Page 70 of Baker

“I’d uhhm.” As much as I wanted furniture, I really needed a bed. I was sleeping on an old twin bed that was in my guest bedroom. It was cheap, hard, and impossible to sleep on. If the day ever came that Baker slept over, he wouldn’t even be able to fit in it.

“I’d like to have the bed, please.”

“Is that all?”

“Can I have more?”

He waved his arm toward the open truck. “Maybe you didn’t understand. This is all yours. Whatever you don’t take, we’ll delivering to the Goodwill.”

“Oh wow. Okay. Well. If I actually won it, you just as well deliver it up there.”

Two hours later, I followed the men downstairs and gave each of them a tip. “I’m sorry. I’m kind of strapped for cash right now, but I hope this helps,” I said, handing each of them a twenty-dollar bill.

Verizon folded it and put it in the pocket of his little brown pants. “Thank you.”

I waved as they drove away, and then turned toward the building. Above me, a glow from the second story of Baker’s building caught my attention. It struck me as odd, because that particular floor had always been dark.

In the window, Baker silhouette darkened the otherwise bright windows.

I waved.

His shadow waved in return.

Giddy to jump on my new bed, I waved one more time, and then rushed up the stairs to my newly furnished apartment.

When I opened the door and looked inside, my heart filled with gratitude. It was the first day since the bank had been robbed that I felt like my life was in order.

It was going to be twenty-four hours before Baker picked me up for our date. I couldn’t wait to see the look on his face when he found out I won the Christmas Season Giveaway.

THIRTY - Baker

I hadn’t been on a date since I was nineteen. A blowjob attempt from a girl who had more teeth than a Mako Shark made that night disastrous enough that I had yet to go on another.

Dinner and a movie was far too cliché for me. So, I took a risk.

A big risk.

I brought Andy to my home.

She glanced around the table. “I can’t believe you took the time to make all this stuff.”

“I had a little assistance,” I admitted.

“But still.” She leaned over the platter of coxinhas and inhaled a breath through her nose. She looked at me and smiled. “To think you took the time to research everything.”

I didn’t do any research. After my decision to have Andy over for dinner, Goose volunteered to prepare a traditional Brazilian meal. He’d no more than pulled his bike out of the parking garage when Andy and I returned.

“It’s kind of a backward date,” I said, sliding the large dish of Moqueca de Camarão in her direction as I spoke.

She ladled it into her bowl. “What do you mean?”

“Start at home and go out afterward. Don’t most of them start out away, and end up in the guy’s home?”

She pushed the dish across the table. “I don’t know. I haven’t got a lot of traditional dating experience.”

“Me neither.”

“I find that hard to believe.”