Down at the Cove

answers

'Dear Mr. Parker,'

no, she can't write that...

'Dear Sidney...'

oh god no, no not that either, that would be too intimate....well... after all that's happened?

Charlotte wasn't so sure anymore if it was a good idea to ask questions, well to have questions at all. But she wanted answers, and he wanted to give them to her...maybe just make a list, not write a letter? Start with the easy questions first, or in order? Or the most urgent first?

Nervously she picked up her favourite book. An old book, already quite dilapidated. The leather was torn in several places. The pages were thin and yellowed. It had once belonged to her grandmother, she had sent herself little love messages with her fiancé in it. At this memory, her heart started to beat so fast that she could see it making her chest vibrate.

She opened the book on the last page and wrote down as small as possible what things were flying around in her head. But as soon as she closed her eyes to concentrate, the images and feelings overwhelmed her.

The cove, his body, his mouth on her fingers, his hands on her thigh, he kneels before her. His finger that wanders up her arm. His face so close, she smelled his scent. Whispering. Fingers on her clavicle. His hand on her face. Those lips, did he want to kiss her? His eyes.

Charlotte tore open her eyes and ran her hand through her hair. All right. Take three breaths. She read through the things she had written down and decided she couldn't ask this questions. At least not in her first letter to him. No. A list. Yes.

Who knows how he answers them? Maybe he had questions, too? They hadn't figured out how to give him the questions either. Slide it under the door? Push them into his hand?

Charlotte picked up a new piece of paper and wrote down her first question with a beating heart.

'why were you angry with me?'because he had always looked at her as if she had done something wrong.

'what was going through your mind as you stood outside the hotel?'

Now came the exciting questions,

'do you think of me?'

'How am I confusing you?'

'Why did you put my stockings on?'

'What were you thinking at the window that night?'

So she filled the whole sheet and was about to continue writing on the back side when she realized that there were quite a lot of questions and also quite...intimate.

She should organize her questions, otherwise it would be over much too fast. At this thought she had to grin. How indecent. She shook her head and creased the paper at the place under the third question, laid it carefully on the edge of the table and carefully tore off the lower part of it. Glad that the paper had remained intact.

After folding it and blowing out the candle, she straighten her shoulders and left the room. Since they hadn't decided when to give him the questions, she hid the paper in her neckline and went into the dining room.

Everyone had already gathered there, but was still standing around loosely in the room. When their eyes met, she felt as if Sidney knew all her most intimate questions hidden in her book. He smiled briefly and then came closer.

"And?" he asked in a deep voice.

"I erm...here."

Sidney's eyes almost fell out of his head as he followed her hand with his gaze and she reached straight into the neckline and pulled out a small folded letter. He had to swallow before he accepted it and stared at the piece of paper wordlessly. As their fingertips touched briefly, both looked up and found their gaze and lost themselves in it.