Song of the chapter: Two heads by Coleman Hell
"Get in Lover Boy, we're going foraging" were Zara's greeting words as she flung open the passenger side door of her decrepit, old Toyota. I think I saw a swoosh of dust as the door rattled open and a squeak that made me think the car was not only alive, but also in unfathomable agony.
I shuddered. "What is that thing?" Way to hide your disgust David.
"This," she said with a wide smile, "is Magenta. I bought her for $300 when I was 16 and she has been there for me ever since. She's a senior so be respectful you prick."
I got into the car gingerly. The interior did not match the exterior. The exterior was rusted; it had dents in it and a lot of scratches. It was a small, red sedan, probably from the 60's, and you could hear it from a mile away. It looked like the kind of car that no matter how many times you took it to the car wash and spent hours scrubbing it clean it always ended up looking very dirty five minutes later. The interior however was very clean and organized. It had a subtle scent of bergamot that reminded me of a freshly brewed cup of Earl Grey tea. I closed my eyes and let my nose seek out were the beautiful scent was coming from and until I felt a hard swat on my arm.
"Oh hell no! You are seriously not sniffing me right now!" Zara Shrieked.
Fuck. My. Life.
I shrank back into my seat and tried to pretend like my face wasn't so red that you slice it up, add some cucumber and feta, and call it a Greek salad.
Luckily Zara was a good sport and opted to just laugh at me instead of ending the date. I promised myself I would not do anymore air sniffing because I was not a dog. I was a human.
The car rattled and thumped and buzzed all the way to the park. I was surprised we even made it there and the car didn't just stop midway through traffic.
"So...what's the deal with err..." What was the damn of the damn car again?
"Magenta." Zara offered.
"Right. Magenta."
Zara rolled her eyes. "Like I said, I bought her when I was sixteen. I babysat some little twats for two years, saved all the money I made and bought Magenta with it. She's my baby; I'm sticking by her side until she passes away."
I raised a brow. "You know that it's a car and not a person right?"
She scoffed. "Manners David, manners. Magenta's your ride home, don't forget."
I was beginning to regret agreeing to let her pick me up from my condo.
When we arrived at the park she reached into the backseat and produced 2 green buckets the side of ice-cream pales. She handed me one and got out of the car, slamming the door so hard I wondered how "Magenta" had survived in her care for so long.
"So, we are going to collect some Choke cherries, maybe even some wild cranberries, and then we'll use them to make choke cherry jam for the homeless shelter later on."
I missed a good chunk of what she'd said because I was too busy noting how her dark brown eyes looked golden in the sunlight. And also how incredibly perky her breasts looked in her little corduroy jumper and fitted blue belly top. I was positive there was a name for shirts like that, but I was too focused on where the shirt ended to think of it.
We walked around for a bit, occasionally finding a tree with berries that were to Zara's standards and picking all the good ones. It was peaceful and I didn't mind the silence at all. It was strange how comfortable I was being silent around her. I never felt like I had to say something for the sake of talking. I could just simply be with her and that was enough.
We eventually wandered into a small meadow in the park with fragrant wild flowers and a towering elm tree. Zara sat her bucket on the hearth and lay down on her back, raising her chin up to the clouds. I decided to lie beside her and do the same.
"I had a dream about you last night." She said evasively.
"Was I good?"
She groaned. "Hopeless. It was nothing like that."
"So I wasn't good?" I gasped, feigning hurt.
"Ugh. Be serious." It seemed like that was becoming a popular phrase in regards to me.
I chuckled and tilted my head so that I could see her more clearly. "Alright alright, what was it about?"
She propped herself on her elbow, resting her free hand on my chest and looked at me earnestly. "I had a dream that we found underwear so small even your dick found it too tight."
"Zara!"
She was already up and running away. I shot up on my feet and chased after her, grabbing her by the waist. Our momentum was strong and we ended up crashing against each other and falling on the grass. I was on top of her and her breathing was erratic.
Her chest was rising and falling against mine. I felt like I was swimming. Her breath smelled like bergamot and grapefruit; I was swimming in citrus. And then I looked into her eyes and I was swimming in honey brown and gold flecks and dark brown splashes. And then we were rolling and rolling until our bodies hit the trunk of a tree.
"Ouch!" She gasped, but she was laughing and I was laughing, and it felt good to just laugh for no damn reason at all.
*******
Choke cherry jam was God's punishment to humanity. I could not understand for the life of me how Zara liked that crap. She had it smeared all over her baguette while I had surrendered mine to the ants. Did she hate homeless people? Why would she want us to make this poisonous substance to feed to the less fortunate?
There was a nice warm breeze where we had our picnic set up and Zara had decided to undo the hooks of her jumper, letting the flaps fall loosely at her waste. She looked sexy in corduroy. I wondered at how it would feel to run my fingers over the fabric and feel the mould of her body underneath.
"You pack a good picnic," She said, smacking her lips after devouring the entire container of strawberries.
I smiled. "Thanks. I got the instructions from Artur."
She chuckled. "Of course. You two are joined at the hip."
"Of course, I've known him since the day I was born. He was 5 months old and his mom had brought him down to see my mom and I while we were still at the hospital. We grew up together; he's my brother."
"Your parents are close?" She asked, reclining against my shoulder. I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her close.
"Yeah, our mothers are best friends. Our dads aren't as close, but they're friendly enough. It's so annoying because I tell Artur just about everything, he tells his mother just about everything, who then tells my mother just about everything. So I can't hide anything from her. The only thing he's successfully kept his trap shut about is that I'm seeing you."
She leaned her head back so that she could look at me. Her eyebrows were raised. "Why would you need to hide that?"
"She's not very fond of the idea of me dating one of her colleagues." I explained.
Zara smiled her usual teasing her. "Of course, she told me as much."
I was surprised; I hadn't expected they would talk about this.
"Well, of course we had to talk about it. I asked her if it would bother her if I started seeing her son and if it would interfere with our professional relationship. She said quote on quote 'when you realize that Davie can be a bit of an idiot, please remember that I only produced half of his DNA. The idiocy comes from his father'". She explained, trying with futility to cover her snicker.
I had to chuckle, that did sound exactly like my mom. Her and Ana always told my father and I that the only reason Reimer men were still alive was because the Reimer women were constantly making sure they didn't do anything terminal. It also explained why she had been relatively quiet about my slow progress in the production of grandchildren; she already knew.
The woman was slick, I had to begrudgingly give her credit.
"Are you very close with your family?" Zara asked.
"Yeah. My dad and I are very close, we give each other a shoulder to lean on when dealing with my mom's insanity. And my mom and I argue a lot but we also watch the bachelor together ever night. Artur's a part of our family as well. I mean, it's like we are one, very big family. Artur's mom is allowed to discipline me just as my mom is allowed to discipline Artur. We all talk a lot and my father, Artur, Artur's dad and I go fishing almost every weekend during the summer."
"I wish I had that," She said softly. It doesn't sound jealous or resentful, but somehow it made me feel sad for her. "My dad and I aren't very close. He likes my older brother. My brother's a mechanical Engineer, but he didn't graduate top of class from MIT. He wasn't offered a scholarship from Cal-tech. They hate that. Because he's the boy he's supposed to be the smart one, the most successful one, the one who makes the most money. He's been a mechanical engineer for five years, I just graduated this spring and I make more money than him. They hate that. So he moved up north, got a job with one of the diamond mining companies and now he makes more money than me again."
I was incredulous, why was something that they should have been proud of such a big issue? Did her brother and father both have a micro penis or small man syndrome? "So they hate that you have an education?"
"No," she said solemnly. "I was always supposed to be educated and have a good job. Maybe become a nurse or a pediatrician or something that could be seen as domestic in their eyes. But I wasn't supposed to be what I am. I was supposed to me smart and successful, but not more so than the men in my family."
"I'm sorry." I said.
"Don't apologize, I don't like when people apologize for things like that. It is what it is, I don't cry about it at night anymore." She cast her eyes down, creating a shadow over her cheekbones with her eyelashes.
"Don't cry about it ever."
"You're so strange David." She said airily.
"Why?" I asked.
"I'm not particularly nice to you but you still pursue me and you seem to genuinely care." She explained.
I took her hands in mine, relishing in their softness. "You're a mean girl, and I think I like you a lot more than I should," I teased. "But I can't help it, I feel consumed by you. You're the most captivating person I've ever met."
She smiled. I lifted her up and repositioned her so that she was straddling me with her back against the tree. Her heart was hammering; I could feel the vibrations on my chest. My heart was beating ferociously. I ran my fingers down her arm, it was soft and smooth like silk. Her skin felt delicate beneath my touch and it evoked a sense of yearning within me. I yearned to feel her lips on mine, to melt into her and fit her into the side of my body. For months I'd stayed up late at night thinking of her, thinking of what it would feel like to have her this close and here she was, looking at me through her almond shaped eyes.
I traced the hollow of her collarbone with my thumb, nestling my face in the crook of her neck and breathing in her fragrant skin. We sat that way for a while, with her arms wrapped around me and my senses overpowered by her scent.
I'm not sure how long we sat there; maybe it was half an hour or maybe it was a couple hours. The sun was beginning to set. I could tell because at that moment rays of gold and red painted Zara's face in a way that made her absolutely mesmerizing. She was bewitching.
"Can I kiss you?" I asked. Could she hear the nervousness in my voice?
"Yes." She whispered. Her voice was raspy and seductive yet nervous and shy all the same.
And then I was kissing her, moulding my lips to the shape of her cursive mouth. Her breath was sweet and lingered at the back of my throat. Her hands lingered on my shoulder, tentative and shy. She was nervous and I was enamored. So I pulled her closer, showed her that it was okay to hold me the way I held her. Her hands grasped my shoulders, and then they were in my hair, at the back of my neck, and then pressed firmly against the back of my head. Gone was the shy prelude of our kiss; it was ardent now. Our mouths moved against each other so fluidly that I finally understood what it meant to form one soul with two bodies. I could have sat there for the rest of my life kissing her, but alas the sun had set and the sky was twilight. Our breathing was heavy and jagged when we pulled apart. She laid her head on my chest, synchronizing her breathing to my heartbeat until both were calm.
"I don't want to go home," she said.
"We don't have to." There was more bliss here than any place I'd ever called home.
A/N ~~I turn to you, you're all I see, our love's a monster with two heads and one heartbeat~~
Please comment and vote, it let's me know someone out there is reading this which encourages me to write more! Although, in the last few weeks I moved and had 3 midterms all while working full time which is the reason for the long wait for the update. Next chapter will be posted either Sunday evening or Monday morning if all goes well :) Also, what are your thoughts on David's softer, less vulgar(ish) side?
Much love,
Mercy