"It's clearly not a good start. To start a courtship with disdain is the very worst start you could make. A kind start would be more promising." Lax scorns.
"Yes. A kind start would certainly be startling," Jane says with a barb in her tone. Looking at Lax she adds, "depending on the suitor of course."
I flash Jane a look which is something more of daggers but Nona is more absorbed in her poem she hardly registers what Jane meant. "It goes on with the next line, which I don't have yet, and then it goes something something something, my pain."
"Oh! To rhyme with disdain!" Lax declares provokingly. "I think I'm beginning to get this."
"But you must have an image that you pursue throughout the poem. If you are going to write a poem for your lover, you must compare her to something then twist the comparison around to son witty conclusion." I try to help Nona.
"How can I? I cannot compare you to anything. You are yourself. What should I compare you to?" Nona winks.
"Oh very pretty! Your conversation is better than your poetry. Just stay on one knee and whisper in her ear." Jane's voice is laden with sarcasm.
Nona grins and takes my hand. "Stars in the night," she says.
"Oh let me guess, something something something, delight?" I roll her eyes, unimpressed.
"You'd best leave this loser alone or she'll make an erotic poem about fighting." Lax's laughter fills the room
"And it will be something something something, threatening. That is all her lines ever say." I concur.
"I am a learner," Nona says with dignity. " A student lover and a student poet and you are treating me unkindly. "Fair lady – tho dost treat me with disdain –" is nothing but the truth."
"Ah you whine too much. I would like to go to bed now."
"So soon?" Nona pleads. "But stars come out at night."
"Then they fade away at dawn," I reply. "This star needs to veil herself in darkness."
"Nona, come warm my bed." I hold out a peremptory hand to Nona and by the look Lax gives us, I know her heart shattering.
♥♥♥
I start getting ready for bed, dressed in my night shifts and braiding my hair when there is a familiar tap on the door.
"Could only be Lax," I murmur, "come in."
My gorgeous girlfriend lounges at the door with a her thick pink lips in a smile and her hair falling by the side of her neck like a scented waterfall. It is a pity I have to play angry and uninterested in her.
"I come to worship at the shrine of beauty."
"Do come in, I am wonderfully beautiful."
"Much better by candlelight." She walks in, a candle in her hand. She turns by the door and switches off the light. She locks the door and sits quite comfortably beside me, on my bed.
"What was that you were doing in my room?"
"It isn't your business so it needn't concern you."
YOU ARE READING
Femme Fatale.
Random"I've come to worship at the altar of beauty." Rhoda winks at Carla. "I thought you might be afraid to touch me." Carla says softly. "Oh Carla. According to the laws of the land and the church, I am condemned ten times over before breakfast." I shu...
