A broken marriage.
A new job.
She works as a Personal Assistant on the ForNoah Youtube channel.
Noah is on the autistic spectrum and she fixes things for him.
He's a shipwright and creates beautiful works of art.
She's a woman starting over who meet...
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Two weeks later, dawn. Last days of summer.
"Get on," Noah.
Yes, please!
Noah, on a motorcycle, hair down. Take me away. I'm here for this ride. Please ride me! The thirst takes over my thoughts. The conversation about condoms and birth control I wanted to have had flown out of my head. Sleeveless shirt, muscles rippled, it's like something out of a men's health magazine. The pure thickness on display. Dear god, someone pinch me. Wait no, don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up bitch. Leave me the hell alone. My foot lifts to race to him because the thirst is real.
Slow down, Tari. My hips roll as I walk towards him in a version of a sexy walk that is more drunk bitch than sexy bitch. But sometimes you just have to go with it. The sexy walk is completely out of practice. The game is rusty, but you ride it until the wheels fall off, anyway.
I get on the back of his ride and he passes me the motorcycle helmet. Then Noah puts on his jacket. He turns back to me and pauses. For once, I picked out an outfit that wasn't too covered up. I put those girls out there to be a feast. Blue jeans and a white tank top, simple but impactful. I didn't underestimate the power of this white tank top to make my ladies look ready for everything. It's almost a mirror of the first time we had a conversation. Exchange Folsom lake for the California coastline and both of us are a lot less awkward. Well, maybe he is less awkward and me more thirsty. He puts his jacket on me. The jacket is so baggy on me it's more like a dress.
The cool breeze coming off the coast is just cool enough to make the jacket wonderful even in the summer. We rode along the coastal road. A blur of blue and rocks. I lean into his turns and bury my nose into his back. It smelled of the ocean, and the kind of smell you can't nail down, that woodsy spicy Noah scent.
I hope I'm not about to wake up.
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***
Two boats, one in the water, one ready for its first launch. The sailing boats look similar, but they have slight differences. Unnamed boat 1 and Unnamed boat 2 wait for the new owners to pick out a name. That won't happen until they are sold at the art show, the start of next year. The crew pushes the second boat into the water. Noah puts the kickstand down on the motorcycle. He takes my hand and holds it. His first hand-holding and a smile. His big rough hands dwarf mine. I grab my small overnight pack, then follow him to the boats.
The Unnamed boat 1 is the one that he took me and the kids on. The second one is the unfinished one that was in pieces. Now the pieces sit assembled, floating on the water.
"Thank you for your help. I am not good with people." Noah speaks out into the ocean while I follow him to the boats. As if his eyes on me would break the spell of his ability to talk to me. His big hand tightens around mine. "The art show is not... I could not have done it on my own. I want you to name the main piece for my Crocker Art Show." He paused in front of the boat. Noah slips his hand into his back pocket and pulls out a folded paper. I shift my bag, then take the paper. I opened it up and it's the art installation design.
I gasp, the boat's on O st. with each painted panel stage so it hangs in the air on the side of the Crocker Art Building. The panel is a three-dimensional visual of the storm and a sailing boat in the middle of it. The paintings hang mid-air with barely visible wires. Colors of Cerulean blues, Prussian blue, Navy blue, slashes of white, and dark grey storm clouds. The eye of the storm our night together flashed in my mind. Hot, hungry sex, hands, lips, together...
"Neptune," I blurt. Noah's ocean eyes make contact with mine. "Neptune should be the name of the piece. It's beautiful, Noah." I touch the side of my hot face. A tear rolled down my dark cheeks. "It's really beautiful..."
"Then it is Neptune." His work roughen thumb wipes my tears away. He takes my hand again and we head to the docks on the boat. It's Unnamed boat number 1, the one we went on the trip with the kids together. I got a closer look at the newly built boat and it has small differences. It's fancy. The first boat had a cleaner design, but the other boat had more carvings. It had more bronze pieces and more square footage. Both had that throwback. This could be a hundred years old or more designed for sailing boats, but it was brand new. If I was to distill the difference. The boat Noah was taking me on was the boat of a man who loved the sail. The other boat was the boat of a man who loved to be seen sailing.
Noah leads me onto the boat. He turns back to me and smiles, saying. "Technically, it is my first date ever." First, nice! He gives me one of those full ocean eye contact, vulnerable yet happy Noah smiles. I rarely get to see enough of it. He leans in and kisses me softly on the lips.
"Oh, I like how this day is going already. Superman's first date."
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A/n: Yo, see yall in 7 days. It's brownie and ice cream editing.
