typea_all (28 page)

     He waited until Ryan got into his car, and then walked over to me.

     "Okay, Brooke. What’s the story here?"

     "I’m not making excuses, and I’m not asking you to forget anything. You can throw whatever you want at Ryan, whatever you think is justified. Only, can you just give him the ticket so we can go."  I started crying.

     "Is this so important to you?"

     "I just can’t take anymore today."

     "What’s wrong? Tell me. Is this guy troubling you? If he is, I'll..."

     "No, nothing like that. I had a mammogram and they found something."

     "What did they say?"

     "They’re not sure. They were supposed to let me know today but they haven't called. I waited all day."

     "And throwing Elvis there in jail would be more than you can take right now."

     "Yes. I’m sorry to ask you to do this, I really am."

     "Okay. Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll write up the ticket but Elvis has to report to the station within 48 hours with his license and registration."

     "Thanks, Luke. I really mean it."

     "Well, I hope Elvis knows how lucky he is, and I really hope everything works out okay.  Now go tell Elvis to behave himself for the next five minutes until I get everything written up."

     "I will. Thanks." I started walking to the car.

     "And Brooke?"

     "Yes."

     "Never mind. Everything will be fine."

     I went to Ryan’s car and told him to just sit tight and wait quietly.

     "What’s the panties thing about," he asked.

     "Nothing. It’s just a local joke, a Longport thing." I don’t think he believed me.

     "I don't believe you. Sorry, but I never heard of a town having a panty thing."

     "Really, it’s nothing. I'll explain everything, just not right now, please.

     "Okay, you can go now." Luke appeared at the door. "But you have to appear at the station within 48 hours with your license and registration."

     "That's crazy! I have to drive home and then back here again?"

     "Either that or see the judge now."

     "Okay, okay, I'll be there."

     "Gee, thanks for the favor. And Brooke, good luck. I hope everything works out."

     "He knows about your mammography? He knows about your panties and your breasts? Just what's going on between you and that cop, or are you and the whole police force...?"

     "I told you, nothing. I had to tell him something just now to let you go, and he felt sorry for me."

     "But..."

     "Please, later, when we get back to my place."

     "Okay. Officer?" he called to Luke.

     "Yes?"

     "Thank you very much," he said in his best Elvis impersonation.

******

     When I got to my house, I waited for Ryan, and then we walked into the garage together.

     "Let me just take off my uniform."

     "With all you're going through, can't you suspend this clean thing for one day?"

     "It will make me feel better to keep my normal routine. Please, understand."

     "I do. I'll even take off this costume and leave it in the garage. I have a clean workout outfit in my gym bag."

     I put my uniform in the laundry bag while Ryan neatly folded the Elvis costume and laid it on top of a trashcan. We went into the house and cleaned our hands, and then I went up to check the answering machine.

     "Thursday 10:35 AM. Hi Brooke. We haven't gone shopping in a few weeks. Want to get together? Call me."  Marcie.

     "Thursday  1:49 PM.  Joyce and I enjoyed seeing you down the shore. Your new friends from work are great. Let's do it again soon."  Sophie.

     "Thursday  3:55 PM.  This is Dr. Beloff calling for Brooke Castle. I just read your pictures and everything is fine, just a fingerprint." I knew it! "There is no need to worry. You can call me if you have any questions, or just see your OB/GYN next year."

Chapter 26

     I couldn't believe it, nothing's wrong! My breasts were okay! I worried all day for absolutely nothing. Why didn't they call at work? I gave them that number. Doctors! I ought to write a letter complaining about Dr. Hasn't Read a Mammogram in Ten Years for the nightmare he caused me.

     "Ryan! I'm okay. The doctor called, the mammogram is fine."

     "That's wonderful. See, I knew everything was going to be fine."

     We hugged and kissed, and jumped up and down like kids. “God, I’m so tired from all of the worrying.”

     “Maybe you need a nice long shower.”

     “Good idea.”

     “And maybe you need someone to help you."

     "What are you going to wear?"

     "I'll keep a towel on until I leave. I'll change later into my gym outfit."

     We showered together, slowly, soaking under hot water. Ryan was caring and loving, washing my hair and kissing my neck, not pushing for anything else. He scrubbed my back, taking long strokes up and down, then washed both of my legs in slow and gentle circular motions.

     After we dried, I changed into a fresh jogging outfit and Ryan lay on my bed in a towel. "Feel better, now?"

     I lay down beside him. "I do." Then I jumped up. "I want to show you something I've been working on. My new bathing suit." 

     As I started running up the stairs, he yelled "It doesn't have pins in it, does it?"

     I yelled down, "I just put it together. It has pins."

     "I hate when you try things on with pins. Isn’t there something called basting?"

     "I don't like to take the time. I'll just try it on pinned."

     "But you always stick yourself. You get hurt, and bleed."

     "It's good for me, it's like acupuncture."

     I brought the bathing suit downstairs and went back into the bedroom. "I'll try it on for you."

     He walked in. "I hate this."

     I quickly stripped off all of my clothes and started squeezing into the suit. A pin went into my thigh. "Oh, it's in my thigh."

     "I really hate when you do this."

     I pulled the suit down to dislodge the pin, then pulled it up again. "Ouch. Ooooo!  That's a bad one."

     "Can you do it any other way?"

     "I never baste. This is faster. It's almost up, just over my breast. Ooo! Ugh!  I think that one drew blood."

     "Jesus! Why do you do this to yourself?"

     "Don’t be a baby. Here, hold this part out so I can get it over my breast."

     "This thing here?"

     "Yeah, hold it out and pull it up.  Ooo! Just a little more. It's almost up. Pull this pin out, quick."

     "You like being a human pin cushion?"

     "I just hate wasting time basting. Killing time is like killing an opportunity, I always say. Anyway, it's just a few pins.  Here, it's on, what do you think?"

     "It looks great. I love the material."

     I was making the suit out of spandex that was bright gold with a fake snakeskin pattern. The pattern had a hologram that caught the sun and just shimmered with colors, especially against the sand of the beach.

     "I just have to take the shoulder up a little, but the back fits good, and I like the way it drapes here in the front. Now help me take it off."

     "How do I do that?"

     "Just help guide it down. Hold this section out. Ouch! There's a pin there."

     "I'll pull the pin out."

     "Don't do that! It's marking the seam."

     "But it’s pointing straight down, it’ll stick you."

     "That's doesn't matter, you can't take it out."

     "I hate this."

     "It's almost off."

     "Well, at least let me kiss your booboos and make it better."

     "My pleasure. Ouch!"

     "I don't know why you torture yourself like that. You have scratch marks all over."

     "Oh, that's nothing. I'll show you. I'll be right back." I ran upstairs and got a needle and thread. When I went back into the bedroom, Ryan saw what I was carrying.

"Oh no, not that. You're not going to do that again."

     I have this little trick of sewing my fingers together. I feed the needle just under the top layer of skin, which doesn't hurt if I do it right. I go about a sixteenth of an inch, just enough so the skin won't break, and pull the needle through. I do all five fingers that way, then pull the thread, bringing my fingers together. I don't remember where I learned it, but it always beings grimaces and laughs, and maybe a little nausea to the weak stomached. My grandfather was a tailor, so maybe I have thick skin in my genes.

     "Brooke, please, that's disgusting."

     "Oh don't be a baby." I know he really likes it. "Want me to do the other hand, too? Or sew my hand to my thigh? I can, you know."

     "No, don't! One hand is enough."

     I moved my fingers apart, and then pulled the thread to draw them together so the fingers touched. I did this a few times, until Ryan couldn't take it anymore, then I pulled the thread out and lay down on the bed next to him.

     "Brooke?"

     "That's me."

     "Did you ever think that we should make this more permanent?"

     "You mean with crazy glue or something?" I didn't get it yet.

     "I mean you and me. We love being with each other. We have a great time. I love you, and I think you feel the same about me."

     Now I got it. "I do love you, you know that. But are you talking about the M word?"

     "Yep, the M word."

     That was really something we had never talked about. I knew how he felt about his first marriage, and I always assumed that he didn't want to take any other chances. That never bothered me because I'm the independent type, and my biological clock to have children ran out of batteries a long time ago. I've had my own false starts down the aisle and it always ended in disaster before the "I do's."

     "I didn't think that you ever wanted to get married again," I told him.

     "That's what I thought, too. But being here with you just seems so right. I mean, if you're not ready or something like that, it is fine with me. I just thought I'd ask."

     At that moment I loved him more than I ever thought possible. I was still so high from the sexy Elvis act, and how thoughtful he was to go to all that trouble.

     "It's wonderful that you asked. I love you so much. You know that. I love you enough to marry you. It's just I don't know...I never really thought about it. I mean us, getting married."

     "Yeah, it is difficult to picture."

     "I mean, now that I'm just starting a new wonderful career in medicine. I'm sure I'll get the Nobel Prize."

     "Right, and me on the road all the time as an Elvis impersonator."

     I stood up and pretended to be receiving an award. "I'd like to thank the Nobel Prize committee for giving me this honor for my discovery of the Wal-Mart gene."

     Ryan stood on the bed. "And I am proud to get this Grammy lifetime achievement award."

     "In the great tradition of Watson and Crick, Mendel, and the Curies."

     "For my record breaking performances at Las Vegas."

     "Hey, I'll show you my trophy if you show me yours."

     "You want to see my trophy?"

     "And I bet my trophy is bigger than yours."

     "Yeah, but my trophy grows when you touch it." Ryan had that sexy look in his eyes and his voice was softer and deeper than usual. It was one of his irresistible charms.

     I jumped on the bed and pulled him down. "Prove it."

     He was right.

******

     When I woke up, it was 1 AM and all of the lights were still on. Ryan was lying beside me paging though a medical technology magazine.

     "Why did you let me sleep?"

     "I knew you were tired from all of the worrying."

     "And from all of the exercise we just had in bed."

     "Yeah, that to."

     I grabbed the magazine from him. "Don't even think of hogging in on my Nobel Prize."

     "I was just going through it. I never realized how technical and complicated all this medical technology stuff was: hematology, microbiology, biochemistry, and blood banking. I'm really impressed."

     "That's why I earn the big bucks. Are you hungry?" I asked him. "I just realized that we never had dinner. We were so excited and playing around."

     "I am a little hungry, but you better sleep, you have work tomorrow...I mean, later today."

     "I'll make you something. I really want to. I don't want you to be hungry."

     "That's okay. Just sleep. I'll go in the morning in my gym outfit, and change when I get home. Then I'll come back with my license and registration before going to work."

     "I think I'm too excited to go back to sleep right now. Come on, I'll make some eggs."

     Wrapped in just towels, we went into the kitchen and I made us both scrambled eggs, mine without the yolks, and toasted bagels. We went back to bed about 3 PM and fell asleep in each other's arms.