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It took him hours to unwind after the intensity of the day. He and DeA
So he tried to break away from her fairly early, to let her get to bed and get the sleep she needed while he wound himself down from the tension of the day. He watched TV, or went to bed and read a book. DeA
"M*A*S*H," but they'd had the final episode of that, and Step hadn't even been home to watch it with her. And when they lay in bed together, reading, she was so tired that he just didn't have the heart to make her stay awake just to make love, not unless she actually initiated it herself, which wasn't often. Even when she tried to stay awake to read something- he had bought her the new A
Consumed by guilt and desire, he would lie awake reading, or get up again and go in and watch the TV in the family room. Carson's parade of guests touting movies and TV shows. Letterman dropping things off buildings and putting on fake bus company ads by Larry "Bud" Melman and sometimes still the guy who lived under the seats. Then flipping around the cable cha
Then he'd go to bed, getting in gently so that DeA
DeA
Those were the days of Step Fletcher, and he hated his life and his job even though he loved his family and his work.
In April they were launching three new games and the Scribe 64 update at the Computer Faire in San Francisco at the Cow Palace, and Ray and Dicky and the marketing people decided they wanted to bring along Step and Glass so that there'd be somebody there who actually knew how the programs worked.
The flight was at two-thirty Friday afternoon, so Step went home at lunch to pack and say good-bye to Robbie and Betsy and DeA
"I'm not here even when I'm here," he said.
"But you are here," she said. "I mean, I know you're coming home. And I sleep better when you're in the house with me."
"I'll be back Sunday night."
"I know," she said. "Knowing that is what will keep me alive over the weekend."
He was horrified. "What are you saying?"
She looked baffled. "What do you mean?"
"You're not feeling suicidal or something, are you?'
"No," she said, outraged at the suggestion. And then: "Oh, Step, I didn't mean that I was thinking of killing myself, for heaven's sake. I was trying to be romantic. I was trying to say that I live for you."
He felt stupid. "Of course. I don't know what I was thinking of."
"Probably wishing you could get a new wife who didn't have this big belly."
"You ain't got nothin' in your belly that I didn't put there," he said. "Besides, I'm the one who's getting fat.
And after nine months of putting on weight, I don't get a prize at the end."
"July 28th," she said. "The hottest part of summer. I can't wait to be carrying around ninety pounds of baby in the summer."
"I'll miss you," he said.
"I'll miss you, too, Junk Man." She wrapped herself around him, melted into him the way she did when she wanted to make love, only he had to go and catch the damn plane, why did she suddenly get romantic now, when there was no time, no way to do anything about it?