--- *** ---
"Whoa, this accident panicked every ounce of my body!" Shortly after Cayden left the flower store, Judy muttered as she took one of the pots to inspect warily the golden marigolds as golden as her lion mane of old Hollywood silky aureate curls.
The truth was the accident which took its place in front of the flower store as Timothy punched Cayden, horrified his former lover by eavesdropping and surveying the interaction between the eerily leery client and Jude too.
Little did she know she was being eavesdropped and watched by nobody other than her former lover in the entire time outside, whose demeanor had drastically changed. Since she could ideally recall the sweet, affable and concerned gentleman, who got her out of the sinisterly dilapidating, old asylum.
Now, the father of their love child, Edward Ralph, was nothing more than a former priest with paranoid and obsessive thoughts of his former lover, plotting to be her boyfriend or even husband, despite they haven't been intimate for months.
The ginormously obnoxious jealousy, brewing and cooking inside him was like a venomous potion, inebriating his cells and antagonizing every man, who interacted or dared to speak face-to-face with his rare bird.
Once a representative of the opposite sex was communicating and showed signs of sympathy in the former Monsignor's eyes, nothing more than scorching ire and abhorrence were brewing and cooking inside him as emotions, verging to express them.
"Don't be so panicked, Judy! I assure you, everything will be fine and Cayden will be fine after the punch he got from Timothy. Probably he is right!" The Michiganite evoked out as she was sipping her mug of hot herbal tea as its liquid lingered on her tongue, gushing down and resuscitating her organs.
An optimistically soothing smile honed up in the corner of the young lady's lips after leaving the mug and patting faintly her friend and colleague's shoulder.
"This man has something suspicious behind his identity, even if he claims with his actions and behavior he is a sweet gentleman. Inviting ya on a first date and giving you a card with his phone number and the address."
"Oh, I swear to God if ya repeat once again Tim is the goddamn right and supporting his action for punching Cayden into his face," the former sister of the church heaved a jadedly dramatic sigh, flaring her lungs as its oxygen surged her breathing organs when Madeleine reminded her she was strongly supporting the British compatriot's action and his position, her sentence abided unfinished, in fact, the blonde cut her off curtly.
"I can't get no satisfaction, I can't get no girl reaction! 'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try! I can't get no, I can't get no! When I'm ridin' 'round the world and I'm doin' this and I'm signin' that! And I'm tryin' to make some girl, who tells me!"
"Judy, I am trying to protect and advise ya! If you got hurt especially in another toxic or abusive relationship, ya would realize too late I was absolutely right." The Michiganite's lip curled, when she haphazardly retaliated, attempting her best to advise and caution the middle-aged mother about the suspicious Italian and his intentions as the smile pottered off on her porcelain youthful complexion.
Friendliness and suasion were vomited in her utterance at the same time as her hazelish-brown cabochons blinked, squinting up the flower pot and the adroit slim fingers of the former sister of the church, idly turning the flower pot.
"To protect me? Ya sound like Timothy's clone or I can hear his voice but in a more feminine variant, convincing me to not or to do this." In the interim, the blonde shot a merely piercing as a cupid arrow glared at her daughter's figure, wedging her lips in a purse after finishing with surveying the aureate marigolds.
"I am not only trying to protect ya, but also he is the man who helped you to have this little precious angel, Edward Ralph. Don't you remember whose life you changed except yars?" Meantime, the former nun's lips popped up reluctantly, placing the flower pot with the marigolds between the crimson tulips and the mint. "Huh? Two men in one house isn't a piece of cake, Judy. They are yar God's blessings and be happy you haven't lost either of them yet. Cayden won't be part of yar life whether sooner or later. Just figure it out! Swallow it and let this piece of advice imprint in your mind."
"It depends on what Cayden will do so that to disappear in the thin air of my life. Timothy should realize I have my own life instead of being that obsessed nun, who was like a schoolgirl whenever he was near me."
"Well, by judging Cayden, I can't see anything promising yar safety, Judy! Anyway the first date with him will tell everything and weighing the scales between who is the right and who is the absolutely wrong." The juvenile blonde assured as she was fixing her messy bun with a couple of fingers.
"Baby, better come back maybe next week! Can't you see I'm on a losing streak? I can't get no, oh, no, no, no, hey, hey, hey! That's what I say, I can't get no, I can't get no! I can't get no satisfaction, no satisfaction! No satisfaction, no satisfaction! I can't get no!"
"What makes you think like that? Are ya judging him for something else than yar instincts are telling ya so?"
"Well, he mentioned that his parents are Italian immigrants as the Italian men don't seem reliable at all. I mean, they are well-known for being members or bosses of mafias, especially Italian ones. Doesn't it insinuating ya he might be part of these corrupted organizations? "
"You are full of shit, Maddie! I didn't mean to offend ya, but not every Italian is involved or has to do with the Italian mafia." A wryly hoarse chuckle zinged the former holy woman's rosy-coloured, soft as velvet lips as she wiped with the back of her hand the thick layer of perspiration, veiling her temple.
--- *** ---
--- A Couple of Hours or So ---
The hours flew like the flock of birds in the wee days of the spring, assaulting and overcrowding the pale sky as the middle-aged woman got back at home from the flower store. She was eager to see her baby son and spend time with him, even when her unbelievable hostility with Timothy was still unchanged yet.
Or rather Judy's stubbornness, incapable of ultimately trusting her former boss and sharing every fragment of her grim past, including her most licentious secrets.
When the rusty old key for the front door was put in the keyhole and twisted once the click of an unlocked door kept the former man of the cloth's wits about his once favorite nun's arrival. Feeding Edward with baby food and opting to wean him off being fed with his mother's breast and milk, which he has consumed for almost five months.
Despite both parents' attempts to aid their son to wean off from being breastfed, he was slightly young yet, and they gave him some time, even trying the impossible for now. Starting from now on.
"I am home!" The blonde cried out loud as she shut the front door behind her in an ordinary slam. Subsequently, she kicked off her boots and took off her coat, hanging it on the coat hanger whilst the sound of footsteps clicked against the kitchen flooring.
What struck the older woman at first was Timothy's subtle silence, numbing the interior as their sweet ray of sunshine was rocked securely loving into his father's strong, muscular arms. Giggling as the little boy was agitated to behold his mother after half a day's absence, in fact, she was at work.
The doldrum arched between both adults as Timothy walked away from the kitchen and cleaned the high seat's table, eyeing glassily with immense bitterness, deluging his chocolate brown abysses. They once glinted the warmest chocolate tinge, when he contemplated or glanced at their creation, admiring his ethereal, inescapable grace, inking his facial features.
The former woman of the cloth's lips curled in a heavenly blissful smile as if she was on cloud nine when her hazelish-brown pools were transfixed on Edward. He was the sole reason why she was on cloud nine unlike the man, who rescued her and granted her utter freedom.
The flimsy heartbeats accelerated rapidly along with the frequency and the megawatt strength, hammering them in her rib cage. The pulsation directly surged to her sensitive, petite ears.
"Good evening, Timothy and my lovely Edward! It has been centuries since I have seen ya, ya tiny pitch of sunshine!" In the meanwhile, Timothy handed her their baby son without looking into her caramel brown eyes as he was deeply disappointed. Even ginormously obnoxious jealous for spying on her and noting her having a conversation, which delighted both adults, even if it was awkward at first.
"Mama!" The young boy evoked euphorically as soon as he dangled his tiny fragile arms around his mother's neck, cooing merrily.
"I missed ya too, honey! Don't ya know how hardworking is yar Mommy and when she comes back home, you are like my medicament for my stress and negative thoughts." Meantime, the former devotional sister of the church pinched in a playful, mischievous manner her son's button nose as a giggle, quivering the corners of his wee mouth as the sharp exhale.
Blazing Timothy's brittle lungs the oxygen swiftly surged through his breathing organs. A grotesque, glaring frown distorted across his lips, casting a piercing, fueled with pigmenting zealously and unheeded.
Jealousy, factly, he couldn't forgive himself for now how his rara avis was interacting with a stranger man, and she acts as if nothing has happened after Timothy verged to break Cayden's nose. When she was back at home, she focused her utter attention on the baby son instead of her savior.
Unheeded, due to the fact, he was feeling like a third wheel in Judy and Edward's company and bearing a semblance of a lurking ghost in the two-story house.
"Good evening, Jude! But after you finish feeding our ray of sunshine, we shall talk a bit personally." The former man of the cloth's lip curled, he insisted tenaciously as allusions of sternness predominated as nuances in his insistence. His façade momentarily softened, finding the moment not the ideal one to discuss with his former lover the events that took place outside and inside the flower store earlier today.
--- *** ---
--- A Few Hours Later or So ---
When the former nun breastfed her favorite boy, thereafter, she bathed him, besides changing his diapers and comfy pajamas, laying him down to sleep in his crib. It was high time for her to crawl into bed since the weariness sedated her body muscles. Even highly affecting her heavier eyelids as she couldn't blame it. It was almost eleven o'clock.
Moreover, the former pious members of the church haven't had the serious conversation they were about to have when Edward was already taken care of. Before bedtime, the former sister of the church took a fresh hot shower.
Additionally, Jude wore to bed an oversized, convenient, scarcely worn shirt that once belonged to Timothy as it concealed the stretch marks, naturally inked on her lower and upper abdomen after laboring.
Her halo ringlet of silken aureate curls was ruffled on the pillow, framing ideally her pale as ghost, porcelain complexion, which was turned to her right, gradually clenching her eyelids shut. Suddenly, the door opened as the younger man was about to join her, howsoever, sleeping distanced from one another even if it is on the same bed.
In the interim, the Bostonian heaved a jaded, nonchalant sigh, opting to keep it cool outside, despite abrupt vexation and unholy revulsion that were brewing and cooking inside her, testing her patience. Whether she is ready to erupt them as a volcano since it won't solve anything even Timothy's unconditional jealousy.
"Judy, we shall talk as we mustn't break this promise from earlier tonight!"
A loath doldrum arched between adults as the British compatriot joined her in the bed, without violating her personal space, meeting her bland, apathetic look. Her eyelids were widely opened without promptly shutting them like blinds.
"What exactly concerns ya, Timothy? What do ya want to discuss right away?"
"I owe you an apology for earlier today when I punched that man and the humiliation. I didn't truly mean to do it, but he looks like trouble in my eyes." Seconds before the commencement of the British aristocrat's monologue, he exhaled sharply, earning his former lover's attention in no time as she was all ears attentively to listen to his intentions, without darting to peel a single word, in order to disrespect him. "I was impulsive and you tore my heart into a thousand pieces, Jude!"
Even if the heartbreak was on his very top feeling that was clung to what he felt whether currently or since the beginning of the day, the former saintly Monsignor couldn't help, but share his pain and heartache since he wanted to open a new chapter. A new chapter of his relationship with Jude and try his best to repair the things even focusing on fixing the metaphorical toxicity that oozed from their current relationship.
"Well, yar sorry for punching the man, who you even didn't give him a name? His name is Cayden. What is this kind of disrespect for the gentleman?"
The blonde started brabbling her former boss rhetorically, verging to bare her teeth a beast in a self-defensive mode, squinting her fagged caramel brown abysses at him as sharp as cupid arrows, aimed at the target and subsequently marking a bullseye.
"Anyway, ya are blaming yarself for the impulsivity which looked sincere at the moment when ya almost broke his nose."
"I am sorry, Jude! But I didn't have on my mind his name until you reminded me. It wasn't intentional this punch at all." In the meantime, the former priest took the middle-aged mother's creamy as satin, milky as snow hands into his larger, secure ones, although her protests, howsoever, it surprised him she wasn't powerful enough to escape from his hands. "Every person has impulses and whether he or she can't control them, sooner or later they regret what their initial instincts have told them so."
"It is true, but am I a nun you to repent for yar wrath since the wrath is considered a sin, Timothy?" The older lady hissed with her serpentine tongue as unreserved venom lingered on it, ready to envenom the imminent victim.
But what she relished more than Cayden's sweet-talking and his first date concept that froze her whirlpool of thoughts, incapable of thinking clearly, was Timothy's mammoth veiny hands grasping her petite, soft as velvet claws.
"There is a big difference between wrath and the impulses, brewing and cooking inside you and regretting them later." At the moment, the thumbs of his hands kneaded gently, lovingly the backs of her hands, in order to alleviate her when electrifying and paradoxical paroxysm contaminated her muscles and bones.
As if they were more sinful and longing than the sweet, sinful taste of the alcohol, lacing her tongue and searing the corners of her mouth.
"However, if you are about to date this guy named Cayden, you should better be careful what you wish for and most of all, if the chemistry between both of you proves that you're made for each other."
"Ya have bad feelings about him?" Meantime, the former aspiring, stubborn holy man bobbed his head, affirming her just posed rhetoric question whilst his strawberry-coloured luscious lips wedged in a purse. "Why, tho?" The middle-aged woman was seeking the answers she was looking for in a velvety murmur, jingling into his ears.
"He doesn't seem the gentleman he claims to be with his behavior and manners, Judy! I doubt you will be safe with him and you will have a decent future with him, at least." All of a sudden, Judy's face grimaced at his stern, emphatic caution about the Italian compatriot, furrowing elegantly her dark eyebrows, licking reluctantly her naturally roseate, well-defined lips without interrupting him.
Her heart sank when Timothy speculated predictions behind Judy and Cayden's arcane, unidentified relationship yet since the younger man could smell from miles that everything didn't seem alright and harmonized at first sight, especially in the blonde's case after finding and working one of her dream jobs with Madeleine.
"There is something suspicious, which he hides from you. I bet you will discover it," Meanwhile, she sighed dramatically halfhearted, due to the fact she was fed up with listening to his cautions about the Italian compatriot, causing her weariness to consume her as shadows of the past of a repenting soul. "No matter if it is now or right on your first date!"
"Ya know what, Timothy! Good night!" In the interval, the Bostonian turned to the other side, without turning her back until the morning after, biting her lip begrudgingly and pretending to sleep whilst he turned off the night lamps on both nightstands.
--- *** ---
--- The Next Day ---
--- 3rd of February, 1966 ---
The impending morning advanced as quickly as a blizzard. When both former members of the clergy had breakfast, they didn't peel a single word since Judy's bile had risen in her throat due to Timothy's delirious stubbornness and most of all, his counsel about the mysterious gentleman. Shortly after breakfast, the blonde went to work as her son was already fed, besides his diapers and daily garments were changed.
The initial hours at work were perfectly peaceful as both ladies were discussing their daily lives after work until the topic about Cayden and Timothy was raised, engraving an abundance of disagreements between both saleswomen, while the radio was still playing the recent music that just came on.
"I can't tell what's true so it's harder to lie! I haven't got the proof! My equations run dry! I'm in the in-between place, where the seam meets the cloth!"
"Well, what is yar problem for who I'm dating and why ya share the same opinion as Timothy's?" The middle-aged mother inquired, attempting to control her voice decibels, moderating it along with the rhythm and without pigmenting it with mild vexation. "Ya really think alike as if I am hearing Timothy and his female younger version telling me who could be behind the mask of Cayden."
At that moment, as she progressed with her monologue, blinking incessantly her brittle eyelids, squinted up at the young blonde's hazelish-brown pools, then, her colleague heaved a sharp exhale and clearing her throat seconds before it was her turn to peel a word.
"I just share the same point of view as Timothy. Don't ya remember what my opinion is on the Italians especially those gentlemen like Cayden?"
In the meantime, Jude nodded humbly, docilely nodded her head, affirming her words as she recalled ideally every word from yesterday.
"Good! Make sure to discover by yarself the hints of dubiousness on yar first date with Cayden! Study his manners and the environment where is going to take its place tomorrow tonight!" The Michiganian advised wisely as Judy furrowed her eyebrow as an aggravated teenager, whose parents incessantly tell her what she should do or not to do exactly.
"It is going to take its place at his home." The middle-aged woman assured, rubbing gently with her fingers her temple, making sure she was ultimately mediating when the pressure was escalating especially when discussing the stranger man.
"Even better!" Madeleine emitted a cold-blooded, sarcastic chuckle, tickling the corners of her mouth as her mentor raised an arch of her eyebrow elegantly, subtly. "I am absolutely sure his home or whatever is, wouldn't be a warm welcome for ya. Just inspect anything behind the doors of every room, whenever you have the chance or to excuse yarself for a while. Take yar time to realize what a monst-"
When the juvenile blonde verged to resume her caution as her lip curled, all of a sudden, her mentor cut her off curtly, consequently abiding her sentence unfinished, followed by a dramatic, dissatisfied and sardonic giggle.
"Do not ever call him a monster, Maddie! We don't even know what he might be through or what he has been through those years."
"But you don't even know what his little hobby might be expressed in or what he exactly calls art, in his opinion."
"Where the lily pad's face! Shines up out of the bog! I've still got my mind
My body, and my heart! I can still be unkind! I can still come apart!" The music still played in the background as the vocalist's eloquent chanting accentuated the lyrics.
"Look what, Maddie! I and Cayden have spoken on the phone the last night and this morning before work, but the fricking Timothy found out in the wee hours of the morning, telling me that I am late for work." The elder blonde mimicked the last part of her utterance, chewing her lip loathly.
"I totally get it and that is why ya were slightly late for work today!"
"Indeed! And Tim is incredibly annoying as if I am a fifteen-year-old teenager, and he is eventually the parent."
"It looks like he is down to earth and doing the best for you, even when you show a lack of gratitude for what he did for ya and most of all, trying to protect ya from Cayden!"
Madeleine emphasized the name of the bizarre gentleman at the end of the sentence as her fingers fidgeted, factly, the former woman of the cloth was getting on her nerves lately especially now.
"But I can tell ya something, Judy! Before that, I would like ya to listen to me."
"So, now what, Maddie?" The former woman of the cloth cleared her throat as she shot a swift glance at the door and window, making sure any customer was about to enter the flower store before the ice was broken utterly.
"I know I am much younger and these older hags underestimate the younger ones, in fact, they don't have any experience compared to them, however, Cayden will be gone sooner or later. He isn't as important as Timothy and Edward, because they are yar only family ya have now. For example, just imagine if ya don't have both of them. I mean, the family and that boyfriend of yars,"
The young lady paused, inhaling then exhaling abruptly.
"And ya need some help and advice, and this family is no longer taking any shit off ya, just because ya were neglecting them and raising on a pedestal your boyfriend as if he is the core of your existence."
Afterward, Jude's eyelids were shut as blinds, currently reflecting on what her protégé was lecturing her as if she was a wise veteran teacher, who has been through thousands of young, howsoever, reckless and lacking experienced students. The middle-aged mother swallowed hard as a solid lump formed in her throat.
"I'm in the in-between place, where the seam meets the cloth! Where the lily pad's face shines up out of the bog! Where the line in the sand is drawn with a stick!"
--- *** ---
--- The Next Day ---
--- 4th of February, 1966 ---
The day flew as quickly as a kite, allowing it to levitate in the lucid sky. Friday night came a far cry from sluggish. Sooner than the former holy woman's expectancies and her eager anticipation to be on the first date with the Italian gentleman, who invited her.
When Judy finished her shift at the flower store as she had less than an hour until the first date, she fed Edward and took a quick, refreshing shower to hydrate her epidermis and be laced in mint soap, lathering every inch of her flesh and the skin was as shiny as a shimmering star in the nocturnal sky.
Thereafter, she stepped out of the shower by dressing up her slender, nevertheless, yet curvy figure in a black cocktail dress with long satin sleeves and plunge neckline, exposing partly her bosom and collarbones' milky as vanilla flesh.
Its hem cascaded her round, perfectly shaped knees.
Throughout the remaining time until the first date, she put on some significant, brilliantly unique and simple jewelry such as onyx earrings, and an onyx ring on her finger.
Last but not least, her legs were layered in black, lacy stockings as its garnets were lacy and seductive altogether, whereas her petite feet were shooed in black knee-length boots as armor against the snow and glacial paths.
When she brushed her lion mane of glossy old Hollywood curls, piled up on her shoulders, the Bostonian applied ravishing red lipstick on her upper and bottom lips, subsequently wedging them in a purse until they popped up, allowing the pigment overspread and outlining it.
In the interim, the infant was spending time with his father in the living room as the former man of the cloth was maneuvering the car toy of his sweet ray of sunshine, their laughs and voices diffusing in the two-story mansion, reviving the ambiance and numbing the lethal silence.
Afterward, she sprayed perfume on her neck, wrists, and hair seconds before putting on her winter coat and grabbing her purse along with Cayden Gray's card, her I.D. card, money, and keys.
When the blonde made her own way downstairs, the frequent clicking of the classy stilettos earned both males' attention immediately as the former holy man assured his son he would be back within seconds, trying his best to not miss the chance to behold his former lover before her first date and her speculated disappearance.
"Judy!"
"Huh?" Once when the native Bostonian was checking her manipulated double reflection on the grand, round mirror in the corridor, making sure she was neat without missing a certain detail.
"Wishing you good luck on the first date and remember one thing!" In the interval, he planted an affectionate, platonic kiss on her forehead, to embolden her, meeting her hypnotizing as a seductress gaze, darted to him. "Be careful! I don't want to see you hurt ever again."
At this moment, the blonde heaved a jaded sigh as its oxygen surged through her igniting lungs, offering him a halfheartedly light smile, swinging across her lips.
"Everything is going to be fine, Timothy! I assure ya." She pawed his shoulder amiably, and confidently as she strolled to the front door. "Cayden isn't dangerous at all. Trust me!"
"As you say!" Timothy concluded the sentence as he was about to shut the front door as soon as she fled until she slammed the door and locked it up with a single click.
Furthermore, the former holy man superficially agreed with her to not resuscitate another bicker between one another just like every time they discuss the Italian compatriot.
"I know what exactly will happen."
He mumbled to himself very softly, sighing a sigh of relief.
"Come on, Edward! Let Daddy read you a story!"
Once both males were home alone with their own train of thoughts and prejudices as the clock in the hall was frequently ticking, walking back in the living room and seating on the carpeted flooring.
--- *** ---
--- A Half an Hour Later or So ---
Half an hour later the blonde was wandering the countryside's snowy and glacial Vermont streets, glimpsing at Cayden's card address and orientating his residence. Suddenly, she found a two-story cottage that didn't seem well-groomed, even dilapidating with the elapsing time, due to the fact it was a half a century old. The galore investment in repairing the cottage was necessitating more than thousands of dollars.
The walls' plaster was gradually, effortlessly peeling off the bricks' basics that absorb the walls. The door was wooden, old, however, with a couple of scraps, tracing the doorknob and every angle of it. The windows were dirty, sunk in dust with the elapsing time as they hadn't been kept clean and shiny as a new car's luminescence for years.
The heartbeats rapidly pulsated into her ears as they escalated their own pace, hammering in her fragile, contracted chest as she approached the demolished house.
Suddenly, the front door opened the Italian compatriot was garbed in a neat, dustless suit with a bloody red tie, taunting her honey-brown irises in the darkness. He held the front door for her, whereas his other colossal, veiny hand held behind his spine a bloody red rose, painted with his women victims' blood after storing it in a jar of their shed gore. The initial color of the rose was as white as a sheer angel.
"Hi, beautiful! You are slightly late." Cayden winked at her gamely, temptingly as a smugly cocky grin loomed on his tanned parchment complexion, welcoming her with peppering kisses on her cheeks as she melted in the kisses.
"Hi, Cayden! Yeah, my bad! I didn't mean to-" The older lady verged to resume her mid-sentence as her ravishing red lip curled until he handed her the bloody red rose with its alluring fragrance, trying to not admire his masculine, fancying perfume and the rose's fragrance in the same time.
"It is okay, Judy! Here is your rose for the lady, who deserves flowers."
"Why thank you?" She nuzzled the rose petals, inhaling the mesmerizing scent, toying her sensitive nostrils, closing her eyes for a split-second, whereas Cayden shut the front door and was discarding her paletot, offering her stretched arms. "But that is so kind and sweet of ya, Cayden! It wasn't yar obligation to surprise me with a flower."
The hallway of the two-story cottage was sufficiently expansive with an old coat hanger, dresser, and a square, partly broken glass mirror, hanging over the low dresser where are stored the shoes and slippers.
"Every lady deserves a flower when she is with a gentleman." A wicked, raspy chuckle echoed his oral caverns when they walked inside the kitchen and the former nun was warmly welcomed with the well-prepared dining table. It consisted such as a bottle of Italian red wine, glasses of poured scrumptiously insatiable red wine, pasta and green salad, awarding romantic vibes with the lit-up candles in the middle of the table.
"Oh whoa! It is so romantically adorned the kitchen table." Jude was in awe, gawking in wonderment at the kitchen table, when the host helped her to take a seat on the chair, consequently pushing her chair to the table. "It is awfully amazing! Ya did an incredible job, Cayden!"
"Always for ya, beautiful! Don't ya want to listen to some music, whilst drinking and eating, besides spilling the tea?" At that moment, Cayden was standing past the countertop, scratching self-consciously his grizzled scalp with his fingernails, greasing his head.
"No, no, thank you! I like it just like that." The blonde shook her head, waiting patiently for the gentleman to sit against her and conversate with each other on a deeper even personal level.
"As ya say, ma'am!" He mimicked in a teasing manner the last word, sitting promptly against her as they raised a toast. "Let's raise a toast for this promising first date." When the glasses collided featherly, both adults sipped their red wines and left aloof the glasses, spending the first minutes eating and shenanigans. "Well, it is such a pity your friend doesn't give you any flowers or something like that to please ya."
"We have a lot of flowerbeds in our yard. He doesn't need to spend any cash on any rose or anything else to satisfy me." A demurely sheepish smile distorted across her lips, playing absently with her fork and the pasta.
"Aww, you are so modest, Judy! Do not act like that schoolgirl, who is trying to be unavailable for me!" Meantime, both middle-aged adults couldn't suppress hoarsely cheerful snickers, leaving their lips as souls who had just dwelt out of the immobile corpses. The blonde momentarily ducked her head as muggy heat crept underneath her cheeks' facial skin, tinting them sanguinely.
"I just don't expect what I don't deserve. I just want sincerity and that is all."
"You got it! But if ya excuse me, are ya married?"
"No! Why?"
"Even better! I am unmarried yet either, Judy! Sweetheart, do you like the wine?"
Meanwhile, the middle-aged woman chuckled bashfully, nibbling on the silken skin of her painted crimson lip and staring at his abysmal, magnetic coffee-brown minerals, finding herself lost in his stare.
"It is good."
"You didn't seem to enjoy it at all. Why, tho?"
"I don't like drinking a lot, it's not just for me the alcohol."
"Ah, I see. It is alright, darling! You shouldn't abstain yourself from the pleasures of this short life." He took one of her petite smooth hands into his larger, surprisingly lukewarm hand as the epidermis was breezed with electrifying paroxysm, infecting her bones and muscles and even baffling her.
"I just told ya I am not in the drinking and most of all, it's a long story."
"Oh! Are ya playing it as a spy, pretty lady?" All of a sudden, she exhaled finally until the doping pasta and wine utterly commanded her body as unconsciousness consumed her, widening her eyes in the final seconds of her consciousness. "The wine and the pasta were as tasty as the grasp of your tiny hand into mine."
The blonde gasped bewildered, collapsing on the wooden planked flooring as he released the grip of her hand as an eerie snigger zinged his lips.
"I know what exactly I am going to do with ya."
In the meanwhile, he got from the kitchen table, took a kitchen knife and tore off her dress, exposing her half-naked torso with her wine-red bra, shielding her perky, sore breasts and small, round belly.
Throughout the handful of minutes, when the former sister of the church was no longer conscious and having any control over her body, he registered to lug her weightless body in a bridal lift up to the attic after towering the notoriously creaky stairs and shutting, even locking her up in a large sized cage. Besides the attic's door, the bloody red rose was put in a vase in the kitchen.
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♠ Do you think Madeleine and Timothy have benevolent intentions to protect Judy? ♠
♠ What are your candid thoughts on Cayden's arranged first date with Judy? Did you anticipate him to show his true colours immediately? ♠
♠ I am genuinely grateful for each vote, read and comment. Don't forget to support the book while perpetually riding the dynamic roller coaster ride! ♠