2405 BJ: After lunch at Mercedes, I called my friends back, would not be able to carouse with them. We agreed to meet at the Purple Onion. None of us had been there in a long time and it was a great place, especially if you liked to perform. You couldn't leave until you did! Best of all it had been Mercedes idea. I appreciated that she showed a sincere interest in getting to know my friends. Only four of us ate dinner there, the others drifted in later. Our dinner companions didn't stay much past dinner. They were on their way to a play. Mer and I stayed about half an hour longer,then went to my place. Mercedes stayed with me that night and the next two. I talked her into going to a few open houses with me. I didn't set up anything with the realtor that weekend. Those I would see during the week. Mer is a big celebrity and it would not have been cool for her to be seen looking at places with me and the realtor. Mer almost had me sold on one of the houses we saw. If she were looking for another occupation , I thought this was it! We laughed and talked a lot . Then it was Monday morning we stayed in bed and later ordered pizza-delivery. We took one bite and tossed it. Mer decided she could do better. The rest of that day is a blur. I took her home before going to work.
Mercedes: BJ dropped me off at home on Monday before he went to work. I made a doctors appointment, for my annual normal physical, stinking doctors wouldn't tell me anything but what good shape I was in for someone my age. I was beginning to wonder if they were paying attention to what I was telling them! It would be a different doctor this time, I might even go see a Ceriton Doctor, they're known for brutal honesty. They also seemed to know more about Humans than my doctors did! Yes, I'd go up there, and have one of them poke at me, maybe give me a clue as to how much longer I had before I dropped dead. I know, it's morbid.
Joe had left me a dozen messages, all wondering where I was, and what I was doing with BJ. I called him back. Joe, listen because I'm only going to say it once. I love him, and I will enjoy every minute I spend with him, like it or not. What you should be worried about is finding someone for yourself, now go get yourself a date, a lover, a wife, and get the hell off my back!
I sent BJ a thank you note for the weekend he'd shared with me, and invited him to a lecture the following month.
Mercedes: I went to my doctors appointment, (I had to wait about 3 weeks just to get in to see the doctor!)and waited for the test results. I'm perfectly healthy, and shouldn't be expecting to die any time soon. They wanted to know what kind of things I had been doing, I told them I hadn't been doing anything. Just work, and some sex, nothing I hadn't been doing for years. They sent me home with a bottle of one of their multi-vitamins, and that was it. I got back to Earth, and went out for Lunch. I was looking to see which lectures would be coming around next month. There were all the usual self-help crap ones, and Lacey would be talking about the underground resistance fighters during the war with Ceriton. Well not just Lacey, but one or two other people also, it should answer a few questions I had myself, he had never been quite informative about where he had gone to or what he had done when he took off all those years ago. I pulled down the flyer, copied it, and mailed BJ the original, along with a couple of others, he could decide which was more interesting to him, any one of them would be alright with me. I kissed the envelope closed, and mailed it off.
I opened up the letter he had sent me, and read it a fifth time. Until I see you again, I remain yours..... Boyd James, he was maybe having a change of heart? It didn't matter, I traced the outline of the impression his lip balm had left at the bottom, and couldn't wait to see him again.