Roadkill

Chapter 9- Future

She propped me up on a chair and immediately began making light work of the wounds with the first aid kit from her car. She disinfected them first, each cut and bruise stinging like a thousand little needles, then very quickly dabbed at them with some white substance on a cotton pad.

“I’ll need to stitch the worst ones shut and wrap them in gauze. Is that okay? I put on some numbing cream around your injuries, so you won’t feel the pain as much, at least not till much later.”

I nodded shakily. I had never gotten stitches before, never needed to.

It took nearly an hour for her to finish them all. By the time she had finished them and bandaged them up, it was nearly 1 am. She looked tired, her hands were smeared with blood, but her face was set and determined. She had done her best and fixed me up as best as she could, now it was up to my damn wolf to start the healing process.

I’d started to calm down, maybe it was from the numbing cream or the painkillers she made me take. I breathed out a sigh of relief and I took her hand in mine wordlessly. I hadn’t yet gathered the words to say to her.

“You think, if all this is over, and you heal, I could take you up on your offer and let you join my dance class. Maybe teach you a few dance moves?” she said. I laughed out of surprise. She usually didn’t make jokes, especially like that, but she was offering comfort, and I was more than willing to take it.

“Yes. By all means, I could join your kid's class and - practice at the back maybe?”

She laughed at that too, eyes crinkling at the corners, her head lifted, bright white smiling teeth.

“I’m sorry, I just can’t imagine you in a tutu and leotards like the rest of the girls.”

“Okay then, I won’t go with the rest of the girls. We have a private dance lesson, you and me.” I responded, squeezing her hand tighter.

I watched as her eyes glazed over and she swallowed. I moved my face closer to hers, looking into her eyes.

“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on, Diane.” I traced my fingers from her temple to her cheek and down to her chin. Her gaze fell on my lips. I leaned forward, waiting for her to trust me enough to bridge the gap, and she did. God made it feel perfect, like I was finally complete.

One thing led to another, and we’d become tangled up under the bedsheets, and we made sweet passionate love through the night. Come morning, she was still there, breathing steadily beside me, her head on my chest and my fingers in her hair. I was half waiting for her to disappear, this stranger, into thin air. Maybe the events that unfolded yesterday were a drunk daydream or in my imagination, but she stood, solid and perfectly still.

Where exactly this would lead, I didn’t know. What I did know was that I’d found something good, and I wasn’t going to let it go.