A Boy's Last Summer

"Are you sure you want to do this? Emily has been pretty well behaved so far, but she can be a handful when she's tired."

"It's no problem. I have a way with kids," he lied, knowing he had never babysat before in his life.

"Well...thanks I guess. Don't think I'm going to go easier on you at work just because you're doing me a favor though, and I will be paying you for this one."

"Sure...that's fair," he said with a shrug.

The three of them returned to Roxy's apartment, which turned out to be just as well organized and immaculate as her office. David stepped into the restroom to get his regular clothes back on returning to find Emily sitting at a small table in the kitchen, eating a bowl of steaming chicken soup.

"Her bedtime is 8:00 P.M. on the dot and no sugar before you put her down," instructed Roxy.

"Ahh man...I wanted to bake cookies...Mrs. Foster bakes cookies," lamented Emily.

"Mrs. Foster's got an ass like a Mac Truck," whispered Roxy under her breath making David smile.

"You can do without the cookies tonight we don't want to make things too hard on David."

"Actually if you have all the ingredients I know how to make a mean chocolate chip cookie."

"Well, aren't you the Renaissance man," said Roxy with a smirk, "you can do cookies then, but nothing after seven."

Emily clapped her hands in triumph as David followed Roxy to the door.

"Call me if she gives you any trouble, and don't let her sucker you with that cute smile I've seen her wrap Mrs. Foster right around her finger."

"We'll be fine. Go have a good time doing...whatever it is you do," said David making Roxy flash a rare smile.

After she departed, David helped Emily clean herself from dinner, and then the two of them spent the next hour mixing up a batch of cookies that turned out pretty well.

"What do you like to do for entertainment around here?" asked David as they each chewed on one.

Emily popped up from the floor and ran over to a cardboard box that sat next to the T.V. returning with a DVD case that had seen better days. David took it from her his eyes going wide as a flood of nostalgia poured into his brain.

"Captain Marauder! I watched this when I was a kid!" he exclaimed with delight.

"Captain Marauder! Hero of the spaceways!" yelled Emily striking a pose with her hands on her hips.

David popped the old DVD in the player, and hearing the intro music transported him back to his childhood, watching Captain Marauder fight to save the Universe from evil. They watched several episodes of the old space saga until it got close to Emily's bedtime and they were forced to call a halt to the fun. He got her to brush her teeth and slipped her into bed.

"Will you read me a story? Mom always reads me to sleep," she said quietly.

"What kind of a story would you like?" he asked, glancing around the room looking for a bookshelf.

"What stories did you like when you were a kid?" she asked curiously.

"My dad used to tell me stories sometimes before bed," replied David remembering how his father used to spin tales of dragons and knights seeking adventure for him.

"Can you tell me one?"

He cleared his throat, trying to recall precisely how one of them went and ended up telling her a story about a great green and gold dragon named Charcoal that protected the land from an evil snow witch. Emily listened with rapt attention.

"I wish I could ride a dragon-like that..." she said sleepily as he turned off her light.

"It would be awesome, wouldn't it. Why don't you try to get some sleep now and maybe you'll have a dream about a dragon."

"I hope so...Goodnight, David."

"Goodnight, Emily. Sweet dreams," he said just as his parents had said to him for so many nights when he had been no bigger than her.

David returned to the kitchen, feeling proud of himself for pulling off his first attempt at babysitting with such ease. He started cleaning up the kitchen washing the bowls and utensils they had used to make the cookies and ended up nicking his finger on a kitchen knife. It bled quite a bit, and he tried to staunch the flow while hunting around the kitchen for a band-aid. Failing in that, he moved on to the bathroom poking around in Roxy's medicine cabinet without success. Three drawers ran down one side beneath the sink, so he tried there next finding a box in the back of the second one down. Hoping it was a first aid kit he opened the nondescript container only to be confronted by a very large dildo. It was at least ten inches of silicone rubber topped with a thick fake cock head.

"Jesus, Roxy, if that's your expectation no wonder you find so many guys wanting," he said, closing the box and carefully putting it back.

He eventually found what he was looking for in the bottom-most drawer and with his finger repaired; he returned to the living room to watch T.V. and await Roxy's return.

It was a little after midnight when a key hit the front door, and David sat up from the couch, putting the remote aside.

"Why do men suck?" were the first words out of her mouth.

"I'm going to guess that the date didn't go well," observed David.

"It started o.k. but as usual at some point he decided that pawing my breasts would be more fun than watching the movie," said Roxy flopping down on the couch next to him.

"I'm sorry it wasn't everything you were hoping for I guess he didn't have all that much potential after all."

"I can see you've been talking to Emily. How did that go by the way? She drive you crazy?"

"Not at all. She was a perfect little sweetie all night and went right to bed when I asked."

"Amazing. Mrs. Foster always has trouble when it comes to lights out. You'll have to tell me your secret."

"Tricks of the trade. I can't give away all my mysteries right off. How will I keep you in suspense?" he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Are you trying to be funny?"

"Maybe...Is it working?"

This time her usual stone face cracked slightly, and she looked away with a faint smile playing on her lips, "Maybe..."

There was an awkward moment of silence before David slapped his leg and stood up.

"I should get going."

Roxy walked him to the door, fishing some money out of her purse.

"You don't have to pay me."

"We had an agreement," she said in a no-nonsense tone shoving the cash into his hand.

He shook his head, pocketing the money, and turned to go.

"David..."

He stopped looking back over his shoulder.

"Thanks for taking care of my little girl. I'm glad you were here."

The light from the lamp post outside illuminated Roxy's face as she stood in the doorway, making her look even more beautiful than usual, and David swallowed hard before he could reply.

"My pleasure...I'll see you at work," he managed at last.

"Yeah...See you," she said, closing the door.

The following week David was back at the plant, and discovering that his body was slowly acclimating itself to the earlier schedule since at least he hadn't fallen back to sleep in the car on the way. Roxy had them doing a file purge of all the old requisition forms that were more than three years in the past, and he was sitting cross-legged in front of a filing cabinet with piles of paper lying around him when she came to check on his progress.

"How is it that you guys haven't digitized any of this crap?" he asked, waving at the stacks.

"I've been bitching about that for years, but the company has other priorities I guess. Thanks for raising the parenting bar for me by the way."

"Huh?"

"All week long it's been, 'I want stories about dragons and princes,' every time I want that toot to go to bed! You know how much bullshit I've had to make up off the top of my head?"

"Maybe I could write down some stories for you," offered David with a laugh.

"I should make you do that, but we have bigger fish to fry. Just keep purging, Paper Boy!"

She left him to his work, and Thomas was kind enough to bring him another box from the storage closet brimming with old forms.

"Thanks..." moaned David unhappily.

"Anytime! I like to see a guy earning his keep," said Thomas with a grin that David instantly wanted to smack off his face.

An hour later cramps in both his legs forced him to take a break getting up off the floor for the first time all morning. He was making his way to the security door to hit the bathroom when a booming sound loud enough to make his ears ring broke the relative silence of the building and seconds later the walls rattled as if a God-like hand was shaking it.

"Holy Crap! It's a fucking meltdown," thought David seeing his whole short life pass before his eyes and wishing instantly that he had enjoyed way more sex than he had. His brain locked and he couldn't remember a single thing from the safety video he had been shown in orientation so he did the only thing he could think of and dove under a nearby desk. As he sat there shaking and contemplating just how painful death by radiation exposure must be, Roxy's head suddenly appeared from above.

"So it's loud noises...and spiders?" she asked.

"Didn't you hear that? Why aren't we evacuating?" asked David in a rush.

"We aren't evacuating because that wasn't the reactors, Bozo. They're purging excess steam off the turbines. Didn't you watch the orientation video?"

"I might have fallen asleep during it," admitted David sheepishly.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake...Just get out from under there before someone sees you cowering like a whipped dog. You keep this up, and they're going to quit calling you 'Spider-Man,' and start calling you, 'Duck and Cover,'"

"They call me Spider-Man?" ask David to Roxy's back.

"Don't worry. I wouldn't let them stencil it on your hard hat," she said over her shoulder.

David felt a hand on his arm, and he turned to look at Thomas.

"Hey! 'Duck and Cover,' want me to bring you another box?"

"This day just keeps getting better..." muttered David as he shrugged off the hand and went in search of the restroom.

Thankfully, the afternoon that followed was free of embarrassing moments, and the approach of the final whistle was a welcome relief. David had placed the last of the file boxes back in the closet the contents much reduced in size from when he had started when Roxy came walking up looking slightly uncomfortable.

"David...I was wondering if I could ask you another favor?"

"Uh...Yeah, sure."

"Feel free to say 'No,' it isn't a big deal," Roxy started to say making David wonder what was going on since he had never seen Roxy Doyle beat around the bush ever.

"O.K.," he said, looking suspicious at what was coming next.

"See...The thing is Emily has called me three times today because she is doing this play at day camp, and...uh...she keeps asking if you'll come."

"Oh," said David in surprise not expecting this at all.

"As I said, don't feel obligated or anything I just had to ask..."

"No...I mean, it's fine I'd love to go."

"Are you sure? We aren't talking a Broadway musical here."

"I get it. It's fine. I wouldn't want to let Emily down."

"You wouldn't be the first..." she said under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Never mind. It's at 6:30...I'll text you the address."

Emily's day camp was actually in an old Methodist church that wasn't far from the apartment complex where she and Roxy resided. David arrived a bit late having gotten caught in traffic, but he found that Roxy had saved him a seat right alongside a rather rotund, older, gray-haired woman who turned out to be Emily's regular babysitter, Mrs. Foster.

"Emily speaks very highly of you," whispered Mrs. Foster as she shook his hand.

"Thanks," David replied taking a seat.

The skit was short and sweet, based on a parable that David remembered well from school about a lion with a thorn in its paw. Emily played the part of the girl that removed the thorn and did it with quite a bit of talent as far as David was concerned. He clapped along with the other parents while the kids took their bows like real professionals.

Afterward, the adults filed outside to await the release of their children.

"I think you have a future Academy Award winner on your hands," said David.

"I should be so lucky. If she makes it big maybe she will buy me a house, and I can retire," said Roxy.

The smile that adorned her face fell a second later, though when something over David's shoulder drew her gaze.

"Shit..." she grumbled, moving toward the parking lot.

"What?" asked David, but she was already passed him with a head of steam up.

"Todd," said Mrs. Foster from where she stood nearby.

"Her ex-husband Todd?"

"The same. She told him about this, and he said he would come, but he is late as usual. At least he showed up at all."

David took a few steps closer, not wanting to look like he was trying to eavesdrop, but dying of curiosity at the same time. He got close enough he could make out their conversation.

"I said 6:30, Todd, did they not have a clock in the bar?"

"Hey! I just got stuck at work, that's all. Totally not my fault."

"Bullshit! I can smell the beer on you from here."

"O.K. so I stopped for one lousy beer to take the edge off a long day. It's not the end of the world, so don't make a Federal case out of it."

"One beer, Todd! I think it was a lot more than one, and anyway, you missed the whole damn thing."

"What? Huh? I guess it took longer than I thought, but at most, it was two beers o.k.? Where is Emily? I want to see her."

"Not when you've been drinking. I've told you that before!"

"Give me a break! You don't have to be a bitch every day of your life, you know!"

David felt a bolt of anger shoot through him, and before he even realized he was going to do it, he was by Roxy's side facing her ex-husband. Todd was shorter than him by a good four inches, but broader across the chest with tattoos adorning both arms and reeking of cheap malt liquor.

"Is there a problem?" he asked, glaring at the shorter man.

"It's fine, David," said Roxy in a tight voice.

"Who the Hell is this, Roxy?"

"This is David. We work together."

Todd looked him up and down then turned his head to spit a gob of phlegm onto the pavement, "Jesus, Roxy, you dating grade school kids now?"

David started to snap a comeback, but Roxy beat him to it.

"Let me tell you something! This kid is already more of a man than you'll ever be, Todd. At least he was here for your daughter, which is more than I can say for you!"

"Whatever...Take some advice, Kid. Enjoy the tits and then run. She'll make your life Hell if you stick around too long."

It ended up being David that had to hold Roxy back as she tried to kick Todd who beat a hasty retreat jumping on his motorcycle and roaring off in a cloud of dust.

"Easy there, Tyson. I think your opponent has left the ring," said David as he let her go.

"Mother Fucker!"

She turned a complete circle in place, finally shaking her shoulders and groaning in defeat.

"Man! I don't know what I ever saw in that prick!"

"Couldn't have been his winning personality," deadpanned David.

Roxy looked at him still huffing and puffing in anger than let out a laugh shaking her head.

"Come on! Let's get some ice cream! I need a sugar fix!"

It had been a while since the last time David had been in a booth at Farley's Ice Cream Parlor, and this was nothing like the crowd he usually had with him. On one side of the table sat a seven-year-old girl with more ice cream on her face than in her mouth while next to her was a large older woman making a massacre of her dessert. Next to him, Roxy was pressed almost uncomfortably close in the tiny booth, close enough he could feel the heat coming off her skin, and it made him more than a little nervous.

"Something wrong with your ice cream?" asked Roxy noticing that David had only taken a few bites.

"It's good. I'm just watching my weight. Got to protect this girlish figure," he said which sent Emily into a fit of giggles.

Mrs. Foster and Roxy joined in, and soon, the whole table was filled with the sounds of their mirth.

David looked around the restaurant happy that it appeared they had arrived on a night when Heather wasn't working. He wasn't ready to deal with seeing her again at this point. The mall was reasonably quiet for a weeknight. They had the ice cream parlor mostly to themselves although the food court across from them seemed to still be doing a brisk business. There were quite a few teenagers and college-age kids roaming around the multiple available food options, either standing around talking or sitting at the many open tables sharing French fries and gossip in equal measure. As David looked on the crowd parted near the sandwich shop, and his spoon stopped in mid-air.

"What's wrong," asked Roxy, "you having a stroke?"

"Heather..." was all he said.

The gap in the crowd had revealed a table where it seemed as if every friend David had was sitting around. Right in the middle of the group sat Heather with Alex by her side, his arm draped around her shoulders.

"So that's the infamous Heather. I thought she'd be taller," commented Roxy.

"Whose Heather?" asked Mrs. Foster.

"His old girlfriend," said Roxy.

"Why, she's a lovely girl."

"She cheated on him with another guy."

"Dirty hussy..." amended Mrs. Foster.

"You should go say hello," counseled Roxy between bites of her desert.

"You're nuts! I don't want to talk to her."

"Come on, David. Be the bigger person. You guys were together for three years. Don't you at least want to see if she's pining for you?"

"How will I be able to tell?"

"You'll know just watch her eyes."

"I don't know..." said David waffling, but Roxy elbowed him in the side forcing him out of the booth.

"Fine...Fine," he said, rubbing his hands together and trying to still his racing heart.

"If this goes badly, I'm blaming you," said David as he moved off toward the food court.

The closer he got to his group of friends, the more he thought this had been a horrible idea, but once they spotted him, there was no turning back.

"Hey Guys!" he said, stepping into their midst.

"Wow! It's our missing man! How is High Rock? Do you glow at night?" asked Chris Michaels with a grin.

"I don't think so..." said David trying to force some enthusiasm into his voice and failing. He couldn't take his eyes off Heather, but she wouldn't meet his gaze looking mostly down at her plate. Alex, on the other hand, made a big show of pulling her closer while giving David a fake-looking smile.

"Don't you miss your old job?" asked Stacie from the other side of the table.

Before David could answer, Alex did for him.

"You don't need to worry about Wave World, David. Nobody misses you there...I got it covered."

David frowned but was too nervous to think of a good comeback.

Pete McCormick, another of David's teams mates from swim team, chimed in, "We're all going to the 4th of July Festival at Wave World next weekend. You should come, David."

"Maybe..."

"You should come," said Alex enjoying David's discomfort, "I can't get you in though my free passes are spoken for, right Babe?"

He squeezed Heather's shoulder, making David wince.

"He looks like he's dying out there," said Mrs. Foster sympathetically from where she sat.

"Mrs. Foster. Can you take Emily to the bathroom and get her cleaned up? I'll be right back."

"Where are you going, Roxy?"

"To help a guy out," she said with a wicked smile.

David was feeling more and more like he should have never come over as the tension in the air seemed to get thicker by the second. He felt foolish now and wished he had just stayed in the ice cream parlor.

"There you are, Sweetie! I'm sorry that took so long, but the bathrooms in this place are so hard to find."

David turned in confusion as Roxy came out of nowhere and sauntered right up to him, throwing an arm around his waist.