Life After College

Chapter 3

It was Sunday morning and we both got up early, showered, and drove ourselves to the gym. We normally would jog around the block during the week and workout together on Saturdays, but since Dicky had to work, we postponed it til then. I worked out to maintain my lean physique, so I could be good and pliant for when Dicky and I want to be daring in the bedroom. His reason on the other hand, was a requirement for being in the police force. “I gotta stay fit for when I’m chasing perps down the street.” He’d say to me. Dicky was lean also, but he had more muscle than me. He has a beautiful body. If only you could see him naked. He has very little chest hair, and a dark brown trail leading from his belly button to his groin. He’s part italian/cuban so his eyebrows are dark and thick all the way across, brown eyes, and the smoothest tinted skin I’ve ever seen. Right now, he’s sporting a five o’clock shadow. I like it, because I can run my fingers over the short stubbles.

I hopped on the treadmill and started jogging, while Dicky sat on the bench with some dumb-bells. I nearly tripped twice, because I kept watching his biceps flex when he’d lift the weights back and forth. “What do you keep tripping up for?” He asked me.

“What? No I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You’re looking at me aren’t you?”

“No.”

“Liar.” He stood up and pressed the up button on my treadmill and the belt started to rotate faster. I had to burst into a mad run to keep up with it. “This will keep you focused on your workout instead of me.”

When we got home, we saw Sofia sitting outside on the edge of the sidewalk with her chin propped up on her hands. “Is that little Sofia sitting out there?” Dicky asked me once we pulled into our driveway.

“Yeah. Why is she sitting on the sidewalk by herself at 5 years old? Don’t they know somebody could come by and pick her up?” I got out the car and walked to where she was. I kneeled down beside her. “Sofia darling, why are you outside by yourself?”

“My momma and daddy are inside yelling at each other. So, I snuck out, so I wouldn’t have to hear them.”

“Oh. So they don’t know you are outside?” She shook her head. “Come on.” I stood up and took her hand. “Lets take you back inside.” I walked the child back to the front door and knocked. Sofia was right, they were doing a lot of yelling in there. When a man answered the door, his face was as red as a beet.

“Can I help you?” He asked me rather rudely.

“Hi, you must be Daniel. I’m Andrew Payne. I live just next door. I came by because I saw your daughter was sitting on the sidewalk by herself and she told me that neither of you knew she had left. I just wanted to return her to you.” Daniel grabbed Sofia’s hand roughly and jerked her inside the house next to him.

“Thanks.” Was all he said as he slammed the door in my face. Asshole. I thought.

“So what’s going on over there?” Dicky asked me from inside the shower. I was leaning against the counter waiting on my turn.

“Jessica and Daniel were arguing and Sofia snuck out the house to get away from the noise.”

“Did you take her back?”

“Yeah. I went to the door and I told Daniel what happened. He jerks the child back into the house and murmurs a thank you before he slams the door in my face.”

Dicky chuckled as he scrubbed the shampoo in his hair. The shower had frosted glass doors on it, so I could just barely see details of his anatomy. “He deserves the father of the year award.”

“Yeah, right.” I joked.

Dicky washed out the shampoo and cracked open the door. “You know, I’ve been waiting for you to join me. Were you just planning on standing there all day?”

“Well I........I thought.......Forget it.” I started removing my clothes and stepped in the shower with him.

“That’s better.” Dicky said as he kissed me gently. He wouldn’t let me bathe myself, so he cleaned me off instead.

The arguments at the Graves’ home continued all throughout that following week. I had asked Dicky one Wednesday night, if he could go over there and do something since he was an officer of the law. He said that only if there was actual violence or threatening going on could he make an intervention. We didn’t hear any screams for help or broken glass, so we “tried to” turn the other cheek.

I received a call Thursday morning after I had fixed breakfast for Dicky and sent him on his way to work. “Hello?” I had the phone balanced in the crook of my shoulder while I was washing dishes.

“Hi, Andrew.” A feeble female voice said.

“Who is this?”

“Jessica Graves.” I quickly shut the water off and dried my hands.

“Jessica? Hey, how are you?” She laughed slightly.

“I’ve been better.” I walked out the kitchen and sat down on the couch in the living room.

“Honey, what’s wrong?”

“Surely, with all the yelling you’ve heard, you know what’s wrong.”

“Well, I thought that maybe that was just a part of you all’s relationship or something.”

“You’re married, Andrew. Do you and Richard fuss at each other every time you see’em?”

“I guess not. Where is all this coming from?”

“Anything. It could be anything and we’ll argue. Why isn’t dinner done when I get home? Why are you always contradicting me? Why are you home so late? It’s everything, Andrew.”

“Did this happen all of a sudden?”

“Not really. It’s been sort of off and on for a while, but only recently -actually when we moved here- did it start to get worse. It’s like I don’t know him anymore. Who is this man that has taken the place of the man I married?”

I was silent. I didn’t know what to say. “Well, what about Sofia? How is she doing in all this?”

“I don’t know.” She chuckled a little. “She’s five years old and I don’t know how my own daughter is doing. The few things that she does do in class, the teacher says she’s doing fine in. She hasn’t acted out or made spontaneous outbursts at home or anything........But she has been more quiet than usual. Maybe it’s growing pains. She’s about to turn 6 in December and maybe she’s getting out of the hyper, giggly girl age.”

“Maybe.”

She was silent for a while. “Do you think he’s having an affair?”

“What?”

“He comes home late, it would be the perfect reason why he hates me so damn much.”

“Jessica, don’t think that.”

“I don’t know what else to think, Andrew.”

“How about positive? Try to think positive, Jessica.”

That night, Dicky and I went to the local bowling alley in town and bowled a few. Now, I hate to sound too conceited, but I am pretty damn good when it comes to bowling. My normal score is around 350. I’ve even bowled a perfect 400 before. But, damn it if Dicky isn’t right there with me. In college, we and our friends went bowling and we left everyone else behind in the scoreboards. We were neck and neck the entire game. He ended up winning, so now I wanted us to go and play a round two game.

I grabbed my red ball and rolled down the alley, crashing the pins with a strike. Oh yeah. I felt it in my fingers. It was going to be a good game. I looked at him over my shoulder and gave him a smug smile. “So, how was your day?” I asked him.

He laughed my behavior off and grabbed his blue ball. “It was fine. We made a big drug bust at an old warehouse. Coke was everywhere. What about you?” He rolled the ball down the alley and made a strike. He gave me the same smug grin I gave him.

“Fine.” I pouted as I grabbed my ball again. “I got a call from Jessica just after you left this morning. She really seems to be troubled with all this fighting she and Daniel have been doing. She sounded really down on the phone.” I bowled a nine and picked up the spare.

“And Sofia?” Dicky asked as he took his turn.

“She says she seems to be okay......” Dicky paused and looked back at me stunned.

“What did she mean by seems?”

“Jessica thinks that she can’t figure her daughter out. She said she was doing fine in school and at home, just a bit more quiet than usual. But as far as how the child is doing on the inside.......she has no clue. She thinks it’s growing pains.”

“Maybe.” Dicky rolled the ball and got a seven, but didn’t pick up the spare. I smiled at his mischance. He scowled.

“I said the same thing.”

We finally made it to the last bowl. I had already ended with a 380 and Dicky had a 375. All he had to do was knock down six pins and he’d win. I wasn’t dumb. I knew he could easily do that. So I had to deviate a plan. Dicky grabbed his ball and readied his feet. “This is it. You lost again, Drew. Consider this spanking number 2.”

“Ok. Let’s place a little wager then. I win, you give me a full body massage tonight. You win, I’ll do anything you want me to.”

Dicky smiled. “Deal.” He pulled his arm back, ready to roll.

“I’m mean anything, Dicky.” I purred at him. “I’ll even fuck that eight inch dick of yours in my mou.......” Dicky tossed the ball too far to the right and it hit gutter.

“Damn it.” He heard me laughing and turned around to face me. “You did that purpose.”

“No really. I meant what I said.” I stood up and walked up to him face to face, so it looked like we were almost kissing. “It’s not my fault you can’t control yourself.” I kissed his nose. “Now, I like aroma therapy oils on my skin only. And make sure you take your time. After all, we’ve got allll night.” I smiled as I walked away. Sweet smell of victory.

Friday night finally came and it was time for our little dinner date with Dicky’s boss. He dressed in his usual dark blue police attire and I put on a dark blue suit, pink shirt, dark blue silk tie, and black alligator loafers. Together, we drove to Zumas. “Did you say every Saturday?” I asked Lieutenant Madden once we were all seated at the table with our food.

“Yes. Officers are getting slim now and we need the ones we have to guard the areas. And Richard will have to patrol Vigo Street.”

“And what do you mean by ‘slim’?” I asked. Dicky snuck a look at me, but I didn’t care. I wanted to know what the hell this was that was taking my weekend quality time with my husband away.

“You know KIA.”

I looked at Dicky stumped. “What?”

“Killed in action.” He murmured. He knew that was not what I wanted to hear. I was getting pissed.

I leaned into the table and looked at the balding, slightly overweight lieutenant. “You telling me that your officers are getting killed out here more times than they are not, and you want to make the ones you have left, work Vigo Street, the most dangerous street in this town? Where the hell are your rookies? Where’s your back up? Why are you sending your officers to some of the most dangerous areas alone, when you know you don’t have enough men to back them up?”

“Andrew.” Dicky comfortingly placed his hand over mine. I stubbornly pulled back.

“No. I’m sorry. I think this is ridiculous. This department is trying to get you killed, Richard.”

“Andrew, this is all a part of being a policeman.” Lieutenant Madden responded.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this before.” With that said, I stood up and excused myself.

I was standing outside the restaurant breathing in the cooling air, when Dicky followed me outside. “Drew, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“What do you mean by me? Don’t tell me you’re going to agree to his bullshit.”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, I am. Baby, this is my job. It’s what I do. I can’t not go to the most dangerous areas in town because my lover told me not to.”

“What happened to no one will take your weekends with me away from you? What happened to that?”

“This is a totally different case. No one is sick that I have to fill in for them.” He placed his hands gently on my face and leaned his forehead against mine. “If I don’t help protect this town, who will?” He placed a kiss on my forehead.

“No one.” I muttered.

I laid in bed with Dicky asleep in my arms, we had just finished making love, and my mind started to wander. What would it be like if Dicky wasn’t here? Would I be sane enough to move on without him? Would they have put me in a insane asylum and be under suicidal watch? That’s what I would be. If anything happened to my Dicky, I don’t think I would be able to live without him.

Just as I had gotten comfortable enough to doze off, the doorbell rang. I sighed and left Dicky asleep as I grabbed a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt, and walked to the front door. “Jessica?”

“Hi Andrew. I’m so sorry for coming to your house so late and waking you up, but I need someone to watch Sofia tonight.” The little girl was still dressed in her PowerPuff Girls pajamas and in her mother’s arms asleep.

“What? Where are you going?” Jessica didn’t look right. She looked so wired and too anxious for anybody at 3 in the morning.

“I can’t tell you right now, Andrew. But I do need your help.”

“Of course I’ll watch her, Jessica. You know that.” Jessica smiled at me then placed the sleeping girl in my arms.

“Thanks. I promise, just as soon as I can, I’ll come and get her.”

Jessica rushed away, and I carried the sleeping child upstairs and into our guest bedroom. I placed her in the bed and sat down next to her. “You all right, Sofia?” I asked her. She nodded her head. “Do you want some water or something?” She shook her head. “Do you want me to stay in here with you? Are you scared?” She nodded. I stretched out on top of the sheets and fell asleep. While I was slightly unconscious, I could feel Sofia scoot closer to me and wrap her little arm around my neck. Poor child. Tries to find closeness where she can get it.