just a thought

Jesus, thought Parker, could Charlotte listen to another punk Irish tune? He was ready to climb the walls once they got to Omaha.

Of course, the whole time he was in the car he would look over to Kat and think they were just about to have a moment. Damn, if Charlotte didn't ask the most stupid questions?

1. which Kansas City is this?
2. are we in Missouri, already?
3. is this Iowa?
4. what is a Dr. John's, exactly?

He drank three bottles of water. He hadn't remembered the last time he'd consumed so much water. This was making him nervous and then he really wanted to stop anywhere on the road for a pee, but he wouldn't ask. And then he hated to ask once they arrived at Archie's.

As it was, Archie had left the place exactly as if he'd gone out for the morning paper and didn't return. The place was ripe. Naturally, the first chore was to open all the windows. It was quite a scurry of activity when they got there.

Parker thought he'd make a run for it and go to the first Cum & Go (which still made him smile at the thought of fast sex when it was actually just a convenient store) and see if he could at least have a moment in the restroom to himself.

"Where are you going?" Kat followed him down the front steps.

"Uh-" He pointed. "I forgot to buy-" He felt his words stop and start. Would he buy condoms if he had a chance? He wondered if that's what she was thinking. Finally, he just walked on. Naturally, Kat caught up with him.

"You, you don't have to- you know-" He squinted then.

"Well, I want to." She just said keeping up with his pace.

"Want to?" He winced, looking at her as if this might be a subliminal message that she actually wanted him, and he better buy the condoms.

"You don't know this area, what if you get hit by a drive by." She told him.

"A drive by?" All he wanted was to go to the bathroom. Lord knows, if Archie had forgot to flush. Parker made a face just thinking how gross his bathroom might be.

Finally a Dairy Queen a couple of blocks away.

"Lets go in here," He'd go take a pee and he'd buy her a DQ treat. Why not. It was probably not lunch. It could be after lunch. He didn't wear a watch.

He left her at the counter. She just stared at the menu over head.

Finally, he could relax. After the restroom. Clean hands. And here he was about to fill up again.

"Maybe we could just order some burgers for all of us, and we could bring back some food." She suggested.

"Lets not. I really would not bring food back to that house." He shook his head.

"OK." She nodded grabbing her cell then. "I could just call and say we found a Dairy Queen."

"Don't do that either," he winced. "I'm sure Archie knows where the Diary Queen is."

"Well, I just can't-"

"Yes, you can. They will be fine without you for a little while." He shrugged. "How about a blizzard?"

"That's so, you know, rich for my blood." She wasn't sold on ice cream, evidently.

"We'll share one then." He shrugged. "You need a little treat. Believe me, you'll burn it off. You know, all that stuff we'll have to do back at Archie's."

"Well, then, anything chocolate." She sighed.

"You like Reese's pieces?"

She nodded. So he ordered, and they sat down to wait. For fast food it seemed rather slow to him, but he didn't say anything to her about it.

"I tell you, this is crazy. I wasn't in on this, you know." He shook his head. He wondered now if she ever planned to ever speak to him again. He honestly had his doubts.

"I know." She smiled and the the thick ice cream treat finally came and the dove in with spoonfuls to savor.

"Actually, that's not completely true." He told her.

"What's not true?" She smiled again.

"I had asked Charlotte about you." He confessed.

"And?"

"And she thinks I'm a loser." He didn't quite smile then.

"No, she doesn't." Kat sort of laughed and ate another spoonful.

"What do you think?" He looked at her.

"About you?" She looked away then.

"No, about us." He couldn't believe he said it. He knew he was jumping off the deep end in this and if he drowned... He so wanted to be drowned in her.

Kat looked around as if anyone might be watching. Listening. You'd think she had training as a spy the way she eyed people in the joint.

"Look, I only kissed you to make you shut up." She barely said it. As if it was nothing. Just a freak of nature. And granted it was a very small gesture when it happened. He had put it out of his mind. Actually. Well, he hadn't breathed a word of it to anyone. And it was more of an accident. Really, that's what it had been.

She was grabbing books, he was grabbing theones she lent him in her her room...and....boom. There it was. It could have been really good without the books, and he really wanted a chance at a do over. He deserved as much.

"I-I just want a chance to spend some time with you." Parker said.

"In the city?" She acted as if that would be unheard of.

"Nobody knows us here?"

"Yes they do," The shock in her eyes got to him. "Look who we came with?" She shook her head, no.

"God, everyone thinks I'm your mother." She sucked in a breath.

"No, they don't." He looked around. No one was looking at him nor her. He reached for her fingertips with his own. He saw her slightly tense, but he rested his hand close to hers for a few seconds.

"See, no one came over to ask your age." He smiled.

She pulled her hand away and pushed her hair back letting it rest on her neck then.

Why did she have to think so much? He'd done enough thinking for the both of them.