“My help?” Maggie asked, tremulously.
“Well, I’d feel a bit odd asking Alan. Julie’s with Tom, and David’s going to be away. It’s down to you, sweet cheeks.”
“Okay, Mom. I’ll do it.” Maggie sniffed back her tears and put a brave face on for her mother.
“What else is troubling you?” Rose probed.
“Being with David has turned me into such a girl! I’m weepy, I’m clingy, I’m all over the place.”
“Hmm. Where are you in your cycle?”
Maggie looked down at the calendar she had grabbed from David. She remembered her period had started on the 2nd, and she counted and her eyes widened in alarm.
“I’m ovulating?”
Rose’s eyes widened in shared concern, and she swallowed hard before continuing.
“Do we need to be concerned about anything?”
“No, Mom. David’s been rubbered up since last Wednesday. Oh my god! He’s been tracking my cycle better than I’ve been! I’d wondered why he was doing that. It should have been so obvious to me!”
“And that says to me that he loves you. I think part of your issue is that your father has not been part of your life and you’ve not observed a couple’s daily interactions. To protect yourself, you’ve made this hard shell around you, keeping others out, even me and your sister. You met David on Thanksgiving, and he’s fit into your life so well, seamlessly almost. That’s a shock to your system that you’re just realizing, I think.”
“I owe him an apology, don’t I?”
“It probably wouldn’t hurt, Magpie. Clean up your face and go talk with him.”
= = =
At supper that evening, Maggie seemed a little clingier than usual, at least from David’s perspective. He would certainly miss being with his girlfriend every day (and night), but he was confident that he would be home enough in the coming months. Besides, they would be riding together the next day, extending their couple’s time together. He had availed himself of the time when she was occupied to complete his packing, and almost everything was staged by the door to the garage. Almost everything.
Helping to clear the table, he pulled Maggie aside and kissed her in front of their parents. It wasn’t toe-curlingly passionate, but it was sincere and heartfelt. Rose and Alan looked on, smiling, knowingly. They were surprised when David reached into the cabinet for a serving bowl to amplify his phone, and he led her down the hall to the living room.
“Davey?” she questioned.
“I have a playlist I’d like to dance to with you, Magpie.”
He started it up and Orleans’ ‘Dance With Me’ started out the musical set. The entire playlist was comprised of ballads from the 1970s. Maggie had not heard many of these songs and she turned her head to rest on his chest below his chin. She hugged him close and breathed him in, trying to create a memory strong enough to suffice their time apart. Alan and Rose appeared in the doorway about halfway through the playlist, but did not join the younger pair. But Alan did have something he wished to do before they all went to bed that evening, so he just stood there, watching and holding Rose from behind.
When the playlist ended, Alan stepped forward and up to the fireplace mantle, and intoned, “Rescinding Executive Order AJH2020-01, I hereby commend this piece of artwork back into your care, David. However, I would like it returned when you are done at the Art Institute in May.” He handed David’s beautiful and moving portrait of Laura to his son. While David was staging the picture with his things at the door to the garage, Alan then looked at the now empty place on the wall and sighed, shifting his eyes to the right to rest upon the small urn which held part of Laura’s ashes.
“Come to bed, my love,” Rose beckoned him, reaching up to turn his head and his attention back to her. She was determined to become the focus of his attention going forward and to provide the emotional support her man needed. She led him by the hand, pausing at the bottom of the stairs to allow him to kiss Maggie goodnight on the forehead and to hug David. Tugging on his hand, Rose took and led Alan up the stairs to their room.
“That sounds like a really good idea, don’t you think, Davey?” Maggie suggested.
“Let me make sure the lights are all off and the doors are locked first, and then I’ll be right up,” David answered.
= = =
Monday, January 18
The early morning sunlight flickered across Maggie’s face as she lay wrapped around David. She rubbed first her nose, then her eyes. Both efforts were unsuccessful in batting the sunshine away. Her auburn hair had grown a bit since her school dance, and it seemed drawn to David’s mouth as he slept. A couple of tendrils teased his nose and he sneezed them away, waking both himself and his girlfriend. Her green eyes met with his blue ones and smiles crossed their faces as her mouth approached his.
“Magpie, stop! I’ve got dragon breath this morning,” he tried to forestall her oral lock on him.
“So what?” She continued to kiss him, teasing his mouth with her tongue until he succumbed. “Eww! You weren’t kidding about the dragon breath. Go brush and floss and I’ll be here waiting for you.”
David grumbled slightly while rolling out of bed. His morning wood wasn’t poking out, yet, but it was quite evident to Maggie’s happy gaze. He wobbled slightly out the door to the bathroom where he addressed his hygiene needs with alacrity. He had to take an extra few minutes to purge his bladder, but he quickly returned to her bed where she lay smack dab in the middle. She was wearing absolutely nothing and looking quite pleased to do so. Before he could climb onto the bed, she handed him a condom in its wrapper, declaring, “Come on, lover. Fuck me really good. Give me enough to hold me over until you return to my bed.”
This attitude shift on her part surprised and pleased David greatly. Being the gentleman he was, he felt obliged to accede to her request for the physical coupling.
= = =
With everything staged by the door to the garage, it was quick work to get David packed into the Jeep. He made certain there was nothing in the front passenger area to impede Maggie. Lunch was eaten and everyone was ready for the two-car procession to David’s school. Lists, both physical and mental, had been checked and rechecked. It was time to get their show on the road.
David opened the door for Maggie and closed it once she was seated and had kissed him. Giving Alan and Rose a wave and a salute, he got in the driver’s side and spent a minute syncing his phone with the car’s audio system. David led the way to the four-lane highway with their parents following at a discrete distance with Rose driving her Subaru.
“David, I enjoyed that Spotify playlist you crafted for us for last night. Would you mind sharing that with me?” Maggie requested. “There were a lot of songs on it that I’d never heard before, let alone never heard of.”
“Sure, Mags. I call it my ‘Highlander’ playlist. Here, you can share it with your account.” He handed her his phone and she quickly navigated to the app and shared the playlist with her account.
“Why do you call it your ‘Highlander’ playlist?”