Roses & Ruin

Chapter 15 (Anthony)

She doesn't give a damn what my opinion is about her.

Lexi's head was slightly tilted to the left as she read, and it left her long elegant neck exposed. I wanted to lick down the length of it.

        "Hey sweetheart" my voice broke her concentration. I saw her jolt like she literally didn't see me approaching the table. The corner of her lip tipped up into barely a smile, but she marked her book and closed it when I slid into the booth across from her.

Leaning her head into her hand she said, "Hello, Anthony" and damn did she sound good saying it. She has a naturally sexy voice whether she knows it or not.

I couldn't help myself. I stared at her face. I really like her damn face. Flawless. It seems like she put a light shimmer over her eyes, which looked really good. But finally I had to drag my eyes away so I didn't come off as a freak. Instead I let my eyes fall down to the book in front of her.

        "Did you bring a book to a bar?" I asked the obvious question. "Yes" she deadpanned with a definitive expression. "And why is that?" I figured a bar is the last place someone would wanna read a book. Isn't it for socializing here?

"People aren't as interesting as they think they are," she deadpanned again. 

It made me chuckle and rub at the back of my neck. "Well, I hope that means the company excluded. I would hate to bore you, darlin" I gave her a playful wink, but she took her lip into her mouth like she might've been affected by that wink. Good. I wanna affect her.

        I think it just dawned on me that this girl is actually kind of intimidating. She knows a lot about a lot, and she speaks with ease, and makes you wanna catch up and be interesting the way she seems to be interesting. At least that's my first impression of her. 

I really don't know her at all, and I probably shouldn't get to know her too much because this is meant to be casual. Physical.

I couldn't help myself though. I asked about the book. Her face brightens when you do. I leaned forward over the table to see the title of the book. It was practically pocket sized and very yellow in color. The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac. Never heard of it.

        "I doubt you give an actual shit what it's about, but listen to this. I just marked this part right before you came in" she told me, flipping through the pages until she stopped at something.

"The guy is talking about spiritual prayer and Tibetan chants and things, and he says :'Om Mani Pahdm Hum'- who knows if I'm pronouncing that correctly, but listen to what it means. 'Amen the thunderbolt in the dark void'. Don't you love that?" She rambled more enthusiastically than she had the first day I met her.

She'd been somewhat dry when she spoke, but in a funny way. Now I could see she was totally smitten about the passage that was lost upon me.

        "He says this: 'I'd also gone through an entire year of celibacy based on my feeling that lust was the direct cause of birth which was the direct cause of suffering and death. And I had really no lie, come to a point where I regarded lust as offensive and even cruel'," her steady reading voice was really nice. 

She was easily heard because the bar was mostly quiet.

There were two boozehounds in the corner slumped forward and knocking on the bar top when they wanted their refills of cheap filler beer and the occasional whiskey chaser.

        With Lexi's eyes casted down at her book I just enjoyed the view of her. I liked this view. Her pretty blue eyes can't be seen because they're darting around on the page, but her pretty pink lips move with words that only half make sense to me. Not sense, because I'm not an idiot, but I wasn't affected the way she was. I liked seeing her affected is what I'm saying.