A Mysterious Pizza Message

After enjoying a meal at a Chinese restaurant, who hasn't joked about finding a message in a fortune cookie, "Help me; I'm a prisoner in a fortune cookie factory."  That joke preconditions us to expect hidden notes to be about skullduggery.  You wouldn't expect something secretive to be innocent.

In the case of the "mysterious pizza message", however, it turned out to be so.  Well, at least mostly innocent.

"Domino's delivers," said a cute guy holding out the pizza box to me.

"Thanks," I said, putting the pizza down on the room divider.  "How much do we owe you?"

"For lovely ladies like yourselves," he smiled, "Just $10.99."

"A special offer?" I smiled right back, digging a ten and three ones out of my wallet.

"Absolutely.  I'm Jack," he said, looking at what I'd handed him.  "And thank you very much."

"Same reaction I had," my roommate Bev laughed from the couch where we'd been watching a DVD, "when he delivered a pizza last week.  You were so engrossed in studying, you never looked up, but I think he checked us both out."

"Worse things then that," I laughed.  "Let's eat."

"OK, you open the pizza box, Sue," Bev said, "while I get some napkins, paper plates, and a knife"

"Bev, look at this note," I said, holding it up.  "It was on top of the pizza."

Bev read it out loud, even though I'd already seen it.

"Help us!  We're going crazy delivering these pizzas and need a break.  So, PARTY TONIGHT at 503 West Pine Street.  Come one, come all, bring your friends!"

"What do you think," Bev asked.

"Well, the pizza's good," I answered.

"Oh, come on," Bev said, "what do you say?"

"All right.  All right." I said.

While 503 West Pine wasn't a frat house, it had all of the same characteristics.  Big, with a lot of rooms for students wanting to live off campus.  The party was going strong when we arrived about 9:30 PM.

"All right," Jack shouted across the room when he spotted us, and coming over.

"Glad you could come and raise the level of style at this shindig," he added.

"Look out Sue," Bev said, laughing.  "He's a smoothie."

"He sure is," I smiled.  "I'm Sue, and this is Bev."

"Welcome to our escape from pizza party," Jack waved at the room.  "Plenty of stuff to eat and drink, but no pizza.  Not after half the guys who live here have to deliver it."

A clever excuse for a party, although I suspected these guys didn't need much of an excuse.  Jack demonstrated how clever and smooth he was by what came next.

He led us across the room, and guided Bev forward while taking my arm, "Bev, I'd like you to meet one of my partners in crime, Ben.  Ben this wonderful creature is Bev.  We'll catch up with you two later," all in one breath while he guided me away.

Very smooth.

The house was in pretty good shape considering that a bunch of college guys were renting it.  Right now, the whole place was probably starting to shake, as the music had a good beat, and a lot of couples were shaking and moving to it.

Jack moved to a barely open spot on the floor and we started finding the beat.  Neither of us would win on Dancing With The Stars, but we got it on pretty good.  Both of us were glistening when we stopped for a break.

"Wine, a brewski, or something stronger?" Jack asked.

Figuring it was time to break the ice, I replied "Beer would be fine, you're strong enough for me."

"Sure enough," he replied, as he pulled me close, and gave me a soft but lingering kiss, before reaching into a tub full of ice to pull out two cold ones.  He popped them open, handed me one, and we clinked them together while laughing into each other's eyes.

The rear deck was a popular place to enjoy a beer, so we shared it with a lot of other people, but it was still nice to get outside for a few minutes.  We each took a few cooling swallows, before covering the usual first time together topics.

Jack was from Springfield, Illinois, a Junior in EE.  I'm from Louisville, Kentucky, also a Junior, majoring in English.  Common chit chat, with our eves never leaving each other.

Returning to the dancing, another fast one, and then the first slow dance of the night.  If the rock and roll got us warm, well the slow dance...

"How about a visit to my humble abode upstairs," Jack whispered.

"Uh-huh," I whispered back.

His room was lit by lights from the back yard shining in, enabling us to enjoy each other as our clothes came off.  Jack was just as smooth and clever as I hoped he'd be.  We made a great pair.

As the evening came to a close, Jack and I were enjoying a last dance, when I saw Bev and Ben coming down from the second floor with very warm glances at each other.  Great.  An enjoyable evening for both of us.

As Bev and I returned to our place, I had an idea.

"This was such a great time, we have to remember the method," I suggested.  "Since we both work in the book store, someday we might slip a mysterious message into a book we're selling."

Both of us laughed, not entirely in jest.