I Remember

Chapter 4 - And So On

You would have thought that I was going to see the President. I was so jumpy then excited to finally be boarding the plane to D. C.

I have no idea where this is going. I was surprised that Percy even let me kiss her while she was in Alabama much less inviting me to come to see her in D. C.

It was late Thursday night in D. C. since I flew against the two time zones. Percy smiled broadly telling me in the car that she wore a dress so that I could see her legs again.

We quickly walked to the secured room to get my weapon. I knew there were to others on the plane with me and hoped that I wouldn't be at the end of the line.

Percy didn't live that far from the airport. I ate on the plane so we headed directly to her condo. Her condo was gorgeous. I guess that is a feminine term but it defined the unit. You could see the moon light bouncing off the Potomac out the panel of windows on the east side.

We sat down to talk after I put my suitcase in the guest room. Sonja was kind of enough to track down my favorite beer while she freely filled her own glass with wine. The longer we talked it seemed the closer I was able to move to her. We must have both fallen asleep because Sonja poked me about 3 a.m. and we both went to our own bedroom.

We had talked about all the things I wanted to see so we took off early Friday morning to go to Arlington. Sad and beautiful pretty much described it. After the Tomb of the Unknown we went to find the graves of the Kennedy brothers and others that we had read about in the in the history books. We were able to cool down while visiting the Woman's War Memorial then launched the long walk over to the Marine Monument.

There is a subway stop right outside of Arlington. It was everything I could do not to doze off on the soothing ride of the rails. We stopped to eat at the 'Shake Shack' while we were in Union Station on the way back to the condo. One more location to check off my list.

Back at the condo Percy disappeared into her room. About an hour later, I quietly knocked on her door. Cracking it open, I could see her lying on her bed. Evidentially she had just 'crashed out'. I went to cover her up only to have her grab my arm and pull me into her bed. "Sonja let go" I said to no avail. "Come on LaSalle, quit playing with me" she said still asleep. So I just went along with her and joined her. It was still dark when I awoke to a combative Sonja Percy. 'What the hell are you doing?' she shouted. "Sonja stop. You're the one who pulled me into the bed." It was only then that she fully woke up, sat up and turned on the light by her bed. "Oh, Chris" she exclaimed. 'I was dreaming. I was on a mission in Greece and the suspect had grabbed me. I am so sorry."

"So does this mean that I have to leave your bed?" I asked. Sonja looked dumb founded. "Well, only if you want" she softly responded, "but I need to take care of something first." I heard the shower come on. I wasn't going to just lie there, so I went into my room, got my pajamas and came back to join her. While she looked surprised, she did nothing to hinder me from joining her.

The water washed away months, no years, of me secretly desiring her. From her response, she was thinking the same thing. Slowly we moved from the bathroom to her bed staying there until late Saturday morning when hunger for food got the best of me. Percy pointed to the fridge as she put the coffee on. We ate breakfast or by then lunch and moved right back into the bedroom.

Sonja had an office function that night. I hadn't worn my tux for years but it still fit like body armor. My 'date' starting laughing at me stating that I look too much like a T-man for her to be seen with. I was still wondering at 11 p.m. exactly where her side arm was stashed giving the barely there attire that she was wearing. That dress fell off very quickly to the floor as soon as the front door closed upon our return to the condo.

Sunday we went to a football game joining some of Sonja's office mates. I noticed one guy particularly giving me the evil eye and had the occasion to be grilled by him at half time when the ladies left the bleachers. Evidentially Sonja had said nothing about the fact that I would be coming along and who I was. It took me great pleasure to see him finally figure out that I was not only Sonja's former partner but the "LaSalle" of the LaSalle Oil.

Sonja came back and sat in my lap with the goal of warming up and for some reason was intent on trying to light my fire while sitting in my lap. I glanced up at him and saw the look of intense envy in his face.

I had taken care not to drink too much at the game as not to diminish my time with Sonja. It had been a very long time that I had made love to a woman who I cared so much about and I wanted nothing to interfere with that.

Monday was a federal holiday and we just lounged around the condo all day as we both packed our suitcases. I took the red eye out late Monday night back toward the West coast. Sonja cried and that should have made me sad but the fact that she was so upset gladden my heart. This meant she 'really' didn't want me to go.

I hugged her tightly and whispered "keep your head down City Mouse". I'll be waiting to hear from you. She called Tuesday night then Wednesday night signed off with our agreed upon quotation. I had no idea if she would return to me again. I hated it. Leila called two days later to invite me to dinner. Sorry Leila not this time. The love bug had bitten I realized. I don't know how I will ever get over this.