It was so good to have Chrissy back. Just having her around to talk to was great. I mean, after all, she was my best friend. I missed having someone around that understood what I was talking about, someone that shared the same history. Someone else that likes anchovies on their pizza.

Since she had been gone for a year, she had to re-establish herself in Dayton, find a new job, get a place to live. It was very comfortable to have Chrissy sleeping on my couch again.

Yeah, sleeping on the couch. Yes, I know I said that I'd been wondering about why we'd never gotten "romantic". And, yes, when I was with Alice I had some fantasies about Chrissy. But she was back now. My best friend was home again.

And I remembered the times that Nancy and Donna (and others) told me how they didn't want to "ruin our friendship" by getting romantic. Chrissy's friendship was much more important.

Besides, how do you "make a move" on your best friend? Especially when she knows all your moves?

No, it was just so good to have my best friend back.

It was strictly friendship and economics that motivated getting a two bedroom house together. Half the rent on this place was cheaper than full rent on the one bedroom apartment. It only made sense. It was a better neighborhood too.

Besides, now we could have a cat. Actually, the first of many cats. Before the end of that summer, we acquired a total of four.

The summer began with Chrissy and I getting the house together. It was also Levi's first extended visit since moving to Memphis. I let Levi have my room while I took the couch in the living room.

Oh, yeah. Tony and Angel got married two days after Levi was up in Dayton. It was a quiet wedding as I understand it. I'm not even sure Angel's grandmother attended. They did, however, go to Jamaica for their honeymoon. They sent Levi a T-shirt with a picture of Bob Marley on it.

About two weeks into his stay, Levi had a problem that scared Chrissy and I half to death and brought us much closer together. It was late one night when Levi came into the living room soaking wet and complaining he was hot. Chrissy took his temperature. It was 104. Chrissy was a nurse and not prone to over-reacting, so when she said we should take him to the Emergency Room, I was scared.

It was a stressful night. I was more freaked out about it than Chrissy, but she was concerned as well. We spent the night looking over Levi at the hospital. The next morning the fever broke and things were looking better, The nurses on the floor made Chrissy and I go home.

We were exhausted and relieved. Happy things were better and glad to be home. To unwind, I fired up a joint for the two of us. We needed the release.

What started as a hug, turned into a kiss, which moved on. We ended up in Chrissy's bed and made love for the first time.

We both knew that it wasn't a mistake. We both knew we'd waited more than long enough. We talked for the next several hours before we finally fell asleep.

Levi was alright. It turned out to be food poisoning. Probably from a sandwich I bought him from a street vendor that day. Once he got home from the hospital, we started to make my room into his room and Chrissy's room into our room.

It was about 6 months later, while Angel was having her and Tony's first baby, Chrissy and I got married. A real church wedding. We both wore white.

I didn't perform the ceremony, but I did manage to get the priest to add some parts for my ceremony to his.

By the time we got married, I'd graduated from UD, and amazingly enough, I was able to get a job at the Cleveland Press. (Well, the now defunct Cleveland Press, but that's a later chapter.) Chrissy got a job as a RN at University Hospital. We rented an apartment in Cleveland Heights and started thinking about raising a family of our own.

Little Emily Helen MarxLennon was born September 18th, 1980. She was a beautiful baby. The first daughter in the MarxLennon family actually.

Ah, but not the last.