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“Martha has three boys and a dead husband. Jeremy contracted some rare form of cancer a few years after their youngest was born. This means she spent her life dealing with his treatments and him being in and out of remission, at the same time raising three rambunctious sons on her own, being the primary breadwinner most of the time. All of this, only for him to pass a few years after their youngest went to college. This also means she’s had her hands full all her life and instead of being cowed by it, she became a take-no-shit warrior. After they all graduated from college, she sold the house because she was done with AC repairs, cleaning a pool and dealing with tree limbs falling on her roof during monsoons. She lived at the Oasis in her swinging-single twenties, what she calls, ‘The Glory Days,’ and came right back the minute a unit opened. She has two grandkids who are in the pool a lot during the weekends. She also has no filter, as you’ve seen, but she’d put herself in front of a bullet for you.”
“Do you know everyone in the complex?” Cap asked.
I thought about it.
Then I said, “Yes.”
He studied me, an expression I couldn’t read on his face, but it veered toward good, while saying slowly, “Right.”
“We don’t have to go to the shindig. We can do what we want.”
“Do you want to go?”
Of course I did. Oasis shindigs were the best.
Outside Luna’s parties, that was.
Cap must have read that on my face, because his beard twitched in the area around his mouth, and he said, “Let’s make a deal. I’ll check out what you got in the kitchen that we can throw together and take to the party, you take Cleo out, because she’s been a good girl, but she’s gotta go.”
I jumped to him happily, gave him a quick kiss, then headed to my hooks to get Cleo’s lead.
“Raye?” he called as I was clipping it on her.
Still bent over, I looked up at him. “Yeah?”
“I wanna look into this new landlord.”
Hmm.
“Why?”
“Investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into upgrades without rent increases, and capping a tenant’s rent…” He shook his head. “Sometimes, a good thing is a good thing. Sometimes, a good thing masks something bad.”
I finished with her lead, and Cleo danced around me as I asked, “What could be bad?”
“Don’t know. That’s why I wanna look into them.”
“Go for it,” I said.
He jerked up his chin on a small smile and urged, “Get her to some grass. She’s dying.”
I smiled back, then Cleo and I took off.
* * *
Capand I were lying in my bed.
Update: Cap fit in with the crew. He was laidback and friendly and super good at small talk.
As for me, when the sun went down, Bill and Zach’s lights came on, the pool illuminated— making the Oasis an oasis—and drinking, eating, hanging and communing with people I cared about, with a comfortable and outgoing Cap at my side, felt like a slice of heaven.
Update times two: Tonight wasn’t the night for us togo therewith intimacy, mostly because I was seriously buzzed. Cap whipped up an insanely good pasta salad for the party (one could just say Lucia would approve of his ability to balance with acid), and I made a batch of my sangria.
Yes, I wasn’t much of a sex-on-your-period person (though, I could make exceptions, but not normally for the first time).
Mostly, I wanted a clear head and to be totally into the moment when that happened with Cap.
Anyway, I was getting off solely on this getting-to-know-you time. It felt like the more we had, the deeper the meaning would be when we went there.
