“Breakfast was great but Slim and I need to go and meet up with Dee.” Janet understood while Aunt Vera looked at them both suspiciously when they got outside Tasha pulled Alice to her.

“Thank you I owe you.”

“Yup, big time with interest!”

“Don’t worry you know I’m good for it.” They had planned to spend the day together but Tasha needed to make some errands in preparation for her fathers funeral first. One thing they did need to do was go by the cleaners and put Tasha’s uniform in for a quick press. With the funeral being tomorrow, she realized she needed to get it done, and fast. After they dropped off the cleaning they headed for the hotel. While Tasha is looking forward to the afternoon togetherness her mind begins to drift towards the business at hand for tomorrow. What to say? How hard it would be? Harder than she wanted to admit but she knew she had to do it, for her mom, Chris, and her dad.

The car ride to the hotel was quiet. Alice sensed the mood was changing, ever so slowly. She picked up on it when Tasha took her uniform out of the garment bag. Tasha could probably wear it straight from the bag sans a couple of wrinkles she’d need to iron out she packed it with such care. But she wanted to look crisp and make her dad proud. When Alice watched Tasha pull the uniform out of the bag, the look on Tasha’s face spoke volumes about her current mood. Even though Tasha was coming to grips with certain aspects of her service and hearing some of Alice’s arguments against the war in that moment, everyone became more meaningful to her. One of Kenny G’s soft jazz classics played in the car from Tashas CD collection.

“You ok baby, “Alice ask wanting to break the silence.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

”Well,” Alice says with a smile, ”After all that waiting I hope you’re better than good.”

“Don’t you worry about that.” They pull into the parking lot and enter the hotel and head for their room. Alice opens the door and Tasha follows inside. As Tasha closes the door with one hand, she grabs Alice’s arm, turns her around and gives her a soul stirring kiss long, deep, and meaningful.