A Whisper

3: General Tso and A Million Dollar View

Around the time the doorman rang to inform us that the food had arrived I was finally getting feeling back in my legs. Eric went to handle all of that while I got up to go to the bathroom. I needed to get cleaned up a little bit. Eric paused in the walk-in closet and emerged with an army green t-shirt that said "Michigan State" on the front of it.

"Just in case you don't want to walk around naked," he said with a charming little wink.

"Thanks." I wasn't really one to walk around naked but that was probably because I hadn't ever really lived on my own.

Even during my college years I had only gone to Tulane, which wasn't too far from home in St. James Parish. Through all four years of school I had at least one roommate, so walking around naked wasn't an option. Jessica and I had gone pantsless a few times on really hot days, but otherwise, we kept our clothes on. My roommate freshman and sophomore year had come from a really strict Christian family. It actually surprised me she hadn't been forced to go to one of those fundamentalist Bible colleges in Kansas.

We remained friends beyond graduation. Jessica got a degree in early education since she couldn't get a degree in housewifery. She had since opened her own daycare in her little hometown outside of Shreveport. Jessica was also married with three kids, so I didn't see much of her even before I left Louisiana. Her husband was an okay guy. Hoyt was sweet and supportive, and maybe most important, he didn't tolerate her father's abusive behavior.

After I got cleaned up, I put on the Michigan State shirt. It just barely reached my thighs. I walked out of the bathroom and went out to search for the kitchen. I found Eric there unpacking the food he had ordered. It was obviously more than just the General Tso's chicken he had proposed. I saw egg rolls, fried rice, sweet 'n sour chicken, and some spicy beef dish I didn't recognize off hand.

"Smells great," I said to Eric, who was getting down plates.

"Best Chinese food in the city," he said. He handed me a plate. "Help yourself. There's plenty."

"What's the beef?"

"Uh, Kung Pao," he said.

"I think I'm going to pass on that, but I'm all in on the chicken." I spooned some white rice onto my plate before adding the General Tso's on top of it. I was glad the sweet 'n sour chicken wasn't soaking in the sauce. It was so much better when the chicken was crispy. Eric began making his plate as well.

"Do you want to eat inside or out on the patio?"

"If it's not too windy, the patio would be nice." It was late, almost ten o'clock. I didn't realize we had been in bed for so long, but it was worth it. I needed to call Gran and let her know I was okay. Letting her know where I was had become even more important after losing Hadley.

The constant worry about where one of her grandkids was was enough for her. She didn't need to be worrying about me too. I didn't want her to think I wasn't okay when I was.

"Can you excuse me for a second? I have to make a phone call," I said.

"Yeah, of course," he replied.

I slipped out of the kitchen and located my purse on the dining room table. As usual, my phone was at the bottom of the bag. I pulled it out and quickly found Gran's number. We had a house line because she insisted on it, but in turn I had insisted that she have a cell phone. She had poo-pooed the idea at first, but she was an active woman and Manhattan was a big city. Since she refused to have someone escort her around every day, she had to have the phone. To make her feel better about it I had gotten her one of those AARP old lady flip phones that no thief was likely to want to steal from her. It took six months of arguing with her before she started to remember to turn the damn thing on when she left the house.