Dandelion

7. "FCUK FEAR..."

Tallulah's memories were of her childhood days so long ago with the people she had loved and lost. If she closed her eyes she could hear her mother calling her for lunch, her father rustling the newspaper as he turned a fresh leaf.

AJ got up from the bed and extended his hand to her. "Come with me."

"Where?" She placed her hand on his.

He tugged at her hand until they got downstairs. No one was in the house apart from the two of them. Both Lucy and Joe had gone to spend the night at his parent's place for the weekend, as they usually did when Lucy wasn't off.

He sat her down before plugging in his phone into the speaker and perusing the internet for something special.

"What are we doing?"

He pulled her to her feet and wrapped his hands around her waist. "We're dancing to good music."

Let Him Try by Freddie McGregor started to play. The music spun around them lifting away gravity. She couldn't count how many times she had squished his foot under her own. Still, he smiled brightly as their feet clicked over the floor. He watched as her locks bounced more with each move and beat. This was perfect. This was dancing and art coming to life. All that mattered was the person in front of him.

"My parents are Nigerian," AJ said. "I remember them always dancing like this to reggae music when I was younger. It was something I swore to do with my wife."

Tallulah searched his eyes. "Did you?"

"No." He shook his head. "Aubrey was never really into reggae music. We tried to one night before she got pregnant with Joe and it just wasn't the same for us."

Pulling away from his grip, Tallulah swung in unison with the music, closing her eyes in order to feel the moment even more. Anthony watched, as she danced for him gracefully. The sound of rain tapping on the window and the ceiling could still be heard from a distance. He closed his eyes and joined Tallulah in what she was doing.

She continued their dance, each and every movement full of poetry. They advanced, retreated, pirouetted, their arms waving from side to side above their heads, their heads swaying, their garments fluttering.

After about an hour of just dancing to the reggae mix Anthony had chosen, they collapsed on the floor. He reached for her hand and they intertwined their fingers together.

"How was she?" Tallulah asked.

"Who?" AJ faced her.

"Your late wife."

He smiled. "She was a good woman. I met her when we were seventeen. I hadn't started boxing, so we ran into each other when I walked into this little bakery that she worked at. I always went back until I got the courage to ask for her number."

"Sounds romantic."

"It wasn't." AJ laughed. "She didn't make it easy for me but it was worth the while."

Tallulah twisted her head to the left and looked into his eyes. "So what happened to her?"

"She got into a car accident one night when she was driving home from a business trip. It was raining and she didn't see this truck that rammed into her and sent her car into the ocean." AJ closed his eyes and ran his hand down her face. "We'd been having a bad year, always at each other's throats over finances and Joe.  I never got to apologize and the worst part was that they never found her body."

Tallulah squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry."

"It is what it is. I learned to deal with the fact that life is unfair and there's nothing we can do to change that."

John holt's voice, talking about how one should be careful because love could get a hold of you like a thief in the night, filled the silence. Tallulah closed her eyes and lay her head on Anthony's shoulders, taking in the moment.

"What are we doing?" she whispered into the night.

Anthony caressed her cheeks and slid his finger under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. "We're hanging out."

There was a deep-rooted part of their souls that understood the connection between lust and love. Anthony had been feeling the thing between them that pulled them together, he couldn't deny that they were drawn together for whatever reason there was. But what was the point of focusing on the ABC's, the logical part of things, that would keep them apart instead of just living in the moment?

"I've always known what my future looks like," Tallulah said. "I see myself climbing the Pico Cão Grande mountain with my children; a boy, and a girl. I picture myself taking them to the beach, every Sunday like my parents took me. I can't wait for when their father and I teach them how to plant sugar cane in our land and take them to school so that they can learn how to be great farmers."

She could feel him tensing under her touch. "What are you saying?"

Tallulah dipped her head and moved in for a kiss. The kiss was fiery, passionate and demanding. She wanted to pull away before she lost herself but she couldn't seem to.

In that moment, her senses had been seduced and she could no longer think straight. "Tallulah, what are you saying?" he whispered slowly, prolonging each letter as if to savor them. Her heart fluttered at his voice as she clasped her hands on each side of his face. Anthony pulled her over his lean body so that her legs were on either side of his body.

"Your life is here and my life is in Sao Tome."

"With your lover?"

Her head jerked back in surprise. "What lover?"

AJ propped himself on his elbows. "The second time we met, you confused me for a man you called your love."

Tallulah visibly relaxed with a smile on her face. "That's my best friend, his name is Zaire."

AJ looked into her eyes but Tallulah was unable to read what was going through his mind."I didn't ask you to marry me, we've just known each other for a few months."

She sat up, straddling him. "So what are we doing?"

"We should just say that we're doing what we are doing because anything else will make things complicated."

Tallulah shook her head in agreement.

"You're doing business with my cousin, who wants to build something with you..."

She chewed on her lower lip. "Right."

"So if we start questioning everything, this definitely would be complicated and messy," AJ said.

"Definitely."

They stared at each other with a sigh. Anthony sat up, pressing the back of her head while he pulled her into him for a kiss.

"But I just can't stop kissing you," Anthony said with a laugh, pulling on her lower lip.

**

Hey? Anybody there?
What do you think so far?