Wow. It's been a while. Sorry, folks. I am THIS CLOSE to finishing my dissertation. I can see the light at the end of this 8-year tunnel of garbage. I think I'll be defending at the end of March and graduating in May. Between now and then, I'm probably going to be a little spotty with the updates. I promise never to let it go too long between posts ... but I know I won't be able to keep up my weekly schedule. I'm going to shoot for every 2 weeks. Man, I can't wait to be done with this.
Aaaaaaaaaaanyhoo, when we last left these cretins, Angel had a stupid conversation with Madusa while we all tried to keep our lunches down. Today: Barry!
I apologize for the lack of parenthetical snark in this installment. I got nothing. Feel free to supply your own in the comments section!
Chapter 62: Harrisburg
Chris put his duffel bag down and searched his pockets for the hotel key. As he rummaged, Barry Windham emerged from the neighboring door.
“Hey Barry. Good match tonight.”
“Thanks, man,” Barry said. “I’m going down to the hotel bar to get a drink. Interested?”
Chris pondered this invitation. On the one hand, a drink sounded fabulous. On the other hand, he couldn’t handle running into Angel in the lobby, the bar, the elevator—not tonight. He’d almost botched his blade job badly enough to warrant a trip to the infirmary—-that would have been horrendous—-and he had no interest in tempting fate twice.
“Nah, but thanks. Just going to hang here,” he said.
“Chris? You back?” Justina called from inside the room.
At that, Barry nodded and grinned, “Ah, I get it.”
Chris lifted his arms in mock surrender.
“Catch you later, man,” Barry said. “Hey,” he added, “You stayed in this fleabag before?”
“Dude, compared to that place in Baltimore, this here Harrisburg Best Western is hardly a fleabag.”
Barry laughed. “How thin are the walls?”
“We’ll try to keep it down,” Chris nodded gravely.
“Not me I’m worried about,” Barry said with a sly grin.
“Hey now! Alright, man. I’ll catch you later.”
Barry smacked him heartily on the back and got on to the elevator. “Enjoy your ring rat,” Chris muttered under his breath as he opened the door.
“Hey hot stuff,” Justina greeted. She was wearing very little.
------
Barry did indeed prove to Chris that the walls in the Harrisburg Best Western could use some soundproofing.
“Ugg … Again?” Justina wailed. “How are they at it again?”
“That fella has stamina.”
“And that woman has lungs.”
“You want to try and drown them out?”
“Chris, that’s weird and gross.”
“I meant with the TV.”
“Oh. Yes. Yes. Bring on the infomercials. See if you can find that one where they cut through cans and tomatoes with the same knife.”
“No promises. But I will try.”
“Who is that woman anyway?”
“With Barry? I dunno. As far as I know he doesn’t have a girlfriend. He probably just met her, if you get my drift.” [I don’t know, you’re being pretty opaque.]
“You mean like a hooker?”
“No. Well … probably not. I mean like a ring rat.”
“What’s that?”
“Like a wrestling groupie.” He turned to face her, “How did you date Scott Steiner without ever hearing that term?”
“I dunno. I don’t think he knows what those are either. Like I said, he’s weird. He dated this one crazy woman before he met me.”
“Marie?”
“Yeah. I think that was her name. How’d you know?”
“Long, weird story.” Chris pushed the hair back from Justina’s eyes. “Foss, you know what?”
“What?”
Chris looked into her eyes, unsure of what he was going to say. He had meant to say something sweet and reassuring, something like “I’m happy,” or “I love being with you,” but none of those words would come out. “You … have really beautiful eyes.”
“Aww, thanks, Chris.” She smiled and pecked his nose. “Yours are also lovely. Now what say you hand me that remote. There has to be something better on than the Weather Channel.” [hey, I’ve seen some pretty good stuff on TWC].
“Actually,” Chris said, cocking his head to one side, “I think we’re out of the woods, so to speak.” He muted the TV and they both listened intently.
“I think you’re right,” Justina remarked. “Finally.”
Chris turned off the television. The room sank into darkness once again.
“Chris?”
“Yeah?”
“How did you know about Marie?”
Chris flipped his pillow to the cool side. “Scott was good friends with Angel. I told you that, no?”
“Yeah. Yeah, you did. It just slipped my mind. Small world, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is. Good night, Foss.”
“Night, Chris.”
NOTES:
1) Oh Barry, you're such a player.
2) Poor Justina. Chris can't even tell you that he's happy. Oh Chris, why can't you get over Angel? How hard can it be?
COMING UP NEXT:
Angel overthinks things some more and then calls Jeff. Boy howdy, Jeff is as charming as can be. And Angel is just cute as a button! Those two crazy kids and their charming cuteness! I can’t wait! I hope you’re just as excited as I am for …
Chapter 63 - Revelation
