Cutler 02 - Secrets of the Morning

back as if he were connected to an enormous rubber band and continued up to his room. Finally, after we'd waited nearly four hours we heard the door buzzer sound.
    Trisha and I looked up at each other. Agnes was out shopping with friends and Mrs. Liddy was in the kitchen.
    "Should I let him in?" Trisha asked.
    "No, no, I'll do it," I said and took a deep breath. "How do I look?"
    "Not any different from the way you looked five minutes ago when you asked," she said, laughing.
    I stood up and went to the entrance. I closed my eyes and for a moment pictured Jimmy back at the hotel in the hideaway when we had told each other our most secret feelings and thoughts about each other. Those moments and those words seemed more like part of a childhood dream, a fantasy. Had time and distance changed the way we felt? My heart began to pound in anticipation. I opened the outer doors to greet him.
    Jimmy looked so much taller in his uniform. His face had lost its innocent softness and become firm and full in a mature way. His dark hair was short, of course, but that didn't take away from his good looks. It seemed to emphasize his hazel-brown eyes, Momma Longchamp's eyes. He stood tall with his shoulders back, confidence radiating from him. As he looked down at me, I saw his eyes soften and warmth flooded through me.
    "Hi," he said. "I'm sorry I'm so late, but a bus broke down and I got a little lost. You look so pretty."
    "Thank you," I said. I didn't move. It was as if we had both jumped ahead years and years and were afraid to treat each other the way we had when we were growing up side by side as brother and sister.
    "Aren't you going to invite him in?" Trisha asked, standing directly behind me.
    "What? Oh. I'm sorry, Jimmy. This is Trisha, my roommate. Trisha, this is Jimmy."
    Jimmy stepped forward and took Trisha's hand.
    "Pleased to meet you," he said. He nodded toward me. "Dawn has told me a lot about you."
    "And she's told me a lot about you, too," Trisha countered. They both looked at me as if I had given away state secrets about each. "Shall we go into the sitting room?" Trisha asked, that silly smile frozen on her lips.
    "What? Oh, yes," I said and led Jimmy in.
    "Very nice place," he said, sitting down on the small sofa and gazing around at the pictures and mementos.
    "Would you like something to drink?" Trisha asked. "Dawn seems to have forgotten her manners," she teased. "Agnes would be very upset."
    "No thank you," Jimmy said. There was a long moment of silence and then we all started talking at once.
    "How is Daddy Longchamp?" I asked.
    "How's school?" Jimmy asked.
    "What's it like being in the army?" Trisha asked.
    We all laughed. Then Jimmy sat back, a lot more relaxed. He seemed so different to me, so calm and so much stronger. I had always felt so much younger than him, so much like his little sister. Now his quiet maturity made me feel even more distant.
    "I like the army," he said. "Like they tell you at boot camp, I've found a new home."
    I raised my eyebrows on the word "home," and he turned to wink at me.
    "But it's okay. I like the guys I'm with and I'm learning about engines and mechanics in a way that will be handy when I get out." He turned back to me. "I'm sorry about being late. I was supposed to take you to lunch, now it will have to be dinner. If that's all right, that is," he added.
    "Oh . . . of course," I said.
    "You'll have to tell me a good restaurant. I don't know much about New York," he explained to Trisha.
    "Oh, go to Antonio's on York and Twenty-eighth," Trisha suggested.
    "That's too expensive," I said. We had never gone to eat there, but we had stopped to look in at it and it looked very fancy.
    "Don't worry about it," Jimmy snapped, that fiery light I remembered in his dark eyes flashing for a moment to announce his pride. "Anyway," he said, his eyes filling with a mischievous twinkle, "you're too dressed up for anything cheap."
    I blushed so fast and hard, I felt the heat rise in my neck. When I looked at Trisha, I saw that silly, satisfied smile on her lips.
    "Well, then, let's go," I said. "I'm starving."
    "She should be; she's been too nervous to eat all day," Trisha revealed.
    "Trisha!"
    Jimmy laughed. We got up and walked out. "Have a good time," Trisha said.
    "Thank you," Jimmy said.
    "He's very handsome," she whispered in my ear. When we stepped out of the apartment house, I discovered he had a taxi cab waiting.
    "Why didn't you say something, Jimmy?" I cried, knowing what that