How to Love

Much like the first time Jake had slept over, I woke up in the morning pressed up against him with his arm around my waist. The sun was streaming through my window, and the moment would have been absolutely lovely if I’d had curtains over my window and not fucking paper towels. I made a mental note to work on getting a curtain rod and curtains as I crawled out of bed, careful not to wake Jake up. I searched the floor for my clothes, which had definitely made their way into the Land of the Unknown, which was what I typically referred to as the washing machine since all it did was eat up my socks. Apparently a black hole had also formed in my bedroom, so all I could find were Jake’s clothes. I threw on his t-shirt from the previous night and reached into my drawer for a new pair of underwear, too lazy to bother finding anything else.

After I half-dressed, I padded softly out of the room, vigilant about avoiding the lone creaky floorboard. I went downstairs to the main level to grab the newspaper and hurried back inside before our neighbor Debbie could see me, especially since we were all already convinced that she spied on us. I brought the paper back upstairs and read through it while I waited for Jake to wake up. Despite a late night, my internal alarm clock woke me up around eight-thirty and refused to allow me to go back to sleep. By the time I’d finished up the word search, attempted the crossword, got frustrated with the Sudoku, and finished brewing a pot of coffee, my stomach started growling so I decided to make some pancakes, hoping that the smell would rouse Jake the same way it did with my dad. This plan worked well since a few minutes after I got the pancakes going, Jake slid his arms around my waist from behind me and kissed the top of my head, making me jump in surprise.

“Sorry,” he chuckled, still letting his hands rest on my waist. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you heard me walk in.”

“Obviously not,” I said, smiling a little. I nodded my head in the opposite direction. “I made coffee, if you want some.”

“Sounds good.” He reached for the cupboard above me and grabbed one of the mugs, turning away to the other side of the kitchen to pour his coffee. I stole a glance at him, noting how cute he looked in just his boxers and crippled with bedhead. “How’d you sleep?”

“I slept pretty well,” I replied, flipping one of the pancakes over. “Could you do me a favor and hand me one of those plates?” He reached into the cupboard next to the coffee pot and took three plates out and handed me one, leaving the other two for our individual pancakes. “Thank you. Did you sleep okay?”

“Like a baby,” he answered, taking a sip of his coffee and then setting the cup down beside him. “Although it would be nice if one of these mornings if I could actually wake up and you’d still be there.” He had a joking tone to his voice, though I figured he was probably serious.

“True, but what’s better than waking up to the smell of pancakes?” I teased him. I finished the last of the pancakes, moving the two I’d just cooked onto the plate I’d asked him to grab for me. “We’ve still got tomorrow morning too, you know.”

“That’s true,” he said, moving the other two plates he’d grabbed to the table and setting his coffee down beside one. “We’ve still got two whole days to fuck.”

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s true, too.”

“I was kidding, by the way,” he chuckled, taking the plate of pancakes from me and setting them on the table in between us. He kissed the side of my head before sitting down. “But for the record, last night was amazing.”

“Again, I can’t disagree,” I said, smiling a little wider. We finished breakfast together and while I cleaned up, declining his help in doing so, he headed downstairs and out the garage door to grab his overnight bag and a few of the books he’d bought the day before. We spent most of the day in my room, lazing around together in the bed, alternating between reading, watching a little TV, and making love. It was an incredibly relaxing afternoon, so when my phone went off around five o’clock and put a little bit of a damper on the laidback afternoon we were having, I was a little irritated. I checked the caller ID and saw that it was Matt, so I answered. “What?”

“Well, hello to you, too,” Matt said sarcastically. “What’s up your ass?”

“Nothing,” I told him. “I was just in the middle of doing something.” This was technically not true since Jake and I were not physically involved at the moment, but I was in the middle of trying to start reading a play for my English class, which was difficult enough to concentrate on without being interrupted by Jake’s friskiness or Matt calling me.

“Well, can you stop whatever you’re doing and come have dinner with me and Liz?” Matt asked breezily. “We’ve got some news.”

“I kind of have company,” I hesitated a little uneasily. I didn’t quite want to admit to Matt that I had Jake over while Dad was gone. I knew he wouldn’t rat me out, but he’d probably tell Alexander and I’d receive relentless teasing from them about it for the next month or so.

“Jake, right?” Matt guessed. He took my silence to that question as a confirmation. “Okay. So bring Jake. We’ll just all get dinner together. It’ll be fun.”

“I’ll ask him.” I put my hand over the phone and looked over at Jake, who was mostly naked and flipping through the Gordon Ramsay autobiography he’d bought. “Do you want to get dinner with Liz and Matt?”

He sighed like this was a huge deal. “That means I have to put clothes on.” I could hear Matt laughing on the other end, so apparently my hand was not doing a good job of masking the noise on our end of the line. He smirked, leaning over to kiss my forehead. “But for you, anything.”

I moved my hand from over the phone, not that it had even done any good in the first place. “We’re in. Where are we supposed to be and when?”

Matt instructed Jake and me to meet him and Liz at Friendly’s in about an hour, and I silently dreaded running into the Twat Waitress, but I kept it to myself. Jake and I both needed to take showers before we went to meet them, so we attempted to shower at the same time, though that didn’t work out well. The shower was too small for us to both be in there at the same time, so we eventually just gave up and took really quick separate showers, laughing about it the whole time. Somehow we managed to get to the restaurant on time and we found Matt and Liz sitting in the booth next to the mural of the carnival.

Matt waved us over as soon as he noticed us. “Hey, long time, no see.” Liz gave me a little smile from next to Matt and he got up to give me a hug and shake Jake’s hand before he sat back down, Jake and I sliding in across from them. Matt gave me a little smirk and said, “Don’t worry Veronica, I made sure we got you a table in your favorite waitress’s section.”

I frowned. “You really don’t want to live very long, do you?”

He shot me a cheeky smile. “I think I’m funny.”

“I’m glad someone thinks so.” I rolled my eyes good-naturedly. It was nice to be able to sit with Liz and Matt. I hadn’t seen them as much lately, partially because I’d been spending so much time with Jake but also because they’d been so busy getting ready for the baby. “So what was this news you had?”

As always, Twat Waitress had terrible timing and came over to the table at that exact moment and chose to linger instead of immediately taking our orders back to the kitchen, as any normal waitress would do. She finally left after asking about where my dad was and how he was doing since she hadn’t seen him come in lately. I informed her that he was busy and currently out of town and then she left somewhat sadly.

“Is she in love with your dad or something?” Jake asked, laughing a little.

“We theorize,” Matt answered. “Anyway, so about that news…” He turned to Liz and smiled at her excitedly. “Do you wanna say it or should I?”

“I wanna say it.” She grinned a little more at Matt and then turned her attention back to me and Jake. “We’re having a girl.”

“Aw, Liz, that’s so great!” I told her at the same time Jake was congratulating them. If she wasn’t across the table, I would’ve tried to hug her, so I settled with just being excited. “Now Alexander and Dad both owe me twenty bucks each.”

“Did you all seriously bet on the sex of our baby?” Matt asked a little incredulously.

I shrugged. “Yeah. You guys bet on my love life, so why shouldn’t I?”

“Touché.” He shrugged. “I’ll give you that one.”

“Are you excited?” Jake asked, looking between the two of them.

“Hell yeah, man,” Matt answered without hesitation, making an expression like he couldn’t believe anyone would think that he was anything but stoked.

“It still doesn’t quite feel real yet, but yeah, I’m excited,” Liz finally answered.

Matt put his arm around her and kissed the side of her head. “It’ll feel more real when we get all moved in.” He directed his attention back to Jake and me. “Oh yeah, by the way, we got a place.”

“Really?” I was kind of surprised, since Matt already had his own apartment. I’d figured that Liz would just move in with him since she normally just migrated between her sister’s house and her mom’s place. “Where?”

“You know Liz’s grandparents’ house?” I nodded in response. Everyone in Liz’s family lived on the same street. Her dad had the corner house, the next house down was her grandparents’ place, next to that was her mother’s, and across the street from that was her older sister Georgeann’s. The only sibling she had that had escaped their area of the street was her older brother who lived across town. “Well, the upstairs of their place is pretty much a two bedroom apartment. It’s got a family room and a kitchen and everything.”

“That’s cool,” Jake said. “When are you moving in?”

“As soon as we clean it up a bit,” Matt said. “I’ve gotta replace the flooring in the family room and kitchen, and I have to fix all the stuff in the bathroom, and then there’s the problem with the roof in our room… Plus we’ve gotta paint and whatnot. We’re shooting for the beginning of May, maybe mid-May.”

“What was wrong with your place?” I asked. Matt had a perfectly nice apartment, and it was decently spacious.

“My lease is up in June,” he answered. “And it’s probably gonna be too small for us and the baby. Plus, they don’t allow dogs.”

“You don’t have any pets,” I told him. “We’ve never had anything bigger than a fucking goldfish.”

“We got a dog yesterday,” Liz replied. “She’s a boxer. We named her Ruby.”

“Why the hell was I only just informed of all this?” I asked. Apparently they didn’t have just one piece of news to share; evidently they’d remodeled their whole life while my back was turned.

“You could’ve known yesterday, but you never check your Facebook,” she retorted.

“I was kind of busy,” I admitted, shrugging as casually as I could as Jake knocked his knee against mine underneath the table.

“Oh, speaking of you being busy, what was this business I overheard about needing to put clothes on?” Matt asked, smirking as the words fell out of his mouth.

“Wait, what?” Liz’s head popped up, a look of surprise spreading across her face.

I was just starting to feel myself blush, but the Twat Waitress finally did me a service by picking the right moment to reappear at our table with our food, setting it down in front of us. She didn’t fail to get apple sauce on one of my chicken tenders.

Liz immediately reached over and grabbed the tainted chicken tender from my plate and started wiping it off on her napkin. “I know you. You’re freaking out right now.” She placed it back on my plate and looked at Jake. “See, that’s love.”

“What, cleaning off a piece of chicken?” he asked, slightly bewildered. “You didn’t even give me a chance.”

“It’s in the manual I gave you.” Liz pretended to look disappointed and irritated. “Shame on you.”

“Okay, I read that thing cover to cover, and there was absolutely nothing in there about needing to wipe off any chicken tenders should applesauce spill slightly on them, God forbid,” Jake argued, chuckling slightly.

“Is anyone else bothered about the fact that Liz essentially wrote a book on how to take care of me?” I asked, only to be ignored.

Instead, Matt continued smirking and gave Jake a nod from across the table. “I bet you had to wipe your chicken tender off last night. Am I right?”

“Matthew!” Liz immediately scolded him, smacking his arm. “It’s not okay to ask about their sex life! They don’t ask about ours.”

“Well, clearly they know we have one since you’re with child.” He rolled his eyes dramatically. “It’s easy enough to put two and two together there, dear.”

“But that’s your sister,” Liz emphasized. Jake and I said nothing, just watched them argue. “You’re supposed to be looking out for her, not asking about her sex life.”

“Jesus, Liz, she’s eighteen years old,” he said. “Even as her brother, I was praying for her to get some. It was getting sad.”

“Hey.” I frowned. Again, they ignored me, so Jake just put his hand on my knee and shook his head. He whispered in my ear that it wasn’t worth it, and that it was getting entertaining and that we should just see where it went.

“Again, that’s your sister.” Liz gave a very exasperated sigh. “You’re supposed to threaten to break his knees if he touches her or something. What are you going to do when our daughter starts dating?”

“Well, she’s not going to date, so it’s not going to be a problem.” Matt shrugged this off easily. “And I’m not going to threaten Jake. I like him. I’m the nice brother. I leave the harsh stuff to Alexander.”

“Did Alexander threaten you in any way, shape, or form?” Liz asked, turning her full attention to Jake for a moment.

“No, not directly,” Jake hesitated. “Michael just reminded me of the fact that Alexander’s skilled with firearms and owns several guns, but Alexander hasn’t said anything to me.”

“Well, see? Alexander’s doing a shitty job.” Liz furrowed her eyebrows at Matt, frowning. “Clearly you have to do it for him.”

“Liz, what the fuck?” Jake asked, feigning heart break. “I thought we were friends.”

Matt finally relented, his eyes widening. “Oh my God! Fine! Jesus Christ.” He looked Jake in the eyes. “Jake, I have a pocket knife, and that’s all I’m going to say.”

“That’s it?” Liz demanded. “I thought that was going to be more colorful coming from you, honestly.”

“It’s like a game of Mad Libs,” Matt said. “He knows where I was going with that. He can fill in the blanks.”

Liz finally let the subject die, and thankfully Matt didn’t bring it up again all through dinner. Instead, he offered to show us their new place, which Liz initially objected to since it was so dirty. He eventually got her to agree, so we followed Matt and Liz in Jake’s car over to her grandparents’ house. Since it was late, we had to go in quietly, and they led us up some mildly steep stairs. Immediately, I was hit with a mildew-like odor, but if anyone else was catching the same scent I was, they gave no indication of it.

The hallway of their little apartment was small and narrow, and overall pretty unimpressive. At the end of the hallway near the stairs, they had a small bathroom with an awkward design to it, making the space above the toilet very crunched. It was pretty dirty and there was some kind of indeterminable smell seeping from somewhere. Matt showed us the bedrooms. The one on the left side of the hallway was supposed to be theirs, and it was decent sized. It was pretty obvious where the problem where the roofing was, but other than that, there wasn’t much wrong with it. On the right side of the hallway, there was another room, bigger than theirs that they had designated as the baby’s room. Finally, at the opposite end of the hallway, they had their family room and kitchen. It was small, but comfortable, although while they were talking, I was trying to figure out where in the world they were planning on putting the dining table in that they were going on about.

“So what do you think?” Matt asked hopefully. I was trying to think of something nice to say about it, but there wasn’t a whole lot to go off of. Luckily, I didn’t have to think hard since Jake came up with an answer.

“It’s nice, man.” He looked around, eyeing everything the way I had and studying it as though he was trying to memorize it. “A lot of potential. I’m sure it’s gonna look awesome when it’s all fixed up. If you need any help fixing anything or moving furniture, just let me know. I’m happy to give you a hand.”

“Much appreciated.” Matt nodded. “You can probably bet on me calling you. I’m definitely gonna need some help.”

“I can help paint,” I offered, trying to be helpful. “That’s about the only skill I have that’d be useful.”

They both thanked us and then we headed back out to the driveway. We stood around talking for a little while, but then Liz said something about being tired, so Matt walked with her over to her mom’s house so they could go to bed and Jake and I started heading back to the FH. I was quiet for most of the ride back.

“You seem like you have something you wanna say,” Jake remarked as we pulled up under a red light.

I sighed. “I don’t know. I’m just worried about them.”

“How so?” Jake asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, I mean, everything’s just getting thrust at them so fast,” I said, trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to say without sounding like an asshole. “And they’re not making it any easier on themselves. Like, I don’t understand why they got a dog. Having a dog means that there’s going to be less money for them to spend on the baby, and it’s not like either one of them has a lot of extra money anyway. Plus the baby’s gonna grow up with the dog and they’ll become best friends, and then the dog will die and their child is going to be emotionally traumatized.”

He looked at me for a moment like I was from a different planet. “Where the hell did that come from?”

“It’s true!” I insisted. “Plus, Liz’s car is a piece of shit and can’t be trusted, so they’ll only have one car, and they probably should’ve focused their money on fixing hers or getting a new one altogether instead of buying a dog. Also, I don’t see why they couldn’t have stayed at Matt’s place if he just renewed the Goddamn lease like a normal person. I mean, there’s a time when Liz would have never even considered living in that new place. She would have dismissed it with a vomit noise.”

“You mean a gag?” he asked.

“It’s not quite a gag, it’s more like a guttural hurl,” I clarified and took a deep breath as the light turned green. “Okay. I think I’m done now.”

“All right, first of all,” Jake started, easing the car back into drive, “I’m not understanding your issue with the dog. I don’t know anyone who was emotionally traumatized because their dog died. I had a dog when I was a kid and it died and I was sad about it, but I didn’t go on like an emotional tailspin or anything. I just cried about it for a day and a half and moved on and bought a turtle instead.”

“That was the entire reason we weren’t allowed to have pets when we were kids,” I said. “My mom said it would be emotionally scarring when it died.”

“I’d imagine it was mostly because your parents were afraid a dog would get loose and run downstairs during work hours or something,” he commented.

“Well, that, too.” I shrugged.

“Right. Secondly, I can’t explain their car situation,” Jake went on. “And I agree, they probably should have done something about that before they got a dog, but that’s their business. Last, they’re not moving into that place as is, they’re gonna fix it up. It’s true that it’s smaller than Matt’s current apartment, but they’re just starting out. Plus, I really can’t comment much on that since I’m twenty-one and I still live in my parents’ basement.”

“Valid.” I nodded in response to this. “I just can’t help worrying, though.”

“It’ll work out,” Jake assured me, sliding one hand over to my leg. “And I’m pretty sure I have a good way of taking your mind off of it when we get back.” He shot me a quick wink and then turned his attention back to driving.

“I guess I’m pretty excited to get back then.” I smiled coyly.

“I know, me too,” he said and the added with a straight face, “I always look forward to watching Hell’s Kitchen.”

I laughed and punched his arm. “God, you’re good at ruining the moment.”

“Don’t assault the driver!” he protested, flinching.

I laughed again and shook my head. “You’re an idiot.”

“Yeah,” Jake agreed easily, lifting my hand up to his mouth and kissing it lightly. “But you love me, though.”