The Big One

Chapter 7- I Fit With You

"You're 33?" I sat up with surprise.

The guys were working their way through another bottle of wine. We'd been up on the roof for most of the evening and Kellan was rolling another joint. I was the only one not drinking, but I was still feeling the pot and cuddled with Anderson on the outdoor couch. We had another small aftershock about 9:30.

"He'll be 34 in a few more months," Kellan added.

"You didn't know that?" Kyle asked with surprise.

"I thought he was like 25 or something. I mean he is mature and has a career and this condo. I guess I didn't think about it. You look so young though," I laughed. I gave Anderson's ass a firm squeeze.

"25? Really? If you're going to flatter him, make it realistic," Kyle joked with an icy tone.

"Really though. He looks young. I would never have thought 33," I defended.

"Yeah I wasn't going to bring that up to a hot young guy who was into my ass," Anderson joked. "Does that bother you?"

The way he looked at me, like he was so afraid of rejection, made my heart twist.

"No! I'll be 20 next month," I told him.

"I know. I looked in your wallet when you were sleeping. I wasn't going to have this conversation with you for awhile, but thanks for bringing up my age, Justin!" Anderson shot him a dirty look.

"I just asked where you were planning on going for your 34th birthday! And you didn't answer my question!" Justin defended as if it was innocent.

"I already booked the new Dynasty room at the Red Tower in Hong Kong. They were booked for a year before even opening," Anderson said.

"Thirty-four," I repeated slowly. Words sounded funny to me.

"33! And you were thinking 25 so let's stick with that," Anderson bit his lip and looked at me with hope.

"Ok." I kissed him. "You'll be 25, and I'll be 21." I laughed.

"That makes us four years apart. Perfectly acceptable." Anderson eased back into my arms.

*+*+*

We headed back down to the living room when the conversation ran out.

The news stations were still flying choppers over the city. The scenes of endless, dark streets were surreal to see. They showed golden gate park which was stuffed with campers sleeping outdoors for the night in case of more damage.

One reporter interviewed people sleeping in their cars, some having had to leave their damaged apartments and others just worried about another quake.

They played a news conference from the Governor promising to send in busses in the morning for evacuees and the national guard with supplies.

"Cell service is still down across much of the Bay Area. Several key transmitters went down just as everyone jumped on their phones today..." one of the news anchors began.

She used a lot of technical language, but basically our wireless world needed a lot of rewiring before our phones were going to work again.

"Where is my phone?" I felt my pocket and realized it was missing.

"I put it on the charge dock in my office. You were down to nothing," Anderson said.

I didn't remember giving him my phone.

Kelllan flipped through other stations, but they all had the same sad scenes. I looked over at Anderson and he nodded towards his bedroom. I nodded in agreement.