The Truth About The Many Worlds Of Printed Pages

°•○•°Fifteen°•○•°

"Of course, see you tomorrow, Siena, James," Jake replied with a smile just before James closed the door behind Siena, who finally stood on the cobbled pavement next to him.

"Come on, we need something to eat and then some sleep," James muttered, worried by the new tears he spotted in the corners of her eyes. He felt quite sad himself as he recalled their meeting with the little boy, a boy who, despite being spun from a writer's imagination, felt so incredibly real. He shook his head, giving up on trying to understand the mystery of it all and the feelings that visiting the fictional world caused them. 

"I need a shower. Then I'll cook something, Albert said that we were gone for nearly forty-two hours, it must be almost lunchtime..." Siena muttered.

James smiled, squeezing her hand in his before letting go of her after she unlocked the house, and they entered. 

"You take a shower, I'll cook in the meantime. Then we'll take the afternoon to rest and talk if you want."

"Thanks, James," Siena said. 

She wrapped her arms around his waist once again the moment they entered the flat, for no other reason than because it felt good when his large hands travelled up and down her back soothingly in a surprised but immediate response. Letting go of him finally, she removed her sand-filled ballerinas and fled into her room in search of a clean set of clothes, missing those she had left in the Society's Headquarters.

Siena sighed, realising that she had also left her handbag and the phone they had given her as well as her own in her changing room. She didn't care about the phones; both her mum and her only close friend Alessandro knew that they shouldn't call her unless she called first. But she wished she had brought more clothes with her on this trip, she despaired, looking into the wardrobe where she had deposited the few pieces of clothing she had.

Thinking about clothes... She dipped her hand into the pocket of her coat, finding a crimson rose petal looking so fragile that she wondered how it could have survived the travel between the two worlds... It was a gift from the little boy, something he had left with her not to be forgotten. As if forgetting him was possible. Wiping a few just formed tears with the back of her hand, she took the copy of The Little Prince from the clutch bag that belonged to her costume and placed the petal gently among its pages.

James washed his hands and face quickly, leaving the bathroom to Siena, whom he met in its doorway. 

"How about a tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches?" he proposed a meal he could put together while she washed.

"Perfect," she said, pushing into the bathroom past him, her body brushing against his. 

James hoped that she wouldn't realise that he stopped in that doorway on purpose to get another occasion to feel her closeness. He was becoming addicted to her presence, to having her within reach. One more week, and then he wouldn't see her until Christmas... Feeling happy when she didn't complain against his quite obvious move, he pushed the gloomy thoughts concerning their imminent, long separation away. He walked towards the kitchen, heart soaring when he realised, upon hearing the water in the shower a while later, that she had left the door ajar, just like they kept their bedroom doors.

It took Siena a lifetime to get out of the tightly laced dress, but she didn't find the courage to ask James to help her. She could picture the feel of his long, warm fingers on her bare skin too vividly, craving it too much, and she didn't want him to know. She didn't understand herself anymore; he kept making her feel and imagine all sorts of things... things that no one else had made her desire before. 

"Lunch is ready," he announced, scattering her thoughts, the moment she exited the bathroom, rosy-cheeked, wet-haired and swathed in a mist of jasmine and orange blossoms, wearing nothing but her long, kimono-style dressing gown.

"May I eat like this, won't you mind?" Siena asked, pulling at the pink sash holding the gown closed around her waist. She had meant to get dressed before lunch, but the mouth-watering aroma reaching her from the kitchen reminded her that she had eaten nothing in two days.

"Not at all. Let's eat before it gets cold," James said with a hitch in his voice she didn't notice. 

She was gorgeous, he couldn't help seeing her as more than a colleague and a friend and wanting to precipitate them to the moment when it would finally happen, just as much as he wanted to respect her apparent decision of not breaking some imaginary wall she had built between them. The wall would crumble sooner or later; he could feel that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. They were like their two stones that shone and rejoiced when they were near-- he could see hers glowing from beneath the mint green silk of her dressing gown. But it would have to be Siena to push the wall down once she would be sure that she wanted them to happen as much as he did. He would wait.

They ate in silence filled with furtive glances they kept casting at each other, one smiling knowingly, and the other blushing when caught, until their plates were empty and James filled their glasses with wine. 

"Thanks, James, it was delicious," Siena said, sipping her wine. "I'll do the dishes. Would you like a coffee?"

"Yes, please. But I'd like to take a shower first. The sand is getting on my nerves," he said, brushing off a few golden grains stuck to his sleeve. 

Siena smiled at him. "I wonder whether... whether he arrived home by now." 

She finished her line turning away from him, casting her eyes towards the window and the distant river which looked like a silvery-gray ribbon through the falling rain, in an attempt to hide the fresh couple of tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Siena didn't want James to make the wrong impression of her. She wasn't a tearful person, but she always cried for books, she couldn't help it.

"I'm sure he's just recounting his adventures to his Rose," James said, pretending not to see how emotional she still was, burying his hand into her damp hair for a short moment as he walked past her towards the bathroom. 

Siena sighed deeply as he vanished behind the door, smiling when she noticed that he had left it ajar as she collected their plates.