Eight-Piece

Hanna: Like a Fairy Tale

The scent of vanilla and lavender candles, infused in the cool air inside Hanna's room was making her stomach growl. It's 11 in the evening when she looked at the clock and she realized they had dinner too early. Hanna walked out of the room and through the same corridor she sat with him earlier in the morning. She walked through, smiling at the remembrance of the first loving memory they created together. When she reached the kitchen, she found herself feeling unfamiliar with the space even though she was there with him just hours ago, cooking; noticing the kitchen was overly spacious now that she's alone in it looking for a quick snack.

After one slow sweep of her head from left to right, she spotted the coffeemaker and the cookie jar and decided since they were the first things to greet her on that long granite countertop, then they're the ones she's meant to have. Simple. Fast. Uncomplicated. She looks at solutions that way, otherwise it's not the right solution. It was her late great grandma who taught her to trust her gut feelings more. However, she learned a lot more than just using intuition but also how to be in tune with everything around her: the breeze, the sky, the animals and whatever would stimulate her senses. She could swear her Nana was a magical woman.

Thoughts about her grandma brought her back to her teenage years when she would wake her up after having a dream. In that ominous dream which she had at least once a week, she was outside by the beach and it was always raining really hard. Instead of the dark night sky, the surroundings were so white from the ferocious downpour. It was a dream she couldn't make anything of except that she was walking towards something and she could hear her heart pounding louder and faster with every step, only to end before she finds out what it is she's walking towards. Her Nana would be contemplating with her while they both sat down side by side on her bed till they decide they couldn't extract meaning other than she must be careful when she's out there. She always ends up going back to sleep in her Nana's bed every time it happens. 

Hanna's thoughts were interrupted when she smelled the coffee. Pouring just a bit over half of the cup, she took her cookie and coffee and turned around unsure of where she wanted to eat. She decided it was a long walk back to her room and didn't want to risk spilling the hot coffee onto herself. She looked for a cozy spot in the kitchen when she found the glass door that leads to what looked to her like a garden outside, only able to see some green wedges and leaves. The door's handle bar glistened from silver to white, as if it's inviting her to explore what's beyond. Mouth slightly ajar, she stepped outside and was enamored by how the fairy lights turned on one by one, revealing a trellis above the pathway and beautiful landscaping. Her feet grew a mind of its own and started walking towards what seemed to be a swinging sofa straight ahead past the trellis with sheer curtains.

"Oh my... This looks like a fairy tale..." She was hypnotized. She started walking faster and carelessly, like how a child would after seeing something amazing for the first time like a 3-tier themed cake or maybe a life-sized unicorn statue.

Hanna sat down on the white couch which she realized was that of a sofa bed in size and got worried for a minute when she couldn't feel her bottom reach the hardness of a compressed cushion. For a while she thought she might have broken the swing and was falling with the couch, but she found out that it was just too soft and puffy. Giggling like a kid, she wiggled her ass to make certain she wasn't just imagining the softness of it. There was a wide armrest with a hole as a cupholder and a dented space to lock in a saucer as well. "This is just too fancy eh", she said to herself while carefully placing her food on the proper slots.

We could be lying here together one night, drinking wine, feeling all the velvety feelings of tipsiness and intimacy in equal parts... Her thoughts were intoxicating her. Despite the strong coffee, her musings induced a sleepiness of the dreamy kind. She was somehow tempted to speak, to test whether there'll be slurring in her voice but she opted for a soft purr instead. 

The memory of what happened earlier flashed back in a snap and it made her ears ring in a high pitch note she had to squeeze her body tight and squirm from the arousal. Hanna touched her lips as she allowed the passionate kiss play back in her head like a projector screen  playing a romantic vintage movie. Her hand slid up her silk top to cup her breast as if hoping to initiate the tactile memory of his palms that rested there awhile ago. She was holding her breath, except for quick escaping breaths that pulsates her as she exhale them in tiny bursts but all this was interrupted by the breaking into two of the cookie she was holding with the other hand. She breathed herself back to normal, still quite flushed, still quite buzzing inside.

Hanna fought herself and just looked around, fully taking in the feminine splendor of this secret space. After some minutes she found herself fully desensitized from the experience and busy admiring the place. How did a man, whose profession and image speaks gangster vibes of the royal kind have a delicate patch of garden like this? She wondered. 

She wasn't much of a garden person to know every kind of flower but she definitely knew half of what was around her. Daisies, orchids of different kinds, petunias, hibiscus, mountain magnolias, hydrangeas... She looked at each of them with awe and realized how being too focused on her business she has forgotten the last time she spent taking her sweet time with nature in lavish appreciation like this. 

Hana chewed her cookie while slowly drifting back to her thoughts. She remembered the time she shared with him 5 years ago. Finding him lying on the beach, being pushed and pulled by the crashing waves one stormy night is the reason why he mattered so much to her despite the short span of time they spent together. It was exactly like that in her dream. She never told Jared of this. She didn't want to sound crazy to a man who's just regained consciousness and must have seen the other side too. She couldn't share this to any normal and healthy person except her Nana, how much more to a guy who's the one it was giving premonitions about. No, she was sure he would question her sanity.

Hanna sighed at that last thought and having finished her food some time ago, she mindlessly stood up. Still looking spaced out she headed back to the kitchen where she washed the cup and saucer and crept quietly back to the guest room. She took a thick notebook and pen from her bedside drawer, flicked the reading light over her head and started writing in her diary, something she did religiously since she was a kid. She started drifting off to sleep writing the last sentence in her entry and was able to shut it close and hold it loosely on her chest just in the nick of time.