming the whole thing on you."
Chloe, who was resting her
voice, and enjoying her pie too much to join into the conversation, grinned
and let the two women who liked each other very much treat each other like
they didn't.
"Marse, I know what a tree
looks like, I'm just not sure you do."
"Yeah, I believe that.
I'm sure you've been mistaken many times for a redwood, yourself, oh tall and
wooden one."
Sara stuck her tongue out at
Marcy, and showed her the mostly chewed piece of cherry pie residing there
before swallowing and countered with , "Listen, Miss Bohemian With Name
No One Can Pronounce, just be cooperative for five minutes so your damned corn
stalks don't end up looking like a field of marijuana plants."
Marcy and Chloe both let out
guffaws at that thought. "Actually, Sara, " said Marcy
mischievously, "I kind of like that idea." Marcy was glad she
decided to stay a little longer.
Sara directed a rare and
affectionate grin at the curly haired art teacher. "You would. Have
any samples growing behind your house we could use as a model?"
"Too early in the season
yet. Try me in August or so."
Chloe had finished her pie, and
was eyeing the remainder of Sara's. Sara noticed, and placed a small
guarding hand over the rest of it. "Nuh, uh, 'Miss Lips'. Mine,
mine, mine."
Chloe pouted and pulled her
straw out of her soda glass, and shot some diet Coke drops at Sara. Sara
rolled her eyes, and shrugged, then shoved her plate over to the now clearly
delighted librarian.
Marcy noticed this little
surrender, and smirked at Sara. "Whipped."
"Guilty as charged."
admitted Sara, and gave Chloe a very mushy, adoring look. Chloe was surprised,
Sara's truly mushy moments were, well, not as frequent as she would like them
to be, but she knew that Sara just wasn't built that way. So, Sara, in
giving Chloe the last of her pie, and cheerfully at that, was really sharing
quite a tender moment with Chloe, in her own manner. To the untrained
eye, Sara had just given in to Chloe, to their hearts, it was a gesture
as intimate as a stolen kiss.
Marcy had a trained eye.
"God, will you two knock it off? I can feel my lunch coming back
up, and it doesn't have a thing to do with my flu."
Sara grimaced, and blushed just
a little. "OK. Well, you two are off loafing this week, and we only
have two days rehearsal next week before Easter vacation starts. I think the
dancing parts are well in hand, the sets are coming along fine, and the kids
will be ready for some full act rehearsals on the stage after vacation. Right?
" She knew she was, so she continued. "You two know that the
weekend after Easter, good weather willing, the golf course is going to open
up. At least I talked Dave into having the grand opening on Saturday
evening, instead of Friday. If it was on Friday, I'm not sure either
Nelson or I could make it to Saturday dance rehearsal."
Sara turned on her commander
persona, and began making a list, verbally, and repeating it to her ailing
troops at the table with her. "Right. This week taken care of. Next week,
next Thursday morning, Dave, Nelson and I will be traveling, gaily, down to
visit the parental units in Florida for the Easter holiday. You two,
helpless as I know you will be without the Family D' Amico here to guide you,
will just have to color Easter eggs all by your lonesome." Sara
noticed sly little grins being exchanged by her two tablemates, but chose to
ignore them so she wouldn't lose her train of thought. "We'll get back
the Tuesday after Easter, hauling a U-Haul's worth of chocolate from my
mom and dad. Hopefully, we'll get back before rehearsal that day, if
not, you'll just have to manage without us. Then, it's all golf course and
rehearsals and more golf course right until Sunday's grand opening.
Dave's going to put on his chef's hat and burn a truckload of hotdogs for this
thing, and he's arranged for some kind of musical entertainment. Then a
Sunday's worth of golfers playing at half price. Should be a swingin'
time." Sara's face frowned at the thought of having to mingle with
the public that much, but she had already agreed long ago to do it, so she was
going to do it, dammit.
Chloe had watched the frown form
on Sara's face, and knew the reason for it, they had discussed it, along with
many other things, over their time together during the last few days.
Chloe knew that Sara was not looking forward to it, but had a certain
resignation to performing her duties for her brother.
Chloe decided to interject a
thought to keep the itinerary ball rolling. "WQEL the next week
after that."
Marcy let out a huge sigh at the
mention of WQEL. "Sara, you haven't lived through a WQEL auction and Fort
Lafayette Musical Showcase yet, have you?"
"No, but Chloe gave me a
general rundown. It's from 5 'til 10, kids from the play answering
phones, 3 or 4 musical acts from the show interspersed with auctioning
bits with you and Chloe in front of the camera, huckstering off donated
merchandise and services from local businesses. What's so tough about
that?"
"You try talking about 6
non-related, dull as day old toast, crap items for10 minutes, in front of two
TV cameras, that's what's tough about that. Three for me, three for Chloe to
yammer about, 10 minutes total, then a new set of six useless items to blather
enthusiastically about. All night long. With just the kids' music acts to
break the monotony." Marcy gave Sara a condescending smirk.
"I've never heard you talk about anything for longer than two
minutes, and then I start considering what a drain it must be on your gray
matter."
Marcy cleared her voice, and
went into mock auctioneer mode. "Hey, listen, people, only 5 minutes more
to bid up that family day pass to Wally's Fun World, it's only up to eight
dollars, which is quite a steal, if you ask me. And the 5 cases of Hires
Root beer, graciously provided to us from Sam's Warehouse, is currently at
sixteen dollars. And there are still no bids on the 'Wayne Newton in
Hawaii' video tape, with signed photograph of 'Mr. Entertainment' himself,
Wayne Newton. Let's get those phones ringing, folks. What's happening on
your side of the board, Chloe?"
Chloe had done this for the last
five years, and wasn't going to let a little thing like a sore throat ruin her
fun now. She knew the routine in her sleep. "Well, Marcy, with only 4
minutes left, there's a fifteen dollar bid on 3 nine hole rounds of golf
donated by Stonecreek Golf Course, and we're a little low on bids for 12 movie
rentals from Bob's Video Shack. That's a thirty-six dollar retail value, and
we only have a bid for ten, no, we just got a higher one, that's up to
fourteen dollars now. And the seasonal fur storage at Hammond's Dry
Cleaners, right in downtown Stonecreek, has a very low bid at five dollars.
We've got twelve kids out there from Lafayette high school answering your
calls, and a few of them look pretty bored right now, don't they, Marcy?
Let's get those phones ringing in support of the fine entertainment here at
WQEL Public Television, and remember, your winning bid over retail value is
tax deductible. WQEL accepts cash, checks and all major credit cards. How's
that Wayne Newton tape doing there , Marcy, what with only 3 minutes left for
folks to get to their phones and start dialing?"
Sara let out a tremendous roar
of laughter, and was soon joined in by both Marcy and Chloe.
Marcy raised her eyebrows at
Sara. "Five, count'em, FIVE hours of that, just me and Chloe. And
since it is Stonecreek night at WQEL, most of our time will be spent shilling
items donated by local retailers and businesses, which, when you think of it,
consists of oil changes from the Amoco station, dry cleaning, pizzas, and oh,
yeah, rounds of golf at D'Amico's Stonecreek Golf Course. Dave said he's
going to donate golf lessons, too, just for the auction bidders only."
Sara puzzled over this. "I
don't get it. Neither Dave or I can golf all that well to begin with,
certainly not well enough for either one of us to teach anyone else.
Where's he going to get a teacher?"
Marcy's eyes tracked slowly to a
clearly confused and unsuspecting Chloe. "Miss Lips here. I
volunteered her to help out the cause."
Chloe started coughing, and Sara
had to smack her several times on the back, and handed her a glass of water to
sip. When the coughing abated, Chloe, sounding a little bit like Scooby Doo
after a long night of howling, rasped out, "Me? No way. Not me.
I can't teach strangers ..." she stopped when she saw the grin forming on
Sara's face. "Oh, wait, you think I owe you guys because of you helping
with the dance stuff, huh, well let me tell you, right here, right now, that
...", she paused and saw the grin on Sara's face starting to fade, and
she kicked herself because of it and immediately finished with, "I would
certainly be delighted to help out the D'Amicos in any way I can."
She gave Sara an apologetic grin, and saw by Sara's return smile that she had
been forgiven.
"Paybacks.", stated
Sara, and grabbed the check. Chloe threw some dollar bills on the table,
and as Sara paused after standing up, to retrieve her coat off the nearby
hook, Chloe took advantage of her perfect positioning, and scooted across the
bench seat, and pinched Sara soundly on the rear.
Sara squawked, and said,
"Hey, what didja do that for?"
Chloe grinned as her best friend
Marcy answered for her. " 'Cause she can."
Sara and Chloe watched a very
tired Marcy trudge up her backdoor steps, before turning and waving to them
before she entered her house. Next stop was to drop Sara off at the
school, and then Chloe was finally heading home after her stay at the D' Amico
Family Hospice. They both knew that this was going to be their last
chance to share a few intimacies until they saw each other again.
Chloe turned off the engine, and
glanced at her watch. Sara was sadly frowning from the passenger seat of
the Subaru. Her hand, already placed on Chloe's knee, reached and took Chloe's
hand into hers. They both looked at their joined hands, then their eyes
raised to meet and consider each other quietly.
"We haven't had much
kissing time in the past few days, you know. " Sara finally said, her
eyes memorizing all that was Chloe.
"I know. It's not
much fun kissing a snot-nosed librarian who can barely breathe, is it?"
Chloe sighed regretfully, and softly ran her other hand across Sara's
knuckles.
"I can barely breathe when
I kiss you, Chloe, and I'm not even sick."
Chloe's heart pounded at such a
sweet message, she leaned closer to Sara, and saw that Sara was leaning in,
too. Chloe took a deep breath, and their lips met, so achingly soft and
gentle, filled with a tenderness that spoke of their reluctance to be parting
from one another. The kiss continued, with Sara bringing both hands up to
cradle Chloe's face, and she left the red lips, and began placing small kisses
over cheek, nose and forehead before returning to Chloe's waiting lips again.
Even these small, lingering kisses evoked a moan from Chloe, and an answering
rumble from Sara.
They broke the kiss, but kept
the proximity, Sara sighing her words to Chloe. "I want you so badly. Can
you feel it?"
Chloe whispered back, her voice
husky from equal parts passion and sore throat. "Oh, yeah. I can
feel it." She rubbed her cold reddened nose across Sara's. "It was
nice sleeping with you, even if we didn't get to ..."
Sara kissed Chloe's nose and
answered, "Well, you're going to need all your strength when we finally
do. That's a promise."
Chloe leaned back in her seat,
and reached for Sara's hand again. "Oh, I do like your promises. Now if
we could just get you to follow through on one of them ..."
Sara sat back too, and smiled a
sly grin. "Go get those antibiotics, Miss Lips, and some vitamins, too.
And get some rest, you're going to need it."
Chloe sighed, and shook her
head. "I'm starting to think we're jinxed or something." She
took a quick look at her watch. "Damn, it's nearly 4 already. I have to
get the dance monkey to work." She disengaged her hand from Sara's, who
let it drop comfortably back onto Chloe's knee. She started the engine again,
and before putting the car into gear, took one last look at Sara, who was now
sitting back in her seat, a dejected sad smile on her face.
"Hey, Sara?" Chloe
said, as she started the car, and began to follow the turnaround of Marcy's
driveway back out to Route 20.
Sara rubbed Chloe's knee.
"Hmm?" and the car halted, Chloe looking both ways, waiting for a
break in the traffic so she could pull out.
"I love you." Chloe
said simply, and accelerated the car onto the road.
It was more than a few moments
before Chloe could turn her head and catch the reaction to her first time
declaration. When she did, Chloe was very surprised. Not by the gentle smile
gracing Sara's face, but by the tears she saw softly welling in her eyes.