I made a cup of coffee and pulled on some shorts and a tee shirt, in that order and went to the deck. It was a gorgeous day. Not too hot or humid. I stood at the railing sipping my coffee. The screech from an eagle got my attention and I spotted it flying about ten feet above the water. Then it pulled up to a stall and plummeted into the water and came back out with a pretty good size fish in it’s talons. It flew right toward me into a high pine tree to the right of Priya’s dock. I watched the graceful flight until it was out of sight. One lone pontoon boat slowly moved past Jacob’s dock to my left. As far as I knew, they weren’t here.
My date with Donna was still a couple days off. I found myself looking forward to it. I heard a lawn mower start and because of the acoustics on the lake, I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I swiveled my head to listen and determined that it was coming from Priya’s driveway. When it got louder, Priya appeared pushing the mower in her bikini. I watched as she mowed the lakeside grass. I expected that she would ignore me but she didn’t. She waved and smiled when she noticed me standing at the railing of my deck. I waved and smiled back. She finished that side of the house without further acknowledgment and then mowed the street side lawn, which was out of my sight because of the wall of arborvitae.
My thoughts drifted back to Donna and I decided to dress and have breakfast at the diner. It was much later than I usually go to breakfast but I was thinking that maybe it was late for everyone else too and she would have some down-time to chat. I was still working on how to tell her that I was interested in helping with her goal to get pregnant. It seemed crass to just say it that way.
When I pulled into the parking lot at the diner, it was nearly empty. When I walked into the diner, Donna was sitting alone on a stool at the counter drinking a cup of coffee and working on a game of Sudoku in the newspaper. She turned when she heard the bell above the door jingle and the grin on her face was priceless. She practically hurled herself off the stool and ran into my arms. She stretched up and kissed me. I kissed her back as I looked toward the kitchen to see if her boss was looking. I didn’t want her to get in trouble so I truncated the kiss a little quicker than she wanted. She led me to my usual table and sat across from me looking toward the window.
She looked great. There was a glow about her, like a beam of light was shining down from the heavens. I was happy to see her and she was happy to see me. She clutched my hand on the table and squeezed. I returned the pressure. We both spoke at the same time and she giggled and said, “You go.”
I ‘ummmed’ and ‘aahhed’ as I looked down at our conjoined hands and said, “About your goal to get pregnant.” I stopped right there and thought, ‘I’m a fucking idiot. I’m an educated man and I can’t find a better way to start this? Jesus.‘ I glanced up at Donna’s face. She was grinning as she was obviously enjoying my discomfort. From the way I had started, she couldn’t tell which way I was going to go, but she continued to grin like it didn’t matter what I said. I mumbled another ‘Ummm’ and then said, “I was going to tell you on Thursday but now is good too.” She squeezed my hand as if to urged me to get on with it. “I would be glad to help you in any way I can.” ‘Jesus,’ I thought. ‘I was a disaster. I sounded like I was offering to paint her house or something.‘ I was afraid to look up at her.
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