9781631050183CrossingBoundariesValiereNC (6 page)

“Mmmm. Will I get to hear you play tomorrow night?”

“If you want to. It would mean my leaving you alone at the table if I sit in with the band. Are you okay with that?”

“Yes. What I’m not okay with is trying to stay awake and talk any longer. Good night.”

“Good night, sweets. It will be a pleasure to wake up with you in my bed tomorrow morning.”

Chapter Four

It felt good to wake up in the warmth and shelter of Todd’s body. Even before she opened her eyes, Cassie remembered where she was and moved closer to Todd. They had rolled apart during the night, and now, as she edged nearer to him, he stirred and reached out for her. They both opened their eyes and gazed at each other, and Todd stroked Cassie’s face lightly with his fingertips. Cassie turned her head to catch his fingertips with her lips and kiss them.

“Are you trying to start something?” Todd asked. “Didn’t I satisfy you last night?” He chuckled.

“Every day is a new day,” Cassie replied, “although I wasn’t trying to start anything. Just saying ‘Good morning’ in my own way.”

“Well, good morning to you too, sweets,” Todd said. “Do you have time for breakfast?”

Cassie looked at the bedside clock. “Yes,” she said. “What’s on the menu?”

“I don’t do anything elaborate on weekdays. Juice, coffee, and I can offer you a choice of a blueberry muffin or a bagel.”

“Do you have cream cheese?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll take the bagel, please.”

“OJ or cranberry juice?”

“Cranberry would be great.”

“And I’ll have a bite of chocolate,” Todd said, nibbling at her fingers.

“We really are chocolate and vanilla,” Cassie said.

“But we go well together.”

“Very,” she agreed, swinging her legs out of bed and rising to stand up and search for the clothes she had discarded so hastily the night before.

In the kitchen, they sat drinking juice while the coffee brewed. Todd toasted two bagels and got out butter and cream cheese. They ate in relative silence, speaking only occasionally. “Suppose we eat a quick dinner out before we go to the jazz club tonight?” Todd suggested.

“As long as it’s not Mickey D’s. When you say ‘quick dinner’….”

“Well, I
was
thinking of burgers but not of stooping
that
low. I was thinking of Bodacious Burgers. It’s just three blocks from the jazz club. And they do have a few other items if you don’t happen to be in the mood for burgers.”

“I’ll be fine with some kind of burger,” Cassie reassured him just before she took a long swallow of her coffee.

And indeed, that night at Bodacious Burger, Cassie ordered a chipotle and cheddar burger, while Todd requested a burger with blue cheese and black beans. They both asked for slaw as their side dish, although Todd ordered blue cheese slaw while Cassie requested barbeque slaw. They split a giant size order of steak fries, which was just enough for the two of them.

“Dessert?” Todd asked.

“Oh, no! Please! You’re fattening me up like a turkey before Thanksgiving.”

“I’ll eat a drumstick,” Todd said, pinching her leg under the table. “Well, if you’re full, do you want to walk to the jazz club? That would work off some of the dinner.”

“Too cold out,” Cassie said. “That’s a suggestion for June, not November. I’m a warm weather baby.”

“Very well, Madame. Your chariot awaits.” They got up and went to the register, Todd paid, and they walked out into the chill night air. The car was parked in the lot at the side of the restaurant. Todd turned the heater on as soon as he started the car, but of course it was still blowing cold air at that point. He drove the three blocks to All That Jazz, which the folks in town mainly just called “the jazz club,” parked, grabbed his sax out of the back seat, and took Cassie’s elbow as they walked to the front door.

They chose a table right near the small elevated stage at the front. “You’re sure you don’t mind sitting alone?” Todd asked her again. “I don’t have to sit in with the band.”

“I want to hear you play!” she exclaimed.

The band was just coming back from a break. “Hey guys—got room for one more?” Todd called out.

“Hey, man! C’mon up!” the drummer replied.

Todd gave Cassie a quick peck on the cheek and, holding tight to his instrument, bounded up onto the low stage. He brought his chair with him as there were no extra chairs on the stage. Sitting down, he raised his sax to his lips and let out one long, wailing note. The pianist was apparently the bandleader. Cassie saw him say something to the others that she could not hear, and then they launched into a song she didn’t recognize. At one point in the song, Todd soloed, and Cassie gloried in hearing him take command of the stage and let his sax sing out.

After his solo, a waitress came by to take Cassie’s order. Noticing the missing chair, she asked what had happened to it.

“My boyfriend took it up onstage with him,” Cassie said. As she said that, a small thrill ran through her. It was the first time she had referred to Todd as her boyfriend. Well, he was, wasn’t he?

The waitress looked up onstage. “Are you with Todd?” she asked.

“Yup.”

“Nice guy. Good musician too,” the waitress said.

Cassie glowed. “Thanks.”

“So, would you like anything from the kitchen or the bar?” the waitress asked.

“We just had dinner. I’m stuffed. But what kinds of coffee do you have in decaf?”

There was a coffee menu on the table, which Cassie hadn’t noticed. The waitress handed it to her. Cassie scanned it quickly.

“Take your time,” the waitress said kindly. “It’s slow tonight.”

“I’ll have a decaf mocha latte,” Cassie said. “And thanks.”

“Be right back,” the waitress said, bustling off.

The band was really jamming, and Cassie sat clapping in time to the music. At the end of the set, they took another break and Todd brought his chair back to the table. “That’s enough for one night. I want to be with my sweets.”

“If you want to play some more I’m okay here.”

“I want to be with you.”

She squeezed his hand. He gave her lips a quick, brushing kiss.

The waitress came back to the table. “Hey there! You were really swinging out!” she said. “Can I get you anything?”

“Thanks. How about a lemonade?”

“In November?” Cassie asked, surprised.

“Well, I worked up a thirst up there.”

At ten o’clock, when the band took another break, Todd asked, “Had enough? I want to get you home before the car turns into a pumpkin. Do you want to stay over again? You’re welcome to.”

“I really need to get home, but thanks. Can I have a rain check?”

“Redeemable any time,” Todd answered.

* * * *

“Ten minutes to go,” Todd called from the engineer’s booth.

“I want to talk about global warming today,” Ginger said to Cassie.

“Sure. Why not? It’s your thing—you take the lead.”

“Feel free to jump in any time. So how’s your chocolate-and-vanilla romance going? I haven’t seen you at the real estate office in almost a week now.”

“The romance is going great. I wish I could say the same for the real estate. I’ve been working with this one couple who are sooooo picky. I must’ve shown them every available house within a fifteen-mile radius. Nothing suits them. They keep threatening to work with another agent. Frankly at this point I wish they would—although I’d hate for all the time I’ve spent with them to have been for nothing.”

“That’s the business,” Ginger said with a shrug. “I had two closings this week.”

“Lucky you.”

“But I’ve had weeks like yours too. It balances out in the end.”

“I know, but weeks like this feel like such a total waste.”

“Five minutes,” Todd boomed from the booth.

“Both lines are lit up already,” Ginger observed.

“You may not have time to talk about global warming,” Cassie said.

“There’s always tomorrow.” Ginger shrugged again.

The two women gazed at their respective notes. Most of Ginger’s were facts, quotations, and citations regarding global warming. Most of Cassie’s had to do with prejudice—not only against blacks, but against Asians and Native Americans as well.

Late in the show, a man called. “Are those publicity photos of you two girls your real pictures, or are those models?” he asked.

“No, those are really us,” Ginger answered.

“Then was that your friend I saw at the jazz club last night? It looked like the girl in the publicity picture. The black girl.”

“That was me,” Cassie replied.

“You were with a white guy.” The voice was accusatory. “And I saw you kiss him.”

“Yes. He’s my boyfriend.” She sounded a bit more defiant than she meant to.

“Can’t you stick to your own kind and leave our boys alone? It’s not seemly for you to date outside your race.”

Cassie felt the sparks jump out of her eyes as she opened her mouth to go off on the caller. Ginger quickly said, “We’ll be right back after these words from our sponsors,” and signaled Todd to cut off Cassie’s mike and run a commercial block. Then she put a hand on Cassie’s shoulder and said, “Breathe.”

When they returned to the air three minutes later, the caller was still on the line, and Cassie was still ticked off, but she had gotten control of herself and was able to deal with him more calmly. “Maybe we should
all
intermingle and intermarry,” she suggested. “When all of us are shades of light brown, you’ll have to find some other reason to hate people.”

“I don’t hate black people,” the man said in a surprised voice. “I just don’t want them mixing with us. Everyone has their proper place.”

Cassie wanted to ask, “Oh? And where is our proper place?” But she kept her thoughts to herself and just said, “Well, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I hope to hear from some callers with different opinions. The number is 555-9889. Listeners, let’s hear from you.”

Line two lit up, but unfortunately the caller, a woman, was of the same mindset as the man whom Cassie had just disconnected. Cassie was taking it personally, and she signaled to Ginger to handle the caller. She didn’t trust herself not to lose her temper or even start crying.

At one point she looked up at the booth, and Todd flashed her a smile, then put a forefinger at each corner of his mouth and drew his lips up into a “created” smile. Then he blew her a kiss. He normally didn’t get personal during their work hours, but Cassie figured her emotions were laid bare for all to see and hear, and he was offering some much-needed encouragement and support. She appreciated it and flashed a wan smile back at him.

Ginger handled the caller on line two with firmness but grace, arguing in favor of “chocolate and vanilla” relationships and enumerating well-known examples of black-and-white unions. Thankfully the next caller was more supportive, pointing out that at one time it had been considered just as problematic or even offensive to have a relationship or marriage between a Christian and a Jew, which was certainly accepted now with hardly a blink.

The next caller was off on a different topic: the high cost of college tuition. Ginger flashed Cassie a thumbs-up when they heard that something other than intermarriage was to be the topic. Cassie gathered herself and talked to the caller sympathetically. Glancing over at the booth, she could see Todd relax visibly. There were only a few minutes left to the show—no time for another caller. They would wrap up quickly when they were done with this caller. They might even have to cut her short. There would surely be no more bigots airing their views on today’s show.

Tomorrow, of course, would be another day.

Chapter Five

“You can’t let assholes like that get you down,” Todd said consolingly to Cassie after the show. “They do exist. He’s not the only one. But fortunately they’re in the minority. I love you and you love me. Idiots like him don’t matter.”

Love? They had never yet exchanged I love you’s, yet here he was tossing it casually into the conversation—‘I love you and you love me.’ The words gave Cassie a warm glow and, at the same time, a shivery thrill. It certainly wasn’t the way she had expected to hear the first ‘I love you’ out of him, but it sounded good regardless of the circumstances.

“Yes, I love you,” she said, turning to face him and tilting her head up for a kiss.

They were standing in the hallway at the radio station. Usually they kept things businesslike at work. No kissing. No PDAs of any sort. Not even affectionate talk. But she was hurting, and when he crossed their usual boundaries, she followed. She kissed him. She told him she loved him. She sagged against him and tried to draw solace from the nearness of his body.

“Let’s plan a big weekend,” Todd said. “Let’s go to the amusement park on Saturday, and Saturday night let’s look at the lights. A lot of houses have them up already.” It was late November, and plenty of houses in Indian Springs were already decked out in their Christmas adornments. “Let’s do something on Sunday too. You pick. What do you want to do?”

“Do I have to tell you this minute? Can I have some time to think about it?”

“Sure. Give it some thought.”

“I know!” she said suddenly. “Let’s get our Christmas trees on Sunday. One for your house and one for mine, and we’ll decorate them both. I want to do something different with mine this year. I want to string garlands of popcorn and cranberries, and decorate the tree with just that and silver tinsel, with my angel tree topper. Do you have Christmas ornaments? If not, you can use mine.”

“Okay. Sounds like a plan, except I don’t need your ornaments. I have plenty, but thanks. What about dinner Saturday night, between the amusement park and looking at the lights?”

“Let’s be spontaneous. We’ll see what we’re in the mood for on Saturday,” Cassie suggested.

“We may need to make reservations,” Todd cautioned. “Especially on a Saturday night.”

“Well then, we’ll talk about it Saturday morning.”