Tea - Chapter 25

Miles woke up with a manageable hangover on Monday morning. They had stayed up until well past midnight, a result of having the energy a half-day of work brings, and morning rapped Miles’ skull the same time as usual. He groaned into Sophie’s arm to wake her up before rolling out of bed to find some clean clothes. Miles was rather looking forward to the comparatively easy life of a student.

He heard Sophie shuffling behind him and without effort they timed things so that they were ready to walk to the dining hall together. Coordination was one of those skills they had learned unconsciously with time. Miles slipped his fingers between Sophie’s clandestinely.

Two cups of coffee at breakfast did much to boost Miles’ spirit. He was pretty much close to normal by the time the busses full of children rolled into the parking lot. Miles nodded to Jabari and Scott as though they were about to take the field for a football game. Then the doors swung open.

“It’s all a blur, you know?” Jabari said that evening as they walked back from dinner. They were done for the day since most people were working groups all week and the administration hated paying overtime wages even though Miles had a feeling they would not be able to avoid it that week. Paul was leading evening games in the dining hall until nine and as far as anyone he worked with was concerned that was the perfect place for him to be.

“You hanging out with Sophie tonight?” Miles nodded. The movie they were supposed to have watched was still sitting on top of his laptop.

“This partying shit will wear you out.”

“And you’ve got to be ready for Thursday. No excuses, pussy.” Miles shook his head and broke off for his cabin.

“Miles…” He realized that he had fallen asleep when he felt Sophie nudge him. “Don’t go to sleep yet. I haven’t gotten my kisses yet.”

“Did you already take a shower and everything?”

“Yeah, I let you sleep. But you can’t go to bed now. You’ll be up all night. Let me in.” Miles threw back the covers and swallowed Sophie up in them as soon as she touched the mattress. She did her part to reclaim Miles’ lost warmth by clinging to him.

“We’re almost done,” she whispered.

“We’ve just begun, or something cheesy like that. Cue the credits.”

“Shut up,” Sophie chirped, slapping Miles’ shoulder as best she could under the confines of the sheets. “You know what I mean.”

“And I’m sure I’ve said something just as mushy as that before.”

“Many times. And much mushier.”

“What time is it?”

“Almost eight-thirty.”

“It is time for bed.”

“Do you want to watch that movie?”

“Where are Scott and Kyra?”

“Is this going to be another one of those movies we never finish?”

“You’re the one who woke me up.”

“I didn’t know that also meant waking him up.”

“Your only hope is to shag me silly until my sex drive mellows out.”

“In your wildest dreams,” Sophie scolded. “I shag you entirely too much as it is.”

“Seems I’ve heard that before.” A few carefully placed kisses later Sophie succumbed.

The hangover Miles woke up with the next morning was entirely different and wholly more enjoyable. He kissed the cause deeply in spite of two-party morning breath and would not have let her go if man hadn’t invented the alarm clock.

Miles had to stick to the game-day mentality that had gotten him and a few others through so many of the final days. It had become a job for the staff at that point, and their job did seem more similar to an athlete’s than an accountant’s. They had to run around all day herding students, roll around in the dirt, coach them through challenges, and settle skirmishes. It was a great job, but most people could only hack it for so long. Miles thought that maybe it was why no team played year-round.

“Tuesday, man. Tuesday. Five days after this. Can you feel it?” This was from the guy that had played collegiate ball; Jabari. Miles nodded before piling on his morning eggs

“Part of me doesn’t want it to be over, man.”

“Grad school gonna be tough?”

“I don’t know. Not going to be this much fun, though.” He clapped Jabari’s shoulder and followed him to their table.

Miles sat beside Sophie and waited to se her grey-green eyes. He smiled at the remembrance of her enthusiasm the night before. Sophie smiled shyly back at Miles.

The schedule had been wrong that week, in the staff’s favor. The group in camp was listed as a three-day, two night affair when in actuality they had booked for only the previous night. A new group was coming in the next day for a day program. It meant an unexpected mid-week afternoon off, but made overtime pay unlikely. Miles preferred the time off at that point. It was shaping up to be a good week.

Miles had a smile on his face as he led his kids out of the dining hall and out into the woods. He was definitely ‘on’ that morning. What Miles had known about beavers could have fit on a Bazooka Joe comic before he had moved to New Hampshire but when he gave the speech to his kids after a nice hike to a view of the beaver lodge at the edge of the lake he sounded like a biologist. The kids hadn’t even complained about the walk to the far end of the water.

Before they knew it lunch time was looming. Miles gave out bandanas to half his students and paired them up to guide one another back to the dining hall. The activity sufficiently filled the remaining forty minutes to put them back in camp with minutes to spare. Miles let them loose to wash their hands and readied the dish room, where he would be hanging out after the meal with Gerri.

Even doing dishes did not sound so bad to Miles at that point, and he hated doing the dishes. He thought that maybe he should have tricked himself into thinking the season was almost over the whole time he was in New Hampshire.

“We should pack today,” Sophie suggested when Miles sat down to the table.

“I’m game for that. Everything but clothes, I guess. You shouldn’t take that long at all.”

“It’s not as though we’re really going to do anything else with the time, and Thursday’s pretty much out.”

“Stupid friends,” Miles teased. “I have to do dishes but I’ll find you at the cabins to clean after I’m done with that.” Sophie nodded.

“I know. I always look to see where you are.”

“That’s cute.”

“Not weird in a stalker sort of way? What if I’m a jealous lover?”

“What if?” Miles asked with a smile. “You’re obsessed. Practically following me all over the country.” Sophie shook her head.

The door was open to match the windows, letting the sounds of R.E.M. float into the breeze airing Miles’ cabin out. He and Sophie had finished cleaning before the two o’clock hour and after the requisite fooling around/shower tradition of short weekdays had set about to packing his possessions.

“It seems like I just pulled all this stuff out of boxes.”

“Well, you should have less by now. How many bottles of wine did you bring?”

“Eight, I think.”

“You wino.”

“I bought stuff out here though, too. And you did as well once you connived yourself a ride back with me.”

“Ah, yes. Sleeping with you for six months was so worth keeping that plane ticket money.”

“You’re just lucky you’re cute. I think I’m going to leave the wine glasses here. We can get some more for wedding presents.”

“Are you going to leave that flannel shirt here?” Sophie chided. She hated Miles’ flannel shirt. “It just makes you look like a hillbilly, darling. You’re so sexy and it makes you look common.” She was holding it out in front of her as if it were a dead animal.

“How am I going to argue with that? Yeah, I’ll throw it up on the coat hooks in the lounge. I brought it to muck around with here because I figured I would need something like that. Someone will be able to use it, I suppose.”

“Some poor tosser,” Sophie muttered under her breath.

“I heard that,” Miles answered. “That poor tosser was me before you came along.”

“You’re some of my best work, yes.” Sophie giggled and allowed herself to be kissed and just a little molested. “I do it because I love you. And you have so much potential.” That earned a pin to the bed.

“You fell for me. That’s all I need. Come on, now or we’ll never get this finished.

“You’re the one fondling me in the middle of the afternoon, Sir, with the door open for the entire world to see.”

“I thought you liked that sort of thing now,” Miles joked. Sophie punched his back femininely.

They finished packing with relatively few complications and found themselves staring at a half-empty room.

“What do we do now?”

“I guess we go to the lounge.” Miles looked at the clock he had left on the nightstand out of begrudged necessity. Seven-thirty. “See if we have any food.”

“Bollocks. Let’s just go out. You know we don’t have anything up there worth eating, at least making a meal from. And we’ve been here for days, it seems.”

“Alright, but we’re going cheap this time.”

“I’m not eating at McDonald’s.”

“God, no. Let’s go to Subway.” Sophie nodded. They left the cabin and walked down the road without a backwards glance at the lounge.

“Hey.” Miles looked at Sophie. “You’re walking too far away.” Miles stepped to her side and squeezed her fingers as they slid through his. “That’s better,” she said sweetly.

Wednesday was a long day for Miles. He was put on the opening half of a new group’s stay which meant a quitting time well past nine that evening. Knowing that he had the day off Thursday with Sophie did not help his eagerness to be done with the middle of the week; especially since they were celebrating, well, everything the following day.

He got through it by putting on the blinders and plowing through the hours; trying not to think about the soft, warm sleeping girl he had left behind that morning.

She was waiting for him when he returned. She had unpacked his computer and speakers and was watching a movie he did not recognize. Miles plopped onto the bed to kiss her before retreating to the bathroom to wash the work week away.

When he stepped back into the room the laptop was shut down and Sophie was staring at him. “You didn’t have to turn your movie off,” he said, sitting beside her.

“I wasn’t that good. I was just waiting for you. Come here.” Miles obeyed. “We’re going out tomorrow, but you’re mine for tonight,” she said.

“I don’t think I’ll be much of a conversationalist. I’m pretty worn out. Ninth graders are a lot of work.”

“You don’t feel tired,” Sophie countered, pressing into Miles. “And who said I wanted to talk?”

Sophie could make short work of Miles when she wanted to, and did that night. She wrapped her arms around him when they finished, keeping Miles on top of her. The last thing Miles remembered was asking Sophie what she had done on her day off. He couldn’t say whether she answered him or not.

“Do we have anything to get done before we leave?” Miles asked. They were still in bed. It was almost ten in the morning.

“I don’t think so. I packed up and put everything in your Jeep yesterday. We should check the lounge today, though, to see if we left anything in there.” Miles nodded, lazily trying to remember if there was indeed anything worth saving of theirs in the commons.

“Shall we just tough it out until lunch? I really don’t feel like spending any more money and we’re going out tonight anyways.”

Sophie agreed. “I could go for some tea, though.”

“Tea it is.”

People started popping up in the lounge just before six. Miles and Sophie had been staked out on the couch watching sit-coms since after lunch for lack of a better plan. Jabari came in first, followed shortly by Emma, and then Scott and Kyra straggled in last.

“Are you guys ready for this?” Jabari asked. “We’re going to have some fun tonight.”

“What exactly have you got planned?” Miles asked, throwing an arm over the couch where he and Sophie were sprawled.

“We got reservations at The Brick Oven at Seven. Throw some clothes on and we’ll get out of here.” Miles nodded and grunted his way off the couch with Sophie’s help.

“Ah, I knew I had something like this still out,” Miles pulled a short-sleeved button-up out of the only drawer he needed to house his remaining clothing.

“That’s nice. I think I’m going to borrow something from Kyra. I’ll be back.” Miles finished dressing and knew better than to wait at his cabin for Sophie. He went down to the lounge and had a beer with Scott and Jabari while they waited for the girls to finish.

It was very apparent where they were sitting once they got inside the restaurant. There was a huge banner with the words ‘Congratulations Miles and Sophie!’ splashed with glitter and other party paraphernalia. Sophie turned red the moment she saw it and the rose really never left her cheeks that evening.

“Geez, you guys, you didn’t have to do all this,” Miles exclaimed, taking a seat next to his fiancée under the banner. Before anyone said a word there were two pitchers of beer brought to the table. Scott poured until everyone had a glass in front of them.

“To Miles and Sophie: Health, happiness, and all that forever and ever. You two are a great couple and a great pair of friends. Good luck to both of you.” Everyone clinked glasses and cheered.

“To you guys, too,” Miles answered, “For giving us grief when we needed it, leaving us alone when we wanted it, and doing stuff like this. Having you guys around made for a fun season.” Clinks and cheers resounded again and everyone settled down for about thirty seconds until spoons started clinking against glasses. Miles kissed Sophie robustly to silence the dishes.

“Isn’t that a wedding reception thing?” Miles asked. Everyone shrugged. Sophie had not spoken since she walked in the door. Miles nudged her, and then kissed her cheek. She had not stopped smiling, either.

Appetizers were ordered and when they were brought around everyone forgot about celebrating for a moment and remembered that they had not eaten since lunch. Everyone but Emma, who was driving, was pleasantly soused by the time the first round of food was finished. They left their table for an open pool table at the other end of the room. More pitchers were brought out and tended to by Sophie and Kyra while they watched the others play a long game.

The girls rotated in for game two, replacing Emma and Jabari. Jabari had the great idea to order pizzas while they were standing around and took Emma with him to help.

“We should have done more of this,” Scott said, after breaking the balls.

“We did do a lot of this,” Miles answered, leaning on his stick. “My bank account will attest to that.”

“I guess you’re right. Days just seem so much longer if you spend them at camp.” Everyone at the table agreed with that statement.

“Well, I’ll have a few breaks here and there, being on the school schedule again. Maybe we can work it out to get together, either out here or in Chicago.”

They sloppily conversed and played pool even more haphazardly; making it back to their table just ahead of the pies Emma and Jabari had ordered.

On the heels of the pizza came an elaborately decorated cake lit up with birthday candles with a short ode to the soon to be married couple. Sophie was holding back tears as she and Miles blew out the candles. They both made the same silent wish.

It was close to ten by the time the rest of the food was put into Styrofoam to take home. There were two pool tables free by that time and a jukebox begging to be utilized. Miles stationed himself there and picked a dozen songs out while the others warmed up the table.

Sophie handed him a stick once he was done d.j.’ing. Miles took a bad shot and handed it back to Sophie. He was playing against the girls; Scott and Jabari were going head to head at the next table. After the first games were done, they switched up players for one more round to finish out Miles’ selections on the jukebox.

The extra pitchers certainly were not needed, but that didn’t stop anyone, even Sophie and Kyra, who were usually the reserved ones, from finishing them off in grand style.

The last thought Miles had was how thankful he was to have the next morning off.