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“It’ll be okay as long as he’s in a crib, but this one-bedroom thing isn’t going to be enough after he moves into a bed. But for now, it’ll do. So, are you hungry?”
“I am. Do you want to order something in?”
“I have leftover pizza from last night if you’re okay with that.”
“Pizza is great.”
They had pizza and wine in the living room. The sexual tension was there, but they discovered it was fun to play with it, not give in to it.
Running her finger up his arm, the muscles solid, she asked a question she knew was silly but really wanted to know. “So are you a gym rat?”
“Ha!” he barked out, laughing. “No. I hate working out.”
“So where’d these bulging muscles come from?”
“I have to stay in shape for the job. I lift weights in the gym at the station, but just yanking those hoses around is a good upper-body workout.”
“So is your chest as nice as your arms?”
She started laughing when he stood up and peeled his T-shirt off, and when she saw his chest, the defined ab muscles and the flat belly with a line of black hair disappearing under his belt, she buried her face in a pillow. “How am I supposed to behave now?”
Grinning, he bent down and kissed her on the mouth. “You’re not supposed to,” he said. “But we will behave. I want this to last a lifetime, so I’d better cool it.”
“A lifetime?”
“A lifetime.”
Deciding they’d better cool it down, Tony found a movie he wanted to see, and they watched it, both of them falling asleep halfway through, snuggled on the couch. At midnight with the droning of voices in the background, Tony woke up. He wasn’t sure where he was at first, and then he looked down next to him and saw Bridget, clearly exhausted, sleeping soundly. Slipping off the couch, he went in search of the bathroom.
When he came out, she was still sleeping. He made a decision then that he wasn’t going to leave; he didn’t want to wake her to lock the door after him. Choosing one from a pile of afghans folded on the end of the couch, he placed it over her. Next to the couch was a big chair with an ottoman, so he took his shoes off, glad his feet weren’t too smelly, and got on with another afghan. In seconds, he was back to sleep.
Bright light flooded the living room. Opening his eyes, the first thing he noticed—his neck was stiff from sleeping in the chair, so he rubbed it, sitting up. It was seven. The vacant couch meant Bridget was up, but he could hear the shower. Thoughts of his parents crossed his mind, they’d be leaving for mass in a couple of hours, and his absent truck would make them worry, so he sent a text.
Ma, I stayed over at Bridget’s, on the couch. See you later.He added a smiley face to soften the blow. Moving over to lie on the couch, as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell back to sleep.
The aroma of coffee and the fussing of a baby woke Tony up at nine. Guiltily, he quickly went to the kitchen. Holding the baby in one arm, a cup of coffee in the other hand, with wet hair down her back and no makeup on, stood Bridget. She was beautiful to him, so much so it was a little breathtaking.
“I’m sorry I’m a slug. I woke up when you were in the shower, and the lure of the couch was too much.”
“You’re not a slug at all. Last night was the best sleep I’ve had in two months. He never woke up to eat! I think it was the fresh air. Maybe I’d better start taking him out on the balcony in the evenings. Anyway, coffee?”
“I’d love some, and then I’ll run home to shower. Do you want to go to late mass?”
“You’re asking me to go to church?”
He noticed that she was trying and failing to hide a grimace, and it made him laugh. “I guess I am,” he replied. “Then we can follow the crowd and have breakfast at the Wild Pancake.”
“I haven’t been to church since I told my parents I was pregnant. It felt like a contradiction.”
“I’m sorry they made you feel bad. Come. You can decide if it’s still important to you, and if it is, we’ll go together from now on.”
“Is it important to you?” She watched him over her coffee cup.
“It is. It’s just something I do to start the week off. I have faith in something, but it’s not exactly what they’re preaching. I guess you could say I’m not religious.”
“I’m not, either.”
“But I like the ritual of mass.”
