The Morning After

Scott woke up with the sun already coming in his window. It had been a long time since he slept that well, and a rare time he hadn’t woken up on military time. He laid in bed for a minute and smiled, thinking about the night before. It was crazy how fast he and Suzie had gelled; he saw her again after 4 years and 6 hours later he was carrying her back to her bedroom after some great sex.

The mood was hampered only by the nagging concern that he was rushing into something again, two weeks after he and Amanda split for good and he was feeling like a teenager in love. Not to mention he would need to deal with Doug, and while Doug said he didn’t oppose it, he was still a protective older brother.

It was tempting to stay in bed and avoid everyone, but he needed to get up, he needed to go see Mr. Buzek, see if he would re-hire him, and he needed to get clothes. He had run out of his apartments with barely anything, and he certainly wasn’t going back to Texas to get some clothes.

Scott sat up. He also needed to face the music, no matter what the reaction was upstairs, he needed to be there, not leave Suzie alone to deal with it.

He looked through his bag, sadly the hot tub had claimed his only pair of clean shorts and he was stuck with his last clean uniform. It would need ironing before he left the house, but he could at least get through breakfast. He didn’t like the idea of wearing it to shop for clothes but he didn’t have much choice.

When he started walking upstairs the voices from upstairs hushed, and he walked out of the stairwell into an awkward silence. At least it smelled delicious. He knew the smell of Mrs. Carter’s cinnamon rolls. Hopefully she’d let him eat some.

He reached the kitchen and saw Suzie sitting on the far side of the table. Her face was beet red and she smiled and waved shyly at him. Mr. Carter was reading his paper and Mrs. Carter was at the oven pretending to be fussing over something.

“Good morning,” Scott said, breaking the silence. “Is that cinnamon rolls I smell?”

Suzie answered. “Yeah, Mom made them for me.”

“They aren’t just for you.” Mrs. Carter corrected without turning away from the stove.

“I know, but you never make them for me, must be a special day.” She said, winking at Scott before taking a big bite.

“Here Scott, you want eggs and sausage? You must be hungry.” Mrs. Carter set a plate with two rolls on it at the seat next to Suzie. Mrs. Carter’s face was a bit red, and she avoided eye contact.

“From what the neighbors said, he must have worked up a good appetite.” Mr. Carter threw in, without looking away from his paper.

Suzie smiled and Mrs. Carter blushed deeper. “James Carter, you behave, Mrs. Sanders is far too nosey for her own good, she should just leave people alone.”

“I’d love eggs and sausage Mrs. Carter, thank you.”

Suzie reached under the table, squeezed his knee and mouthed, “See, I told you,” With a big smile on her face.

Scott enjoyed the cinnamon roll, Mrs. Carter always made them when he was around, but from what Doug had told him, and Suzie’s reaction today, she didn’t make them that often when he wasn’t. He figured that justified some extra compliments.

“I missed your cinnamon rolls Mrs. Carter. I haven’t eaten anything this good since I enlisted.”

“I’m glad you still like them.” Mrs. Carter brought over a plate with scrambled eggs and sausage links, and sat down next to him. “What’s your plans for today, Scott?” She asked.

He wiped the crumbs from the last bite of his first roll off his mouth, “I got a good amount going on, I wanted to go see Mr. Buzek, get a bike and see if he has work. I also need to get some civilian clothes.”

“I can take you out, I need to go grocery shopping.”

“If you can give me a ride to the bike shop, I’d really appreciate it.”

“I’ll come along.” Suzie offered.

“No!” her mom said curtly, “I mean. . . you have things that you need to do, I’ll just drop Scott off so he can take care of his business.”

“What things? I’m not doing anything today.”

“In a minute you’re going to have a lot to do missy.”

“Oh no, Mom, you’re going to talk to Scott? Come on, we’re both adults, you are making it awkward.”

“You are the one making it awkward, I’m just driving Scott to the bike shop.”

“Suzie, let your mom harass your boyfriend, or she’ll take it out on me later.” Mr. Carter called from the other room.

Suzie turned red at the word boyfriend. “I’m so sorry Scott.” She said, then ran out of the room.

Scott took a bite of his eggs, trying to look like nothing at all had happened.

“We can head out when you are done eating Scott, but take your time, there’s no rush.” Mrs. Carter said before following Suzie out of the room.

“Scott, can we talk for a moment?” Mr. Carter put down his paper and gestured to the empty chair near him.

“Certainly Mr. Carter.” Scott was expecting having to talk to Suzie’s parents about last night, and it actually made him happy that Suzie had parents that cared enough about her to have awkward conversations on her behalf.

He sat down next to Suzie’s dad and waited for the interrogation to begin.