The Smiths were Messianic Jews which meant that they believed in Jesus, but still instead of celebrating Christmas, they celebrated the Hannukah. However, in respect of their non-Jewish friends, they always organized a party on the 25th of December in a Kosher restaurant in Melbourne. That was a very exclusive celebration whose attendees were formerly invited, of course, there were always exceptions, but never more than 10. That year Chloe and Debora had the honor to participate, only because Ben - son of the organizer - had invited them.
Because that wasn't an ordinary celebration, the two girls considered wiser to buy a gala dress for the occasion. But man, finding a dress to fit either of them was hard! Their shape wasn't adequate to the dresses they saw. Nevertheless, they couldn't afford to go underdressed to that event, especially Debora who liked to dress up. When they found their dresses, they soon realized that that wasn't the peak of their troubles, the hair was.
So there they were: in front of a mirror. Debora braiding Chloe's hair, and the latter grimacing in pain; she hated when people touched her hair.
"There you go!" Debora finished. "Do you like it?" She observed Chloe in the mirror.
Chloe caressed her head while eyeing herself in the mirror, and moving her head sideways, with a smile on her face. She nodded with pride.
"What are you gonna do to your hair?"
"You'll see." Debora winked. "But I have no idea!"
"An afro." She smirked.
Debora put her hands on the waist in a lecturing tone and laughed. She felt free and spirited, maybe because of the intense experiences she was having in Melbourne. In that city, she felt home.
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Ben entered the restaurant between the two beautiful women. Debora had decided on a low-profile hairstyle, something wet and elegant, and light make-up to match the petrol blue color of her gown, whereas Chloe rocked in her ocean green jumpsuit. The three caught Moses attention, at the instant he was talking to a guest. He walked to the door intending to greet them.
"Debora, what a beautiful surprise!" Moses, fully bearded, in a black tuxedo, greeted her with a smile. "I'm glad to see you here!"
"You too, Abah-leh!"
She really liked to call him that, and he enjoyed that as much, anyone could tell by the smile of satisfaction on his face.
Debora stepped forward and joined the maze of people elegantly dressed, willing to drink some water. She quickly noticed that there were no other blacks in the celebration besides her. Nervous as she was, she helped herself to a glass of water and looked around to find Mim. Among all those 50 people, finding her in that small venue was troubling, especially because the light was dim. On her search, she noticed a familiar face from across the room, and that sight made her jittery; now that was unexpected! She smiled, maybe quite flirtatious - some would say - surprised that this person was smiling back at her, and even walking toward her, carrying a flute of champagne.
"Now that's a sight I didn't expect." He said, hiding the pleasure of seeing someone he considered so beautiful.
"Joel..." She said in a complementing tone. "You look smart in that tux!" She couldn't help but smile.
"You don't look too bad yourself." He smiled. "Anyway, it's nice to see you! Ben told me you were in Melbourne..."
"Yeah! Chloe invited me to spend Christmas with her. So good to take my head off Sydney." She took a deep breath and changed the subject. "I'm happy to see you too, by the way."
"Speaking of Sydney, I'm so sorry for all the things I said to you when I was there." He used his hands to emphasize his sadness. "I'm really ashamed of my behavior." He articulated his words as best as he could, while nervously hiding one hand in the pocket of his trousers.
"Don't worry. What intrigued me really was that I tried to reach you, but you never replied." It wasn't like she demanded an explanation, but she wouldn't mind one either.
"I have an explanation for that, but this isn't the place for that. So, do you wanna go somewhere and talk?"
"Ok." She couldn't complain much.
He held her hand and led her through the crowd onto the garden.
A few people, those less entertained, noticed them, but paid no heed, as they walked past the door that led to a beautiful garden.
The night was mild, the skies were starry, but the moon was nowhere to be seen yet. Debora and Joel walked out into the night and enjoyed it for a moment, in silence; that was one of the idiosyncrasies they had in common, but they didn't know.
Joel was the first to surrender to a seat. His shoes were elegant and glossy, but too tight and torturous for his feet. He grabbed a stool and sat on it. Debora capitulated right after, just to be at his height.
"So..." He wanted to get things off his chest. "I guess I wasn't coping all too well with my mum's passing away." He admitted. "I needed time to organize my head."
Debora nodded knowingly.
"But I'm not the type of guy who goes out on dates, anyway." He felt so ridiculous that he laughed. "I didn't even know what to expect from our encounter."
"Yikes." She exclaimed, trying to break the ice, but was inconvenient instead. "Sorry." She apologized. "Can we put the past behind us and be friends?"
"Yes!" He was very relieved that she asked him that question. "I approve of that idea." He confessed. "So, now tell me about you and Adam, what's up with you?" He gulped his champagne, trying to ease the nerves.
"Nothing really. It's just some maddening sexual attraction." For some deranged reason, Debora felt very comfortable to share that detail with him. "Hard to control when he's around."
"How's that?"
Debora put her now empty glass on the small table next to them and faced Joel with no hint of timidity, explaining the situation to him:
"If Adam and I were all alone somewhere, we couldn't control ourselves."
"So, that's mutual?" He had his suspicions.
"Yeah!" She nodded.
"Did that happen already, I mean...?" Joel didn't want to give too many details of what he meant. "How far did you go already?" He then puts a caring hand on her forearm and looks in her eyes. "Is it okay to ask you this?"
"Oh, yes, Joe!" Debora confirmed she was fine to share that with him. "We didn't go all the way, but maybe too far..." She blamed herself for that and was shy for a moment.
"Do you think you'd ever go all the way, if you two were together alone in a room?"
She looked at Joel and gave him a knowing nod, with full assurance.
He knew Adam since college and always esteemed his mate as someone who could fight hard against sexual temptation; it seemed so easy for him to deal with that, that Joel sometimes suspected that there was something strange.
"Well, I'm not sure it would be that easy." He commented. "Ade is still a virgin."
Debora eyed Joel with a certain skepticism. She was so crude that he couldn't help asking:
"What's up with the face?"
"We're talking about Adam, right?" She wanted to be sure.
"Yeah, he is a virgin." He thought he knew that info, but after witnessing her reaction to that sentence. "Isn't he?" Joel looked at her.
Debora scoffed in disbelief. Adam was much worse than she assumed, or was it just her impression? She had painted him with colors of a saint, but wasn't sure anymore if she had picked the right set to paint him accurately.
"He isn't a virgin." She assured him.
"Did he tell you?"
"Hmm." She hesitated. "Yeah. His exact words were: I wasn't a saint in college."
Startled, Joel covered his mouth in disbelief.
"But in what circumstances did he tell you that?" He wanted to be sure.
"We were intimate at that moment." She looked down, embarrassed. "But he didn't need to say anything. I could tell he wasn't."
"Because you're not a virgin either...?" Joel concluded.
"I only came to Christ some years ago." She admitted.
It was a bit much for Joel to take in. Debora's sexual life wasn't of his concern nor Adam's, but knowing that he had always looked up to his best mate in affairs such as those, it was rather disappointing, if what Debora told him was true. The fact that he couldn't fully believe her, was an escape to continue that uncomfortable conversation. If that was true, it answered many questions he had from the past.
"Do you think he is a player?"
"I don't know. Maybe in college he was." Debora suspected. "We all had our bad ways." She was merciful.
Sometimes, church people can be much more judgmental than the people who come to Christ out of a worldly context. When Joel perceived the grace Debora applied onto Adam's mistakes, his disappointment relented.
"It's quite understandable! Back in those college days, many girls crushed on him." Looking at the void, Joel replied: "Yeah, Adam is an attractive guy."
Debora felt Joel underestimating himself, therefore she tried to encourage him:
"You too are an attractive guy, Joel!" She smiled.
"I'm not saying that I'm not attractive, I'm saying that he is." He giggled, not realizing that he had given out his low self-esteem caused by the abusive relationship he had in the past.
She leaned onto him and asked with a suspicion in her eye:
"You overestimate Adam, perhaps?"
He felt comfortable looking in her eyes, even though he found her very attractive, there was no slight touch of sexual attraction and that was a great thing. He was happy and confident enough to share his heart with her - a stranger he had met for a few days.
"Perhaps." He admitted. "He's everything I've ever wanted to be."
"Why? There's nothing wrong with you." She smiled encouragingly.
"I know, but I'm relearning to love myself."
Suddenly, Moses entered the garden area, a look of aggravation on his face.
"There you are!" He lectured them. "We're all waiting for you to open the dinner."
Debora had never seen Abah-leh so hot-tempered, and she was flabbergasted for a moment.
"Let's go!" Joel stood up and gave her a tap on the shoulder.
She stood up and joined Joel. They entered the room after Moses, causing a reason for gossip. Funny thing about Debora and Joel was that they were inseparable and couldn't care less about the rumors raising. They sat right next to each other on the table, and even Chloe didn't dare disturb them.