Quarantine Pet - His Pet

While we waited, we played another four games of chess. This time it was an even split in terms of the wins.

“You’re getting better at this,” I teased him.

“Well, a good teacher learns from his student,” he countered. “Eventually.”

I was finally beginning to relax. Maybe I had been too hard on Jack. This was a new experience for both of us in some ways. And everything with the pandemic and work just added to the stress. Perhaps we both only needed to chill out and not react to every little thing.

On the fourth day after work, I found Jack on the couch watching “Courtroom: Chicago”. It was a drama about lawyers in the court system in Chicago from the ’90s. It only lasted two seasons and was considered a joke in lawyer circles. The law research on the show was absolutely abysmal. The writers would literally make up laws just to hammer in plot points. I had had a professor in college that showed one of the episodes and made the class try to catalog every mistake.

“You down for a little binge-watching?” offered Jack. “We could make some popcorn.”

“Not a Tiger King fan?”

“I watched some, but no,” he replied. “This, however, fascinates me. I mean, how do people in Hollywood get real-life wrong?”

We made some popcorn and got some beers. Jack decided whenever one of us called out a mistake on the show, the other had to drink. We were two episodes deep, and we were quickly running out of beer.

“I’m going to have to switch to popcorn,” I said, my head swimming so much. “I can’t even keep up with all the mistakes on that show.”

“Did you see when the lawyer handed the judge cash for bail? What the hell was that all about?” laughed Jack. “He just put it in his pocket!”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess if you’re going to get it that wrong, might as well make it fast,” I joked. “But seriously, look at the female lead. She looks like a streetwalker! What kind of lawyer would wear that out in public, much less in front of a judge!”

“And in these shows, everyone’s abnormally handsome except Jerry Orbach,” Jack pointed out. “That poor guy. He’s the one character actor in a sea of beautiful faces. By comparison, he looks bad.”

“But he’s the one good actor on this show!” I laughed. “Some of those gorgeous dummies, Jesus, that blonde prosecutor?”

“Wow, is she hot!” laughed Jack. “I honestly couldn’t tell you what she said half the time.”

I frowned and punched him playfully. The banter between us was suddenly good. Maybe it was the beer, perhaps it was the terrible 90’s show, I could feel Jack and I mending the bridge between us.

“And how about that scene when they bring in the killer?” recalled Jack. “He looked like Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lambs.”

“I know. I’ll bet that show came out around then or right after,” I surmised. “These writers are just terrible. They’re not even original!”

“Yeah, and the guy was just a suspect in a hit and run! Why would you do that to your client? Who does that?”

After a few more terrible episodes, we finally called it a night. I staggered up to my room, flopped down on the bed and called Isabella.

“Hey, guess what?” I started.

“You’re happy again? I can tell in your voice,” Isabella guessed.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy,” I admitted. “Jack and I spent the evening watching Courtroom: Chicago.”

“Ooo! That’s a good show.”

“No, it’s not! It’s terrible!” I laughed. “It has so many mistakes.”

“Well, I’m not a lawyer,” Isabella bristled. “But I could watch that Latino judge all day. God, he’s just carved out of bronze. I’d love to see what was in his legal briefs, if you know what I mean.”

“Bella,” I laughed.

“It’s good to hear you laugh again, babe.”

“Yeah, well, Jack was really trying,” I said. “You were right. I needed to give him a chance. He’s just been so sweet this week, and I feel like he cares about me, ya know? It’s not just about the sex. We haven’t done anything in a week.”

“I had a feeling if you kept your panties on for a while, different things might happen,” she joked.

“Hey!” I bristled. “You replace the batteries on your boyfriend yet?”

“No can do. All the stores are closed. Fortunately, I’m cheating on him with my shower dildo and my hand,” she admitted. “Unfortunately, the Amazon food items are getting very weird. The only bread I can order are tortillas, so it’s been a lot of tuna out of a can for me.”

“This pandemic will be over soon.”

“Yeah,” Isabella agreed, not really sounding like she did.

Chapter Sixteen – Sandra

Things got back to a new normal around the house. We weren’t having sex, but we were clicking as a team again. Even the guys on the Zoom meetings seemed to notice that we were working well together.