References to my stories Time Zone and Snowbound
For my sister Bev and brother-in-law Jeff. When they read they will know why.
tststststststststststststs
Blair Sandburg grabbed a fork and stabbed at the pasta primavera that sat in the pan on the stove. Tasting a mouthful, he nodded. “Yeah, man, Michelle will love this.”
Blair had a rare evening lecture to deliver so he was going to grab a bite at the U first. He would be gone all evening. This gave Jim Ellison the opportunity to prepare dinner for Michelle, the dinner he had planned to prepare a couple of weeks prior only to be sidetracked by Blair’s sudden virus. Rather than sitting down to a nice meal (the one about which he had so thoroughly boasted) with the Judaic studies professor, he spent the time tending to his friend, then eating the hastily thrown together fare Michelle had cooked. They had also been snowed in for a while and something transpired that Jim… and Michelle would just as soon forget. Now he found his opportunity to make it up to her. Blair was healthy and heading out… and the weather was clear and mild.
Blair slung his backpack over his shoulder, “I should be home by 10:00.”
Jim gave him a playful shove towards the door. “Well, get going, Darwin. Chelle will be here any minute.”
Blair laughed, “I’m going, man. I’m going.” He snagged an olive from the relish tray that was on the counter and popped it into his mouth before heading to the door. He opened it to find Michelle Futterman on the other side just about to knock. They both startled slightly and sidled around each other.
“Bye,” Michelle offered quickly.
“Have fun, you two,” Blair called as he made his way out the door.
Michelle closed the door, dropped her purse by the door and made her way to the kitchen. “Hey, there’s an actual dinner this time,” she joked.
“Well, vegan isn’t my specialty but I think it came out rather good.” Jim served up two plates of the pasta and encouraged her to the table. He waited for her to try the food first. He looked pretty pleased with himself.
It looked good. It smelled really good. Michelle sampled the dish, then said with more surprise than necessary. “Wow, this is good.”
Jim threw her a look as she chuckled but then said seriously, “I am glad I finally got to cook for you.”
“Me too,” she admitted.
After dinner Michelle helped Jim with the cleanup. They then settled on the sofa for a sort of movie night. A movie they had both wanted to see for some time was on the classic film channel. It was called “Girls on the Beach.” It had an all star (at least in the 1960’s) cast. Michelle was eager to finally see it because her favorite group The Beach Boys was in it. It was high on Jim’s list because, totally unbeknownst to anyone, even Blair, Jim had had a huge crush on Lori Saunders from “Petticoat Junction.” This had been his first and longest lasting TV crush. So much so, that when anyone presented him with the usual “Ginger or MaryAnn,” he would respond to their looks of confusion, “Bobbie Jo.”
The two sat side by side watching in general contentment until an interesting scene in which Lori did a belly dance. Jim was completely engrossed and with a particular goofy grin on his face he honed in on her midriff. When the scene ended Michelle turned to him, “I bet you enjoyed tha.. Uh oh.” The sentinel had zoned.
Michelle had experienced this once before in her apartment when Jim zoned out watching the numbers flash on a unique clock she owned. She had managed to back him up and push him into a seated position on her couch then phone Blair to assist with the situation. She was not as freaked out as she might have been had she not helped proofread his original thesis and had learned something about sentinels, senses and zone outs but she was unfamiliar with what to do in such a case. After that incident, however, Blair had given her some basic instruction in the care and handling of sentinels or at least this one sentinel in the event of a zone out.
Based on whichever of his senses had been the trigger of the zone out you opt for one of the remaining senses to stimulate. She was hoping she would never be put to the test, but here went nothing. She knelt on the floor in front of where he sat his long legs slightly apart. She leaned in and spoke in a very soothing tone. “Jim, it’s Michelle. I'm going to help you get back here.” She was not going to try to use sound. She figured that Jim had himself trained to respond to Blair’s voice. She also decided against taste. It would work. It was what Blair used that evening in her apartment. But, he had dispensed vanilla extract onto his finger and worked his finger into Jim’s mouth. That didn’t strike her as something she was comfortable doing. She opted to use touch and she really hoped what she had in mind would do the trick.
Michelle started by placing her left hand on Jim’s right knee. She placed her other hand on his left thigh. “Okay, Jim, just remember I’m new at this. I’m going to try something. I think you’ll like it. Concentrate on the feel of my hand.” She paused for a brief moment. “Just don’t go all octopus on me again.” She gently massaged a path up his thigh to his groin. She continued to rub in small delicate circles. “Nothing yet, huh?” She pushed out a breath and gently let her hand glide over his genital area. “Okay, Jim, come back to me.” She froze a moment realizing what she had just said.
A distant voice was calling his name. It wasn’t Blair’s, but it was familiar. There was a sensation, a touch on his leg, drawing him closer to the voice and the person behind the touch. The touch moved to a more sensitive area. Jim slid back from the zone.
Michelle sat back slightly, trailing her hand back down his thigh. She sighed deeply, “Oh, thank God.” Jim looked momentarily disoriented. It happened with the zone outs sometimes. “You zoned.”
Jim blinked and glanced over her head at the movie that was still playing. “It was the belly dance,” he stated somewhat puzzled as to how he could have let it happen.
“Well, at least you're out of it now. Glad Blair taught me what to do,” but quickly added. “He didn’t tell me to do exactly what I did, though.”
Jim laughed. “I hope not.” He then brought a hand up to massage her shoulder. “Why’d you stop?” He used his other hand to attempt to guide hers back into place.” Michelle abruptly removed her hand and Jim realized she was likely wondering if there was going to be a repeat of the last time they were alone and this close. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. “It’s under control.”
Michelle rose from the floor. “Okay, but why don’t we do something other than sit here?”
tststststststststststs
Jim pulled a cookie sheet from the oven. “Last batch out.” Michelle transferred the cooled cookies to a plate to make room for them on the rack.
“Honey almond cookies! I could smell them baking the minute I got off the elevator,” Blair Sandburg announced as he came through the door. “And I didn’t even need Jim’s olfactory receptors,” he added.
Jim and Michelle both laughed slightly and Michelle, indicating the plate, told Blair to help himself.
Blair grabbed one, then another. “I love these. You haven’t made them in like so long." More for Jim’s benefit he added. "Michelle’s been making these since I was a little kid. They were one of my favorites.” He paused for a minute. “Hey, why’re you baking cookies? Didn’t you watch the movie?”
Jim and Michelle shared a look. Then Jim said sheepishly, “We uh started to…”
“Aw, man, did that channel screw up and put the wrong movie on again?”
“No…no,” Jim hemmed. “We started to watch it. Chief, I zoned.”
Blair moved closer to Jim, a look of concern on his face. “Wha… How?”
Jim appeared even more sheepish. “You see, there’s this actress I like and she was doing a belly dance, and, well, I was watching pretty intently.”
Blair gave Jim’s upper arm a light squeeze. “You okay, man?”
Jim nodded, “Yeah, yeah. Michelle brought me out of it.” A strange grin was starting to appear on his face.
Blair turned to Michelle. “I knew giving you all that instruction would come in handy.” Then he turned back to Jim. “How did she bring you out of it?”
Jim’s hand went to the back of his head and his grin got goofier. Michelle’s eyes widened slightly. “Um, she used touch,” he finally said matter-of-factly.
Blair nodded. “Touch. That’s good.”
“It sure was,” Jim commented.
“Shut up,” Michelle said through her teeth in a pleading way.
Blair looked at her, puzzled. “It must’ve been some touch.”
Still grinning stupidly, Jim said, “Oh, it was.”
“Shut up,” Michelle was almost begging.
But Jim kept going, “And let’s just say it was something only she can use.”
“Shut up, “ she tried again.
But it was too late. Blair looked at her, then Jim. The same goofy grin Jim had been sporting now appeared on his face as he figured out what she had done. “Oh,” was all he could say. Then to Michelle he added, “Good job.”
Deciding it was time to leave Michelle grabbed some cookies and put them in a plastic zipper bag. “I’d better get going.”
Exchanging another look with Blair he turned to Michelle, “I’ll walk you to the elevator.”
tstststststststststs
“Thank you for inviting me,” Michelle told Jim as they reached the elevator.
“Sorry you didn’t get to watch the rest of the movie.”
“It’ll be on again. I still had a good time.”
“Me too,” Jim told her. “Best zone out I ever had. Okay, not the zone out so much. I really liked how you brought me out of it.”
“Well, I hope you didn’t like it so much that you try to zone out on purpose around me. Because next time I just might grab my tweezer and yank out a nose hair or something.”
Jim gave an exaggerated cringe then wrapped his arms around her. They kissed. The elevator doors opened, Michelle stepped in and gave a gentle wave as they closed again.
tstststststststststs
Back in the loft Jim found Blair in the kitchen still stuffing his face with cookies. “Hey, go easy on those, Chief.”
“Sorry, Big Guy, I like them when they’re still warm.” He set aside the one he was holding and brushed the crumbs from his hands. Nearing Jim he asked, “Are you sure you’re okay? The zone out earlier.”
Jim dropped a hand on Blair’s shoulder. “I told you. Everything’s fine. Why?”
Blair shrugged. “It’s just that you spent the evening baking cookies. You didn’t watch the rest of the movie. I thought maybe you were worrying about zoning again.”
Jim shook his head. “No, I think Michelle was worried that after that particular usage of touch there would be a repeat of what happened that last time we were in close quarters, so to speak.”
“Any sign of that…”
“No.” Jim almost spoke over him. “It was under control. But, whatever she needed, you know?”
“I know. She really came through. I might make a guide out of her yet. She’s proven she’d be a good back up if I’m not around.”
“Whether she wants to or not,” Jim put in.
“We won’t be the dynamic duo anymore. But that’s okay. We can be more like the three musketeers.”
“The three musketeers?”
“Yeah, you know,” Blair gestured vaguely. “Athos, Porthos…
“And Annette,” Jim couldn’t help saying.
Blair rolled his eyes but laughed slightly. “Goodnight, Jim.”
Jim gave Blair’s face a pat. “Night, Chief.” And it had been a pretty good night. The actress on whom he’d had a decades long crush caused him a zone out and the woman he was dating brought him out of it. Yes, a very good night.
The End