And Then There Was Victor

Chapter 29

"Do not touch anything for at least two hours, longer if possible but at least an hour," she said.

I stood up, shaking myself to ensure my dress did not ride up behind me and thanked her. Victor also stood, stuck by me like a leach, I could not get away from. I could not even go to the bathroom because he knew I could touch nothing. My mind was running out of ideas to ditch him when he opened the door back into the building for us to sit in the Atrium. I almost let out a sigh of relief when we spotted Jon walking back with a Subway bag at hand.

"Got you guys goodies!"

I could have kissed him but I really needed to stop kissing my friends.

Victor was next to him in four strides, snatching the bag with a sigh.

"Turkey and bacon, just like you like it," Jon said with a proud smirk.

"Becka can't eat right now," he pointed at my hands.

"Oh cool!" Jon studied the patterns on my hands.

"You can have chips," Victor sat down on our preferred couch and I took a seat across from him. I watched as he opened a bag of chips and popped one in his mouth. He looked at me and pulled a chip out. "Here."

I loved him. I was so screwed. He would break my heart, I knew it.

I opened my mouth like a baby bird and he placed a chip in my mouth, he did it so casually, as if we had always fed one another. I could not remember; our moments had been too many. Too many days spent in the company of one another. I suddenly became afraid I would forget little moments like this in the future when my tits were sagging, and I recalled my great love for Victor that I would forget little bits about it. That I would wonder if I had imagined it all.

Yet at this moment, the chip tasted salty and crunchy in my mouth. That had been real. The soft warmth of his finger had brushed my lip. That had been real. The way he had the most beautiful brown eyes, downturned in the corners, creasing with mirth. That had been real. The fine black hairs on his veiny arm, stark against the pallor of his skin. That had been real. The smell of his cologne intermixed with his soap musky and woodsy. That had been real.

He was kind, he was kind and warm and caring and that took me with such a surprise that I had to look away. The thought went right into my belly and wormed itself in there and I was hit with the desire that he would be mine. That those kind eyes would look at me the way he looked at Crystal and Helene and any of the countless girls who had captured his attention.

"Thanks," I said.

I watched as he unwrapped his sandwich and took a massive bite out of it, lettuce falling on his lap.

I was ever grateful for Jon who sat next to Victor and before I knew it, he had started an entire conversation about a guy they had met in Daytona who was in town and wanted to hang out this weekend. I willed myself invisible and allowed myself coveted glances at Victor. Just to look at him because I would not be able to stare at him in Chicago and I wanted to always have a perfect picture of him in my mind.

×××

Poor Yara was startled to death when I pounded the door of her sister's house that afternoon.

"Is she pregnant?" Yara's sister asked from the kitchen where she was bleaching a customer's hair.

Yara stared at me.

"It's worse. I'm in love."

Yara's eyes widened and she bristled, rushing me in. She pulled me into her small cramped room, closing the door behind us and sitting me on the bed.