SERIES:  The Truth

PART: 1 of 1

RATING:  PG-13  (Adult Content, Mature Themes)

PAIRING(s): L/C; L/L (?)

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CATEGORY: Drama, Angst

FEEDBACK: PLEASE?!

SETTING IN TIMELINE:   Alternate canon for Here Today, Hair Tomorrow

SPOILLER/SUMMARY: “What could she do?  She loved him" (Laverne and Lenny and Carmine.  Not Happy)

NOTES:  For the Laverne and Shirley Fan Fiction Exchange of ‘07.

***

As the California sunrise brightened the lawns and windows of Laurel Vista, Laverne DeFazio was just ending her night.  Alone in her bed, she rolled over gingerly, grinning secretively to herself.  And whatta night it had been, her rolling stomach and heavy limbs attested.  It had been her first New Year’s Eve without Shirley, she had decided to make it as memorable an occasion as possible by inviting as many friends as could be crammed into her little Laurel Vista unit.  They had nearly drained the county dry of beer and wine, and after midnight they’d turned down the lights and danced to her new Temptations record.   At some point she had passed out upstairs, waking just in time to bid her guests goodbye.

Laverne grinned.  By three everyone had gone home…

Everyone but Carmine.

Her skin tingled at that memory.  They’d started talking about their mutual loneliness, the music and wine leading them to an hour of unbridled passion on her couch.  She hadn’t had anyone that good in a very long time.  Not since Randy.

The memory of her old love caused her stomach to lurch violently.  For the millionth time in her life, she shoved Randy to the back of her mind and concentrated on the future.  A future with Carmine…

She smiled again.  If last night meant half as much to him as it did her, they’d be walking down the aisle before the next New Year rolled around. 

Laverne closed her weighted lids.  The first thing she was going to do when she got up, she promised herself, was take her holiday bonus and order a brand-new queen-size mattress.  The couch was a little lumpy, and if this was gonna be a regular thing it wouldn’t be fair to Carmine to have to go back and forth to his place all the time.  She’d gladly give him half of the bedroom, she added with a yawn, as long as he didn’t want the closet...

Her happy thoughts were cut off by a final lurch of her gut.  Rolling across the bed, she found her wastebasket just in time.

*** 

Laverne rose at a sinfully late five in the afternoon.  After treating herself to a long shower, she tossed out a mountain of trash accumulated from the party.  Checking her answering service revealed two worried messages from Shirley, reinforcing the knot of guilt forming in Laverne’s gut over having ‘done it’ with her boyfriend.

Ex-boyfriend, Laverne reminded herself firmly.  She decided to answer Shirley later- after ordering that mattress.  She dialed the number for Bob’s Discount Mattress and ordered a queen sized waterbed, then went upstairs and changed outfits.  Her slinky black number ought to turn Carmine’s head!  She lined her lips in dark red and then headed downstairs and outside to stalk her prey.

Surprisingly, he was on her doorstep, ready to knock.

“Laverne,” he smiled.

She stood mutely, smiling back at him – abruptly she realized inviting him in might be a good idea.  “Can you stay awhile?” She wondered.

“Not for long,” his jittery stance caused unease to come over her.  It was then that she saw his suitcase, resting patiently against the far wall of the hallway.  Safely alone in her apartment, Carmine seemed to have no clue what to say.

 Simultaneously, they spoke each other’s names.

“You go first,” he said, lips thin and pale.

“Nah, you.”

Carmine nodded quickly.  “I’m sorry about last night, Laverne.”  Blood rushed from her head to her toes.  Sorry?  “We were both too drunk to do what we did,” he rushed on, “I didn’t mean to hurt you…”

“I ain’t hurt,” Laverne swiftly assured.

“It won’t happen again,” he pulled a small envelope from his pocket.  She glanced at the tickets he held out.  “I got an audition on Broadway, Laverne.”

“You’re going to New York?” she sputtered dumbly.

“They don’t have a Broadway in California,” he smiled thinly.  “Can you be happy for me, Laverne?”

Disappointment warred with relief and depression inside of Laverne.  She couldn’t hold him – what they’d had was only a night long, even if it had made her skin sing.

She hugged him briefly, felt her skin heat against his chest, and let go.  “Good luck, Carmine.”

**** 

“Sunnuvabitch!” she muttered, slamming down the phone. 

“You gotta pick up the phone to make it work,” a sweet, familiar voice said.    She turned around and saw Lenny on the landing, smiling tentatively. 

“I know how to use it,” Laverne responded.  “It just won’t do what I want it to.”   Lenny looked confused, and so she added, “I ordered a new bed, but I wanna return it.”

Lenny bit his palm and she laughed.  “Whattya want?”

He stopped biting himself.  “I was looking for Carmine,” he admitted.  “He owes me ten bucks,” he held out a glass bottle triumphantly.  “I knew I could turn milk into cheese!”

Laverne’s lip curled as she dodged the smelly vessel.  “I don’t know how to tell you this, Len, but Carmine’s gone.”

“Oh no!” he wailed.  “Poor Carmine!”

Laverne wrapped a sisterly arm around Lenny’s shoulder.  “He’s not gone/dead, Len; he took off to California this morning.”

Lenny’s watery blue eyes were wide.  “Yeah? “

“Uh huh.”

“Gee, I hope he told Squig – we just got him a new gig washing cars in a bear suit!”

Laverne laughed and shook her head.  “Can you stick around?”

He shrugged.  “Sure.”  The bottle ended up between them on the couch as they sat together.  “So, you got any New Year’s resolutions?”

She examined the bottle gingerly and put it down.  “I break ‘em too quick.”

Lenny nodded his head.  “Me too. Last year I tried to start smoking but it made me throw up.”

Fondly, Laverne stroked his cheek.  “You’re something special, Len,” she said. “Why don’t you have a girlfriend?”

He laughed.  “I’m kinda hung up on someone…”

“Len,” she said warningly.

He placed his palm against her cheek.  “I know you don’t feel the same way,” he said. 

And Lenny looked so pathetic that she couldn’t resist giving him a kiss on the cheek…followed by one on the lips…

*** 

She stared at the ceiling, feeling the heat of his body against hers.  The experiment ran itself over and over again in her mind.

The verdict: it could have been worse.  It wasn’t as wonderful or tender as her time with Carmine, nor as intimate and special as Randy…

She had to stop thinking about Randy. 

Lenny’s skin shone like a puddle of cream in the lamplight.  If she squinted hard enough, she could pretend she was with him.  Maybe Shirley had been wrong for all of those years; maybe it was time for her to settle.  She could do worse than marrying Lenny.

After all, she did love him.

As a friend.