Kill me now and I'd die happy

We showed up early at Nicky's house, mostly because there was nothing else to do in town. It was good just to hang out while Nicky got everything ready for dinner. Sid was being unusually quiet. Maybe I over-embellished the events of the previous night. Perhaps he was a bit embarrassed.

Clara showed up around six, and as we found out, she lived there, too. She was relatively friendly the whole night, or she was too tired form work to be her usual bitchy self (Nicky's words, not mine).

Around seven, Sam walked in. He hadn't changed a bit, in my opinion. He looks just about the same as he did ten years ago, only with less hair. He's working as a pharmacist up in Fayetteville, and in talking to him, he really needs to get out from behind the counter more often. Nevertheless, Clara was warming up to him all night, and I'd occasionally catch Nicky rolling his eyes at the sight of his sister flirting so shamelessly.

Not long after Sam showed up, about a half an hour, Clara left to go pick up Grace. Grace apologized about being late, then hesitantly explained that she wait until her father got home so he could watch her son. I sensed she was afraid to talk about having a kid, for some reason. This piqued my interest, so I asked her about him. Proudly, she pulled a few pictures out of her purse. He looked like a miniature version or her, only with blonde hair instead of brown. Every picture, he's looking directly at the camera and hamming it up, big time.

Over dinner, we talked about politics, and thank God we were all pretty much on the same page on a lot of the issues. The whole night could've gone straight to hell if this had turned into a debate. After dinner, we all went into the living room. We tried having the TV on, but every channel was showing footage of people stranded in New Orleans. Grace said she had an uncle who got out at the last minute, and is staying with her dad until everything gets sorted out.

At one point, I step outside to have a smoke. Grace comes out to join me, or should i say, bum a smoke off of me (she's been tring to quit). We talk for a few minutes, then I suggested we go for a walk.

We must've walked for the good part of an hour. The conversation quickly turned into the Cliff's Notes of our respective failed relationships. I joked at first, saying that the break-up was about religious differences: I was raised Catholic, and she liked to sleep with other men. After that, I went into more detail. I realized that I had been rather tight-lipped about my breakup, but with her it all flowed out rather naturally. It felt good to get a few of these things off my chest, and it felt even better to see that she didn't mind that I was going on and on. Grace, in turn, went into the details of her ex. How he never helped out with the baby, never let her do anything outside of the house. The moment he began to enforce his rules with the back of his hand intead of screaming at her, that's when she left. I guess misery loves company.

There was a moment, though. The sun was just going down, and we had stopped walking, deciding it's time to head back. We looked each other in the eye, and everything went silent. I could've kissed her and I was 90% sure she would've let me. But, I didn't. I broke our gaze and signalled we should head back.

When we got back, the wine was flowing. Sam and Clara were dangerously close to each other. Sid and Nicky were making some sort of drinking game out of a re-run of CSI. Grace suggested dessert, so she went into the kitchen to serve up some cheesecake. I followed to help her serve.

I suddenly got curious about the reason behind the whole reunion. I remeber that we all wrote down our lists, but I don't know what happened to mine. Grace said that Nicky had held onto the lists, only he didn't find them until about two years ago. According to Nicky, we'll do the whole reading ceremony tomorrow night at the park (I love how he make things sound more official than they really are).

Around eleven, Grace had to go home, but Clara didn't want to end things with Sam. Sid looked like he was ready to go, so I volunteered to take her home on our way back to the hotel. On the way, Sid had fallen asleep. Grace told me to drop him off at the hotel first. Why, I had no idea, but I did it anyway.

At her house...or should I say garage apartment behind her father's house...she left me alone while she went down to the house to check on her son. He was fast asleep and didn't want to leave, so that just left Grace and I alone. We just talked for two hours while a movie played in the background. Around two, she was yawning uncontrollably, and I knew that I would either have to make my exit or something even more stupid like make my move. She walked me back to the car, and gave me a hug, saying she was glad to see me. Kill me now and I'd die happy.

Once back at the hotel, I cought Sid flipping channels off fo the pay-per-view porno movie I suspect he was watching. I teased him about it, and he shot right back at me with what he guessed Grace and I were doing for nearly three hours. I just layed down and went to sleep.