'Tis confusion!

indoor picnics and virtual fights

Sal got up from the table and wrapped Barbara in a bear hug. She laughed. "I'm all wet."

"You think I care?" He hugged her tighter. "It's so good to see you." Q and I smiled at each other behind Sal's back. I was happy to see how much Sal had instantly warmed, how his demeanor had changed the second Barbara had stepped into the room. Q left the room and returned a minute later with a couple towels and handed them to Barbara. She wrapped one around her hair and draped the other around her shoulders. "Thanks Q."

"No problem. Can we get you some coffee or something?"

Sal interjected. "Before you say yes, there may not be any other creamer besides caramel." She smiled."That's actually fine today. It's freezing out. " Sal and I whipped our heads around and stuck out our tongues at Q. He smiled sheepishly. "You're all still wusses." I punched his arm playfully. "Let's get the poor girl her coffee." He poured a cup and set it in front of Barbara. "There are some of those little single serve creamers in the drawer over there. But they may be mostly, if not all, caramel." She smiled. "It's really ok." She fished around in the drawer for a moment. "Look, hazelnut." Q frowned. "How'd that get in there? I hate hazelnut." "Ah, but Murray loves it," Sal reminded him. "Little sneak probably put it in there so he'd have it for himself."

"Q, I wasn't aware you were operating a coffee shop here," I told him. He scratched his head. "Neither was I. Barbara, go ahead and drink all the hazelnut creamers you find. Murr almost never drinks coffee anyways, god knows why he's stockpiling his creamers here." She smiled and grabbed two more from the drawer. "If you insist." Stirring the creamer into her mug, she joined the rest of us at the table.  "So, what's the game plan for tonight? I know it's raining cats and dogs outside..." Sal thought a moment. "We were actually discussing that before you got here...There's a Wii and a Playstation here, if anyone wants to have a little friendly competition."

Q raised his eyebrows. "Nice of you to just offer up my belongings like that, Sal," he cracked. "Seriously, though, he's absolutely right. I have about fifty games here too."

Barbara grinned. "Do you have that Playstation sports championship game?"

"Actually, I do. And, not to brag or anything, but I'm kind of a master at both the archery and disc golf  levels."

I smiled. "you don't say? It just so happens I'm no slouch at either of those games..what say you put your money where your mouth is?" He stroked his beard. "Interesting...what're the stakes?"

I considered my options. "How about...loser cooks the winner dinner?"

"That sounds great, if it were just the two of us playing. If Sal loses, you can bet on cold cereal for dinner. Cold, dry cereal at that, since you'll remember I don't have milk."

I thought a bit more. "Hmm...ok, well, how about the four of us play for fun, then you and I can have a competition of our own later?" He smirked. " You mean with the video game, right?"

"Take that however you want to take it," I told him. He stuck his tongue out at me. "You're on."

We went into the living room and started setting things up. Sal helped me push the couch against the wall while Q set up the Playstation and Barbara found controllers.

"Ok, so teams first. Wanna do volleyball?" Q asked.  I nodded. We grabbed controllers, chose characters, and started the game. As it progressed, I came to notice that Barbara was pretty good. "I used to be on the volleyball team in high school," she explained. Sal smiled. "That's my girl. Make up for my abysmal skills."

"Abysmal? More like non-existent," Q quipped. "Then again, it's not like I have much room to talk." I glanced over and saw that his hair was falling in his eyes, and that intense look of concentration was once again upon his face. I smiled. "You're doing fine."