Sugar and Spice

Chapter 16

I open my eyes when Jason shifts and he looks up at me, looking as sleepy as I feel. I look down upon him and smile.

"How are you?" he asks. I look down at my body, his legs tangled up in mine and I grin back at him.

"Well, I think if I try to walk anywhere at the moment I may not succeed, but other than that..."

He laughs at my answer.

"Well I would be happy to carry you, sweetheart, as soon as I find my own legs." I can't help but smile wider. I feel like an idiot... A happy one, but an idiot nonetheless. Jesus, even my fiance couldn't do this to me, and he was the best I had... Up to Jason, of course.

He pulls his body up so we can look into each others eyes easier.

"It kind of feels like the world has stopped turning, doesn't it?" he asks, brushing hair behind my ear with his large hand.

"Yeah," I answer, "but I wouldn't change it for the world." He smiles at me and kisses me gently. Jason rolls off of me and lays beside me on his back, his leg dangling off the bed on the side. We don't speak for some time until I sigh and start to rise.

"Where are you going?" Jason asks me.

"To rise the water bill of the hotel, I'm getting a little... sticky," I answer, laughingly. He sits up and holds out a hand for me to grasp, pulling me up so I can climb over him.

"I could always join you, you know," Jason offers.

"Your choice," I answer over my shoulder as I walk into the room.

I haven't shared a shower with anyone before. That's something that was a no-go with the fiance and others haven't really had the opportunity to do so either. When Jason stepped in the shower behind me, it was awkward at first until he handed me the shampoo so I could wash first. Alright, I think to myself, this isn't rocket science to figure out.

I have to say though, this is nice. He washes my back for me, in slow, loving strokes with the washcloth. I return the favor.

While I was washing his expansive and muscular back, Jason glanced over his shoulder.

"What did the ocean say to the shore?" I grin cautiously... I had no idea he likes jokes. This one sounds corny as shit but...

"What?"

"Nothing. It just waved."

Oh god. Worse than corny, and I'm cracking up.

"What do you call fake pasta?" he continues.

"What?"

"an im-pasta."

"Really, Jason? I think these are called 'dad jokes'," I say to him, laughing.

"Alright, I got one for ya," he says, turning to face me as the water washes off the soap.

"What's the difference between a snowman and a snow-woman? Snowballs," he answers before I can even say anything, and chortles at the lewdness of his answer.

"Oh my god," I exclaim while laughing.

When we exit the shower, we help each other dry ourselves off, sharing a towel and everything. It's like we have been married for 10 years and this has been a routine for just as long.

"Come on, are you telling me you ran a bar for years and you don't know any good ones?" he says to me while drying my hair with the towel in his hands.

"well, none that are p-g" I answer, smiling.

"Just one?"

"Ok, but it's stupid, kinda. And I'm only telling the one. I don't really tell jokes that well," I explain. He's silent. Waiting. So I begin.

"Two friends were going on their monthly fishing trip to the lake when a mutual friend asked to join. They saw no harm in that, so they agreed and when they got to the lake, they immediately set up, but realized the bait they brought had all died. One friend says to the other,

" 'I'll make the trip to the bait shop across the lake this time, you go next time, deal?'" So the friend that offered steps a few steps backwards, makes a run for it and runs across the lake, buys the bait, and runs back across the lake to the two friends waiting for him, much to the amazement of the tag-along friend. He doesn't say anything though, just steps a few steps away from him as though he was a freak of nature or something.

A few hours pass and they run out of the live bait their friend bought, so the other original fishing friend offers to make the trip to the bait shop, steps back, makes a run for it, runs across the lake, buys the bait and runs across the lake back to his friends. The tag-along is dumbfounded, but continues fishing.

It's almost sunset when they use the last worm to fish and the two original fishers talk about leaving after this one is gone but the third friend, the tag-along speaks up.

" 'Oh, no. If you two can make the run across the lake's waters without falling in and drowning, than I know I can. So this time, I'M going to get the bait.'"

So he sets his fishing pole down, takes a few steps back, takes off running and falls into the lake, almost drowning in his surprise.

The one friend looks to the other and says,

"Do you think we should have told him about the stepping stones?"

Jason, who had decided to sit on the closed toilet lid halfway through the joke, began laughing like there was no tomorrow. I smile in response to his glee at the silly prank and soon we're both gasping for air and wiping tears away from our cheeks.

"Oh, man , that was so funny," he said.

"A religious man stopped by the bar three years ago and told everyone in the room this joke. I can't believe I never forgot it." I wrap the towel around my body after we are done using it. I don't care that it's wet, it's a force of habit.

"Stepping stones," Jason says, laughing again at the punchline. He wraps an arm around my waist and we leave the steaming bathroom, giggling at the silliness of the moment.

Which all too soon ends when we hear a knock on our door. Jason grabs his jeans and throws them on, leaving them unbuttoned and unzipped while I look into the peephole and see Officer Burle standing at our door.

Unabashedly, I open it and greet him with a smile, throwing my arm wide to offer him to walk in with my welcome. He steps in, tips his hat as I move back a few steps. There's concern and something else behind his facial expression that I just can't read.

That is, until I see Joseph step in my room right behind him.