54
When we woke up the next day, Stef put on her housecoat, naked underneath. She had a mild case of bedhead, but that just made her even more beautiful. She had long, dark brown hair with loose, natural curls. She was a goddess.
Since I wasn’t expecting to have been there, I didn’t have a housecoat. I pulled on my sweatpants. We went to the kitchen to make some breakfast and found Randa already there, making coffee.
“Good morning cuties. Did you guys have fun last night? You want coffee?”
“Hey, Randa. What’re you doing here?” I asked. It didn’t seem weird that Randa would have a key to Stef’s place. They were really close.
“I live here.”
“Huh. That’s a hell of a thing. I’ll make us breakfast.”
“Oooooo, he cooks,” Randa winked at Stef.
“I make omelettes, hot dogs, pancakes, and grilled cheese sandwiches. That’s the extent of my cooking talent.”
“Do you think you could manage some bacon?” asked Stef.
“I can try. Do you like crispy or still oinking?”
“Crispy,” she said.
“Got eggs?”
“Sure do.”
“You never told me you lived together.”
“I guess it just never came up,” Stef said.
“Anything in this fridge off-limits? I make a decent kitchen-sink omelette.”
“Get after it, Julia Child.”
“For how long?” I asked.
“How long what?”
“How long have you guys been roomies?”
“Ten years,” said Randa.
“Ten years?!”
“Yeah. Our parents got hit by a drunk driver on Christmas Eve ten years ago. Stef was 13. I had just turned 18, so I had to take care of both of us.”
“Holy shit.”
“They had mortgage insurance on the house, so it got paid off. That helped a lot. No life insurance though. I got a job bussing tables so we could eat. I made Stef go back to school after Christmas holidays. Didn’t want her here by herself all day. The counsellors and her teachers were really helpful and supportive.”
“No relatives that could have helped?” I asked.
“Grandparents in France, but we only met them once. I wasn’t moving us to Limoges to live with strangers. They’d send us money on our birthdays and Christmas, but that was it. It’s been her and me since then.”
“I buried myself in school. Did all my homework and then some. I didn’t really have any academic or career goals. I was just trying to stay distracted and I didn’t like sports. I like books,” Stef said.
“She ended up on the honour roll every semester until she graduated.”
“Randa was headed for UVic until the accident...”
“…It wasn’t a fucking accident. It was completely avoidable if that asshole wasn’t drunk. Of course, he survived,” Randa spat out.
“Jesus Christ, you guys.”
“I worked my way up from bussing, to server, to supervisor at The Olde Spaghetti Factory by the time I was 22. One night Sanchez and a group of friends showed up for dinner. I thought he was hot so I found reasons to check on their table more than I normally would have. We started dating. He got me the job as Assistant Manager at Soda. When the previous manager quit, I got the job. He manages The Town Pump now.”
I was having trouble taking this all in. It was tragic, but the way they dealt with it was inspiring. There was nothing that I could say that made any sense, so I just sat there and listened.
“When we first met at Soda, I saw sadness in you, and it looked like the kind of sadness that I feel. Then you told me you saw your mom die and it made sense,” said Stef. “After that, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
“She couldn’t stop talking about you either. The engagement ended that day for her, emotionally. It just took a while to actually remove the ring.”
“I knew you were my guy that day. Love at first sight.”
“I’m…speechless. Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You were a teenager. You needed to ripen. You needed to go out on the road with your band and party and get laid and be reckless.”
The phone rang. Randa answered.
“Hullo?...Good morning, babe…yeah…yeah, that’s ‘cause he’s here…uh huh…yep, finally…okay, I’ll let him know…love you too. See you in a bit.”
“Am I grounded?” I asked.
“Ha ha. No, he was just worried that he couldn’t get hold of you. You’re the responsible one.”
“Right,” I huffed. I envied Itch’s reputation.
“You promised us omelettes and bacon, love.”
“On it.”
“Oh, so ‘love’, is it?” said Randa.
“Yes, it is. It’s better than honey or dear or pookums or some shit like that. More people should call each other love. It’s nice.”
“You guys are cute. I’m happy this is happening. Gordie, you treat her like a queen.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Steffy, you treat him like a king.”
“Yes, ma’am”.
The omelettes were fantastic, the bacon was crispy, and the coffee, while not as good as Sanchez’s, was delicious. We abandoned the dead parents conversation. It wasn’t a great way to start the day. Besides, what is understood doesn’t need to be discussed.
Instead, we talked about how the band was doing, how Club Soda was doing, and how Double Time was doing. Stef didn’t want to talk about work.
“I have one day away from that place. I want to forget about it until it’s time to go back.”
Randa said, “I wanna go visit Sanchez on the way to work. I gotta go. You cuties have a good day.”
“It’s weird that she still calls him by his last name,” I said, after she’d left.
“That’s what everybody calls him. I bet his grandma calls him Sanchez.”
“Do you know his first name?”
“Yup.”
“…”
“He’ll tell you when he wants to.”
Stef stood up from the table, took my hand and said, “Let’s go have a shower, then spend the rest of the day fucking and sleeping.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
