They made the three people present in the office jump as they appeared suddenly, just about managing to land on their feet on the white wooden floor, scattering grains of sand all around them.
"You've been gone for almost forty-two hours," Albert announced matter-of-factly while Siena forced herself to stop shedding the tears she didn't want anyone to see.
She took a deep, tremulous breath and peeled her face from James' uniform-- its fabric held the faintest scent of the Little Prince's hair-- and looked around the room, red-rimmed eyes shining wetly.
"Alicia?" she muttered and didn't remove her arms from James' waist until the old woman appeared at her elbow.
"You stayed much longer than we had thought, I'm so glad I packed the food and water in your bag," Alicia said, finishing her sentence in a whisper, making Siena understand that it probably didn't comply with the rules of not taking anything strictly necessary into the book worlds.
The old woman wrapped Siena in an embrace while James took her hand in his automatically. He wasn't going to let anyone take her away from him, not yet, not after what they had just been through. They needed time to understand and talk about it alone first.
Siena shook her head, attempting to smile at the woman, lacing her fingers through James' almost unconsciously in response to his touch. "I only opened the bag to put the book and the revolver in it, I didn't see any food. But we didn't need it, it didn't really feel so long. I'm just a little thirsty now," she said in a voice only meant for Alicia and James to hear, her throat feeling parched when she realised how long she had had nothing to drink or eat.
Albert was in front of them with two glasses of water even as she stopped talking, and they drained them before Christopher spoke. "Come, sit down, please, you must be tired, let us talk, we need to record everything. Alicia, please, find George and send him to me..."
James stepped closer to Siena and wrapped his arm around her waist when he noticed her dabbing at the new tears appearing in her eyes with her sleeve, before he spoke in a tone not leaving space for argument. "Call Jake, Alicia, please, we are going home now, we need to rest. We will come back tomorrow morning and tell you everything. We will also plan our new quest. This is the sixth day since we have arrived if I'm not wrong, which leaves us only a little more than a week before we must return to our lives. Seeing that the amount of time we spend within the books is unpredictable, the sooner we travel into the other world, the better."
Christopher looked disappointed, but he simply nodded, seeing James' unshakeable resolve to leave. "Are you all right?" He spoke to Siena, noticing only now how overwhelmed she looked, even as Alicia, who had vanished in search of the driver, returned.
Siena simply nodded in Christopher's direction in reply before she said goodbye to him and Albert and let James tug her out of the room in Alicia's wake.
"Rest well and eat something," Alicia said, hugging them both by the front door. "I'll see you tomorrow," she added before she opened the door and ushered them outside towards the dark car, waiting for them at the end of the path leading through the jungle-like garden.
Jake touched his hat in a silent greeting as he opened the door for Siena, then slid back into his seat while James followed her in through the same door. She gathered the skirts of her dress and made space for him next to her, leaning into him thankfully, feeling incredibly tired, when he wrapped his arm over her shoulders.
James caught Jake's questioning look in the rearview mirror and replied, "We are all right, and we will be better tomorrow. Just take us home, Jake, please."
Jake nodded, and no one spoke while he drove the car through the city's late morning traffic towards the flat.
"Thank you, Jake. Will you pick us up tomorrow morning, at eleven, please?" James asked before he exited the vehicle, helping Siena, who struggled with her voluminous dress within the confines of the backseat of the car.
"Of course, see you tomorrow, Siena, James," Jake replied with a smile just before James closed the door behind Siena, who finally stood on the cobbled pavement next to him.
"Come on, we need something to eat and then some sleep," James muttered, worried by the new tears he spotted in the corners of her eyes. He felt quite sad himself as he recalled their meeting with the little boy, a boy who, despite being spun from a writer's imagination, felt so incredibly real. He shook his head, giving up on trying to understand the mystery of it all and the feelings that visiting the fictional world caused them.
"I need a shower. Then I'll cook something, Albert said that we were gone for nearly forty-two hours, it must be almost lunchtime..." Siena muttered.
James smiled, squeezing her hand in his before letting go of her after she unlocked the house, and they entered.
"You take a shower, I'll cook in the meantime. Then we'll take the afternoon to rest and talk if you want."
"Thanks, James," Siena said.
She wrapped her arms around his waist once again the moment they entered the flat, for no other reason than because it felt good when his large hands travelled up and down her back soothingly in a surprised but immediate response. Letting go of him finally, she removed her sand-filled ballerinas and fled into her room in search of a clean set of clothes, missing those she had left in the Society's Headquarters.
Siena sighed, realising that she had also left her handbag and the phone they had given her as well as her own in her changing room. She didn't care about the phones; both her mum and her only close friend Alessandro knew that they shouldn't call her unless she called first. But she wished she had brought more clothes with her on this trip, she despaired, looking into the wardrobe where she had deposited the few pieces of clothing she had.
Thinking about clothes... She dipped her hand into the pocket of her coat, finding a crimson rose petal looking so fragile that she wondered how it could have survived the travel between the two worlds... It was a gift from the little boy, something he had left with her not to be forgotten. As if forgetting him was possible. Wiping a few just formed tears with the back of her hand, she took the copy of The Little Prince from the clutch bag that belonged to her costume and placed the petal gently among its pages.
James washed his hands and face quickly, leaving the bathroom to Siena, whom he met in its doorway.
"How about a tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches?" he proposed a meal he could put together while she washed.
"Perfect," she said, pushing into the bathroom past him, her body brushing against his.
James hoped that she wouldn't realise that he stopped in that doorway on purpose to get another occasion to feel her closeness. He was becoming addicted to her presence, to having her within reach. One more week, and then he wouldn't see her until Christmas... Feeling happy when she didn't complain against his quite obvious move, he pushed the gloomy thoughts concerning their imminent, long separation away. He walked towards the kitchen, heart soaring when he realised, upon hearing the water in the shower a while later, that she had left the door ajar, just like they kept their bedroom doors.
It took Siena a lifetime to get out of the tightly laced dress, but she didn't find the courage to ask James to help her. She could picture the feel of his long, warm fingers on her bare skin too vividly, craving it too much, and she didn't want him to know. She didn't understand herself anymore; he kept making her feel and imagine all sorts of things... things that no one else had made her desire before.
"Lunch is ready," he announced, scattering her thoughts, the moment she exited the bathroom, rosy-cheeked, wet-haired and swathed in a mist of jasmine and orange blossoms, wearing nothing but her long, kimono-style dressing gown.
"May I eat like this, won't you mind?" Siena asked, pulling at the pink sash holding the gown closed around her waist. She had meant to get dressed before lunch, but the mouth-watering aroma reaching her from the kitchen reminded her that she had eaten nothing in two days.
"Not at all. Let's eat before it gets cold," James said with a hitch in his voice she didn't notice.
She was gorgeous, he couldn't help seeing her as more than a colleague and a friend and wanting to precipitate them to the moment when it would finally happen, just as much as he wanted to respect her apparent decision of not breaking some imaginary wall she had built between them. The wall would crumble sooner or later; he could feel that she was as attracted to him as he was to her. They were like their two stones that shone and rejoiced when they were near-- he could see hers glowing from beneath the mint green silk of her dressing gown. But it would have to be Siena to push the wall down once she would be sure that she wanted them to happen as much as he did. He would wait.
They ate in silence filled with furtive glances they kept casting at each other, one smiling knowingly, and the other blushing when caught, until their plates were empty and James filled their glasses with wine.
"Thanks, James, it was delicious," Siena said, sipping her wine. "I'll do the dishes. Would you like a coffee?"
"Yes, please. But I'd like to take a shower first. The sand is getting on my nerves," he said, brushing off a few golden grains stuck to his sleeve.
Siena smiled at him. "I wonder whether... whether he arrived home by now."
She finished her line turning away from him, casting her eyes towards the window and the distant river which looked like a silvery-gray ribbon through the falling rain, in an attempt to hide the fresh couple of tears threatening to fall from her eyes. Siena didn't want James to make the wrong impression of her. She wasn't a tearful person, but she always cried for books, she couldn't help it.
"I'm sure he's just recounting his adventures to his Rose," James said, pretending not to see how emotional she still was, burying his hand into her damp hair for a short moment as he walked past her towards the bathroom.
Siena sighed deeply as he vanished behind the door, smiling when she noticed that he had left it ajar as she collected their plates.