Tired

[intriguess]

Mackie was reminded of an episode of Seinfeld where the guys used all their mind power to get laid, and were smarter when they were forced to focus on something else, while Elaine had gotten scatterbrained when she wasn't getting laid. The idea was that women tended to dump all their emotional baggage during sex and therefore were sharper mentally afterwards.

It seemed cliched at the time but the more she thought about it the more she realized that being sexually frustrated did hurt her concentration, and that when she'd been in a sexually satisfying relationship her attitude improved. She watched the movie silently. She wasn't a movie talker, unless it was a dvd or video and they could rewind or whatever.

She understood his fascination of the free expression and purge of desires, but the way they went about subjugating women seemed akin to slavery. Of course those artworks that survived tended to show men satisfying women but it seemed almost an after thought.

She recalled the Bond movie where he faked his death and had to become Chinese and the man says, "In China men cum first, women come last."

 

[DrStein]

The movie ended nearly two hours later, and Rex was letting a bit of his fanboy side show. His only complaint about the movie was his not liking Billy Crystal's performance.

"Alright, it's only about a quarter to five now... We'll swing back, pick up your car, and we'll head over to my place. I can fix us some dinner while we watch the DVDs."

 

[intriguess]

A guy who didn't mind cooking, either that or dinner out wasn't in his budget. Either way she was interested in seeing his place and she'd been having fun. It was nice to just hang out and be herself and not worrying about impressions and all that crap.

"Sounds like a plan," she said as they headed back to the restaurant.

 

[DrStein]

"Hope you don't mind if I put on some music," Rex said off-handedly as he switched on his CD player. "This is just a CD I burned a while ago. It's a big sampler of metal."

The first song to come on was one with crunchy guitar riffs, a strange groove, and a rather crazed-sounding singer. "Cathedral. Greatest stoner/doom band ever."

After the first chorus, Rex started singing along as if Mackie wasn't even in the car. He actually had a pretty good voice for heavy metal.

"For some reason, my parents never liked me listening to this stuff. Go figure."

 

[intriguess]

"They probabaly didn't want you to turn out to be some stoner, who ended up sponging off them for the rest of your life." She couldn't carry a tune if her life depending on it so just sank into one the available places to sit and took her time looking around. She could see traces of dog hair, but as of yet no dog. She wondered if the dog was outside or something and she was about to ask for a drink when she heard the dog barking along to the music.

"I guess he likes heavy metal too?" she asked.

 

[DrStein]

"That would be Capone." Rex slipped into the kitchen and pulled a small, paper cup from the freezer. He nuked it for fifteen seconds and shoved out what looked like a hunk of frozen banana pudding from the cup onto a small saucer.

He then handed it to Mackie. "Give this to him when he comes in and you'll have a friend for life."

Rex strode over to the sliding back door and dramatically grabbed the curtain covering it. "Release the hound!" he proclaimed in an over-the-top voice before pulling back the curtain and opening the door with separate hands.

In bounded the massive Great Dane who barked in excitement and jumped around before zeroing in on the new stranger and the plate in her hand.

 

[intriguess]

Now she was not a dog person in general, especially when they were ankle biters or marmaduke like. Anything that required that much attention drove her nuts, but after eating wahtever it was she had, a nice ear scratch and a belly rub. Capone seemed content to just sit on top of her feet.

They tail thumping continued and she was just glad he wasn't humping away at her leg or something. "How long have you had him? and exactly what kind of dog is he?"

 

[DrStein]

"He's a Great Dane. Turns four next week. I friend of mine breeds these big oafs, and when Capone's litter was born, there wasn't any room on the ranch for them at the time. I picked up this big guy when he was only 7 weeks old."

Rex searched around the kitchen. "Oh, let's see... I like to think I'm a bit of a cheap-ass gormet."

He opened up the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. He opened it up to show the eggshells were all cracked and stained in earthtones. He placed two on a plate and brought them out ot Mackie. "Chinese tea eggs. Basically, eggs hardboiled then stewed in tea. Consider this an appetizer while I get the main course going."

Rex strode back into the kitchen and started rummaging around once more. "Hmm... Something Italian sounds good. If you want to start the movie, go ahead. The DVD for Princess Mononoke sohuld be sitting on top of the stereo in its box. I was watching it just the other night."

 

[intriguess]

She wasn't exactly hungry and the eggs sounded well wierd, she wasn't exactly fond of hard boiled eggs unless they were deviled. She spent some time pealing an egg, watching the dog warming her feet but somehow managing to not drool on her shoes. She wondered how she was going to move the dog, figure out the stereo and get the dvd and figure out where the remotes were.

 

[DrStein]

Rex whistled loudly from the kitchen. "Capone! Dinner!"

The huge hound immediately got up and shot into the kitchen, sliding on the linoleum tiles underneath the table, regained his balance, and pounced on a large dog dish where Rex was pouring some kibble.

"You know, just about everything I can make at the moment takes too long. I've got some cold sesame noodles and baked chicken breast in the fridge and a couple Sam Adams."

It was clear once again that Rex wasn't making any apologies for his lifestyle. He seemed to almost take it for granted that he lived the way he did. He had a decent TV, DVD player, and stereo. But those seemed to be more of a gift or major investment than anything else. For the most part, his clothes, habits, and demeanor spoke of a man who was used to the idea of not throwing anything out if it still had some use left in it.