The Loneliest Stars || EDITING

Chapter 4

Being a self aware music snob, Gabe was easily irritated by bad taste. He didn't hate Dolly Parton, he also didn't completely love her. She was definitely not what he was referring to as 'real music.'

"Okay," Gabe said taking that as his cue to leave. "Don't let them possums bite."

He laughed at her panicked intake of breath. She was so easily triggered. Maybe he was going to enjoy getting under her skin this year.

After a quick shower, Gabe got dressed and headed over to his sister-in-law's house for the end of summer annual barbecue. All the faculty members would be there. He had seen many of them around town over the summer break but there were some he hadn't seen since school let out. It would be nice to talk shop over some food and beer.

He greeted his colleagues that were lingering in the kitchen, as he walked down to the back garden. Ella had a massive back garden and her husband was there grilling meats.

"Hey bro, you alright?" Gabe said with a back clap.

"I'm on grilling duty." Scott grumbled, his face red from the heat. He must be the only man in the South that hated barbecuing.

"You want me to takeover a while?" Gabe offered.

"I better not, Ella will never let me hear the end of it." At which Gabe chuckled, glad that Scott hadn't taken him up on his offer. Ella was strict in her hosting duties and was a stickler for details. She was probably somewhere in the house clucking over napkins not matching the paper plates or something. Gabe in no way wanted to be involved in any of that.

Grabbing a beer from the cooler, Gabe found himself in a conversation with a gym teacher and the new math teacher. Another exchange teacher. A freckly red-head from Scotland and as much has he tried, Gabe could not understand her accent. If it came down to a preference he much preferred the easy tones of Natalia's London accent.

She however took somewhat of a shine to Gabe. Lingering, even after the conversation had moved on and it was only the two of them left. She was slightly tipsy, he could tell. She had that tell-tale glaze to her eyes. Gabe, knew that he should extract himself from the situation when she started pawing at his bicep and asking him to teach her about 'American football.'

Much like that day at the airport, he felt her presence before he saw her. It was odd. Gabe didn't want to think too deeply about the whys and hows, he didn't want to come to any conclusions that he might dislike.

She was dressed in a short red summer dress, with bare legs. It made her skin vibrant in contrast. As he leisurely perused over her figure; he noted that her toes matched her dress. Something about the intent behind the colour matching, made Gabe's throat dry. She wore sandals again, maybe she didn't take herself that seriously. He liked the contradiction.

Her hair was up in that curly up-do Gabe decided that he liked, she was sporting a dark red color on her pouty lips and her eyes were more intense than usual, rimmed in a black outline.

He didn't know why but he couldn't take his attention off her. When did he start liking thicker women? When did he start liking Black women? He couldn't tell. He had always gone for the tall and athletic kind.

Natalia was short and curvaceous, she barely came up to his shoulder. The package was small but formed immaculately. His gaze lingered on her thighs. They were perfect and he errantly wondered how they'd feel around his hips.

Their eyes met, and hers narrowed a bit as she took in the arm on his bicep. He'd completely forgotten about the red-head hanging off his arm, lost as he was in his perusal of her. Gabe mumbled an, "Excuse me," leaving the red-head confused.

Maybe he just liked antagonising her? That was it. It couldn't be more than the excitement of having someone to take verbal jabs at, and them giving it back just as good.

"What's wrong with you?" A voice hissed.

"Ella?"

Gabe was in the kitchen switching his drink to water, he had to drive home and get up early tomorrow for training.

"You're being rude to both my new teachers!"

"Oh, I'm sure they'll live," Gabe said taking large gulps of his drink.

"Don't ruin this for me, it's really important."

"How can I ruin this?" Gabe tried reasoning with his crazy sister.

"Just don't!"

Ella was really stressed, Gabe observed as she left the kitchen with an almighty bee in her bonnet. He stifled a laugh, he was going to get to the bottom of that but not today. He wanted to see out the rest of the evening without any more drama.

Someone had started a game of cards, and raucous laughs were coming from the backyard. Natalia was holding her cards to her chest and laughing as she vehemently denied "bullshitting," when he joined the circle of people. Her laugh was joyful, and made something in his chest lurch. He watched her converse and easily smile at the people around her.

Her smile made him feel stupid and he couldn't help but smile too. It was infectious. She'd lost the game, coming last every time because her poker face and her lying skills were dismal. She took it in her stride, playing with an almost full deck because she kept being forced to pick up cards when she was caught out.

Soon it was time to go. The night was wrapping up and Ella had asked him to take Natalia with him on his way home, seeing as they were neighbors. He agreed. It was a short drive.

Nobody said a word as they got into his truck. He opened the door for her this time, remembering his manners. She let out an, "Oh," in surprise and got into the car. The drive was silent, but comfortably so. Neither of them feeling like they needed to punctuate the silence with words.

Gabe parked in his driveway, again jogging round to the passenger side to open the door for her.

"Let me walk you up, don't want them possums getting you now?"

"Ugh, let it go," she replied but still waited for him to walk her up. They got to her door and Gabe exaggeratedly looked around for any creatures to her chagrin, and relief, he could see both of those expressions on her face.

"Uh, you're good to go," he said suddenly noticing their close proximity.

She stood outside her door with her back to it, facing him.

Gabe found himself staring into her eyes. Noticing their slight almond shape and the dark brown color that drew him in. He wet his lips and felt her gaze follow the motion of his tongue. Her breath was coming out in cold wisps, that he could feel on his now, moist lips.

Against his better judgment and all common sense, Gabe crashed his lips onto hers. A feverish meeting of mouths and tongues, leading to slower more restrained pecks. Kissing another woman that wasn't his wife for the first time in years shouldn't have felt that good, but it did. Her lips were plump; her tongue sweet and he couldn't get enough.

He pulled away, before he complicated things any further. Immediately missing her unique scent, and the warmth and fullness of her body.

As nice as that kiss was, it couldn't happen again.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

Natalia stared at him in shock, her chest rapidly moving up and down. Her lipstick smeared across her mouth.

She wordlessly opened her door. Slamming it behind her.

And Gabe knew that he had messed up, in the words of their president: 'Bigly.'

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