Moose and Goose

Chapter Fifty-two

David's leaning against the doorway of the closet under his stairs, watching Judith shake her laundry into the dryer.

"So, are you coming back to school?" She scoffs at the idea and shuts the lid.

"No. I still don't understand why he wanted me back after everything that happened." She turns, then tugs the white dial, and her clothes tumble around in the machine. "It feels like a trick."

"Why do you say that?" Judith sifts through her pockets, and David watches her right hand retrieve a dingy, torn card. She looks at its face and furrows her eyebrows.

John Lewis?

"I wouldn't lay with a girl as young as you." She remembers his voice. It was smooth, but his breath reeked of spearmint to mask his love for cigarettes.

"What's that?" David steps into the small room and presses his hands on the tables and machines. They aide his body closer to hers until finally, he stands at her height. He peeks over her shoulder, reads the card, then asks, "Who's John Lewis?"

"No one." Judith shoves the card into the left pocket of her overalls, her gaze trained on the knob on the machine. He looks into the side of her dark brown eyes and his mind is filled with questions, but when he opens his mouth to speak, nothing comes out. Pressing her index against the door, she lets out a dry chuckle and asks, "Do I not put quarters in this thing?"

"What?" Her question takes him out of his thoughts, and he darts his attention from her to the dryer, then to her again.

"At the laundromat, I have to put quarters in the machine." When she finally turns her head to look at him, she trails off until she stops speaking.

"No," he says through light laughter, but her expression remains neutral. "Oh, man, you're funny. At the laundromat, that's how they run their business: stealing your quarters. At home, you just let the machine do its thing; no charge."

Judith sets the laundry bag on the machine but doesn't release her grasp on it. She watches it under her hand for a second.

Should I just bring the bag home?

"Hey, my mom made Chicken Chow Mein for her bridge club thing, and we have a ton of leftovers," David says, and she gives him a confused stare.

"Chicken what?" He reaches his right arm over the dryer and takes her hand in his. She lowers her gaze onto his fingers and slowly pulls away. Her meek voice is barely audible when she says, "I'm gonna just head home."

"That's fine, but," he begins, then drops his head to look at the floor between them. "I wanted to apologize."

"You're always apologizing," she reminds him, and he glances at her long enough to send goosebumps up her arms. "What're you sorry for?"

"The way things ended between us. I think about you a lot." Judith blinks, and her head jerks back from shock.

"Wow," she mumbles, and her eyes glaze onto the dryer.

"I think about holding you and kissing you," David stops, and she returns her attention to him. Her heart begins to race as she anxiously waits for him to continue. "Making love to you."

"Okay, stop," she tells him with her face scrunched from disgust. Judith snatches her laundry bag in her left hand and steps past him, but he grips her left wrist and turns to her just as she faces him. "Let me go."

"Judy, please just listen to me," he gently begs. She attempts to yank her arm back to her side, and he tightens his grip on her.

"David, let me go," she demands louder than before, but he doesn't budge.