How the Coronavirus Jump-Started my Sex Life - 25. Chapter 25

Prepping to Move

After Bert’s move out, we only had a day to prepare for our own move to the loft. Friday morning, Alan called Brandi to see when we could pop over to pay our deposit and the rent for the rest of March. She invited us to come by that afternoon and told us we could move a few things into the loft if we wanted to. So, we used the remaining boxes we had collected to get a fairly big load of books and clothes packed into the Durango before we headed over there.

We had lunch in the dining hall which was showing signs of shutting down completely. We had a choice between tortilla soup, a garden salad, ham sandwiches, or turkey sandwiches with bags of chips and cookies. Even the soft ice cream machine had an out-of-order sign on it. Only three people seemed to be working that shift. One was the attractive manager who had made our box lunches for our trip to Jemez Springs. I made a point of thanking him once again for treating us so well with the lunches. He reminded me the dining hall was closing after lunch the next day.

“What will you be doing after this is closed?” I wondered.

“I’m not sure yet,” he said a bit sadly. “I’m looking for a restaurant or caterer job but almost everything is closed or severely cut back, so it doesn’t look good. I have talked to the facilities department here on campus about going onto a lawncare crew. They usually add positions in April as we move into the busier growing season.”

“Really? I’ve been thinking about trying to get on a crew, too. I need to find a job to pay for a place to live through the summer.”

“Well,” he said a little more energetically, “call facilities. They do have some openings starting April 1, I think. It would be fun if we were on the same crew.”

Hmm. That did sound cool. “Absolutely. Oh, my name is Cal, short for Calvin.”

“Very pleased to know your name, Cal. I’m Jordan.” We did a fist-bump and I went to the table where Alan was sitting.

“What was that all about?” he asked.

“Jordan was telling me he’s trying to get a job in lawncare on campus.”

“Jordan?”

“Yeah. The guy who made our lunches for Jemez.”

“Hmmph.”

“Anyhow, he says they add people the first of April to work through the summer. It might be a good shot for me.”

Alan nodded, but didn’t smile. I didn’t understand why he seemed less than enthusiastic. We both knew it is not a good time to be looking for work, so any lead was valuable.

Brandi’s Boutique

Because the Durango was moderately full of our stuff, we parked in the tenant’s spot behind the store. The back door, which would be our front door the next day, was locked and we didn’t yet have a key. A cherry red Miata was in the manager’s spot next to ours. It took a couple of minutes to walk down to the end of the block, over to Central Avenue, and then back to the Boutique’s front door. In the front window was a “Closed” sign even though it was not quite 3:00 yet.

We knocked on the glass and soon saw Brandi’s ball of blonde hair coming through the store from the rear. She picked her way through racks full of brightly colored dresses, tops, pants, and jackets. Brandi smiled and waved before she pulled up her sequined mask. She was rather pretty in a call-girl sort of way. I could see she was dressed down a little today. She wore spray-on jeans with rhinestones along the outside seams of the legs, a white sleeveless vee-neck tee shirt that was thin enough so I could see the bra underneath and deep enough that the cleavage was as long as Alan’s ass-crack. (Sorry, I am exaggerating, but it is interesting that I looked at her boobs and thought of his ass. Hmm.)

She unlocked the door and stepped several feet to the side so we could enter. She closed and re-locked the door as she said, “Hello, boys,” in her patented sultry voice that reminded me of Rosalyn Russell interacting with the dancers in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

We each greeted her and she said, “Come on back to my office.”

In single file due to the very narrow aisles, we wound through the clothing racks that reminded me of my mother’s rather disdaining chuckle when I told her where we would be living. The overall ambience of the establishment was one of fashionable trampiness. At the rear of the store, we passed through a garish orange and maroon curtain into a short hallway that led to the rear storage room. To one side of the hall was a tiny office and to the other side an equally tiny powder room.
Brandi went into the office and sat down behind the desk. Standing in the doorway, Alan and I each handed her a check for our portion of the deposit and rent for the next few days.

She handed us receipts and two sets of keys, one for the back door of the building and one for the loft door. She said the loft apartment should be ready for us. “It’ll be great having two handsome college men living upstairs. If there is ever anything you need, just let me know.”

“Uhm, sure,” Alan said a little nervously.

“Thank you,” I added.

“If you ever need to talk with me, I’m almost always here Monday through Friday from about 10 to 5. Once we’re allowed to reopen, I’ll be here most Saturdays and Sunday afternoons but not on Mondays.”

Alan and I exchanged a look. “Got it,” he nodded.

“I saved some boxes for you by the back door,” she smiled.

“Thanks,” we said simultaneously.

She walked into the storeroom with us and showed us the boxes.

“Those will be very helpful,” Alan said.

“I hope so,” Brandi breathed.

She showed us how to lock and unlock the outside door and explained that she would lock the storeroom door when she was not here, but if it was unlocked, we were welcome in the store. Then she left us to go unload the car.

We grabbed armloads of boxes and trooped up the stairs together, him in the lead as I prefer. He unlocked our loft door and we walked inside. I turned immediately into the space with the single bed to set my stuff there temporarily.

Alan came inside and set down his boxes, too. “You should put your stuff in the other room. Well, where the queen-size bed is.”

That caught me a little by surprise. “I, uhm, assumed this would be my space and that would be your space.”

“You have it backwards. The queen-size bed is your space. I’ll visit you there whenever we want to get sexy. You’ll use that closet and dresser for your stuff and I’ll have my space over here. I can sleep here if we don’t want to sleep together or over there if we do.”

“Oh.” I thought about it for a moment. His generosity with the larger space and bed was unexpected. “Are you sure, Alan?”

“Absolutely. And when anyone visits, we will each have our separate space to keep any speculation down.”

I nodded. “Thanks!” I picked up my boxes and moved them into the other space.

The loft was divided back here with what appeared to be some old office cubicle walls that stood about 6 feet high in most places with a few only 5 feet. The shorter walls gave a vague appearance of windows. Upright posts were fastened to the shorter walls, adding about 2 feet of height. The posts supported curtains that could be drawn to create a bit of privacy. It looked a bit odd but was also rather cool, I thought. Matching curtains were hung across the “doorways” leading into the two sleeping areas. Above the taller wall segments and the curtains was open space all the way to the 20-foot ceiling. The full effect was pretty good visual privacy with very little aural privacy. I think for us it didn’t really matter, but it would give a better appearance if we had visitors.

We only needed a few minutes to unload and then we grabbed the boxes Brandi had saved for us and returned to campus. We packed up most everything we wouldn’t need to sleep in the dorm that night and brought another load over before dark. Brandi had gone home when we got there and we moved everything up the stairs and plopped it into temporary positions.

“It’s starting to feel a little like home,” I commented.

He chuckled. “I suppose it better since we’re committed to be here now.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “It’ll feel even more homey when we get back from Las Cruces and have time to unpack everything.”

“Undoubtedly.” He looked thoughtfully at me for a few seconds. “Let’s go eat.”

We locked up and drove back to the dorm, a 5-minute drive, if that. Alan parked in the dorm lot next to one of the three other cars in the lot. We didn’t go into the building. Instead, we went directly to the dining hall for a bare-bones dinner of tossed salad, tomato soup, beans and wieners, tater tots, and green beans. For dessert, there were cherry pie slices. I counted 7 other residents in the dining hall and only two workers, including Jordan.

As we went through the food line, Jordan waved at us but didn’t speak as he was busy in the back area.

After we got seated and dug into our food, I said, “I was thinking about tomorrow.”

“Yes?”

“We really don’t have much to do in order to get our last load of stuff pulled together and taken to the loft, do we?”

Alan shook his head.

“Well, then, I was thinking we could drive down to Bosque del Apache and spend a little time with the wildlife tomorrow afternoon, then camp out in the back of the Durango somewhere. That will make it a lot shorter drive on Sunday to get to Cruces and pick up the stuff Mom has assembled for us.”

Alan began smiling midway through my suggestion. “Absolutely great idea!”

We talked out the details as we ate our beans and wieners and tater tots. By the time we were halfway through our meal, we had figured out the few things we would need to take with us and what time we would need to leave.

We were making the best of the meal when Jordan walked up near us. He held two large boxes in his arms and set them down on an empty table nearby.

Alan and I looked up.

“Hey guys,” Jordan said through his mask. “You’re moving into an apartment tomorrow, right?”

“Yes,” I said, smiling at him since I was not masked up while eating.

“Well, I thought perhaps you could use a few groceries to get started. We have some things in the store room we won’t be able to use. We’ll be taking everything over to the food pantry tomorrow after we serve lunch, but, well, I wanted you to have a little of it. Seeing as you are sort of my last customers.”

“That’s very thoughtful of you, Jordan,” Alan said quickly. I was glad he spoke as Jordan’s sad point about us being his last customers had caused a big lump in my throat.

“I’ll just leave the bags here and you can collect them when you leave.”

“Of course,” Alan said. “I’m sure the food will be very helpful.”

“I hope so,” Jordan said to Alan, then looked over at me.

“Yes, Jordan,” I managed to say. “You’re very kind.”

He nodded. “Will you be here tomorrow to eat?”

“Breakfast for sure,” Alan said.

“Good. I might have some things for your refrigerator, if that would work.”

“We’ll be heading over there immediately after breakfast, so, yes, I think it would,” Alan said.

“Just be sure to let me know you are here tomorrow,” Jordan said. “I’ll get back to my work so you can finish your meal. See you in the morning.”

“Thanks, Jordan,” I said. As he started to walk away, I yelled a little louder, “Good night!”

Jordan smiled over his shoulder at me as he walked back to the serving area.

“Wow,” Alan mumbled. “That was awfully nice.”

“Yes, it was. It’ll be fun to see what he has for us.”

We looked into our food boxes before leaving the dining hall. Jordan had given us a lot of staples – flour, sugar, salt, pepper, a 5-pound can of coffee, 100 tea bags, unopened bottles of ketchup, salsa, soy sauce, steak sauce, and Louisiana hot sauce. He’d included large cans of tomato soup, cream of broccoli soup, and chicken soup along with fresh fruit – apples, oranges, bananas, a flat of strawberries, some lemons and limes, and a couple of mangoes.

The night was supposed to be cool, so we took the boxes to the Durango to avoid carrying them up and down the stairs.

As we walked up the two flights to our floor, I was suddenly aware of a sense of nostalgia for the dorm life. I had not realized until that moment that I was actually going to miss having all the other guys around. I was going to miss my daily interactions with Bert. I was even going to miss the dining hall. And the group showers.

Then I noticed Alan’s ass two steps above me. The adventure ahead was more exciting than the loss of the past was disheartening. I smiled as I imagined my tongue between those flexing globes underneath his tight jeans.