At My Window Sad and Lonely

"What you said about Dan not coming here made perfect sense," Jerry said. "Besides, that'd be letting a bully win, wouldn't it?"

"Agree completely," Laurie said. "I can't wait to get out of Joanna's place, then I'll never have to see him again."

"Wish I had that to look forward to," Jerry said, and Laurie could barely restrain herself from telling him about Brian's spare room -- but she only just succeeded. Jerry shook his head and took a sip of the coffee he'd ordered. "Anyway. Enough of that, let's not let him win by wasting any more time on him. Any word on that second interview yet?"

"Oh, sorry, I thought I'd told you," Laurie said. "It's Tuesday."

"Valentine's Day," Jerry said. "They wouldn't break your heart that day, would they?"

"I doubt a bunch of old men are going to let that sway them," Laurie said. "But we'll see."

"A bunch of old men," Jerry repeated. "Are you sure you want to go back to that life, Laurie?"

"I'm sure I want to go back to a job that pays well enough for my own place to live," Laurie said. "Remember what you said about a swanky place downtown? I've finally let myself start looking, and there are a couple of nice loft apartments there that I could afford if I get this job. Tiny, but affordable, you know, and now I know I don't really need a lot of space."

"But is it worth going back to that uptight lifestyle nine to five?"

"Well," Laurie admitted. "I've been thinking about that, and about some of the things Mr. Cavanagh said in my interview, and I'm thinking maybe it won't require being uptight."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean I've learned something from hitting rock bottom," Laurie said. "We'll see if it pays off Tuesday. That's all I'm going to say about that for now." She took Jerry's hands in hers. "Now, after lunch, shall we see about finding some dark corner to duck into somewhere?" She burst into nervous laughter, and was rewarded with Jerry responding in kind and running his leg up hers under the table.

Lunch ended with Jerry impressing Laurie further still with a very generous tip for her colleague Iris, followed by a walk down to their beloved Old Downtown, hand in hand and cozy despite the frigid weather. They browsed at an art gallery and then at Laurie's favorite used book store, and then stopped into a cappuccino place to warm up. It was crowded and loud, so Laurie contented herself with enjoying her drink rather than any more intimate conversation. When they did manage to carve out a modicum of privacy in a corner by the window, shielded in part by a laden coat-rack, she said, "I'm sorry we couldn't find any place to be alone, Jerry."

"We could always go to a movie."

"Oh, geez, Jerry, that's such a high school thing to do!" Laurie laughed, more amused than offended but definitely not persuaded.

"Well, that's where we're at, isn't it?" Jerry pointed out. "Depending on someone else for room and board, living with their rules, no privacy, and someday the memory of sneaking around behind their backs will be golden."

"I like that," Laurie said, to even her surprise. "There isn't much I think I'll ever find golden about these past months, besides meeting you of course..."

"Good save," Jerry said. "But, Laurie, do you really miss the bank? You've told me a lot about what you miss about the lifestyle you used to have, but do you miss the job?"

Laurie thought of the long hours and the drudgery and the expensive dry cleaning for her work clothes and all the many hassles that came with looking perfectly coiffed to sit behind a desk for nine or ten hours a day. "Good point, Jerry," she said. It fit in all too well with what she'd already been thinking about the upcoming interview on Tuesday.

"So maybe when you are back on your feet -- and that will happen, Laurie -- you'll look back on these days and see it as a good thing that you made a change?"

"Maybe so," Laurie agreed with a smile. "But I don't think I'll ever look back on having to settle on a movie theatre for privacy as an adult and be happy about that."

"Is that any reason to pass up the chance now, though, when it's our only option?"

Laurie nodded. "Tell you what, Jerry, I'll do it. On one condition."

"Name it!"

"If they do give me the job at the firm, you let me treat you to a night in a hotel room, for a real celebration."

"Well, if you're going to put a gun to my head, Laurie..." Jerry dissolved into laughter and hugged Laurie. She joined in on the laughter, and promptly found herself kissing him for the first time.

Even before they both closed their eyes for the kiss, neither Laurie nor Jerry had paid any attention to the passerby on the sidewalk outside the coffeehouse. So they were never aware that Dan had chanced to walk by and see them together.

He didn't dare stop, lest they spot him, but he saw enough to know what they were up to. So the little bastard called my bluff, he thought, and he hurried on his way.

The winter sun was starting to set when they got to the cinema. It was also crowded, but Laurie and Jerry found seats on the edge and near the screen, an area that was among the last to fill up. "People must know we're not here to see the movie!" Laurie whispered with a laugh as she spread her coat on her lap like a blanket.

"Who knows what they're here for too?" Jerry suggested. The movie they had chosen was a lame romantic comedy that offered at least a slight chance that the seats wouldn't be full. Their hopes for much privacy were dashed when an older woman took the aisle seat for their row, three seats to Jerry's left, but she showed no sign of interest in them before the lights went down.

As soon as it was dark, Laurie reached under her coat and unbuttoned her pants. She then took Jerry's hand and squeezed and rubbed it for a few minutes, and even before the previews were done, she guided his hand under her coat and let go. Careful not to arouse any suspicion by looking around, Laurie kept her eyes on the screen as she felt Jerry slide his hand into her panties.

It was a struggle to sit still as she enjoyed his gentle strokes on her vulva. Her first taste of intimacy in nearly a year, his loving caresses made her realize for the first time just how she had missed it. Had she really had to deprive herself of this just because she'd lost a job? As he found her clit and circled it teasingly with his finger, she felt a lovely shiver of forbidden pleasure and almost forgot they were in public. But they were, and Laurie wiggled just a bit and gripped the armrests tightly to ease the frustration of not being able to make any noise -- she wanted so to moan out loud!

It didn't take long for Jerry to bring her off, and Laurie couldn't resist a sharp gasp when it happened. She managed to disguise it as a cough, and then squeezed his thigh in thanks. Jerry stopped rubbing, but kept his fingers nestled in and around Laurie's vagina. She clamped her legs tightly, wishing it wasn't just his fingers, and enjoyed his gentle teasing with them for the rest of the movie. She reached under his coat as well, only to find his pants bulging but still zipped up. "That can wait," he whispered, so Laurie contented herself with stroking him through his jeans.

"Want to get dinner?" Jerry asked when they emerged at the end of the movie, with no one the wiser to what they'd been up to. "I just have to wash my hands first, you know, no offense!" He laughed.

Laurie laughed too, but she declined. "I already spent too much money today. But if there's good news Tuesday..."

Jerry laughed harder through his disappointment. "You were going to put me up in a hotel without dinner?"

"Thank you, Jerry." She hugged him goodnight. "For everything," she added with a wicked grin.

"Can't wait to do it again!" He kissed her again, and they shared a long goodbye just inside the warm lobby before parting ways for the chilly walk home.

Dan's place was rather closer to downtown than Joanna's was, so Laurie wasn't home yet when her phone rang. Finding the beloved "Unknown" on the screen, she answered eagerly. "Can't get enough of me, huh?" she teased.

"Laurie, he found out!"

"What?!"

"Dan. He knew. I got home and he had the deadbolt locked. When I knocked, he said I knew the rules and I could get you to find a place for me if you wouldn't leave me alone."

A wave of panic roared through Laurie's mind -- just how had he found out? What stupid thing would he expect Joanna to do about it? Would she do it? -- but first things first. "Have you got any money for a hotel tonight, Jerry? No, wait, I have another idea."

"I'm glad you do, because I don't think I can afford a hotel, Laurie."

"Come to Joanna's. Text me when you're in our spot, by the window."

"Then what?"

"You'll see. Just come up here. See you soon." And she hung up.

Joanna was waiting on the couch when Laurie arrived, managing to look nonchalant. To her surprise, Joanna looked more nervous than anything. "Laurie," she said in an almost-sweet tone. "Listen, I'm sorry..."

"It's not you who should be apologizing." For a wonderful moment, Laurie thought her plan might be easier than she'd expected.

Joanna burst that bubble quickly. "I'd have to agree with that, Laurie. We did both tell you to leave Jerry alone, after all."

"Don't tell me you support Dan throwing him out in the street!"

"Of course not, but it's his prerogative, Laurie." Joanna stood up. "Listen, Danny has asked me...I mean, he thinks it's best if we...he wants you to move out."

"He wants me to move out," Laurie repeated incredulously. "Didn't you just get done talking about his prerogatives? What about yours? It's not his place to say who can stay in your apartment!"

"Laurie, I just don't want any trouble! And he's really mad at you. So you know, it would just be a lot easier for us all if..."

"No. It'd be easier for him! Not for me, not for Jerry, and not really for you! Would you really be comfortable with knowing you kicked me out of your house because he told you to?! Best friends for what, seven years now, and you'd throw me over the side like that just because a man tells you to?!"

"But Laurie, I love him." Joanna sat down and dissolved into tears. "I just don't want us to fight about this!"

Laurie clutched the closet doorknob in rage. "Joanna, I will move out as soon as I can. That's not tonight, you know that. But I will." She opted to still keep the big news about the job interview to herself; Joanna didn't deserve to know how close she was to getting out already. "In the meantime, if Dan doesn't want to have to see me, you can go to his place instead of him coming here."

"But it's going to make him uncomfortable knowing you're still here!"

"Would you listen to yourself, Joanna?! Do you really want to give your heart to a guy who hates your best friend that much?!"

Joanna stared straight ahead at the door for a long moment, her occasional sniffles the only sound in the room. "You're right, Laurie," she croaked at last. "Of course I don't. I just...you're right." The waterworks came on again as she stood up and turned on her heel to retreat to her bedroom. "Happy Valentine's Day!" she snapped, and she slammed the bedroom door behind her.

Laurie kicked off her shoes and went into the dining room, clutching her phone so she would hear Jerry's signal as soon as it came. While she waited, she pulled her storage boxes out from the corner and lined them up along the wall near the living room door, leaving about two feet of space. She was still rummaging through the boxes for her old bed linens when the text came in. Laurie muttered, "Be right down!" and turned back to searching for blankets. A big more digging yielded two, underneath a couple of business suits that would probably be too small for her now after all those free meals at the restaurant; she rolled them up and stuffed them into an old t-shirt for use as a pillow. It would have to do.

Joanna's crying rang out into the living room through the closed bedroom door as Laurie got her coat and shoes back on; she almost felt guilty over how much she enjoyed it. When she got outside and found Jerry waiting down by the lamppost, she could see he'd been crying as well, though his eyes were dry now.

"I'm so sorry you had to go through this, Jerry!" she hugged him quickly, and then took him by the hand. "Come on, I've made an impromptu bed for you."

"Joanna isn't going to let me stay there, is she?"

"She'll never know, if we're careful."

"Does she know about --"

"Yes, and I think they're going to break up because of it. But we'd better not take that for granted." Once she had him inside the building and at the foot of the stairs, she stopped and pulled him close. "Now, listen," she whispered. "Take your shoes off when we get to the top of the stairs, and I'll look in and make sure she's still shut away in her bedroom. I think she's going to stay in there and cry all night -- I hope so -- but we've got to be sure first. Then, you remember the room where I changed my clothes?"

"I could never forget that!" Jerry smiled for the first time, to Laurie's gratification.

"No, of course not," she grinned. "When I let you in, you tiptoe in there, and you'll see where I've set up a place for you to sleep. You've got access to the bathroom, and Joanna never goes in there because she considers it my private room. As long as you don't make any noise, you'll be fine. I'm not working the breakfast shift tomorrow, so as long as she leaves by lunchtime you'll be free to get out for the afternoon, okay?"

"Then what?"

"Then maybe Dan will grow a conscience, or at least not want to lose Joanna over this. But if not, we'll do the same thing tomorrow night."

"Geez," Jerry sighed.

"Hey!" Laurie said, brushing his cheek affectionately. "What did you tell me this afternoon about looking back on this someday? Can't get anywhere but better from here, right?"

Jerry nodded. "Thanks."

With Joanna still wailing in her bed, Laurie had no problem smuggling Jerry into his hiding place. "Want to shower before bed?" she offered.

"Please," he mouthed, and after shrugging off his coat, he held up his arms with an inviting look.

The absurd circumstances notwithstanding, Laurie was delighted with her first look at Jerry's body as she undressed him in the dimness of the dining room. Pasty with winter and the stress she knew so well, he was nevertheless a sight for sore eyes and his smile was most endearing as Laurie pulled his boxers off. "Hope you don't mind," she whispered teasingly as she took his semi-hard cock in both hands. "It's been far too long since I've had a chance to play with one of these!"

"It's all yours, Laurie," he whispered.

"Why wouldn't you let me touch it at the movies?"

"Didn't trust myself to stay quiet. I don't know how you did it."

"It wasn't easy," Laurie agreed. With a final squeeze on it, she turned to the bathroom. "Go ahead, I'll join you in a minute."

He'd seen her body without touching it, he'd touched it without seeing it, and now at long last he was free to do both and she was free to enjoy it and to return the favor. Laurie washed him up and down with zest and abandon until the hot water began to wane, all the while enjoying his hands all over her body. Only a fair excuse for what she really wanted to do to his body by then, but that only strengthened her resolve to ace the interview on Tuesday. Too afraid to say anything, they communicated with flirtatious and appreciative looks up and down one another's body. Jerry was hard as a rock throughout the shower, and Laurie dearly wished she could do something about that as well as her own flaming arousal; for now she contented herself with admiring it and caressing it lightly now and again.

"At least we ran up her water bill quite a bit," she whispered with a laugh as she patted him dry. Jerry responded only with a laugh, and didn't comment when he saw her turn the same damp towel on herself to dry off -- no use in arousing suspicion with two used towels, after all.

The makeshift bed looked even more pathetic to Laurie now that Jerry was here, but he reacted only with gratitude. "It'll be fine," he whispered just before he stepped into the narrow space and lay down. "Could be so much worse, after all. Thank you."

"And thank you for being so stoic about all this," Laurie replied, stooping down to kiss him good night. "I could learn a lot from you about that." Then, to Jerry's surprise, she opened the dining room door and stepped out into the living room, still naked.

Joanna was off to work just before eight o'clock, and she didn't appear to notice that Laurie was still on the couch when she left the apartment. After waiting a bit to make sure she wouldn't be back to retrieve anything, Laurie went to the kitchen to scare up breakfast for herself and Jerry, and to make plans.

After feeding him some toast, coffee and bananas, Laurie gave him all the cash she had in her purse against his objections and ordered him to buy some jeans and shirts at a thrift shop. "We will find a way to get your clothes back from Dan, but you've got to wear something until then," she told him. "I'm on lunch duty today and then I have an errand to run downtown. Come back here around four and I'll let you in, then I have a late shift at the restaurant. I'll try to have some food you can eat in the dining room, okay?"

"What if Joanna finds me in there?"

"She won't. She never looks in there. Besides, I think she's probably going to just go to her room and mope over Dan, unless she's over his place having make-up sex."

"She wouldn't go back to him now!"

"You have a lot more faith in my friend than I do at the moment, Jerry," she said. "Now, go buy those clothes, please!"

"All right, all right," Jerry acquiesced. "By the way, what's this errand you're running today?"

"Long story."

Jerry flashed a guilty grin. "None of my business, huh?"

"It might be soon. Not now."

"This sounds promising."

"Everything feels promising this week," Laurie said. "It can only get better from here. Now go!" And to his credit, Jerry did.

It wouldn't do at all to tell Jerry she was already looking at new apartments, including a loft in Old Downtown that afternoon. A refurbished lot in a fairly run down old building, it was a cheap diamond in the rough and would leave enough money for her to help him out with his rent at Brian's place -- if she got the new job. Laurie didn't want Jerry to know about her plans regarding that either, so she waited until he had left before she unpacked the Valentine's Day dress she had bought last week and ironed it. When it was done, she hung it in the front closet, where Joanna might stumble upon it but Jerry wouldn't.

The day floated by agreeably, with Laurie's head in the clouds about waking up from her nightmare. Lois' usual nonsense was barely a bad echo in a good lunch shift, and she loved the apartment and promised the agent an answer by the end of the week. She was home in plenty of time to get Jerry squared away in the dining room with some dried fruit and cheese and crackers, and the promise of anything she could scare up from the restaurant when she got back at eleven.

Jerry had followed her order and bought three changes of clothes, including a checkered button down shirt that he was particularly fond of. "So retro, huh?" he asked, holding it up to his body while Laurie admired it.

"Lovely," Laurie agreed. "Why don't you put it on?" She was stripped down to bra and panties herself at that moment, changing into a fresh uniform for the dinner shift, and a wonderful idea roared through her mind. "In fact..." She reached back to undo her bra.

"Think of the smell, Laurie," Jerry said. "How would we explain that away?"

He was right, she had to admit, but this was getting horribly frustrating. "Jerry, don't you want to make love to me?!" she demanded.