Eighteen
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“ Your wife may have let it slip that you might not be home because of your new job. You already spent one night away. Or maybe Kate figured she could find out if Tanya was a closet bisexual without a bunch of strings attached. Either way lesbians have the lowest rate of sexually transmitted disease,” Rodney stated.
The completely different point of view made perfect sense to Eddie. He thanked Rodney for being a good sounding board.“ You make good coffee. How about making another pot? Do you think there are any more donuts?” he asked, rising from the tailgate. I doubt it,” Eddie answered and prepared the coffee maker.“ Now get your ass out of here superman,” Rodney demanded lightheartedly as he plucked the last donut from the box.
Eddie went shopping for the movie Tanya requested. The house, although empty, felt good to him. He loaded the movie into the machine in the bedroom and turned off the sound on the television. Turning off everything after seeing that it would still play on the seldom used equipment, he changed clothes and went to the garage for a quick work out.
The ping-pong table was folded and stored in the corner of the garage. Eddie opened the table to see if it was still in playable condition after not being used for a couple of years. The surface was dusty and the net dry-rotted. He found the paddles but no ping-pong balls. Eddie showered and took off for the sporting goods store. The package contained everything he needed including four new paddles. An electronic dartboard caught his eye. Some extra darts and a box of replacement tips completed his shopping excursion. Rejuvenating the table, straightening the garage and hanging the dartboard left enough time to fire up the grill and toss on some burgers before the family arrived.
Tanya saw Eddie’ s truck in the driveway and it lifted her spirit. She pushed the button to open the garage door. The rumble of the garage door alerted Eddie to Tanya’ s arrival. He greeted her wearing his white chef’ s apron.“ You do know how to turn a woman on,” she said, kissing him deeply. Eddie remembered tomorrow’ s guest and she liked his idea. The dartboard was a nice surprise. The thick duct tape stuck to the painted floor was marked with the words“ Toe Line”. She knew the thick, black line was the proper distance from the board when she took aiming position. There were times when Eddie’ s quest for perfection became annoying. This was not one of those times. The floor of the garage was clean and Eddie had put a tape measure to the new addition. Tanya was excited about tossing a few darts.
Eddie pulled the paycheck from his pocket and handed it to her. She brought the back of her hand to her forehead.“ Catch me, my knees are weak,” she swooned. Eddie picked her up and carried her into the house.“ What smells so good?” she asked, with her arms around his neck.“ Just some burgers over mesquite.”“ They smell wonderful and I’ m starved,” she stated, as he set her down in the kitchen, picked up a plate and headed for the patio. Smoke rose into the bright blue sky as Eddie lifted the lid. He moved the grill marked patties to a plate and returned to the table in the breakfast nook.“ Fries are in the oven. Where are the kids?” Eddie said, fixing himself a plate.“ Basketball practice for Justin and Nicole stayed after to study with Rich and some friends. Someone has to pick them up in an hour. You got off early,” she noticed, preparing her own plate.“ Rodney is going to lock up tonight.”“ Are you ready to get whipped at darts?” she asked, after only a few bites.