And I thought of those words as I drifted off to sleep at my Aunt’s, words that I had not dared hoped to hear as I took the train up that morning.
Kerry: A New Routine
Suze slept at her Aunt’s on Sunday and I met her at the Bronxville platform the next morning so we could go into the City together. We found two seats in the second car and just chatted until we got to Grand Central. We walked up a few blocks on Fifth and exchanged one last kiss for the day and she headed to Sullivan & Wilson, where she was paralegalling, and I headed a bit to the north to my Big Law firm, where I was Summer associating. At work, I was bursting to tell someone, but I decided to keep it as my secret.
I spoke to Suze at lunch and again at night, and that was our practice during the week. She was spending her final stretch in the Apartment so we did not see each other again until Saturday morning, when she took the train up and I met her at the Tuckahoe Station. We walked up the hill to my house and were surprised to see Mary’s car in the driveway. After we looked at one another and shrugged we headed in, where we found my Mom standing and Mary sitting on a chair in the living room. We again looked at one another. Eileen said, “sit” and pointed to the sofa.
Now what had we done?
Suze: Sleeping Arrangements
Kerry and I were uncomfortable but we sat, our legs touching, hands holding.
“We have a problem,” my Aunt began, after Eileen sat in the chair next to her. We looked from her to Eileen, who had a similarly serious countenance.
“At the end of the month, Suzanne, my Baby here, is moving to Yonkers and you, Kerry, will be here. You guys need to talk to each other about your sleeping arrangements.”
Kerry and I stopped holding our breaths. This is something we hadn’t given a thought to. Our new relationship was less than a week old, although, granted, it did have quite a gestation period.
Eileen continued. “I, er, we think we should all go with the original plan, Suzanne at Mary’s, Kerry here. There may be a time when an adjustment is required, and I really hope it’ll be sooner rather than later, but for now, there may be some, well, technical difficulties with regard to…sex.”
She was red and I wondered whether she’d ever had The Talk with Kerry. All my mother had ever said was that “making love is a beautiful and wonderful thing not to be taken lightly and not to be taken until you are married.” I was sixteen and that’s the last she ever said on the subject. But, as I said earlier, I had some video instruction.
My Aunt jumped in. “You are both adults and we are having this discussion not because you’re our little girls,” to which Eileen interjected, “although you are,” which drew a half-hearted rebuke from Mary, who continued, “but because you are living in our houses, by which I mean you are physically living in our houses and we need to talk about how all of us are comfortable about you having sex.”
She realized that that had not gone out the way she meant it to. “I mean, I’m just talking about the logistics.”
I looked at Kerry and she at me and she turned to them and deadpanned “are we now having the birds and the bees conversation? Are we going to get to the part about how-to-use-a-condom?”
Which set everyone off until Eileen said, “I know I can speak for me and I think I can speak for Mary and Betty, but the bottom line is that you both should be free to do whatever you want in either of our houses and you do not have to feel like you’re some high-school kids sneaking around when you do. All we ask, and again I think I’m speaking for Mary and Betty here too, is that you keep it down.”
Kerry stared at her mother and I stared at Kerry staring at her mother, whispering, “if you needed your Mom’s blessing I do believe you just got it.” And hysterics again filled the room.
After a pause, Eileen said, “seriously girls. We know you need quiet”—to which Mary couldn’t resist adding, “or not so quiet”—”time today. Mary, Betty, and I are going up to the mall and I’m having lunch with them. I won’t be back until after four. Suzanne, this house is, and always will be, yours. You are always welcome here. And in whatever room my daughter wishes to, er, take you.”
My Aunt threw up her hands and with an “Enough, we’re outta here” she and Kerry’s Mom were gone.
We took advantage of their absences and when the three of them returned Kerry and I were sitting in the living room reading with no trace anywhere in the house of how we took advantage of their absences.
Kerry: The 8:13 into the City
It was mid-November and school had begun for me and work continued for Suze. I had gotten a Queen-sized bed around Labor Day but she was still at her Aunt’s and I was still at my Mom’s during the week. Neither of us was ready to move in together because, well, there was her Aunt’s house and there was my Mom’s house. But it worked.