The Lake

His hands loosened as if he feared he might be hurting her.

“Toss anything else in the hamper?” he asked in a husky voice.

“Could be.”

He reached for Deana’s hips, but she danced backward, out of range. She pulled her sweater down. “Not here,” she said.

“Where?”

She shrugged. “We’re too close to the parking lot.” She waved a hand in that direction. She could see moonlight on the windshield of Allan’s Mustang. “Let’s go in farther.”

“Over by the theater?”

“Yeah.”

“How about on the stage?”

She flung out her arms. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely—”

“Props,” Allan put in.

“The bard you’re not.”

“Can you see it? There we are, right in the middle of the theater, surrounded on every side…”

“You’re being redundant.”

“Surrounded by all those high rows of seats, empty seats, while we…”

“Make the beast with two backs.”

“Screw our heads off,” he said, curling a hand over the back of Deana’s neck.

“Yeah,” she sighed.

“And as we lie there,” he whispered, “our naked bodies sweaty and tangled…”

“Gleaming in the moonlight…”

“…from off in the distance, high up in the seats, comes…” He took his hand off Deana’s neck and slowly clapped.

She stared through the darkness at him. He kept on clapping. “Christ,” she muttered.

He clapped again and again.

“Cut it out, you’re scaring me.”

He stopped. He laughed softly.

“Let’s go back to the car,” Deana said.

“You’re kidding.”

“No I’m not.”

“Deana, it was a joke.”

She turned away. He caught her from behind and wrapped his arms around her belly. She settled back against his warmth.

“I want to get out of here, Allan. It was a rotten idea in the first place.”

“Man, that’s the last time I’ll tell you a story.”

“Yeah, well, somebody could be around here. How do we know?”

“We don’t.” His hands moved up to her breasts.

She stroked the backs of his hands as they caressed her through the sweater. “We’ll go someplace else, okay?”

“Like where?”

“Someplace that isn’t…” Allan gently pinched her nipple, and she caught a ragged breath. “…isn’t so dark,” she said in a shaky voice. “A street near home.”

“In the backseat?” She nodded.

“Wouldn’t it be better…” His voice stopped. His fingers spread out, hands still holding her breasts but motionless.

“Allan?”

“Shhh.”

“What?”

Then Deana heard it, too. “It’s just the wind,” she whispered.

“It’s a car.”

Deana’s insides went soft and loose. She tightened herself.

If it was a car, where were its headlights? Allan took a hand off her breast. The warmth went away. He pointed. At first, Deana saw only strips of moonlit parking lot in the spaces between the trees. Then a dark shape crossed one of the strips. More like a chunk of shadow than a car.

“It’s probably someone like us,” Allan whispered.

“What do you mean?”

“A couple. You know. Looking for a good place to mess around.”

“God, I hope so.”

“Let’s get back to the car.” He picked up the blanket. Deana stayed close to his side as he walked along the path. She still heard the car, but she couldn’t see it. Just before the end of the path, Allan crossed to a tree. She followed. Ducking behind its trunk, they looked out at the parking area.

The Mustang was only a few yards away. The other car was directly behind it, motionless near the middle of the lot. Its headlights were off. Its engine idled. The glare of the moonlight on the windshield prevented Deana from seeing inside.

“What do you think?” she whispered.

“I don’t like the way it’s just sitting here.”

“Do you think he can see us?”

“I doubt it.”

For a while, they watched the car in silence.

“This is crazy,” Deana finally said. “Why doesn’t he go away?”

“Maybe it is somebody making out.”

“With the engine going?”

“It’s like he’s waiting,” Allan said.

“Yeah. For us.”

“Don’t worry. Nothing can happen as long as he stays in the car and we stay here.”

“What if he gets out?”

“Comes looking for us?”

“Yeah.”

“It’d be easy to hide from him. He wouldn’t know where to start looking. Maybe we could even double back to my car.”

“Maybe we should just go to your car. Right now.”

“You think so?” Allan asked.

Her heart pounded so hard, it made her chest ache.

“At least we’d get it over with. We can’t wait around all night. And we don’t really know what he’s doing in there.”

“Maybe just enjoying the scenery,” Allan suggested in a nervous whisper. “You want to give it a try?”

“I don’t know.”

“It was your idea.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not so sure about it.”

“It’s either that or we try to wait him out.” Allan looked over his shoulder at Deana. “Maybe we should go ahead with our original plan.”

“I’m glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor.”

“He might be gone by the time we get back.”

“And if he isn’t and he nails us,” Deana said, “at least we’ll have shared a few moments of bliss.”

“Bliss?”

“Shit,” she muttered.

“Ditto.”

“We’re going to feel like a couple of prize idiots after we stroll out to the car and drive off and he’s still sitting there.”

“Does that mean you want to do it?” Allan asked.

“No, I don’t want to do it, goddamn it, I’m scared shitless, but what sort of choice do we have?”