Chapter 8

Andy knocked on my door at 6:45 that night, dressed very nicely. He was wearing jeans, a black dress shirt, and a dark green sweater.

“You look nice.” I said as I hugged him.

“So do you!” He exclaimed, giving me the once over. I was wearing one of the navy dresses I’d brought back with me. It was a very simple dress, but it fit me perfectly and showed off my figure.

“Thanks. Shall we?” I said, walking out my door and closing it behind me.

“We shall.” He answered.

We walked down the hall and out of the building, where Miles, Henriette, and Nora were waiting for us. Miles was wearing black jeans and a navy blue sweater. Henriette was wearing a dress that looked a lot like mine, but it was a very dark purple. Nora was wearing a black skirt and a black and white sweater.

We all greeted each other.

“We drew straws, and I’m driving tonight.” Nora said. She started walking, and we followed her. She drove a white station wagon.

“My Grandma passed this down to me when she got a new car.” Nora said, blushing slightly.

“I drove my Mom’s station wagon all the time when I was in high school.” Andy said.

Nora smiled and turned to Miles. “Do you mind if Andy has shotgun?”

“No, not at all, Nora.” Miles said, smiling.

I ended up sitting between Miles and Henriette in the back seat.

“So, where are we going?” I asked.

“We’re taking you to Uptown CV.” Nora answered.

“Where?” Andy asked.

“Oh, yeah, you guys are new to this area. CV is what we call the town we live in. It’s actually called El Camino Viejo.” Henriette explained.

“Oh, okay.” Andy said.

“And Uptown is the coolest part of CV.” Nora added.

“There’s this really neat 50′s type Diner that’s been around forever that we think you’ll like.” Miles said.

“Ooh, I love those!” Andy said.

“Yeah, so do I. We had one in Mermirabuena for a long time called the Poodle Skirt Cafe, but it caught on fire when I was in junior high, so they tore it down.”

“Oh, that sucks.” Henriette said.

The rest of the drive was filled with small talk, with the occasional landmark pointed out by Henriette.

We parked in a parking lot across the street from the diner, which was called Nifty Fifties. It reminded me a lot of The Poodle Skirt Cafe. We sat in a big booth in a corner. Again, I found myself sitting between Miles and Henriette.

We all ended up getting hamburgers. Upon Miles’ suggestion, I ordered a boysenberry milkshake, which turned out to be delicious.

After dinner, Miles, Henriette, and Nora took us on a walking tour. We stopped at Squonk, a rather large record store. It was quite impressive, as it had a large collection of records, cassettes, CD’s, and posters.

Henriette and Miles made a beeline for the poster section, so I followed them. We flipped through the posters, making remarks on which bands we liked. It seemed like we had a lot in common musically. When they both said they’d been wanting a very cool poster of The Doors for awhile, I grabbed three of them.

“Are you sure? It’s a pretty expensive poster.” Henriette said.

“It would be my pleasure. My namesake really liked this band.”

Henriette looked at me curiously. “Is your last name Benton?”

“No, it’s Bennington.”

“Oh, because my Nino and Nina–My Godparents, that is–told me a lot of neat stories about this woman named Ruby Benton who loved The Doors. I met her at their wedding. Very nice lady.”

“Yeah, that’s her. She used that name with certain friends.”

“She died a year ago, didn’t she?”

I nodded. “A year ago today, in fact.” I’d wanted to live this day like any other day and not have to recall having to say goodbye to her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” Miles said. “Were you two close?”

“Yeah. I spent a lot of time with her when I was young, and I moved in with her when I was sixteen.”

“My Nino and Nina were really sad when she died.”

“Yeah, so was I. She told me not to dwell on her death, because that would keep me from living.”

“Very wise.” Miles said.

Andy and Nora walked up to us. “You guys ready to go?”

“Almost. I need to pay for a few posters.” I said.

“She’s buying us the Doors poster we’ve been drooling over for ages.” Henriette said, smiling.

“That’s very generous of you.” Nora said.

“It’s the least I can do after they paid for my dinner.” I replied.

After I paid for the posters, we headed back to the car.

“Mind if we head back to your building? Andy wants to show me his poetry book.” Nora asked.

“No, that’s fine.” Henriette said, exchanging a glance with Miles.

“You guys can help me hang up my poster.” I said.

“Sounds good to me!” Miles said.

Nora took a slightly different route home so they could show us a few more landmarks.

When we arrived at the housing complex, Andy and Nora pretty much made a beeline for his apartment.

I opened my door and Miles, Henriette, and I went inside.

“Want some tea?” I asked.

“Sure!” They replied.

“Earl Grey coming up.” I said, walking to the kitchen. “Have a seat at the table.”

“Andy and Nora seem to be getting along quite well.” Miles said.

“Yeah, I haven’t seen her like this in awhile.” Henriette agreed.

“The attraction is mutual, definitely. Andy’s a great guy, and he’ll be good to her.”

“I sense that.” Miles said. “Mind if I ask you a rather personal question?”

“No, go ahead.”

“Have you and Andy had sex?”

I shook my head. “We’ve done pretty much everything but. We’ve spent the night at each other’s places a lot–for some reason we’re more comfortable with literally sleeping with each other than figuratively.”

“Interesting.” Henriette said. “May I ask you a personal question, too?”

“You want to know about Rael, right?”

Henriette nodded, grinning. “I always thought he was kind of cute, so I’m a bit envious.”

“Yeah, he is cute. He’s the first person I immediately lusted after and felt comfortable around. His parents were good friends with my namesake, so I knew I could trust him.”

“I can see why he’d be attracted to you.” Henriette said.

“So can I.” Miles agreed.

“Thanks.” I walked over with their tea and set it down on the table. I dragged my desk chair to the table, then went to get my tea.

“You make awesome tea.” Miles said.

“Yeah, you do.” Henriette agreed.

“Thanks. So, may I ask you two a personal question?”

“Of course!” They answered in unison. I laughed.

“Exactly how did you two end up dating?”

“Over a long weekend at my Nino and Nina’s house.” Hen replied.

“When you house-sat for them?”

“Yep. We’d been growing closer over the course of Senior Year. We had every single class together, and Nora was busy dating a guy we weren’t especially fond of.”

“He was a decent guy, but a little too conservative for our liking.” Miles took a sip of tea.

“When we were given the choice to housesit over going to Prom, we jumped at the chance.”

“And while we were there, we finally admitted that we were falling in love with each other.”

“The joints my Nina left us didn’t hurt, either.” Henriette added, blushing.

“And when I just happened to come across a box of condoms in the linen closet, we figured it was sort of a sign. So we went for it and had a great time.” Miles said, and took a sip of tea.

“I gather Nora didn’t take the news well at first?”

Hen nodded. “She was furious with us. She had no idea how close we’d gotten, even though the signs were there throughout Senior year.”

“I think she was more mad at herself for assuming I’d be there waiting for her once we got to college.”

“Did you and Nora ever date?”

“Briefly in junior high, but she had other guys after her. I was willing to let her date other guys, but she didn’t want me to date other girls. So we went back to being friends.”

“Why the double standard?”

“She was very insecure back then, and liked all the attention she was getting. Yet she was afraid of losing Miles to someone else.”

“Interesting.” I took a sip of tea.

“So how did she come to accept the two of you dating?”

“I think she doesn’t expect this to last, so she’s sorta humoring us.” Henriette said.

“What happened to the guy she was dating?”

“His parents weren’t very happy with him dating outside his race, so he broke up with Nora to make them happy so they’d pay his way through college. He’s somewhere up North now.”

“That sucks. Well, she won’t have to worry about that with Andy.”

“Good!” Miles and Henriette said together.

“Okay, another personal question, since you two asked me one each.” I said, drinking the last of my tea.

“Yes?” Henriette asked, grinning.

“Do I really have a shot with both of you?”

“Oh, hell yeah!” Miles exclaimed.

“We like the same kind of women, and joked for years about finding a girlfriend in common. When we met you, it was like a dream come true.” Henriette added.

I smiled. “Same for me, but literally. I had a dream I met a couple in an elevator the morning we met.”

“Whoa, crazy.” Miles said. “That ever happen before?”

I sighed. “Yeah, right before I graduated high school. That one was more of a warning dream, I think.”

“What do you mean?” Henriette asked. “I mean, if you don’t mind me asking.”

I shook my head. “It’s okay. I dreamt that it was 10 years into the future and I was married to my boyfriend. I was leaving him and our 3 kids the day before our 10th anniversary because I was unhappy.”

“Wow.” Miles said.

“Gets better.” I said, getting up to refill my electric kettle. “My boyfriend proposed to me a few hours later, right before our graduation ceremony. I turned him down.”

“Whoa! That’s a trip!” Henriette said.

“Yeah, that really was a warning, wasn’t it?” Miles brought his mug over to me. “How’d he take the rejection?”

“Not well.” I sighed and looked at the floor.

“Oh, no. I’m sorry.” I looked up. Miles had that same look in his eyes that Rael did on New Year’s Eve. I wouldn’t have to explain.

“I’m sorry, too.” Henriette hugged me. “Did Rael help you work past that?”

I nodded. “Yeah, he was awesome about it.”

“I’m glad he did that for you. I always thought he was cool.” Miles said.

“Thanks. Another round of tea?”

“Sure!” They replied.

I made us all tea and we sat back down at the table. Over the next hour or so, we talked about all sorts of things, from music to religion to relationships to politics. We agreed on pretty much everything, which is rare for me.

The phone rang, and I went to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hi Shirley, it’s Nora. Can I talk to Miles?”

“Yes, one sec.” I picked up the phone and walked over to the table and handed Miles the phone. “It’s Nora.”

Miles took the phone. “Yes? Yes. Doing okay? Good. No, that’s fine. Okay, I’ll tell her. Thanks. Bye.” He hung up the phone and turned to Henriette.

“Nora says she’s enjoying Andy’s company and probably won’t want to go home for a few hours.”

Henriette laughed. “I figured they were up to something when they practically ran to Andy’s place.”

“Yeah, I could tell that there was something brewing between them at dinner.” I agreed.

“So, what should we do now that we know we’ll be here a few hours?” Miles asked.

I smiled. “Perhaps figure out how I’m going to date the both of you?”

“Yeah, we could do that.” Henriette agreed. “Better to figure this out before the clothes come off, right, Miles?”

Miles laughed. “Yes, definitely.”