Slender fingers drummed the leather of the steering wheel as the car crossed another toll gate. The clock on the dashboard reads that it was a little over an hour since they left the farm and over four hours since either of them had anything to eat. It was early in the evening and the passenger was passed out, curled up and facing the window while wrapped in a thick blanket.
With a grumbling stomach, the car pulls up next to the closest gas station that had the most decent looking diner.
"Althea? Althea wake up." The driver coos gently, her hand hovering inches from the sleeping woman's shoulder. Jade had offered to drive after her companion began to complain of a headache, and after several minutes she finally got Althea to agree.
"Hey..." Jade whispered again, this time placing a hand on Althea's exposed arm. Her brows creased in worry as her hand pressed flush against the overheated skin.
A fever; worse than it was earlier.
The woman begins to grumble before turning to her, "Mmm.." she groaned and Jade could see the slight flush of Althea's skin from the heat.
"Althea, you're burning up."
"I'm fine. The air-conditioning is just too high."
"The car is turned off."
"Oh." Her dark brown eyes open slowly, like the moon peeking through the trees as the day turns into night. Jade couldn't help but be captivated by them and if she could, she'd live in those eyes.
If she could.
But she can't.
I can't... Her own voice echoes in the back of her mind, threatening to flash images of them in the barn.
"Where are we?" Althea asks, thankfully pulling Jade's attention back to the woman and away from that.
"A little less than an hour from the city. Vilma said to eat and drink medicine every four hours so I thought we'd stop over and grab something to eat. How are you feeling?"
Instead of answering, she watches as Althea grabs her hand before placing the palm against the smooth, albeit warm, skin of her neck. The contact caused an unfamiliar feeling to crash around inside her chest.
Want?
Desire?
Worry?
Whatever it was, it was gone as soon as she yanked her hand from Althea's grip. "Y-you're really warm. Let's... uh... Let's get some food in you." She stutters before abruptly stepping out of the car. She walks up to the the passenger side door and opens it, helping a weakened Althea out of the car and into the small diner.
As soon as they entered, Jade noticed the lone waitress that was sitting on the counter. The stranger's eyes were immediately on Althea, even turning to the side as they passed. Figuring that the woman probably wouldn't attack them, Jade chose to ignore her and instead proceeds to ordering.
Jade orders a sandwich for each of them and, with a little more urging from the heiress, an apple for Althea before settling into the booth at the back of the diner. Their food doesn't take long before being sent out and Jade watches as the tattooed blonde waitress approaches with a tray full of food.
"Good morning, ladies." She greets but Jade notices how the waitress' eyes were only on Althea.
Althea who's full attention was dedicated solely to Jade.
The waitress' shoulders slump slightly a split second before taking the plates from her tray and placing it on the table in front of us, "Grilled cheese?" As if moving with instinct, Jade took the plate from the waitress then placed it in front of Althea with a soft smile. "Eat. You need it."
The florist smiles too, meeting her gaze, "Thank you." and again she felt that ringing in her brain whenever Althea would look at her.
"Oh-kay." The waitress mutters, "I guess the clubhouse is yours?"
Jade tears her eyes away from Althea to acknowledge the waitress, seeing the nameplate on her chest, "Yes." she nods as the plate is placed in front of her.
With her failed attempt at flirting with Althea, the waitress simply huffed and crossed her arms in front of her, "Is there anything else?"
"No thank you, Patty." Jade answers politely.
"Alright, if you need anything..." Patty purrs then turns ever so slightly towards Althea, holding out a small sheet of tissue, "... just let me know."
The indecent proposal doesn't go unnoticed and it's then that the woman finally looks at the waitress, a small smile on her lips. Jade unconsciously clenches her jaw in preparation of what she might hear.
Althea closes her hand around Patty's, "Thank you but..." she pauses to push the tissue and the hand away, her eyes darting to Jade. "I'm not interested."
A warm blush threatens to creep up from her neck and in a desperate attempt to hide it, Jade cleared her throat and took a rather long sip of her water.
"Fine." Patty huffed before walking back to the bar. Jade categorized this as another thing she could only react to when she gets back home. She couldn't think right now. There was no solid thought whenever Althea was around, no logic, no reasoning.
Around Althea there was only emotion and she really couldn't let that dictate her actions; not again.
Even sick and weak, Althea could still crack a joke or say something silly that would make Jade smile. Since family was a topic that Jade didn't want to talk about, she settled for telling Althea about her travels; the places she's gone and the people that she had met.
With anyone else, telling stories of her travels always seemed like a task to Jade; mostly because the people that ask her would only do so out of formality or boredom and not honest interest. She could neither communicate nor duplicate the excitement she felt when telling stories to her Dada or even Sally, but with Althea... When it comes to her, it was like Jade was reliving the emotions as she tells her stories.
"Did you go to any of those weird festivals? Like that uh... that one with the tomatoes? I saw it on TV once."
"La Tomatina? No I didn't go to that but I did witness this kissing festival in Bali."
Althea's eyebrow arches high on her forehead and Jade could feel the giggle bubbling up her throat, "Kissing festival?"
"Yeah. It's called The omed-omedan, or the Kissing Ritual." Jade explains as she takes a small sip from the bottle of water she had just bought.
"What? They just make out?"
"Well... Yeah."
"Seriously?"
Jade nods, "It's a rite of passage that the young and unmarried residents go through on the first day of the Balinese New Year. It was so fun, I got to throw water at anyone getting too... frisky." She laughs and motions as if she was throwing an imaginary bucket of water at Althea. "Pffffff." Jade laughs boisterously at her attempt at replicating the sound of water. "it was amazing."
Althea laughs too but Jade saw some deep thought in the back of her eyes and she falls silent.
"What's one place that you really to go to but you haven't had the chance to yet?" Jade asks curiously as she took a sip from her drink.
"Nepal." was Althea's simple answer.
"Why?"
"The Tihar Festival."
"Oh! I've heard of that! It's like this week long festival, right?"
Althea nods before taking another bite from her sandwich, "the festival of lights."
"They celebrate and worship a different animal every day. The first day is called Kaag Tihar, basically the worship of crows or ravens. Their cawing symbolizes grief and sadness so the people offer food so the birds, sort of, absorb the bad luck from their homes. The second day is my favorite."
"Why?"
"It's called Kukur Tihar, they worship dogs. They believe dogs to be a messenger of a god, so they parade them, wrap them in garland and cover them in covered powder. Delicious treats included, of course." Althea says with a bright smile.
"I take it you're a dog person?" Jade asks with a similar smile on her lips.
"I love dogs, but I like all animals." She answers, "anyway, the rest of the festival worships cows, a mountain and son's. One day I'd like to go there. Maybe take Miggy or my Pa."
Jade tilts her head curiously, "Miggy?"
"My son." Althea nods.
She wasn't sure if she heard the answer correctly, "you have a..."
"A dog."
"Oh." The heiress chuckles and the two women pause their conversation to polish off the last of their sandwich, "Here." Jade mutters as she opens her purse and pulls out the small tablet. "Drink."
Althea wordlessly accepts the tablet but something in her eyes made Jade's insides squirm with anticipation. The short-haired woman popped the pill into her mouth and chased it down with a large gulp of water before muttering a quick thanks.
Jade leaves cash on the table and motions to leave but Althea's stops her by placing a hand on her arm, "Jade, wait."
Immediately, the heiresses heart picks up speed but she keeps her face as passive as possible, "Is everything okay?"
Their eyes burn into each other once again as the woman answered, "We need to talk about it."
"No we don't." Jade shook her head, "It was a mistake."
A defeated and hurt look passes Althea's eyes and Jade could only turn away, not liking how seeing that hurt on the woman's face made her feel.
"Let's go." She mutters softly before pulling her arm away and heading for the car, Althea following close behind her.
They remain silent during the remaining drive home, Althea only choosing to talk to ask Jade if they wanted to switch and Jade only speaking to ask Althea how her fever was. By the time they had gotten near the city, where cellular signal was available, Jade's phone begins to blare incessantly but she ignored it and only touched the phone to put it on silent.
"Home sweet home." Jade says half-heartedly as they pull up to the same coffee shop where they had met up earlier that day. Her companion answers her with a small smile and a nod before stepping out of the car.
Worried that Althea might be too weak to stand or walk because of her fever, Jade quickly takes the keys from the ignition and makes her way to the passenger side, "You shouldn't drive. It's not safe." she muses as she places her hands on Althea's arms to support her
"I'm a big girl, I can handle it."
"Yeah well, you won't have to; not on my watch. Come on." She gently helps Althea lean against the car, her hands never separating from the sick woman's body. "I'll drive you home."
"Jade, I can't let you do that. Besides, you should step away, wouldn't want you getting sick."
"I'll be fine. Besides, I can't let you fall--" "Babe?"
The male voice calling out to her makes Jade's body stiffen and her blood to drain from her face , she turns to see David approaching them. "David? What are you doing here?" she asks, yanking her arms away from Althea like the woman had the plague.
"I've been trying to call you all day." The man says as he reaches the two, "Why haven't you texted me?"
I forgot. Was the first thing that entered Jade's mind but she answered with, "I was driving. Sorry."
"Driving? This thing?" David asks, motioning to the old model CRV.
Jade immediately felt Althea tense beside her, obviously insulted by the tone of his voice, "Yes." She answers quickly before stepping between Althea and her boyfriend. "Althea got sick so I volunteered."
"Althea?" He echoes and Jade immediately found that she didn't like the way that David said her name.
"Yeah." She says before stepping aside and motioning to the woman behind her, "David this is Althea, Pearl's florist. Althea, meet David."
The two shake hands with a courteous smile, "Jade's boyfriend." he added before pulling away.
"Nice to meet you." Althea answers with a tight smile before snatching her keys from her hand. "I should go. It's getting late."
Something about her reaction doesn't sit right with the heiress but not wanting to cause any more awkwardness between her and her future sister-in-law's florist, Jade let's it pass and nods. "Okay. I'll be telling Pearl about today-- about the farm." She quickly corrects herself, "I'll tell her about the farm."
"Thank you." The florist replies simply without looking at Jade as she got into her car and drove off.
She's vaguely aware of David's body pressed up against her right side and his thick muscular arm wrapped around her shoulders. Jade sought comfort it in, tried to find that security that she always lacked in David's arms but there was nothing.
It wasn't there.
Just like it had always been.
"Let's go home." Jade muttered as she stepped out of his grasp, hoping he wouldn't the see the changes she could feel boiling inside her heart, threatening to boil over.
"Jade? You've been really quiet, what are you thinking about?"
The woman turned to her side, facing the woman who was laying beside her on top of soft blades of grass. Jade sits up and sees the vast field they were in, big as a football field and not one square foot without colorful flowers dotting the lush green surface.
"Jade?" Althea's voice was soft and smooth, like honey dripping down the side of jar.
She turn to the woman with a warm smile, warmer than even the heiress was used to seeing on her own lips. "I'm okay, love. Just thinking."
"About what?"
"I can't tell you."
"Why not?"
"I can't..."
The words echoed again and again until it had overwhelmed any other sound. Suddenly, the scene shifts and it was like Jade was a timelapse video. They were back in the barn, rain and thunder outside, their faces mere inches apart.
"I can't..."
After a moment, Althea slowly pulls away from her; her gaze and hands dropping to the space between them where the tiger lily lay between them.
"I'm so sorry." Althea cleared her throat, "I don't know what came over me."
Jade lifts her hand to cup the woman's cheek, "I don't know what's going on with me either, Althea."
"What do you--"
Jade doesn't let Althea finish, before she could even think about it, Jade crashes their lips together. It wasn't tentative, passive or careful like the kisses she had shared with David.
No. It was far from that.
Their kiss was familiar, intense but gentle; like they have spent a lifetime as lovers. Like they were simply reacquainting themselves with each other. Their lips melded and moved together so perfectly, so seamlessly that it drove any thought out of Jade's mind. All she could register was the way her heart swelled in her chest and the fireworks that exploded in her chest followed by the slow dripping of hot, warm lava through her every vein as Althea's lips moved with her own.
Where David was constant, familiar and safe; like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a cold November night. It would keep her warm for a while but ultimately it's going to pass through her system and then she'll go back to being cold and craving the heat the David just couldn't give.
This connection with Althea was fiery, intense, and overwhelming. Althea was heat and passion, she was fire and light and dangerous. Someone that made Jade feel so much, so strongly that she couldn't even control her own desire. Someone with the ability to turn her life on it's head.
Fear crept into her heart and she pulled away from the kiss, both women's lips swollen and cheeks flush from the contact.
"What am I doing?" Jade whispered into the small space between them.
She feels Althea's hands against her cheeks, "Jade..."
"Oh God... What have I done?"
"Jade, it's okay. You did nothing wrong."
"This..." Her voice shook and was filled with fear, "This is wrong. So wrong."
Jade stands and stumbles away from Althea just as a loud crack of thunder pierced the charged sky. The sound makes Althea stiffen and Jade takes that as an opportunity to run, to get away from what she had done, to escape the indescribable feeling in her chest.
She ran as fast as she could through the heavy rain towards the farmhouse, ignoring Althea as the woman tried to call her back. "Jade! Jade!" she had called after her and then her voice started to morph.
"Jade? Wake up. Jade?"
Deep brown eyes fly open and she finds herself back on her bed, looking up at her nanny. "Jade, honey. Are you okay? You're crying."
It was then that she noticed the cool moisture that had steamed down the side of her face and pooled in her ears.
She had cried in her sleep.
"I'm-- I'm okay." Jade answers quietly.
Her nanny brushes a few strands of hair away from Jade's face, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure."
"Okay." the older woman shrugs, "you should get dressed, Pearl wants to take you with her to meet the wedding coordinator."
A lump instantly forms in her throat and she had to remind herself that the coordinator wasn't Althea. "Yeah, okay."
"Okay. I'll have your breakfast shake ready downstairs." The nanny says before making her way out of the room.
Jade sits up slowly from her bed, feeling unhinged as she recalled the events that happened a few days ago. She had cried in her sleep; but what exactly she was crying for wasn't clear.
She wasn't sad. She wasn't depressed.
In fact, she felt like she was free for those few moments with Althea; right before fear took over.
Jade rolled off her bed and stood in front of the large full sized mirror, running a hand through her hair then pressing her fingers against her lips just like she had done the morning after her trip; like she would find some physical mark there of the kiss but of course there wasn't.
There was just the intense and rapid beating of her heart every time she remembered that the kiss wasn't a dream... but a memory.
A few hours later, Jade found herself in a quaint little cafe near the hospital where Pearl worked. She had just finished telling Pearl and Batchi how things went at the farm and gushed more about how beautiful the flowers were.
"That flower farm sounds incredible, I'm sort of jealous now." Pearl muses as she sipped on her wine.
"Yes, the farm was originally started by Althea's father but now she's handling most of it."
"But she also has another job right? She's a teacher at Xuexiao, correct?" Jade asks.
Batchi nods in response, "Yeah, she teaches but the farm was late mother's idea and her father's passion, so she makes sure that every flower is cared for in the best possible way."
"Well, I've hear all I needed to hear. This woman is my step-daughter's teacher and she sounds like a decent woman, I'd love for her to be the florist for my wedding."
"That's great! I'll let her know!"
Pearl shakes her head softly, "She's Sam's teacher, right? We can all go to the school. Gabriel asked me to pick Sam up anyway."
Jade found herself excited with the idea of seeing Althea against but knowing how wrong it was to feel this way, she quickly extinguishes it.
"She's not at school today." Batchi says with a tight smile, "she got sick and has been in bed all day."
The information causes Jade's chest to itch with worry and, as discreetly as she could, she scratched at her collarbone, "Y-yeah she was a little sick last night. How is she doing?"
"Fever's gone down but she's just the type of person that gets really weak when she gets sick." That causes the knot of worry to tighten in her chest.
"That's unfortunate." Pearl says with a pout before standing from her seat.
"Don't worry, I'll let her know."
"Alright. Well, I guess we should be off. I still have to pick Sam up from school."
Jade stands too, her eyes darting to her phone that had just rang a notification. "Me too. David wants to meet for an early dinner. It's nice to meet you, Batchi." She says before the three women all headed out of the cafe.
Jade is sat across from David as her boyfriend droned on about his latest meeting with her Dada and Angkong, they had finalized the negotiations with a commercial center for the John L Tanchingco group to take over a large portion of shares. They're dinner date looking more like a meeting than anything romantic with business being to be the only thing they could talk about about.
Her mind absently drifts to Althea and what condition the woman might be in. Batchi had said that the fever had gone down but Jade just couldn't help but worry. What if it was worse than Althea made it seem?
Althea did seem different when they had parted ways the other night.
"Oh hey look. It's your friend, Aleana was it?" David mused, pulling Jade's attention back to him.
The woman turns to where he was pointing and sees Althea.
Her voice is caught in her throat as she watches the short haired woman enter with another woman walking beside her. She was one of the women that Althea had been with at the bar and Jade could feel jealousy digging into her chest, like a snake wrapping around her heart.
"Oh wow, who knew someone that hot could be a lesbian, huh?"