Lennie held Anita, caressing her and placing small kisses on her face, hoping to ease her into a restful sleep, but he did his best not to join her in sleep and to keep her from trapping his right shoulder under her head as she so often did. He hoped she'd soon be asleep so he could then slip off to deal with the reporters.
Lennie decided that, even though Dietz had promised to try to handle the newspapers, he probably better do something himself. As soon as he felt sure that Anita was asleep, he got up and turned the ringers off on the phones and started making phone calls. He called several people, who he had thought might call them, like Stefan and Ed and his Mom. Stefan, the typical teenager was oblivious to the newspaper articles, but once Lennie made him aware of them he was upset. Lennie promised him he'd take care of the situation. Ed had been just about to call and offered to try and talk to his newspaper contact but Lennie assured him he had a plan to take care of things on his own. Next Lennie called his mother to assure her that everything was fine; he knew she'd call everyone else in the family, so he needn't bother with the rest of them.
Lennie sighed; he decided he'd better leave a note for Anita telling her what he was up to, in case she woke up before he got back. He wondered if he was just procrastinating. He knew he sure wasn't looking forward to talking to the reporters, but then again it couldn't be worse than visiting Anita's family tonight. At least the reporters just wanted a story from him; they didn't have a vested interest in making him look like he wasn't good enough to be involved with Anita. For the umpteenth time in the last couple of weeks Lennie wondered why his loving Anita couldn't simply be their business and no one else's.
Lennie figured that unless the reporters got something spectacular on him today that there wouldn't be anything in the Sunday papers, as so many of the papers already had their Sunday editions out. So he hoped he could convince them to sit down and do an interview with him and Anita tomorrow, and then publish it without giving away who she was. That should satisfy the reporters desire for a story and yet still allow them to keep their relationship semi-secret, at least for a while. He made his way down to the lobby of his building and looked out at the group of reporters waiting outside.
"You'd best go out the back Mr. Briscoe," the building's security guard advised him.
"Thanks for the advice Pat, but I've got to face the vultures sometime," Lennie said with a trace of his normal gallows humor.
Lennie walked out of the building and the reporters descended on him like a wolf pack on a wounded animal. The photographers snapped so many pictures of him that he could barely see.
"Unless you stop using those flashes, and stop asking questions all at the same time, I'm just going to turn around and go back upstairs," he threatened.
The photographers stopped taking shots and the reporters all looked at each other trying to decide who should go first. Finally they all seemed to decide that one fellow toward the center of the group should act as spokesperson.
"Detective Briscoe, Marty Corcoran of the Post, what about the lady police officer you're involved with?" the reporter asked.
Several of the other reporters looked surprised and when Lennie didn't respond immediately Corcoran added, "We've got pictures of you picking her up last night at the airport."
As a look of shock registered on Lennie's face the photographers resumed taking pictures. Lennie realized Dietz wasn't exactly going to be thrilled with his lack of attention that allowed a photographer to follow him to the airport last night, not to mention the photographer being able to get pictures of him and Anita. Pictures Lennie imagined could only be termed compromising.
"Man, now I know why celebrities hate journalists so much. Everybody's just a story to you. You don't give a damn what you do to people's lives as long as you get your precious little byline," Lennie said with derision.
"Hey, you're the one who's breaking the rules aren't you?" asked one of the reporters in a judgmental tone.
Lennie's face darkened and he took on a defiant stance.
"You work side by side with the woman you love for ten years, doing nothing about your feelings, and then have your superiors say you have to go into a dangerous situation and convince everyone that the two of you are lovers, and if you aren't successful in convincing people of that, one or both of you could end up dead. See if you can go on as if there's nothing between the two of you. Then, you come back here and past judgment on me," Lennie said in a challenging tone.
The reporters grew quiet and the fellow who asked the question looked properly chastised. Finally one of the female reporters timidly asked, "You loved her for ten years and never did anything about it?"
"Well, for most of that time I mistakenly thought she was happily married. Hey, I never intended to hold a mini-press conference when I came out here," Lennie said in an irritated tone.
"What did you intend to do?" the Post reporter asked.
"I was hoping I could strike a deal with you guys," Lennie offered.
"What sort of deal?" Corcoran asked.
"Well, my lady and I would sit down with all of you tomorrow and do an interview. You could ask whatever you want of us. What I'm hoping is that we can convince you to leave her name, picture and any reference that might give her identity away, out of the article," Lennie proposed.
"I don't know about that," Corcoran protested and the other reporters chimed in as well.
"Look I've been with the NYPD for over 35 years and she's been with the force for over 20. We've got a lot of stories between us, and a lot of insights into what it's like to work for the department nowadays. If nothing else you can get a great story about anti-fraternization," Lennie suggested.
"What have we got to lose? We go interview them and if they can't convince us, we run the story with her name and picture," one of the reporters said.
"You OK with that, Lennie?" Corcoran asked.
"I guess I have to be. Of course if you guys all promise not to publish her name and picture and then someone does, that person will be persona non-gratis at every station house in the NYPD and I have some friends on the force in Jersey too," Lennie added with a smile.
"OK, so when and where for this interview?" Corcoran asked.
"You give me a call tomorrow about 8, and if I've survived the trip to the lion's den tonight, I'll let you know," Lennie answered as he handed Corcoran his business card and scrawled his cell phone number on the back.
"Lion's den?" several of the reporters asked at the same time.
"I'm meeting her mother and some other members of her immediate family tonight for the first time," Lennie reported nervously.
The reporters laughingly wished Lennie good luck.
Lennie went back upstairs feeling that he'd accomplished his mission, that is until he opened the front door of his apartment and found Anita holding his note in her hand. The look on her face told him he was in trouble.
"Let me guess, you're not happy with me," he said with a bit of wince.
"Good guess, now let's see if you can figure out why," she said her temper still evident, but beginning to cool a bit.
"Uh, I did a typical guy thing," Lennie said stalling a bit.
"A typical stupid guy thing," Anita corrected.
"But you still haven't explained what it was you did, and if you can't, how can I be sure you won't keep doing this sort of thing over and over?" she asked, still a bit upset with him.
Lennie flopped down in his recliner, with one leg slung over the arm of the chair.
"I saw a problem and I tried to fix it, but I didn't stop to consider that it wasn't just my problem to fix," Lennie said a bit dejectedly.
Anita slowly smiled at him.
"Did I get it right?" he asked almost eagerly when he saw her smile.
"Close enough. So, how did your conversation with the reporters go?" she asked.
"Pretty good I think. I got them to agree to call tomorrow morning to set up an interview with the two of us and then,"-
"Wait a minute, an interview with the two of us, you made an agreement with these reporters that involves me and you didn't even consult me?" Anita voice got louder with each word and Lennie realized Anita's temper was probably back close to full boil.
"OK, guess this stupid guy thing I did was worse than I realized. Look baby, I'm sorry," Lennie said as he stood up and tried to take her into his arms.
"Don't you baby me," she said as she pushed away from him.
"Anita, please don't be so mad at me. I was just trying to make things better for us, just trying to take care of you," he tried to explain.
She sighed and then gave him a small smile and shook her head.
"You suppose you'll ever out grow this tendency to think you have to fix everything for me, instead of letting me take care of things myself, or at least letting me be a part of working out the solution?" she asked.
"I don't know, I think it came with my y-chromosome," he said with what he hoped was a winning smile.
"Whatever, "she said rolling her eyes at him. "Let's get the chores done and you can tell me about this interview," as she pushed him toward the bedroom to start sorting laundry. Lennie explained about the interview. Anita was somewhat pessimistic, but he thought that was just leftover from her being upset with him.
They cleaned the apartment, did the laundry and packed things to take to Anita's house. Late in the afternoon Lennie started casting glances at Anita and she wondered what was wrong.
"Lennie is something bothering you?" she asked.
"Uhm, well I was thinking. I really ought to go to a meeting," he answered, and then he added quickly, "I'll be home in plenty of time to go to your Mom's, I promise."
"That's fine Lennie, you don't have to explain or anything. I know how important it is for you to go to your AA meetings." she said very supportively.
"Thanks baby, the meeting's just down at St Bart's. I'll be back in about an hour and a half," he said as he reached for a jacket and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Anita was actually sort of glad for a little time alone. She needed some time to calm herself and think how she would handle things tonight at her Mom's. She felt sure that her Mom was probably going to attack Lennie. She wasn't sure where her sister would stand on things. She hoped Arlene would be on her side or at least neutral. Arlene's husband Jonesy would probably be on Lennie's side, purely because he knew what it felt like to be in Mabel Harris' sights. One thing for sure, Anita wasn't going to let her mother come between her and the man she loved; if she had to, she'd make it very clear that as far as she was concerned, from now on Lennie came first in her life, even if that meant that her family was going to cut her off.
As he sat in the back of the meeting room on the ubiquitous folding chair, Lennie felt an odd sense of familiarity and strangeness at the same time. He'd been coming to this meeting for nearly a decade. He knew the regulars in the way you knew an AA buddy. You knew the person's first name, their occupation and their 'story' and you felt a sense of kinship or community. Lennie's great memory and his decades of experience at reading people meant that he had rather fuller character histories of the regulars at the meeting than most people had. He realized the front-page stories on him in the local papers meant people probably knew a bit more about 'Lennie the cop' than they had before, but he found that didn't bother him that much.
What felt weird to him was that, in many ways, he felt he was a different guy than the one who had last sat in the meeting a few weeks back. Maybe that's why he was sitting in the back row rather than near the front. Some people in the meeting would wonder if he'd fallen off the wagon. Only his sponsor knew what was going on. As the meeting progressed Lennie went from thinking he'd just sit in the back and say nothing to suddenly finding himself on his feet saying the familiar words.
"Hi, my name's Lennie, and I'm an alcoholic," once he started with the old familiar words it got easier to talk.
He found himself expressing what he hadn't realized was at the heart of his problem. He was happier than he thought he'd ever been in his life, but he was also anxious, afraid he'd wake up and find out it was all a dream, or barring that that he'd say or do something to drive her away from him. Somehow he just couldn't bring himself to believe he deserved to be this happy and he wondered if maybe he wasn't about to sabotage the relationship in some way.
Lennie ended up staying longer than he intended to because several of his AA buddies were giving him advice and offering support. Most simply told him to tell his lady friend how he was feeling, the age old 'honesty is the best policy'. When Lennie realized it was later than he'd promised to be, he begged out of the conversation he was in and practically ran back to the apartment.
"Baby, I'm sorry I'm late. I got to talking after the meeting and I didn't realize the time," Lennie started breathlessly apologizing the moment he got in the door.
"Lennie, calm down it's OK, we've still got time. Just go jump in the shower," she told him.
"Oh OK. What should I wear?" he asked as he was stripping off his clothes and heading for the shower.
"I've laid your clothes out on the bed for you," she answered.
"Kind of fancy for a family dinner isn't it?" Lennie asked seeing his dress black pants and white silk shirt laid out.
Anita came into the bathroom so she could talk to Lennie as he took his shower.
"My mom likes to see a man look well dressed, but believe me no matter how you dress, it will somehow be wrong," she added.
"Yeah, I figured that. Too relaxed or too fancy or too flashy or something," Lennie said.
He stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist. Then on an impulse he wrapped his arms around Anita's waist from behind and hugged her to him.
"Ack, Lennie you're getting me all wet!" she shrieked as he lifted her off her feet and carried her toward the bed all the while nuzzling her neck.
"Lennie, we don't have time for this, not now!" she laughed as he unceremoniously dumped her on the bed.
He put his hands on his hips, "OK, but somebody definitely thinks he's owed a rain check," he said looking down to where his erection was very obviously tenting the front of the towel around his waist.
"Perfectly willing to give you a rain check, now get dressed would you. If we show up late my mother will definitely give us what for," she guaranteed as she finished dressing.
Lennie stood behind Anita in front of the apartment door waiting for it to open. He grew more nervous with each passing second. Finally a woman who resembled Anita, but a few years younger answered the door.
"Hi Anita, you must be Lennie," Anita's sister said noncommittally.
"Hi, Arlene, isn't it?" Lennie asked as they came in and Arlene nodded as she took their jackets.
"Come on in, Mom and Jonesy are in the living room."
Jonesy stood up and gave his sister-in-law a hug and offered his hand to Lennie. The two men introduced themselves to each other offering each other their nicknames. Lennie noticed Anita's mother look at Jonesy like she wasn't pleased with the man's friendliness.
"Well, sit down before I get a crick in my neck," Anita's mother ordered frostily.
"Yes ma'am," Lennie said and began to sit in the nearest chair until Jonesy pulled him towards a chair better suited to a man with such long legs.
"Don't ma'am me. I'm not all that much older than you," she admonished him.
"Sorry, I didn't mean any offense. What should I call you?" Lennie asked.
"I suppose Mrs. Harris will do," she answered.
"Mom!" Anita protested.
"What? I suppose because you're foolish enough to be living with him you think I should let him call me Mom," Mrs. Harris verbally slapped her daughter down and then turned to Lennie.
She picked up a copy of today's Post and a file folder that said Miller Investigations.
"Where do you want to start explaining," she asked as she threw them down on the coffee table between them.
"I'm not sure it matters. I'm sure Johnny's report details what a skirt-chasing drunk I used to be and what a terrible father I was to my daughters. And I don't see any way I'm going to be able to change your mind about me if you've got it made up," Lennie said a bit sharply, then he got up and came over to Anita, looking down at her a bit lost.
"Baby, I don't know what to do. I can' t come between you and your family," he started very softly.
She stood and took his hand.
"You are my family. Come on let's go. I won't stay anywhere you're not welcome!" she said, looking daggers at her mother as she turned to leave.
"Wait! Wait Anita, Lennie! Please stay. I didn't mean any of it. I was just testing you, Anita!" Anita's mother said.
"What?" Anita said angrily.
"Oh child, when you first started telling me about you and Lennie, everything sounded so wrong. You're still married to Don, even if you haven't been living like husband and wife for years; and you're Lennie's boss, then you tell me he's quite a bit older than you, and he's been married a couple of times before, and has had trouble with drinking. You didn't exactly make him sound like the catch of the decade, girl," with her last comment Anita's mom laughed and so did Lennie.
"When you put it that way, I do sound like a parent's worst nightmare," he admitted.
"Anita, I just wanted to see if you were willing to stand up for your man," her mother told her.
"And boy was she," Jonesy commented.
"I've never seen Anita stand up to Mama like that before," Arlene added.
Lennie could see Anita was still upset at her Mom, and he wanted to find some way to smooth things over between the two women.
"Come on baby, please don't be mad at your Mama anymore. If you stay mad I'll never get to taste that wonderful smelling dinner," he said with one of the smiles she couldn't resist.
"Ooh, you and you're appetite," she said with a trace of a smile and swatted at him.
"Come on Lennie, let's see if you think it tastes as good as it smells. Oh, and by the way, you can call me Mabel," Anita's Mom added.
"All right, Mabel it is," Lennie said and offered her his arm taking Anita on his other.
As they ate a dinner that Lennie proclaimed "fantastic", Anita's family got to know him and found him just as charming as Anita did.
After dinner the women pushed Lennie and Jonesy out of the kitchen. As the women did the dishes and gossiped, the two men discovered that they hit it off like long lost brothers.
"Say, why don't you bring Anita and the boys over to our place next weekend, we're having some friends and neighbors in for a little pre-Halloween party we do each year. It's always a lot of fun," Jonesy said by way of invitation.
"Yeah, it sounds great," Lennie answered, and then suddenly he realized he was about to do another stupid guy thing. "Uh wait, I just about did it again. I better check with Anita first," he said with a grin.
"Oh yes, the Harris women don't like to be left out of the planning, do they?" Jonesy said with a knowing laugh.
Mabel had excused herself to the restroom, so Arlene took the opportunity to ask her sister a few personal questions about her relationship with Lennie. The kinds of things sisters ask each other about, but not in front of their mother. It didn't take long until she was teasing her big sister about Lennie, and the two women started laughing and carrying on like they were teenage girls again.
Lennie walked into the kitchen and the women immediately calmed down.
"Don't stop having fun on my account, I just came in because Jonesy mentioned something about a pre-Halloween party next weekend, and I thought I'd better ask you if you wanted to go?" Lennie inquired.
"Oh, I already told Arlene we'd be coming and that we'd bring the boys," Anita answered.
"Oh I see, so it's OK for you to make plans without checking with me, but if I do it, it's a stupid guy thing. You want to explain to me how that's fair?" Lennie asked with just a hint of exasperation in his voice.
"That's easy, because I'm the woman you want to have sex with tonight," she answered with a wicked smile.
"Damn, why does that make sense," Lennie laughed as Anita again pushed him out of the kitchen.
"You go back out there with Jonesy, we'll bring you fellows coffee and dessert in a few minutes," she promised.
"I see you've got him wrapped around your little finger," Arlene said.
"Well, pretty much, I just hope he doesn't figure out how wrapped around his, I am," Anita replied with a smile that suddenly disappeared when she saw her mother standing in the hallway leading into the kitchen.
"Mama, how long you been standing there?" she asked mortified to think her mother might have heard her comment to Lennie.
"A while, " she answered with a smile.
Anita blushed. "Oh Mama, if I'd known you were there I'd never,"-
"What, never have teased Lennie like that? Girl, don't you think I talked to your Daddy like that sometimes? Lord, every generation thinks they invented sex," Mabel said bemused, as she started fussing about getting the dessert out.
"You know, there's one thing I really like about Lennie," Mabel said, oblivious to the fact she'd just made her two grown daughters extremely uncomfortable, as they were now facing that most terrible of thoughts for children 'God our parents really did it and they probably even liked it!'
"What's that Mama?" Anita asked more by force of habit than because she was really tracking the conversation.
"You sure do smile a lot with him around," she answered.
Her mother's comment actually registered enough with Anita to break through her funk and the rest of the evening went by very rapidly. About eleven o'clock Lennie said they had to get going because of the interview they needed to do in the morning. As they headed to the door Lennie was surprised to get a hug from Mabel, and a hint that they should be inviting the family to visit them soon.
By the time they got home, Anita was almost asleep on her feet. Lennie steered her toward the bedroom and started undressing her, not in a sexy way, more like one would undress a sleepy child. She didn't protest, just cooperated and occasionally gave him a sleepy little kiss. When he got her stripped, he grabbed his old NYPD T-shirt that he knew she loved to wear and pulled that on over her head. He kissed her on her face and helped her slip between the bedclothes, and then he quickly stripped off to his boxer like a snake shedding its skin. He left all their clothes in a pile on the floor, a little voice in his head said that Anita would scold him for that in the morning but he didn't care. Finally, he slipped into bed, 'spooning' behind her, wrapping his arms under and around her so his left hand came to rest on her right breast and his right hand on her belly. When his hand came to rest on her belly, he smiled thinking of his unborn child he felt sure was growing inside of her. He kissed her neck, and put his left leg over her legs pulling her body a little closer to his.
Anita woke in the middle of the night desperately needing to go to the bathroom, but found that Lennie was wrapped around her. She was reluctant to give up the warmth he provided, but she really needed to go. Trying to get out from under his legs and arms without waking him up was a real chore. She thought she'd just about done it, when he woke with a startled snort.
"What? What?" Lennie said, as he clutched Anita to him.
"Nothing, honey just let me up. I have to go pee!" she said, almost desperate by this time.
He groggily released her, and then fell back to sleep.
"Lennie!" Anita yelled at him when she came back to bed.
"What? What is it this time?" Lennie said awakened again for the second time in just a few minutes.
"You're hogging the whole bed and all the covers!" she accused.
"Oh, sorry baby," he said as he rearranged himself and the covers to make room for her.
Lennie had just about fallen back to sleep when Anita said, "Lennie, are you still awake?"
"Well, I am now and for the rest of the night, too," he said in a slightly peeved voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry Lennie, it's just, I'm not really sleepy now and I was wondering,"-
He silenced her with a kiss.
"If you're not really sleepy now, then I'd like my rain check, 'cause otherwise, there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to get back to sleep tonight," he said emphatically.
"Uhm well,"- He kissed her again, letting his tongue explore her mouth and he began using his fingers in the magical ways he did. Soon she was making sounds that he interpreted as meaning 'yes sir, go right ahead and cash in that rain check.'
A while later, Lennie lay bathed in sweat, trying to recover his breath; Anita was tucked in under his arm, glistening with perspiration herself. She had a grin on her face that would have done the Cheshire cat proud.
"So, what did you want to ask me," Lennie asked sleepily.
"Oh, I was wondering what you thought of having a party for both our families, weekend after next at my house?" she asked stifling a yawn.
"Yeah, sounds good," he said, as he kissed her temple, yawned and fell back to sleep.
The next morning Lennie and Anita got up and got ready for the reporters to call and set up an interview. As far as Lennie was concerned the sooner the interview was, the better, then they could get over to Anita's house and get settled in over there.
Corcoran called promptly at 8 and after a little discussion they agreed to do the interview at Lennie's apartment at 9, to limit the number of reporters who came to four and to bring no photographers. Initially Anita was very wary of the whole process but eventually the reporters and Lennie won her over, and then she won over the reporters. By the time they left almost two hours later the reporters were very willing to write stories that didn't reveal Anita's identity, but which were very favorable to the men and women of the NYPD, if not so very favorable to some of the personnel policies and working conditions the men and women of the NYPD had to cope with in their everyday work. Once Lennie and Anita got the reporters out of the apartment they made all the last minute checks they needed to for closing the place up for a few weeks and headed over to Anita's house, taking both vehicles at Lennie's insistence.
When they arrived at Anita's, Don was just leaving. He and Lennie said hi to each other in exactly the tone one would expect of a soon to be ex-husband and the wife's new lover. Lennie, the trained observer, noticed several neighbors surreptitiously watching as he and Anita unpacked the SUV. Lennie took the suitcases upstairs as per Anita's instructions and nearly collided with Stefan as the teenager came stumbling out of his room.
"Oh, sorry Lennie," Stefan apologized around a yawn as he helped Lennie regain his grip on a suitcase.
"No problem," Lennie replied. "Hey, are you just now getting up?" Lennie asked in a teasing tone.
"Yeah, well it's not a school day and mom wasn't here to drag me off to church," Stefan answered.
"Shush, don't say the C word too loud," Lennie said, as he reached the master bedroom. Stefan opened the door for him.
Stefan laughed at his comment and then asked, "You trying to dodge going to church with Mom?"
Lennie sighed as he started unpacking a suitcase. "Well, I don't know. It's not that I'm not a believer, but I'm not much for organized religion. By the way, if you're at all fond of me don't tell anyone on my Mom's side of the family that," at Stefan's quizzical look Lennie added, "That side of my family is very Catholic and very devout. Anyway, back to what we were talking about, I keep thinking if I go to church with your Mom where she's used to going, there's going to be a lot of awkward questions and I'm not sure I want to put her in that situation or be in that situation myself."
"Well, if I know Mom you better at least talk to her about it," Stefan advised Lennie.
"Lennie! Stefan!" Anita called to her guys.
"You need something, baby?" Lennie yelled down the stairs
"I was wondering what you want to do about lunch?" she asked as she came to the foot of the stairs.
"I was planning on leaving that up to my woman," Lennie said in what he hoped was his best smart-ass delivery.
"You," Anita said with a laugh.
"Uh Mom, I think if you look in the kitchen, you'll find not only is the cupboard bare but the refrigerator is empty too," Stefan informed his Mom as he came down stairs.
"Oh great, you and your Dad just couldn't go grocery shopping, could you?"
"Well, grocery shopping is definitely not one of Dad's better talents," Stefan joked, though in truth he was stung a bit at how eager his Mom was to take a dig at his Dad.
"I'll help you get groceries, baby," Lennie volunteered as he stepped off the last step of the stairs.
"No, that's OK. I actually prefer grocery shopping on my own, but when I get back I'd appreciate some help with getting the bags in from the car," she countered.
"OK, we'll see you in a bit then," Lennie said. Anita grabbed her purse and car keys, and then she reached up to give Lennie a kiss.
"Alright, you two behave yourself while I'm gone," Anita said as she left.
Stefan stared at the closed front door for a second and then laughed.
"What?" Lennie asked.
"That's usually what she'd say if she left me and Ric alone when we were younger," he answered.
"Oh that figures, she thinks I'm about as responsible as a kid. I'm gonna have to talk to that woman when she gets back. Come on let's order a pizza and see if the games on," Lennie suggested.
"Great idea, let's watch down in the den. There's a phone down there to call for the pizza too," Stefan said as he headed downstairs.
Stefan was three-quarters of the way down the stairs before he realized Lennie wasn't following him.
"Something wrong, Lennie?" Stefan asked as he looked back up the stairs.
"Uh, I sort of thought the downstairs was your Dad's territory," Lennie said hesitantly.
"Oh well, he's got a bedroom down here but the den belongs to everybody. Come on down, I want to show you what we got last Christmas," Stefan said hoping to entice Lennie downstairs.
Lennie looked around when he got downstairs and wondered if the place was Don's territory. If it was, he could understand Anita being unhappy. The place looked like the ultimate coach potato's dream. There was an enormous 'Entertainment center' crammed full with a 35" TV, a DVD player and an X-box. There was also a CD player, and of course a collection of DVDs and CDs. What Stefan was so hot to show Lennie was the Tivo.
Lennie looked around and wondered if Don ever read any newspapers or magazines or books or if he ever just had a conversation with a member of his family. The guy probably just had his eyes glued to the TV set all the time. Lennie had nothing against TV, he liked watching sports and the news and there were some shows he liked, but he prized reading and listening to good music and talking to real live human beings too. He didn't see the reason to watch TV all the time, especially when so much of the programming now was just a bunch of junk.
Lennie kept his opinions to himself, and order pizzas and pops for the two of them from the place Stefan recommended. They settled in to watch the Jets Houston game. Stefan was having fun showing Lennie how they could do their own instant replay on the Tivo, so the two guys weren't minding too much that their team was losing.
As the game went on, Lennie got the feeling that Stefan was relishing the companionship of an older male. He thought that was a bit strange since he'd spent the last two weeks with his Dad, but maybe it was because he was a good bit older than Stefan's Dad. Maybe what Stefan was missing was a grandfather. Lennie didn't know about Van Buren's father, but he knew that Anita's father had been dead since Stefan was a toddler.
Lennie remembered when he was a teenager, his grandfathers were both dead, but he had a great-uncle Chris who he was very fond of, the old guy was easy to talk to and gave great advice. It was a good thing too, because Lennie and his old man got along like the proverbial oil and water, as far as Lennie was concerned his Dad was a real schmuck. Lennie stopped his musing as Stefan said something that drug his attention back to the game.
Anita wandered around the grocery store in that semi-trance that some people get into when shopping. She needed the mundane activity after the last couple of weeks. As she meandered through the aisles, she picked up things in a combination of reflex and thinking about what Stefan and Lennie liked and what they needed. She stopped in the card section and got a birthday card for Lennie. As she moved through the health and beauty section, she suddenly remembered that her primary birthday present for Lennie still needed to be confirmed. So she picked up an early pregnancy test kit. Just as she reached the check out counter, she saw her neighbor Phyllis Williams, not one of her favorite people. She realized this was probably not going to be a pleasant encounter.
"Well hello Anita, I haven't seen you around for a while," the other woman said by way of a greeting.
"No, I've been staying in the city with a friend for the last couple of weeks," Anita said as the cashier began taking her groceries out of the cart.
"Oh, would that be the man I saw helping you unpack your SUV this morning?" Phyllis asked pointedly.
"Yes," Anita answered shortly.
"So, I guess the rumors about you and Don getting divorced are true," Phyllis said.
"Yes, if you'd like to inform the rest of the neighborhood, I filed in Santa Domingo on Friday, so I should be free of Don in three weeks," Anita said beginning to get hot under the collar.
"That old white guy must be better than he looks," Phyllis remarked.
Anita finished paying for her groceries, and as the young grocery clerk looked on, Anita turned to her nosy neighbor and said, "You can't begin to imagine how good he is."
Anita then quickly turned and pushed her cart of groceries out of the store and quickly across the parking lot to where her SUV was parked. She packed the SUV as quickly as she could, hoping to get away before Phyllis got out of the store.
Midway through the second quarter with the Jets down 2 touchdowns to nothing, Lennie and Stefan heard Anita drive up. Lennie insisted they go upstairs immediately to help her unload the groceries. When Stefan started to protest Lennie countered that since the Tivo could pause the game for him Stefan had no excuse. Stefan grumbled a little but followed Lennie up the stairs.
As Stefan and Lennie were helping her put the groceries away there was some gentle teasing between Lennie and Anita. Stefan was at first bewildered, and then amused to see little things, like Lennie purposely putting essential items like bread on top of the kitchen cabinets where Anita couldn't possibly reach it. Anita would elbow Lennie, and he'd pull the item down pretending to have no idea why what he was doing was a bad idea. At one point, Stefan was fairly sure his Mom and Lennie had forgotten he was there, because Lennie purposely bumped into Anita from behind, and then pressed her into the cabinets, wrapping his arms around her and kissing the back of her neck.
"Aw come on, cut it out already, would ya?" Stefan protested.
Lennie looked back at Stefan with an apologetic grin and said, "Sorry man, I sort of forgot you were there."
Anita took the opportunity to turn around in Lennie's arms and then push against his chest, putting a bit of space between them.
"Why don't you two go back to watching your game and I'll finish unpacking the groceries myself?" Anita suggested.
"OK, but only if you come join us when you're done," Lennie said conceding, but putting his own requirements on the deal.
"All right, I'll be down there in a few minutes," she promised. Lennie collected another kiss and then headed off with Stefan to pick the game up where they'd left it paused.
Anita continued the unpacking, and when she realized that Stefan had been unpacking the bag containing the early pregnancy test kit, she breathed a big sigh of relief and thanked her lucky stars that she had pushed them out of the kitchen when she did. Having Stefan pull that out of a grocery bag would have been a unique way to tell her son she might be pregnant.
When she was satisfied she had everything put away, she went down to the basement and joined Stefan and Lennie on the big couch. She scooted in so she could sit with one of Lennie's arms draped around her shoulder. Lennie had saved her a couple of slices of plain cheese pizza and he'd bought her some root beer. He'd emphasized to her that it had no caffeine.
The guys decided she was a lucky charm because as soon as she showed up the Jets started scoring and Houston stopped. Lennie was particularly happy because he had a bet on the game, and not only had the Jets won the game, they'd beat the point spread he'd gotten. Of course he wasn't going to say anything about it, because he wasn't so sure yet how Anita would feel about his gambling.
"Hey, you won your bet, how much did you clear?" Stefan asked, obliviously.
"Uh,-" Lennie hesitated.
"Yes honey, how much did you clear?" Anita asked in a fake sweet voice.
"I don't think this is the proper time to talk about this," Lennie said.
"Oh really," Anita said in an annoyed tone.
Lennie looked at her, then looked at Stefan. "Do you really want to have this discussion in front of Stefan?"
"Uh,"-Anita looked down for a moment and realized Lennie was right. As much as she wanted to yell at him about his gambling, she didn't need to do it in front of her son.
"No, you're right this discussion can wait. I'm sorry," she said the last part softly.
"Me too, I didn't mean to start a fight between the two of you," Stefan said feeling badly about upsetting his Mom and getting Lennie in trouble.
"Hey, it's not your fault. Besides, I need absolutely no help getting in hot water with your Mom. I'm perfectly capable of doing that all by myself," Lennie said with a smirk.
"Yes, he is," Anita confirmed and then playfully hit Lennie over the head with a pillow from the couch, which started a free-for-all, with Stefan helping his Mom gang up on Lennie at first and then Lennie retaliating by using the ultimate weapon - tickling. Finally, Lennie convinced Anita that it should be older generation against younger and Stefan quickly cried uncle.
As the three of them sat slightly disheveled, laughing and trying to get their breath back, Lennie asked Stefan, "Hey, you coming with us to my birthday party tomorrow night?"
"Uhm, actually I'm suppose to study with Jenny tomorrow night," Stefan said giving his Mom a nervous look.
"OK, but if your plans change you know your welcome to go with us. My mom and my sister-in-law would just love to have another guy in the house to mother," Lennie said.
Stefan laughed a bit and then leaned over and laid his head on his Mom's shoulder.
"Speaking of mothering a guy, how about some of your home cooking, Mom. I've been eating TV dinners and McDonald's for two weeks," Stefan lamented.
"All right I get the hint, one Sunday dinner coming up," Anita promised, gently pushing Stefan up off her shoulder.
As Anita headed to the kitchen to start dinner, Stefan stood up and started pacing a bit. Suddenly he turned and said almost urgently, "Lennie, can I talk to you?"
"Uh, sure," Lennie answered, a bit surprised by Stefan's request, "how about we take a little walk. After imitating a couch potato all afternoon my legs could do with some stretching," he suggested.
"OK, I'll play bodyguard for you." Stefan said jokingly. "I know you're a bit nervous in this neighborhood," he added when Lennie shot him a look.
"Well, you got to admit I do stand out a bit," Lennie replied.
"I'm gonna tell your Mom we're taking a little walk, I don't want her to worry about us," Lennie said as he headed for the kitchen. He came back in a few moments and the two guys headed out the front door.
"You know you don't stand out as much as you'd think. This neighborhood is actually pretty diverse and you and Mom aren't the only mixed couple," Stefan said as they began their walk.
"Huh, maybe your Mom and I should try to meet these other couples," Lennie pondered out loud.
Once Lennie and Stefan had gotten a little ways from the house Lennie decided to see what was on Stefan's mind. "So what'd you want to talk about?"
"Well, it's kind of about why I'm not going to your Birthday party tomorrow evening," Stefan answered.
"Because you're going to be 'studying' with Jenny," Lennie said the word studying as though he definitely thought Stefan and Jenny might have a different way of defining the term.
"Yeah, well actually Jenny's folks are going out of town and she wants me to come over and well, you know um, she wants to 'do it'," Stefan had stopped near a park for a moment and was now looking down like he couldn't quite meet Lennie's eyes.
Lennie was very leery of wading into this situation. This was really Don's place, but he wasn't going to leave the kid high and dry. He knew Anita might not agree with some of what he'd say to Stefan, but he cared too much for the boy to just let him sit and stew. So right or wrong he was going to try and help the young man.
"Oh yeah, I remember this situation. My girlfriend my senior year was a cheerleader named Mary Sue, and man was she anxious for us to lose our virginity together," Lennie revealed to Stefan.
Stefan looked at Lennie in disbelief.
"What? You don't believe me? Remember my telling you how young I was in High School? Well my buddies"- before Lennie could continue Stefan interrupted.
"Yeah, I remember, you said you were a couple of years younger than everyone else," Stefan answered. "So that makes sense for you to still be a virgin as a senior, but me, man the guys are right. I'm some sort of freak," Stefan added sounding very distressed.
"Wait a minute," Lennie said as he swung a leg up over a bench in the park, "don't buy into that macho shit about sleeping with a woman being some sort of entrance into manhood or something. Whether you and Jenny decided to have sex should have nothing to do with the peer pressure you get in the locker room or the peer pressure she's getting from her girlfriends. And if the two of you can't talk about that then you've got no business making love to each other," Lennie said very emphatically, then he took his leg off the bench, turned and walked a way from Stefan a bit.
"Damn it, I didn't mean to start lecturing you. I probably shouldn't have said anything, anyway, 'cause it's not my place." Lennie turned back toward Stefan.
"No man, I wanted your advice, Lennie," Stefan said, sounding almost desperate to get Lennie to keep talking to him.
"Why didn't you talk to your Dad about this?" Lennie asked in frustration as he flopped down on the bench.
"Talk to my Dad about my relationship with Jenny!" Stefan said with a laugh, as though Lennie had just suggested the most ludicrous thing he'd ever heard.
"Well, why would that be such a bad idea?" Lennie asked.
Stefan sort of half knelt on the opposite end of the bench Lennie was sitting on before he started to try to explain.
"Don't get me wrong. I love my Dad, but …well, first of all he's hardly ever here. He's either working or at his girlfriend's place and when he is here, he's glued to the TV set. If I talked to him about me and Jenny he wouldn't have talked to me about not 'doing it' because of peer pressure or about being able to talk to Jenny about my doubts. He'd probably just told me to 'go for it', and then as an after thought he'd have told me to be sure to wear a rubber," Stefan said, the last bit coming out with added disdain.
"Well now, I'd have gotten round to mentioning that too, if I was convinced you were hell bent on being with your girl," Lennie said trying to counter some of Stefan's bitterness towards his Dad.
"Yeah, I know, I know. God, that's all my generation ever hears about, safe sex, be careful so you don't get HIV," Stefan complained.
"I wasn't thinking about HIV, I mean you implied that you're both virgins. I was thinking more along the lines of preventing pregnancy," Lennie clarified.
"But I thought," Stefan started and then stopped.
"What? No wait, I know, you thought that she couldn't get pregnant because it would be her first time and there's some sort of magical thing about the first time and a girl not getting pregnant, right?" Lennie said with a huge smile.
"Yeah," Stefan admitted sheepishly.
"God, I don't believe it," Lennie said with a laugh. "They were selling that some old bull when I was a kid and I thought your generation was so much more hip than mine."
"That's an urban legend, huh?" Stefan asked for clarification.
"Yep and one that's made more than one young fellow a, what is it they call them now a days, a baby Daddy?" Lennie asked.
"Yeah. Lennie can I ask you something?" Stefan asked hesitantly.
"Well you've been doing fine so far, so shoot."
"What happened with your cheerleader?"
"Oh, well with us it was my folks who were going to be out of town. She came over and cooked dinner for us. My older cousin Gus helped me out with a bottle of wine from his dad's liquor store, and he was the one who suggested I check my Dad's nightstand for Trojans, sure enough there was a full box of them. I learned quite a bit that night, which was a good thing 'cause in my day we learnt most everything on the streets and from our buddies. And believe me my buddies who were giving me so much grief about my needing to 'lose it'. Well, they didn't know jack," Lennie began telling Stefan about his first time.
"So what'd you learn?" Stefan prompted.
"Men and women are wired differently. We get to ready a lot faster than they do, what I didn't figure out for a while, is that a guy can stay ready and wait for his girl to catch up, then it's a lot more fun," Lennie saw a slightly puzzled look on Stefan's face so he decided to explain.
"I was over anxious and I rushed her. I ended up hurting her. I didn't mean to, but I'm a big guy and she wasn't ready for me. I just didn't know any better and neither did she. Then she was bleeding and that scared both of us," Lennie's expression made Stefan wonder.
"It still bothers you all these years later?" Stefan asked.
"Yeah, yeah it does. It's been over 40 years and that first experience still bothers me because it was so bad, and it was so wrong. For Mary Sue that evening went from being romantic to being painful, and she didn't do anything to deserve that. And the reason that whole stupid evening happened that way, was we weren't ready for it, but we were being pushed into it by our so called friends," Lennie's emotion filled explanation was enough to convince Stefan that the experience had indeed traumatized his older friend.
"Did you and Mary Sue ever try it again?" Stefan asked.
"Yeah eventually, I decided that I had to figure out what I had done wrong, because I knew couples couldn't be so turned on about something that was so unpleasant for the woman. That meant I had to confide in someone about how things had gone," Lennie explained sounding a bit uncomfortable about the last part.
"So did you go to your cousin Gus?" Stefan guessed.
"No, I sort of blamed him for the first time, figuring maybe the wine hadn't helped. No I went to my Great-Uncle Chris, he was the closest thing I had to a grandfather. Uncle Chris explained it to me very easily. He told me two things I've always remembered and since then I've had pretty good luck with women," Stefan waited anxiously to hear Great Uncle Chris' advice about women.
Lennie leaned forward like a conspirator about to share a secret.
"First he said, just because you know she's going to throw you a pitch you can hit out of the park, doesn't mean you shouldn't touch all the bases, cause if you don't, you'll find it's not so easy sliding into home plate," Stefan looked a bit confused, so Lennie clarified.
"Women need foreplay and lots of it, and don't worry about it. I don't think there's a man in the world has lost his erection while kissing his woman's breasts or caressing her thighs, OK? You just need to make sure she's in a receptive mood," Lennie advised.
"How do you know that?" Stefan asked.
"Haven't you ever seen an x-rated movie or a porn site on the internet?" Lennie asked.
"No," Stefan answered looking embarrassed.
"Man, your Mom and Dad have done a great job keeping you protected," Lennie said, thinking he really didn't want to be explaining the birds and the bees in this detail to Stefan.
Stefan nodded and realizing that Lennie was feeling uncomfortable decided to ask another question. "Did your Uncle Chris say anything more?"
"Yeah, Uncle Chris also said, 'most men think a good lover has a big, thick cock and he knows how to use it. But actually the size of a man's cock doesn't matter so much as does a nimble tongue and skillful fingers and knowing how to use them. But he said if you want to be a great lover it helps to have a big, thick cock, a nimble tongue, skillful fingers, two good ears and a smart head on your shoulders. If you know how to use them all very well, especially the last two, women will think you're really something special," Lennie said with a smile.
"What do you think he meant about two good ears?" Stefan asked.
"Well, I've always taken it to mean that you should listen to your woman when you're making love to her, to see what it is she likes and doesn't like. Repeat what she likes and don't repeat what she doesn't. I'm really hoping he didn't mean I should listen to what my woman says all the time," Stefan laughed with Lennie.
"So that next time with Mary Sue, was it better?" Stefan asked.
Lennie sighed and then nodded, but before he could say more a football and a young black teen about Stefan's age came sailing in their direction. Lennie caught the football with his left hand and the young man with his right, although not quite enough to keep the boy from crashing into the bench he and Stefan were sharing. A black man who appeared to be in his late thirties or early forties came running up as Lennie was helping right the young man.
"You OK, Tommy?" Stefan asked the other teenager.
"Yeah, just a little embarrassed," Tommy answered.
"Sorry I overthrew it a bit, I guess. Newton Williams, call me Newt," the man said, and offered his hand to Lennie.
"Leonard Briscoe, everyone calls me Lennie. You've got quite an arm, Newt" Lennie commented as the two men shook hands.
"Yeah well, that was a pretty good one-handed catch yourself, Lennie."
"Of the kid or the ball?" Lennie asked with a laugh.
The two men and the teenagers walked back to the neighborhood. The two men talked about their high school football days - Newt was a quarterback and Lennie a wide receiver. Lennie learned they were near neighbors, that the young man Tommy was Newt's oldest and that he and his wife Phyllis had a daughter too. Lennie was just thinking he should invite the Williams over, when he saw something akin to panic in Stefan's eyes and he quickly backpedaled on the invitation.
As soon as they got in the door Lennie practically pounced on Stefan.
"What was that about?" Lennie asked Stefan.
"I was afraid you were about to invite the Williams' over!" Stefan said loudly hoping his mother would hear in the kitchen.
"You did what?" Anita came in to the living room barefoot, wearing an apron, and mixing some sort of white sauce. She sounded somewhere between angry and panicked.
"Stefan and I ran into Newt and Tommy Williams over at the park. I took a liking to the guys, but apparently I'm not to invite them to the house," Lennie said the last phrase in a tone that said he was put out about it, but the truth was he was distracted by how sexy he thought Anita looked the way she was dressed.
"It's not Newt that's the problem, it's his wife Phyllis. In fact, I ran into her today at the grocery store and she was oh so lovely to me," Anita said sarcastically.
"What she'd say Mom," Stefan asked in a weary voice that said he knew darn well it was something catty.
"Well, her punch line was that the old white guy, I think that's you honey, must be better than he looks. I informed her that you are," Anita said with a smirk, before she beat a hasty retreat into the kitchen.
"Sorry man, it's just Phyllis Williams is, well lets put it this way, when you look up the word bitch in the dictionary, her picture is there as an illustration," Lennie couldn't help laughing at Stefan's explanation.
"She and Newt are living proof that opposites attract because he's the nicest guy I've every met and she's the bitchiest woman in creation." Anita added from the kitchen.
"OK, so now I know, don't invite the neighbors as a family. Can I just invite Newt and Tommy?" Lennie asked.
"Sure and Vanessa is tolerable in small doses too," Anita added but Lennie saw Stefan shaking his head and mouthing the word no.
"Anita, how long until supper?" Lennie asked, raising his voice so she could hear him in the kitchen.
"About 15 more minutes, why?" she asked.
"Stefan and I just need to finish a conversation we were having, we'll be down in the den, when you need us," he explained and then put a hand around the back of Stefan's neck and herded him toward the stairs to the den.
"I thought we were done talking about things," Stefan said hesitantly as they descended the stairs.
"Well, maybe we are and maybe we aren't, but I have to tell you something. I can't keep secrets from your Mom; if I do it will screw up our relationship. So you need to know I'm going to discuss some of what we talked about with her, probably later tonight," Lennie told Stefan.
"OK, how do you think she's going to take it?" Stefan asked hesitantly.
Lennie shook his head. He knew the only thing that was probably going to keep Anita from freaking out about her baby boy growing up too fast was that she had so many other things on her mind right now, not the least of which was the fact that she might be pregnant. Thinking about Anita probably being pregnant, made Lennie feel like a hypocrite. Here he was talking to Stefan about being sure that if he did go ahead and have sex with his girlfriend Jenny that he do so responsibly, but when Lennie had made love to Anita he hadn't acted responsibly, but then again if he had, they wouldn't be having the baby they both wanted so badly. He was sure deep down in his bones that Anita was pregnant.
"Uh Lennie," Stefan said growing nervous because the older man hadn't answered immediately.
"I don't know. You're her baby boy. She's not going to like thinking about her baby taking such big important steps. But she loves you and she trusts your good judgment, so I'm hoping she'll let you make your own decisions, without interfering too much" Lennie said and then squeezed Stefan's shoulder.
"Yeah, now if I could only figure out in my own heart and mind what decision to make," Stefan said.
"Maybe you better be ready in case you decide to give in to Jenny's request, but go there with a plan of action for just discussing things with her, making sure it's what both of you want, and that it's not just what everyone else is egging you on to do," Lennie advised.
"Could you help me with the being ready part?" Stefan asked.
"Yeah, we can take a little trip to the drugstore after dinner," Lennie answered.
Just then Anita yelled downstairs at them, "Hey you two, go get washed up and then come help set the table, dinners almost ready."
"Race ya," Stefan said and headed upstairs full tilt.
Lennie followed at a saner pace and as Stefan continued on up to the second floor to use the main bathroom, Lennie wandered into the kitchen and washed his hands at the kitchen sink. He inspected what Anita had prepared for dinner, baked chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, a tossed salad. Lennie stole a taste from several of the dishes.
"Stop sampling from my serving dishes, Lennie Briscoe or," Anita's scolding was cut off by one of Lennie's expert kisses.
"Or what baby, how you going to punish your man?" Lennie asked in that sexy growl of his that sent shivers up her spine.
"Ooh you," Anita didn't get to say much more as Lennie pulled her to him, kissed her again and began letting his hands roam over her body, 'feeling her up' as the fellows of Lennie's generation would say.
"Lennie stop, Stefan will be down any second and," she turned toward the stove. "My gravy is going to burn!"
Lennie laughed and gave her a gentle slap on the butt.
"Damn it, quit being a nuisance and be useful. Go set the table!" she said as she laughed and turned to finish off the gravy.
Just then Stefan came in and helped Lennie find everything for setting the table.
Lennie and Stefan ate like they'd never see food again; continually praising Anita's cooking skills, which she of course took delight in. Lennie insisted that he and Stefan do the clean up since Anita had cooked and she had no arguments with that as she was feeling tired. She went in and lay down on the couch so she could put her feet up.
"Anita baby, I'm going to take Stefan to the store there's something he needs to pick up," Lennie told a slightly sleepy Anita as he leaned over her on the couch to give her a kiss.
"Oh OK, see you in a bit then," she said and sunk back into the couch. Lennie spotted an Afghan on the end of the couch and pulled it up over her, she smiled at him and snuggled into it.
"Thanks, honey," she said as the guys headed out.
Lennie's attentive gesture wasn't lost on Stefan. He liked the way Lennie took care of his Mom. And he liked the different ways Lennie showed his attraction to his Mom too, even if at first that had kind of made him squeamish.
They took Lennie's car to the local pharmacy and Lennie helped Stefan pick out a package of condoms. They discussed the options, with Lennie quizzing Stefan on whether he or Jenny were allergic to latex and advising Stefan to use a condom with a spermicide, just in case the condom broke or wasn't applied or removed correctly. Stefan was really glad he'd taken an older guy along with him, when he saw the dizzying array of packages and options, all of which seemed to be aimed at selling him on how thin and strong their products were and how pleasurable they'd make the experience for him and his partner.
Stefan then realized he'd like to get a birthday card for Lennie and he wanted to "ditch" him for a few minutes.
"Uh, you mind getting lost for a few so I can get you a Birthday card?" Stefan asked.
"OK, I guess I can look around for something," Lennie answered with a smile.
While Stefan searched for just the right card for Lennie, Lennie wandered around the drugstore and came upon an aromatherapy display. He found a blend that claimed to be good for morning sickness called Easy Mornings. It was peppermint in almond oil, it wasn't cheap given the size of the bottle, but if it worked for Anita it would be worth it.
Lennie wandered towards the cashiers and sure enough Stefan had already made his purchase and was waiting for him. Lennie bought the aromatherapy oil and the guys left. The cashier shook her head, she thought they would have to be the oddest couple of customers she'd have all night, a black teenager buying a weird birthday card and a package of condoms and a middle age white guy buying aromatherapy oil for morning sickness, seeing them get into a car together really made her evening.
Shortly after the guys left, the phone rang, Anita groggily reached out for the cordless phone that was on the end table near the couch. She didn't even bother to check the caller ID, something she'd regret. "Hello," she answered a bit sleepily.
"Well, hello yourself, I haven't been able to catch you at home for the last couple of weeks. How are you doing?" Betty Abrahms said cheerily.
"Oh, I'm fine," Anita answered automatically and tried to wake herself more fully, so she could deal with what was bound to become a difficult conversation, more adequately.
"So, what's been keeping you so busy lately?" Betty asked.
"Uhm, well there's really no easy way to tell you this Betty. I haven't been here at home the last couple of weeks. I've been living with my lover in his apartment in the city," Anita started to explain.
"Well, not exactly what I would have expected from a straight arrow like you Anita. But if you're happy, who am I to pass judgment on you? So how is it you happen to be home now?" Betty's response and her questions cut Anita off before she could finish explaining who her lover was.
"Betty, you didn't really let me finish, but to answer your question Don and I have agreed to a two week on, two week off schedule with Stefan, so it's now my turn to live at the house with Stefan," Anita said.
"Sorry if I interrupted you, I suppose you wanted to tell me all about this lover so you can justify being with him, right?" Betty asked.
"Oh Betty, I doubt there's anyway I can ever do that to your satisfaction," Anita said wearily.
"Why would you say that? Anita, I told you I'm not going to pass judgment on you," Betty promised.
"Oh, yes you are. My lover is Lennie Briscoe," Anita confessed.
"No, no you'd never do that to me. You wouldn't become the lover of the only man I ever really loved, the man you made me give up because 'he's no good for any woman'!" Betty's voice had gone from a shaky whisper to a near scream.
"Betty, please try to understand, when I gave you that advice all those years ago I didn't know Lennie. I was giving my friend advice about a man she was describing, a twice divorced gambler who drank too much for his own good or hers, who she acknowledge wouldn't make a good step-father for her boys. That's not the same man I'm in love with, the man I'm in love with is a recovering alcoholic and he will make a good step-father to my boys. Betty, please I know it must seem like I stole him from you, but I didn't mean to. And you have to know something else. He's mine now and I'll never give him up," Anita warned Betty.
There was a long silence. "Betty?"
"I can understand how you feel, Anita. I hope you'll understand how I feel. I loved him. I still do. I did what I thought was right for my sons, but that was the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. I don't know that I could stand to see you with him. I don't know, I'd like to think that I could love him enough to be content to see him happy even if it were with someone else, but I'm just not sure that I'm that mature," Betty explained.
"I do understand, I wish I didn't have to hurt and lose my best friend to be with the man I love," Anita said in an emotion-choked voice.
"Oh Anita, give me some time. I don't want to lose your friendship. After all he's only a guy. Even if he's Lennie Briscoe," Betty said with a sad little laugh.
"OK, whenever you're ready you give me a call, OK?" Anita said with a bit of a sniffle.
"Yeah, I'll call ya, bye," Betty said and ended the call.
Anita put the phone down and let out a shaky sigh. She gathered the afghan to her like it was a pillow and started to cry. She started remembering her long friend ship with Betty; they'd known each other half their lives. They met at the academy when they were both 21 years old. Women were still fairly rare in the early 80s and ones who were newlyweds were even more so. Betty and Anita kept is touch with each and compared their personal and professional lives, which paralleled each other fairly well. They both ended up with 2 sons and both became detectives although Anita continued on up the ranks higher than Betty did, although Anita hit a glass ceiling at Lieutenant.
Anita had thought at the time that Betty's marriage being rocky sooner than hers was and Betty's dubious choice of lover were perhaps indications that her judgment was a bit suspect and that was why she hadn't made it as far career-wise. Once Anita met Lennie she had to revise her opinion a bit. She realized that she knew the sober version of Lennie and Betty knew the drunken version, but either way he still had to be a charmer. So maybe there were other explanations for the stall in Betty's career. While she was contemplating her friendship with Betty her guys came home, Lennie came ahead of Stefan.
"Anita baby, what's wrong?" Lennie asked very concerned for her.
"Betty called while you were out," she answered softly.
"Oh baby," Lennie said sympathetically as he scooted onto the couch next to Anita and held her.
"What's going on?" Stefan wanted to know.
"Betty called while you were gone," Anita repeated for Stefan's sake.
"So why should a phone call from an old friend upset you?" he asked.
Lennie decided to jump in and take the brunt of the explanation.
"Because Betty and I were partners a long time ago and more than that, we were lovers too. Your mom gave Betty some really good advice back then, she told her to dump me, because I was a drunk and a lot of other things that Betty didn't need in her life at the time. But your mom feels kind of guilty about that now," Lennie turned towards Anita, "don't you, baby?"
Anita nodded and then blew her nose on a tissue. "Betty was plenty upset to hear that we were together now, but well she asked me to give her some time. She doesn't want to lose our friendship either," Anita said and then she tried to smile. "Especially over a guy, even if the guy is Lennie Briscoe."
Stefan wasn't sure whether to be really upset to learn Lennie had an affair with one of his mom's best friends, one he knew was married, even if that was a long time ago, or to laugh at what his Mom had just said about she and her friend not wanting to lose their friendship over a guy, but before he could really decide his phone rang.
"Oh, excuse me that's my phone, it's probably Jenny," Stefan said as he bounded upstairs to catch the phone.
"Well, we won't see him for most of the rest of the night. He'll talk to Jenny, then his guy friends, then he'll get on the Internet for the rest of the evening," Anita predicted.
"Good, that means we can have some time alone together," Lennie said as he cuddled her to him.
"How about we go upstairs then?" Anita suggested sounding like she was beginning to feel a bit better.
"You want to go up to your bedroom this early?" Lennie asked a little surprised.
"I want to go up to our bedroom, and it's not all that early. I mean, you do want to get up bright and early on your birthday don't you?" she countered.
"I thought I'd get to sleep in on my birthday," Lennie said with a mock pout.
"Well if not for a family tradition maybe you could, but in this family we always go to the Pancake Shack on birthdays for breakfast. You do like pancakes don't you?" she asked in a much happier voice as she began leading him upstairs.
"Actually I love pancakes, it sounds like a great tradition," Lennie replied as he followed his lover up to the master bedroom of her house, enjoying watching her hips sway as she went up the stairs.
When they got up stairs Lennie began helping Anita undress, he loved taking her clothes off of her and kissing the skin that was exposed.
"Lennie," she said to stop him before he removed her bra and panties.
"Yeah," he answered distractedly.
"Did you lock the door?" she asked.
"Uh, " he stopped what he was doing, went to check and after locking the door replied with a laugh, "sure I did."
As he came back to continue his mission, she teasingly scolded him, "You can't forget that we're not alone in this house."
"Well, if I do and Stefan comes barging in, I guess I won't have to worry about teaching him anymore about the birds and the bees," Lennie said with a chuckle.
Lennie's comment made Anita curious and so she asked Lennie, "What do mean by that?"
Lennie sighed and internally cussed himself, as he knew he had just opened a can of worms that was going to kill the mood. He pulled her to the bed and sat down on it with her. He took her hand in his and for a few seconds he didn't say anything as he tried to order his thoughts. He wanted to try to figure out what was most important to tell her first and how to tell her so she reacted in the way that would be best for Stefan.
"Well, I did tell Stefan I was going to talk to you about what he and I discussed this afternoon, so I guess now is as good a time as any. I just want to be sure I don't screw up and say things in the wrong way," Lennie answered.
"Just tell me what you guys talked about and I'm sure everything will be OK," Anita suggested.
Lennie shook his head and said, "Well, I'm not so sure that's going to work as well as you think, but I'll give it a shot."
"He's not coming with us to my birthday party tomorrow night because Jenny's parents are going to be out of town and she wants the two of them to get together to lose their virginity"-
"What?" Anita exclaimed.
"Now wait, don't get all upset. Stefan's got a lot of reservations about this and we talked about them. I'm not sure which way things are going to go, but I'm sure he's going to have a discussion with Jenny about the two of them not having sex until they both feel ready for it, rather than letting themselves be pushed into something their aren't ready for by peer pressure," Lennie told her to calm her down.
"How did you get him to talk to you about that stuff," she asked.
"Well, it helped that he wanted to talk and that I was willing to share the experience I had when I was about the same age as he is now. I think he liked hearing that he wasn't alone in how he felt," he answered.
"I suppose that trip to the store was to buy condoms?" Anita asked.
"Yes, and don't you know that I felt like a hypocrite telling him that if he did decide to have sex with his girlfriend he should do so responsibly," Lennie shook his head and chuckled.
"Yes, I suppose you might."
"There's something else we talked about and I think you should know about it, but I'm hesitant to bring this up because - well, I've been on the other side of things and I know how hard it can be," Lennie stopped talking and suddenly found the bedspread fascinating.
"Lennie, could you tell me what you're talking about?" Anita said wondering what Lennie was beating around the bush about.
"Well, I asked Stefan why he didn't just ask his dad for advice. He said Don wasn't around much, that he was either working or at his girlfriend's, and when he was here, he spent his time watching TV. In Stefan's opinion his dad would have 'just told him to go for it and then as an afterthought mentioned using a rubber', the way Stefan said it I think he's lost a lot of respect for his dad," Lennie told her using his great talent as a mimic to imitate what Stefan had said.
"Oh great, well I'm going to have to talk to Don," Anita said and reached for the phone on the bedside stand.
"Now wait, would you mind a little advice from a guy who's been divorced and done this custody and visitation thing?" Lennie asked Anita.
"OK, I guess so," Anita said putting the receiver down.
"Right now you're upset with Don, and rightly so, about his lack of involvement with Stefan. But if you call him up right now and tell him all about what he's doing wrong and what you think he should do to change things, all you're going to accomplish is making Don angry and defensive. Gloria used to do it to me all the time. Until both of us changed our attitudes nothing happened. Believe me that took a long time to come about, in the meantime the girls suffered because we couldn't get out of this stupid pattern of her telling me how she was right and I was wrong and my getting mad and digging my heels in about anything she suggested," Lennie was looking into Anita's eyes trying to see if she was taking in what he was saying.
"God, I was so right about what I told Betty today," Anita said.
"What do you mean?" Lennie asked, thinking Anita's comment seemed to be coming out of nowhere.
"I told her you weren't at all like the man she was involved with, she left you because of your drinking and because she didn't think you'd make a good step-father to her sons. You've just shown me what a good step-father you already are to my son," she gave Lennie a gentle kiss.
"Well, he's a really good kid and it's not hard to give him what he needs. Which makes me kind of mad at Don. But then again, I think I know where Don's head is right now and he probably doesn't realize what he's doing to Stefan," Lennie wasn't so much talking to Anita as he was thinking out loud.
Lennie turned his attention more to Anita and said, "Whatever you do end up saying to Don, try to keep me out of the conversation. If he's anything at all like I was, the last thing he wants to think about is his kid developing a relationship with another man. The thought of some guy Gloria was seeing being involved in my daughters lives used to drive me nuts," Lennie admitted.
"Any suggestions on what I do say?" she asked.
"Well, focus on what's best for Stefan and try to let Don make suggestions about what he thinks he can do differently, that way your not forcing something on him and he'll feel ownership for the solution," Lennie answered.
"Oh, do as I say instead of as I usually do," Anita replied with a laugh.
"Uh, yeah," Lennie agreed.
"As long as we're having this serious discussion about things relating to Stefan. I'm not sure that I'm thrilled having you model the behavior of gambling around him," Anita said with a hint of reproach in her voice.
Lennie got a very displeased expression on his face and stood up and walked away from the bed.
"Look, I've gambled all my life, in one way or another, and at this point it's the one vice I've got left. I'm not going to quit gambling and that's it. Get used to it," He said emphatically. "Look, let's not do one of those stupid 'you're perfect. I love you, now change' things," Lennie added, he was clearly getting agitated.
"Lennie I think you're overreacting a bit," Anita said as she got up and moved toward him.
"Yeah, well you're not the one being asked to give up something you need," Lennie snapped.
"First of all, I'm not asking you to give it up," she said as she reached out to take his hands. "I just said I wasn't sure I liked your modeling that behavior for Stefan. Second, it concerns me that you didn't want to tell me how much you were gambling, and finally it really disturbs me that you say you need to gamble, because that makes it sound like an addiction," Anita countered in an intense but controlled voice.
Lennie pulled her to him and then walked back to the bed. "Baby, I have an addictive personality and it's like a hose when you've turned on the spigot. You can put a kink in the hose to keep the water from coming out but it's hard to hold the flow back and eventually something's going to give. You have to work at it all the time to keep it from gushing out and if you can find a safe outlet you stick with it. For me gambling is a safe outlet," he explained.
"Now wait a minute, I've seen you worry about Ed and his gambling, so how could you think gambling is safe for you?" She asked very concerned for Lennie.
"I don't know, I've never got jammed up gambling. I always know what my limit is and I can stick with it. I've never gambled money I couldn't afford to lose," Lennie rationalized.
"Speaking of which, how much did you wager on that game?" Anita asked.
"A couple of c notes," he answered.
"Lennie!" Anita exclaimed.
"Don't get all upset. First off, I won the bet and second I could afford to lose it," Lennie said trying to calm her down.
"With my possibly being pregnant, you think you can afford to lose a couple hundred dollars on a stupid football game?" Anita asked animatedly.
Lennie didn't answer her right away and looked at the floor and then at their entwined hands.
"Can we compromise on this issue? You don't ask me to give up gambling and I'll promise to keep my wagers smaller, say no more than $50?" Lennie proposed.
"OK, I think I can live with that," Anita agreed.
"Great, now where was I?" Lennie said as he began removing Anita's bra. She giggled.
"Hey wait, you're way too far ahead of me, "She said as she pushed at him and began stripping off his clothes. After she unzipped his fly and began pushing his pants off of him he started resisting her.
"Wait a second, I've got something in my pocket for you," he reached in his right pocket and pulled out the aromatherapy oil and handed it to her.
"It's suppose to help when you have morning sickness, you just sniff it and it's suppose to relieve the symptoms," he said sounded like he was caught between being skeptical but hopeful for her sake.
"You are so sweet to always be thinking about me," Anita said, and then placed the oil on the nightstand, finished removing his pants and pulled him over her. Just then Stefan knocked on their bedroom door.
"Mom, Lennie, I'm going to bed now, just thought I'd say good night," he called through the closed door.
"Goodnight son, 'Nite Stefan," Anita and Lennie called.
"Now aren't you glad I had you lock the door?" Anita said with a laugh.
"Yes ma'am, do you have any other orders?" Lennie asked in a suggestive voice.
"Yes, I do. Make love to me, now!" Anita's voice was as sultry as he'd ever heard it and he was more than willing to obey her.
When they were both sated Lennie assumed his new favorite sleeping position, which consisted of draping himself around and over Anita. He quickly fell asleep and Anita soon found herself lulled to sleep to the sound of his breathing. About 3 am Anita awoke desperately needing to use the bathroom. She realized she was again trapped beneath Lennie's arms and legs.
"Lennie let me up. Lennie, LENNIE!" she finally had to raise her voice to rouse him.
"Hm, oh sorry baby," Lennie said and let go of her.
When she got to the bathroom she figured she might as well use the EPT kit, as the kit said that early morning urine was most accurate. She cursed herself because her glasses were downstairs in her purse and she wasn't going to go down and get them, so she played around with where to hold the instructions until she could get them into focus. The directions seemed pretty simple - a far cry from the doctor's office 'pee in this paper cup' routine that was the ultimate in frustration. The waiting seemed like an eternity but even before the 2 minutes was up she could see pink lines forming in both the square control window and the round test window. She didn't know exactly how she'd feel when she knew for sure she was pregnant. Now that she did, she wasn't sure she could put words to her feelings. What words describe being extremely happy and frightened at the same time?
As she returned to the bedroom she nearly laughed. There caught in the little bit of light provided by moonlight and the distant city lights was the sprawled form of her lover, who once again in her absence had managed to spread out his scrawny form over most of the bed, leaving her no place to sleep. She noticed that his prominent nose was snuggled into her pillow as though like a scent hound he'd sought her out. She sighed as she realized she had no choice but to wake him.
"Wake up, sleepyhead and let your lover back in bed," she said while gently shaking his shoulder.
"Mm huh," Lennie acknowledged and scooted over a bit, making just enough room for her to lie in front of him. As soon as she lay down he wrapped his arms and legs around her, as he was wont to do. Anita sighed and snuggled into Lennie. She felt his left hand on her belly and smiled. In a few hours she'd wake him and let him know they'd beat the odds and he was going to be a father yet again.