“I love you, Lynette,” I said, but she shut the door—loudly—before I finished the sentence.
“Well, Mr. Asshole managed to get Lynette and Kristen back together,” I said.
“Mr. Asshole may have lost Lynette forever, though,” June said.
“June, I love Kristen with my entire being. Lynette loves her almost the exact same way. What is between Lynette and me is closer to how I feel about you.”
“I know that Lynette’s totally pissed off at you.”
I sighed. “Do you really think I’m an asshole?”
“No, Jim,” June said, moving over to me and kissing me. “Somebody needed to shake some sense into Lynette. I just think you shook too hard.”
I sighed. If I didn’t feel so strongly about Lynette, then why the fuck was I crying like a baby?
“Jim?” June asked.
“What?” I sniffed.
“Can you play Mr. Bojangles for me again?”
I sighed as I led June downstairs.
“I think the ‘Lesbian 101’ remark was why she slapped you,” June told me in the stairway. “That was particularly callous and uncaring, but I know why you said it. I felt like slapping you after you said that, too. Calling her a stupid bitch didn’t help one bit, either.”
“I’ve found that I get pretty eloquent when I feel a strong need to say something, but I may have just been lucky up until now. I didn’t think before I said that. I’m not sorry for yelling at Lynette, although I think I could have found a better way of saying what I did.”
June simply nodded.
Before getting to the studio, June looked in on the new bedroom. The wallpaper was already up and the room looked finished.
“Too bad Kristen won’t be using this tonight,” June said.
“Let’s inaugurate this room tonight,” I said.
June looked at me for a few moments before answering. “Maybe.”
I wondered about that pause and that answer.
“I’m sorry about that lesbian remark, June,” I said. “I still don’t know how I should have put it.”
June’s body relaxed. I hadn’t realized that she had been so tense up until that moment. “Thank you for apologizing, Jim,” June said, softly. “I’d love to sleep with you tonight.”
I noticed that the tape was no longer rewound, and figured that Kristen played the tape once again. I rewound the tape, took it off the recorder and put it into its cardboard box. Before I threw the tape in a drawer that had lots of other similar tapes, I took a pen and labeled the box “Random Shit.”
I put a blank tape into the recorder, and told June that I was going to record this particular session.
“You can’t talk, since I’m going to be recording two tracks. Acoustic piano on one mike, and my voice on the other. All right?”
“Uh, huh.”
“I… um… need a few minutes to calm down.”
“It’s all right,” June said, soothingly. “May I sit on your lap?”
Having June sit on my lap would definitely make me feel much better.
June started to get undressed as I set up the two microphones.
I knew that this was going to be only a test recording. There was no way that I’d be able to separate the two microphone tracks, since my voice and the piano would really be on both. I decided that I’d need to find somebody with more experience with recording to help me find things such as directional microphones and other things that I found that I lacked knowledge about.
I counted fifteen seconds and started the intro for Mr. Bojangles for June.
Unfortunately, my voice cracked during the first line, and I stopped. I ended up crying on June’s shoulder.
“There, there, Oogie,” June said, quietly.
June moved me off the piano bench onto the bench from the new bedroom. She hugged me to her naked body, and kept on saying, “There, there, Oogie.”
“I’m sorry June,” I said. “I’m a fucking asshole. Lynette hates me, and rightfully so. I wouldn’t blame Kristen if she hated me. You even got angry about that remark!”
“I forgave you when you apologized,” June soothed.
“Without Kristen… without Lynette… I’m without… They’re my life!”
“Come on Jim, they’ll forgive you.”
I would not be consoled. “No they won’t!”
June continued to soothe me, and I just started to mumble incoherently into June’s shoulder.
It took about ten minutes for me to regain my composure.
“Maybe Bojangles wasn’t the right song, Oogie,” June said, softly.
“It’s never happened before.”
“What never happened?”
“I never felt so bad that I couldn’t play,” I said. “Usually playing helps me get out my frustration.”
June didn’t seem to comprehend.
“I couldn’t play the song!”
“You’ve played it before,” June soothed, walking up to me. “You say playing gets out your frustration. You’re not frustrated, Jim.”
“No,” I admitted. “I’m heartbroken.”
“Maybe music isn’t the right thing. How about pool?”
“I’m not in the mood to concentrate.”
“How about the pool in the main house?”
Actually, that sounded better. “Um…”
June didn’t wait for any more of that answer. She moved over to the intercom and called the main house.
Harry answered. “Yes?”
“It’s June,” June said. “Is the Solarium free?”
“Yes, June.”
“Would it be all right if Oogie and I come over?”
“Certainly.”
June left the studio and went into the shower to get a couple of robes. She put one on and then led me out of the apartment building. She remembered something, and left me in the driveway and ran back into the apartment building. After about two minutes, she came running back with a pair of sandals. She put them on as she came outside.
I watched June put on her sandals, and then she led me over to the main house.
Harry met us at the door.
“Hi, Jim, June. How’s Kristen?”
“Kris and Lynette are making up,” June said. She started pushing past Harry, who realized that we weren’t up for idle chit-chat. He let us in and we went into the Solarium, where June led me to one of the changing rooms.
“Let’s soak in the hot tub, Jim,” June said.
“I guess.”
June rolled her eyes, and then undressed me and escorted me into the hot tub.
The two of us sat in the hot tub for an hour. I don’t think either one of us said much.
“Feeling better?” June finally asked.
“I’m a real shit.”
“Lynette will forgive you.”
“You told me that I might have lost her forever.”
“That’s before you apologized for the remark. You knew what you said was wrong. Lynette will know that.”
“I guess.”
June pulled me out of the hot tub, and I followed her. I didn’t expect her to push me into the deep end of the swimming pool, though.
“Hey!” I shouted when I came up for air.
“That’s the first new emotion you’ve shown in the last hour,” June said. “I’m insulted! You’re in a hot tub with a hot babe like me, and you’re mooning about Lynette!”
“OK, OK,” I said, finally. I started to climb up the ladder. “Give me a hug?” I asked.
June smiled. “Of course… HEY!”
June’s surprise was that as she came over to hug me, I pulled her into the pool with me.
“That’s for pushing me in, June,” I said. “But I think I needed that. Thank you.”