09-03-2020, 05:21 PM
Jude's laugh rebounded out into the hallway -- yes, of course, the sex dungeon, how he had thought otherwise? The wine was loosening him up, regardless of whether he wanted to loosen up, and he started to wonder what he'd been so worried about in the first place. He was fine; he'd drank before. Everything would be just fine. Half a bottle of wine was nothing, if tempered by good nutrition and hydration. He turned away from the truth he felt but could not bear to see, silent fog rolling underneath the crack of a door -- the truth that, in the game of Hide and Seek, Jude vs The World, the best strategy was to hold his breath, and now he was getting... giggly.
"I think so too." By the time Near arrived in the library, Jude had already located a comfortable chair and a round end table, where the bottle of bordeaux lay in wait. Jude was making headway on glass number two, as if to make up for his prior teetotaling position. Was Near a drinker? Yes, probably -- he'd been drinking alone when Jude arrived. There were 'people who drank' and then there were 'drinkers', and the latter was determined by two things: the frequency of solo drinking, and the proximity of drinking to a meal. "I didn't come upstairs as often though." Wasn't Near's bedroom up here? That was probably half the reason. The children were stowed on opposite ends of the house -- not horizontally, but vertically. Monsters in the basement, heirs upstairs.
"I was just tired of sitting in the kitchen." It was true, just not the whole truth. Jude was now closer to bed; its gravity was stronger upstairs, and he could more easily assert he was succumbing to its pull. The kitchen was a wakeful place. The library -- dimmer, warmer -- was a lullaby.
"I think so too." By the time Near arrived in the library, Jude had already located a comfortable chair and a round end table, where the bottle of bordeaux lay in wait. Jude was making headway on glass number two, as if to make up for his prior teetotaling position. Was Near a drinker? Yes, probably -- he'd been drinking alone when Jude arrived. There were 'people who drank' and then there were 'drinkers', and the latter was determined by two things: the frequency of solo drinking, and the proximity of drinking to a meal. "I didn't come upstairs as often though." Wasn't Near's bedroom up here? That was probably half the reason. The children were stowed on opposite ends of the house -- not horizontally, but vertically. Monsters in the basement, heirs upstairs.
"I was just tired of sitting in the kitchen." It was true, just not the whole truth. Jude was now closer to bed; its gravity was stronger upstairs, and he could more easily assert he was succumbing to its pull. The kitchen was a wakeful place. The library -- dimmer, warmer -- was a lullaby.