Relativity Part B

"I mean I had the crap completely beaten out of me. The next day, I was in school with a black eye, a cut lip and my face was all swollen. At lunch, I was sitting by myself. I could hear other kids whispering and could see them pointing. I was pretty embarrassed. But I was eating my lunch -- which hurt to do by the way -- and pretending not to notice that everyone was staring at me. When all of a sudden Melissa sat down across from me, opened up her lunch box and started eating her lunch. She didn't say anything, she just sat across from me and ate."

Denae gently squeezed Bill's arm. "That was sweet of her."

"Yeah. It definitely helped me through a rough spot. We wound up having lunch together a lot after that. And then it seemed like not too long after that, she started feeling bad. She was tired a lot. And weak; no energy. And she kept thinking she would feel better soon, but she didn't. At the time no one knew what was causing it. That took a couple of months and a lot of trips to doctors. And then they figured out she had leukemia. And then she started treatment. And eventually..."

Denae put her head down on Bill's chest. She was near the point of crying but did not want him to see that. "I'm glad you were there for her during all that. You made love to her, right? She deserved someone special like you."

"C'mon. I'd rather not talk about the past anymore."

"OK. But please tell me she had that from you."

"This is awkward. But yeah. A couple of times."

Denae breathed in relief. "I'm glad. One of the things I love about you is how caring you are. It's nice to know she felt that too."

Eventually, they decided it was time to get back to the house since the sun was beginning to sink low and the temperatures would soon drop. They each put their clothes back on and walked back to the Gator for the ride back to Bill's house. Denae asked for one of the drinks from the cooler. She rinsed her mouth before drinking most of it. Bill stared the machine and got it moving. Denae reached over and held Bill's hand as they rode.

"Are you sure you never took any other girls there?" she asked once again.

"No one but you," he assured her.

"Well, you blew it," she remarked.

Puzzled, he asked what he 'blew.'

"You woulda gotten laid every time."

At one point during the ride back to the house, Denae asked Bill to stop so she would not have to yell over the sound of the motor. "There's something else I want to know now that we've been honest about our feelings."

"Yeah?"

"After we met, we sat in class together every day and went for coffee together a bunch. And we talked and had fun. But I had to ask you to ask me out. Why was that?"

Bill shrugged. "I wanted to ask you out. I really did. But I was scared."

"Scared? Scared of me?" she pressed.

"Well, scared of getting shot down. If I had asked you out and you said 'no' that would have been the end of me even getting to hang out with you. I would've rather been stuck in the friendzone than out of the picture."

Denae shook her head but did not say anything. Assuming they were finished, he restarted the vehicle and resumed the drive back toward the house. She reached out for his hand again. Facing forward, without looking over at him, in a voice loud enough to be audible over the noise of the engine, she said, "You pussy!"

When they reached the barn, Bill said he would need to put the Gator away and take the firewood to the porch. He asked if Denae wanted to go on in and shower and she agreed. Bill asked that she tell his mom he would be in shortly.

When she opened the back door, Cheryl looked up from the book she had been reading on the couch. She could see right away Denae was beaming with happiness. "Did he show you around the place?"

"Hi Cheryl. Yes. Bill took me all around. He chopped wood, fixed the fence and he even taught me to shoot a gun," she said as she moved over toward the couch and joined Bill's mother.

Cheryl grinned at her as if there were some joke to which Denae was not privy.

"What's so funny? What are you grinning at?" Denae asked.

"Oh nothing. But from the look of things, I'd say my son scored is all."

Looking shocked, Denae could only muster, "What? Cheryl? What are you talking about?"

Cheryl continued to laugh quietly. "Oh c'mon. I was young once."

Shaking her head in disbelief that Cheryl somehow knew she and Bill had just made love, she tried to keep up the rouse. "Cheryl, we were driving around the farm."

"Oh really?" Cheryl returned, smiling broadly, and putting her book down. She leaned forward and pulled a dead leaf from the shoulder of Denae's sweater and a tiny twig from her hair and held them up. "Aside from these things sticking to you, the tag on your sweater tells me you're wearing it inside out, which you weren't doing this morning. And one of your boots is untied."

Denae now knew there was no sense in keeping up the lie. She exhaled, not knowing what to say. Cheryl patted her hand.

"It's really OK," Cheryl assured her. "But I know not to let Bill know I know anything about it, he'd just die of embarrassment."

"He sure would," Denae admitted. "I think I'm a little embarrassed myself."

"Well, I don't know why. You're both young," she observed. "But tell me, was it down near the pond and the big oak tree?"

Denae's eyes grew big, betraying her astonishment at Cheryl's intuition. "Well yes. But how could you have guessed that?"

"That tree and that pond have been there a long time. They were there when Danny and I were young too," she said with a wink.

The two laughed together. Denae then told Cheryl that she and Bill had shared their feelings with each as well.

At that, Cheryl took a deep breath. "Oh sweetheart. It does my heart good to hear that."

Denae mentioned that she was supposed to shower first so Bill could shower when he came in from the barn, so she got up from the couch. Cheryl got up as well, observing she should start dinner soon. Bill walked in just then and asked what they were talking about. Both women smiled at one another and Cheryl said that she was just hearing, "all about Denae's trip around the farm."

Denae showered and then Bill showered. While Bill was in the shower, Denae called her parents to check in with them. Once off the phone she went out where she found Cheryl in the kitchen and Bill soon joined them. The menu that evening was fried chicken, biscuits, corn, and mashed potatoes. When Denae offered to help, Cheryl quickly accepted and said she could help make the biscuits. Denae confessed she had never made biscuits before, since they are not Italian. Cheryl insisted she could teach her and then she instructed Bill to set the patio table for dinner as it was still warm enough to eat outside. When he came back inside from doing so, he found Denae and his mother laughing heartily and wiping flour from Denae's face.

They ate on the patio as the fire in the firepit crackled. All proclaimed dinner delicious, particularly the biscuits, and enjoyed wine or beer and conversation with the meal. At one point, Denae asked if she could discuss something with them.

"My mom and dad and I would like you both to come to our house for Thanksgiving," she said cheerfully.

Bill and Cheryl were silent, somewhat surprised by the statement.

"Please say you'll come. We'll all have Thanksgiving dinner together and you can meet my parents see where I grew up."

Cheryl smiled, shook her head and said, "Thank you, dear. That's very nice, but I couldn't impose on your parents that way."

"Oh no. It's no imposition at all. My parents and I want you both to come. They've been wanting to meet Bill for weeks now and they want to meet you as well. Besides, they don't want you alone at Thanksgiving any more than I do."

After some discussion and much insistence by Denae, it was agreed Bill and his mother would travel down to Florida to spend Thanksgiving with the Rapallinos. Denae was visibly happy about the prospect of her family and Bill's getting together for the holiday. She told Bill and his mother a little about some of the idiosyncrasies of her small family dynamic, including her parents' habit of speaking Italian when they bickered or argued.

Eventually, Cheryl announced she would start cleaning up after dinner. As Denae rose to assist her, Cheryl insisted she could handle it and mentioned that she and Bill should enjoy the fire for a while. Cheryl headed inside with all the plates and Bill and Denae took their drinks and went over and sat on the bench swing by the fire pit.

"So your parents really want to meet me?" Bill asked.

She looked at him. "They sure do. Especially my dad."

"Uh oh. That makes me nervous."

"Ah. You've got nothing to worry about."

"Well, I'm plenty nervous. I gotta believe he's very protective of his little girl."

"That's why there's no need for you to be nervous. You're protective of his little girl too."

At that she climbed into his lap and wrapped her arm around his neck and swung her legs up on to the bench. He held her for a few minutes as they looked at the fire in silence. Then she turned and kissed him passionately. While he did not break off the kiss, Bill did not draw it out very long.

"My mom might look out the window," he cautioned.

Smiling at him, she said, "Somehow I don't think your mom would mind if you kiss me. So, kiss me."

--End Part B