Lee put the picnic basket down, opened it and pulled out two candles. She lit them.
She then took out place settings for both of us.
I pulled out the cork from a bottle of non-alcoholic white wine. I poured us each a glass.
This picnic on the floor of my apartment was her idea.
I'd talked to Lee after I got back from three hours of questioning at the DA's office.
"Let's spend the evening at your new place," she said. "I'll show you a wonderful time."
"I don't have anything moved in yet. It's just bare floors and walls."
"Leave everything to me."
"But..."
"I said leave everything to me."
"Okay. Seven?"
"Six forty-five."
"Six forty-five it is."
I got there at six forty-five on the dot.
Lee was nowhere to be seen.
But a light was on inside.
I put the key into the lock and opened the door.
Inside, Lee was standing on a ladder, sticking glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling.
"I thought I'd be finished before you got here."
"What are you doing?"
"I thought we'd have a picnic under the stars," she said, pointing over to the blanket and basket in the corner of the room. "I hope you don't mind?"
"That's great," I said. "One question though?"
"What?"
"How'd you get in here?"
"Juliet is my best friend. I asked her to let me in. I hope you don't mind?"
"Oh. No, that's fine."
I watched her standing on the ladder. The shape of her legs as they curved their way up her skirt.
I walked over to her as she climbed down the ladder and put my hands gently on her back to help her down.
"Are you always a gentleman?"
"Not if you don't want me to be."
We drank our wine and munched on the cold chicken, the fruit and the cheese that she'd packed in the basket.
After we'd finished dinner and the lemon chiffon cheese cake for dessert, Lee put on a tape of a string quartet playing a Chopin nocturne.
She reached over and turned off the one light.
We made love underneath the phosphorus stars.
