Homecoming
by R'rain

"Jim, no," said Blair, "I cleaned the office, I cleaned the 
living room, I cleaned the kitchen, but I draw the line at 
scrubbing the bathroom for you."

"Blair, she's my ex-wife.  She's a *woman*!  She's gonna 
notice if we don't have a sparkling clean bathroom, okay?"

"This woman lived with you for a year.  I *think* she knows 
what your bathroom looks like."  Blair rolled his eyes and 
picked up the cloth again, wiping off the kitchen counter 
for the tenth time.

"It's different now.  I'm with you and she's..."

"She's...?" prompted Blair.

"She's...not with me.  She's single and she's going to be as 
critical of me as she possibly can."

"Come on, Jim..."

"No, no, think about it.  You remember her, you know what 
she was like to me."

"I remember her being rather nice, actually," commented 
Blair, throwing the cloth into the sink and wandering into 
the living room.  "What time is she going to be here again?"

"Ninish," said Jim, "she's having dinner with an old friend 
and then coming by.  That's an hour, Blair.  Help me out 
here!"

"I've *been* helping you out, man, but you're on your own 
for the bathroom."

Jim looked in the bathroom door, "Well, I guess it doesn't 
look that bad..."

Blair laughed, "It doesn't look bad at all, Jim.  Now come 
here and sit with me and have a drink.  Relax!  It's not 
like your mother's coming or anything."

"No.  It's worse."  But Jim did go into the living room and 
accepted the drink that Blair was offering him.

When Carolyn did arrive, Jim was considerably more relaxed.  
Whether that was the result of the three drinks, or fifty-
seven minutes of Blair nibbling on his ear and neck, he 
couldn't say.

"Jim," she said warmly, giving his a generous hug, "It's 
been too long."

Jim smiled and didn't say anything.  It was Blair who 
noticed the second person in the doorway.  "Sam?" he said 
incredulously.

"Hello Blair," she said, "it's good to see you again."

"Sam?" he repeated.  "What are you...?"

"I see you two know each other," said Carolyn.

"Blair stood Sam up at a Sushi restaurant," explained Jim 
with a rather too-broad grin.

"Well, your loss was my gain, it seems," said Carolyn, 
taking Sam into her arms and kissing her thoroughly.
Jim and Blair looked at one another with wide eyes and 
dropped jaws.  "Well gentlemen, may we come in?"

"Sure, yeah, right," said Jim, closing the door behind them.  
"Sandburg, would you mind getting me another drink?