Chapter Ten
Marie flipped up the shade and a rosy-fingered dawn topped the Cascades, smearing a palm of pink between blue sky and a few puffy clouds. She flopped back onto her bed and touched her sweaty forehead to Tom’s. After a sixteen-hour shift, he’d been exhausted when he slipped off his shoes inside Marie’s back door and stocking-footed his way to her room. He pulled her closer and said, “What got into you tonight?”
She laughed. “Why, you, you silly man. It must be the uniform.”
“But I’m naked.”
She sighed and kissed him, then looked him up and down. “Exactly.”
Tom rolled to the side of the bed to get to the bathroom, and Marie swung her hand around to tug his pubic hair.
“Oh no you don’t,” she said. “The kids already busted you sneaking out, so you might as well stay.”
Her hand slid farther. Tom rolled back. “What, and face the … the kids?”
He mimed wide-eyed terror and pulled the covers up to his face. He didn’t have much experience with kids long-term, close-range. He made conversation, and he could tell that the kids could tell he was trying.
Marie’s hand found its target under the sheets. She snuggled closer and whispered, “The kids know. The school knows. Pretty much everybody in town knows. When did you know, Tom?”
He liked what her hand was up to, but his bladder already had all the pressure it could take. The bathroom was halfway down the hall, right across from James’s room.
“I really need the bathroom,” Tom said. “Really. Do you have an extra robe or something?”
“Just mine,” she said. “It’ll be a little short on you, but you’ll look cute, all pink and everything.” She plucked her robe from the bedpost and tossed it to him.
“Oh, Geez!” He wrapped it around himself and it came nearly up to his butt. “Oh, Geez!”
“Better hurry,” she said. “Or there’ll be a line.”
Fortunately, the kid coming out of the bathroom was Lucy, who said, “Good morning, Tom,” and skipped to her room with a giggle. He hoped James wouldn’t be there when he came out. The town skaters would never let him live down that frilly, pink mini-robe.