by Berinn Rae
“Somehow, I’m not surprised by any of this.” In fact, she discovered the chain of events to be actually quite comical. She pushed her chair away from the desk and swiveled it around in a circle once, then stopped to talk.
“It could be worse, you know,” she said to her love. “Dr. Chare could have been included in this loop.”
A voice boomed from the door as if on cue. “I have far too much information about your love life. I’m the department chair so why do I feel as if I’m the captain of the Love Boat? I’m out of here!”
JJ scrunched her face, gave Kenn a bewildered look, then crossed her arms on the desk and buried her head in them. Her life was careening out of control.
She knew she should be furious, and a month ago she would have been. But now, much to her surprise, she found it incredibly, insanely amusing. She laughed uncontrollably.
Chapter 34
“You know the real truth about today?” JJ asked as they walked down the hall to class, his arm lightly brushing hers. A comfortable feeling but still incredibly arousing, even after a month of intimacy. There’s something to be said for this life.
“Hmm. That’s a tough one. Going to give me a hint?”
“Nope. Just going to tell you. It proves that unexpected conspiracies are all around us. More than we think. We just fail to connect the dots, as they say.”
“So you think our month anniversary is a conspiracy? Does that mean our relationship is a conspiracy, too?”
Well, yeah! But I can’t logically explain that one to you, not now anyway.
She stopped, turning the ninety degrees necessary to face him. “Not the relationship, but our awareness of the anniversary. Really, would we even be talking about it if your mom and Deb weren’t in cahoots with each other?”
“Cahoots? What a word.”
“Yeah. It’s a colloquialism meaning … ”
“I know what it means.” Kenn tilted his head smiling broadly at her.
JJ smiled back every bit as broadly, gazing up at his brown eyes. She remembered an author describing her character as having eyes the color of coffee. Did Kenn? Probably, but definitely his eyes were of the color of freshly brewed French roast. Yeah, French roast.
“You can’t deny they were in cahoots, can you?”
“You got me there.” Kenn started walking again but JJ stood still as if frozen in place.
“Oh my goodness. Speaking of cahoots, you don’t think that Alex and Blake are — ” Scurrying to catch up to Kenn who was about twenty paces beyond her, she tugged at his elbow.
“I just had a horrible vision of the class presenting us with an anniversary cake or something.”
“Good grief, JJ. I can’t imagine them doing something like that.”
“Oh, you can’t?” JJ raised her eyebrows as her voice raised an octave.
Kenn laughed. “They do love to embarrass you. Is that their goal in life?”
“It may seem like that — and there’s even times I wonder that myself. But they really have nothing but good intentions. They’ve been worried about me burrowing into my novels for hours and days on end — and not living my own life, as they say.” Their ultimate goal is get you and I firmly established in a relationship. And it appears they’re succeeding. Go figure.
They continued walking, and then as if without warning the classroom door loomed in front of her. A wave — no a tsunami — of horror washed over her. She approached cautiously.
“Here, you go first,” she said, lightly pushing Kenn forward. “I’ve got your back, sweetie.”
Stepping just inches inside the doorway, JJ surveyed the room for visible signs of an anniversary celebration. No posters plastered on the blackboard; no banners hung from the ceiling. JJ did notice, however, that it was unusually quiet. Even the normal animated chatter between Alex and Blake was absent.
“Well, so far so good,” Kenn whispered in JJ’s ear when she approached the podium. “No applause, no cheers, no mention of It.”
“It’s too quiet in here. I’m expecting an ambush sometime during class.”
They engaged the student in the possible conspiracy angle of the Lincoln assassination, but they both — JJ especially — braced themselves for some type of onslaught of good wishes.
When class ended, JJ released an audible breath.
“We did it.” Kenn, too, seemed visibly more relaxed.
“So, it seems. Considering every other step along our relationship has been celebrated here, I’m counting today as miraculous. Should I light a candle or something and say prayers for nine days?”
“I don’t think that’s entirely necessary. But I am giving thanks to some unseen universal force that must be watching over us.”
As the class trickled out, several students approached them, causing JJ to flinch reflexively. She was quite relieved when they asked questions about John Wilkes Booth.
JJ and Kenn were so engaged in answering questions that neither noticed Alex and Blake hanging back waiting to talk to them as well. As soon the other students left, Alex approached JJ.
“Blake and I want to treat the two of you to lunch at the Café today,” she said. “I think today would be a perfect day to thank you two — especially you JJ — for everything you’ve done for us.”
Danger! Danger! JJ’s radar went on high alert; Kenn’s seemed to have been turned off and ripped out.
“How nice. Of course we’d love to come, wouldn’t we, JJ?”
JJ nodded slowly, eyes casting leftward to Kenn then meeting Alex’s smiling face. She pasted a smile on her face and barely spoke above a whisper.
“How can we possibly say no?”
Then she raised her eyebrows and grimaced at Alex, who beamed back at her. “Great,” Alex said. She bounced on her toes vigorously.
“Thanks guys. Blake and I are really looking forward to it. Aren’t we, Blake?”
The usually loquacious Brit nodded without saying a word.
Chapter 35
Kenn opened the door to the café for JJ, who took a few steps inside. With her eyes riveted to the front of the coffee shop, she felt the anxiety she tried to suppress all morning begin to rise. She knew she was trapped.
To her left, she saw the Jewish Mariachi polka band diligently setting up their equipment. Ira saw her and waved. “Hola!” he said, his curly Jewish orthodox sideburns bouncing about. Jose looked up and called, “Shalom!”
“Now, don’t jump to conclusions, they could be here for an entirely different reason,” Kenn said. “Maybe Alvin and the guys thought they would bring music in to attract more customers.”
“And this looks like the group to draw the college crowd?”
“JJ! Professor Cooper! Right here!” Alex bounded out of her chair and rushed toward them, her softly curled hair dancing. Her eyes sparkled with delight, and joy seemed to radiate from her. JJ decided Alex was firmly ensconced in her element.
Alex took JJ’s hand and led her to their table. Kenn followed them as they approached two tables pushed together to accommodate them all. Tables right in front of the band!
JJ felt every muscle in her body tense, even muscles she didn’t know she had. Deb and Dr. Chare were seated at the table sharing a lively conversation with Blake. She heard the chair chortle. He’s the only man I know who actually can chortle.
Kenn pulled out a chair for JJ, and as he helped her settle in, he bent closer to her. “I am now a believer in the cahoots club myself.” He sat down next to her.
“Hi, Dr. Chare,” JJ offered. “Fancy meeting you here. Deb. Didn’t really expect to see either of you here.”
“My, my,” the chair chuckled as he talked. “I wouldn’t miss this for anything.” Did he have a mischievous gleam in his eye? No, must be my imagination.
“I’m going to tell Alvin we’re all here.” Blake quickly shoved his chair back and headed off at a near gallop for the kitchen.
In a matter of moments, Blake returned with Alvin, Simon, and Ted blissfully talking behind him. They car
ried two appetizers, the Onion String Theory and the Avogadro’s ’Mole dip and chips.
As they set the appetizers down, the band played while the entire café began singing “Happy anniversary to you!”
“Is there any way I could use the shop’s de-particlizer and just disappear for a while?” she asked Kenn.
JJ wondered what shade of red she would become before it was all over.
Kenn reached under the table for her hand, tightly squeezing it. “We’ll get through this. We’ll get through this,” he said reassuringly.
“You trying to convince me or you?”
“Both of us, I think. I’m surprised my mother didn’t have a hand in this.” He spoke loudly enough so JJ could hear him over the music.
“No, this has my char — I mean my cousin’s — fingerprints all over it.”
Chare and Deb hungrily pulled the dip closer to them — just out of the reach of JJ and Kenn — while Alex and Blake snatched up the onion strings. They gulped down the appetizers as if they were in some type of eating contest.
JJ and Kenn looked at each other. “Hope you weren’t hungry,” JJ said. “Appetizers don’t seem to be in our immediate future.”
“Guess not! Didn’t know the chair could eat with such gusto. I think there’s another side to him.”
“Ta da!” Alvin, Ted, and Simon brought the entrée.
“Wow! Looks like we each get our own plates.” Kenn exhaled. “I thought I might have to sit through this entire meal watching other people eat!”
As soon as the plates were set in front of the party, Alex took out a pair of pompoms from under the table and ran off.
Blake shot up and sprinted away from the table.
“Any idea what’s up with them?” Kenn asked.
“No, and that’s exactly what scares me!” As the owners continued serving the guests, Alvin announced, “Introducing the newest addition to the Physics Café menu: Barbecued chicken and ribs. In honor of your one-month anniversary, it’s our only menu item without a physics-related name. We’re calling it …
“Chicka! Chicka! Boom! Boom!” the owners shouted in unison. In what appeared to be a rehearsed move, all three raised their arms, made fists, then thrust their hips forward as they pulled their arms back and shouted, “Boom! Boom!”
The café erupted in uproarious laughter. JJ pressed her forehead against Kenn’s arm. Quietly, she asked, “Is there any way we can leave without anyone noticing?”
“No such luck, sweetheart.”
But the worst was yet to come.
“Chicka! Chicka!” the right side of the café yelled.
“Boom! Boom!” the left side replied.
Then it happened again.
“Chicka! Chicka!”
“Boom! Boom!”
With each round the shouting grew louder.
After several choruses, JJ leaned closer to Kenn as he wrapped his arm around her. Finally, the chanting ended and Alex and Blake jogged back to their seats.
“Wow! That was unbelievably excruciating,” Ken said, kissing the top of her head.
“I think I’ve lost my appetite,” JJ said.
“If that’s the case, could I have your leftovers?” Blake asked, still flushed with excitement from the cheers.
Alex kicked his shin. “Ouch! What did you do that for?”
“It’s JJ’s anniversary, sweetheart! Not ours. She’s the one who should be enjoying this. And she doesn’t look like she is.”
JJ had plastered herself against Kenn, her head securely nestled in the crook of his arm, her eyes practically glazed over.
“We thought you would like this little celebration!” Alex said.
JJ raised her head and looked straight into Alex’s eyes. “Did you really? How would you like it if your most personal moments were broadcast throughout the campus?”
“Soon, my life will be an open book!” Alex said.
“Literally,” Blake added with a smile.
Dr. Chare, his hands grabbing a rib, said, “You really need to stop worrying about any of that, Professor St. Clair, and try these ribs. They’re delicious, simply delicious.”
“And the Chicka Chicka chicken,” Deb added. “Boy, you’re lucky to have such a great meal named after you!”
“Has everyone gone mad?” She looked at Kenn, who looked slightly bewildered himself. “Are you sure I can’t just disappear?”
Kenn, who still had his arm wrapped around her, didn’t answer, but gave her a quick encouraging squeeze. She sat there for a moment, before realizing the full impact of what Alex had just said, “Soon my life will be an open book.” And it was true. “Literally,” Blake had added. She raised her head out of the safety of Kenn’s arm, studied the pair enjoying their lunch and asked, “It doesn’t bother you that your life is an open book, Alex?”
“No, it comes with the territory. You take life as it happens.”
Then JJ shot up out of her seat. “I’ve just had an epiphany!” she announced as she pulled Kenn up out of his chair. She whispered in his ear. “You love me no matter what, even if right now I may embarrass the hell out of you?”
“Nothing you do can embarrass me, darling.”
“Don’t be too sure about that. I want to give these people what they really came to see — a love story.” Without waiting for a reply or further explanation, JJ pulled Kenn toward her, stood on tiptoes and whispered, “Get down here and give me one long, passionate kiss. I’m celebrating the fact my life is an open book.”
Kenn obliged. The pair embraced and kissed. Dr. Chare gasped. And was that him she heard choking? “I see nothing! I see nothing!” Dr. Chare said.
JJ heard a small amount of applause at first, and then it steadily grew. By the sound of it the entire café was rapt in the moment.
Then she heard the scuffle of a chair and Alex saying, “Kiss me you wonderful fool.” She could only imagine where that led. The applause and cheers were now deafening.
The band began to play the 1970s song, “Love Story.”
Finally, JJ and Kenn pulled away from each other. The applause grew. JJ took a quick bow. Alex and Blake looked over at her. Wow!
“Oh, baby, we’re not done yet!” Then looking at the Jewish Mariachi polka band, JJ called over to them, “Ira! Shel! Jose! “How about that ‘Hava Nagila’ that you guys do so well? I feel like dancing.”
• • •
JJ nuzzled her face into Kenn’s chest. Even though the two had already made love several times, she felt a desire to reignite that passion. Kenn’s strong arms brought her even closer to him. If ever two bodies could be one — if ever two people could be one — this was the moment, she thought.
They both knew the morning light streaking through the bedroom window meant they needed to prepare for class. They hesitated to uncoil their hold on each other. JJ and Kenn, flushed from the anniversary lunch at the Physics Café, headed straight for Kenn’s afterwards.
“It’s time, you know,” she said, her eyes shut, still feeling the sweetness and tenderness and, yes, surge of sexual energy of the prior evening. The explosion that eventually settled into a satisfying gentle completion. This man certainly had it all.
“I know,” he answered, but instead of distancing his body he enfolded her even closer. Then he tenderly traced his fingers over her lips. He smiled at her, then whispered, “I think I’m having an epiphany,” and he kissed her.
Sighing, Kenn eased out of the kiss, holding her at arms’ length. “It goes without saying, Dr. St. Clair, that you are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, but — ”
“But?”
“You are also the most confusing. Those times when I really don’t mean to set you off, you rant, rave and rage at me. Then when I’m sure I’m about to feel your wrath, I discover an epiphany.”
“Like yesterday?”
“Exactly,” he said, as his hand gently caressed her shoulder. “I’m not complaining, mind you, but I felt sure that anniversary lunch signaled our
demise as a couple.”
“It almost did. But then Alex said something that put it all in perspective for me. And I realized what a pompous ass I’ve been about so many things.”
“Mind sharing these words of wisdom? I’d love to hear about this.”
JJ bit her lower lip. How to explain this without actually saying that the “cousins from Kansas” were actually characters from her novel — and that within several months everyone would be reading about them?
“I guess I just realized that if I’m going to have a life outside my novels, I’ve got to understand and accept that some areas are an ‘open book.’ Instead of hiding and suppressing the details of my life and relationships, I need to follow Alex’s example and start enjoying every minute of them. Even the seemingly embarrassing ones.”
A silenced settled over the room. Kenn turned his head to the side and stroked her hair. “But I was terrified that the epiphany moment would push you away. I felt when I kissed you then, I was risking our relationship.”
“Nothing, but nothing could make me leave you, JJ. It took me too long to find you.” And he gave her another impassioned kiss.
“Class soon,” she said. “I do have to run home and change my clothes before I can go to class. I may be calling it a bit close.”
“We’ll just have to solve that problem, then,” Kenn said. “Why not bring a couple changes of clothes here?” he offered. “Just for weekday moments like this. I think we both need these mid-week diversions.”
“I think you may be right.” Kenn did a good job of reading her mind. She had been thinking that if she had some clothes here, it would make getting to class much easier. Did I just say that without hesitation? I must have had a really good epiphany yesterday!
Chapter 36
“Are they dangerous?” Alex’s hand tightened around Blake’s as she whispered in his ear.
“I doubt it, love,” he whispered back, never taking his eye off the line of what appeared to be random creatures and mutant humans waiting to get into the Physics Café.
“Hey, you two,” shouted a short guy with pointed ears, resembling an overgrown leprechaun in some uniform whose origin Blake didn’t recognize. At least he assumed it was a uniform. Many of the mutant humans were wearing almost identical raiment. The leprechaun-like creature spoke again, “Get to the back of the line!” Others in line began to grumble as well.
