8. Invitation
1005 Words
Winter was fast approaching and the cold was starting to sink its clutches on us. I had never seen snow and was curious. Mary, on the other hand, kept telling me I would have my fill of snow, and then some more.
Alexander was true to his word. He didn’t push me more that he felt I could give, but he made sure I knew he was there. To such a big man having such gentle manners, so much care spoke volumes of him and his education. I found myself thinking more and more in him, craving his touch but at the same time I was afraid. Afraid that my past would come around a corner and bite me when I least expected it to. Alexander, however, seemed oblivious to this. He would come daily to the diner, a joke and a wink always at hand, a smile that would fill me of butterflies and kept my head way up in the clouds.
I hadn’t planned in staying in Paradise Mountains for more than a week, but I was rooting myself in there. Already a month had passed and I was feeling more peaceful than ever.
The nights, however, were still a bit messy. Nightmares would still prevent from sleeping, so instead of turning and tossing, I decided to do something useful with my time and started to come down earlier to the kitchen and started baking. A few pastries entered the menu and Mary’s business was blooming. I was tired, I had bags under my eyes but I was happy. The lost girl whose car had broken down on the road to Paradise Mountains was building up enough confidence and coming out of her shell.
Alexander would spend every day off with me. We did a couple more picnics but the weather started to change, so we hang around town instead. By that time, the entire town knew we had something, although probably a lot less than we really had.
We never did more than kissing, although in the last few kisses he started to become more adventurous. We would make out and I could feel his hands travelled down my body, but he never pushed to do things I wasn’t prepared for.
Once he invited me to have lunch at his house. The thought of the two of us alone in his house made me shiver both from delight as well as a residue of fear. Not of himself, heavens no!, but of the questions he would make. Because I could see them lurking in those blue irises, and I wasn’t prepared for them.
It turned out Herbie was there and the lunch was relaxed and full of laughter. Slowly, ever so slowly, I trusted enough in himself to allow him to further. Now his hands had permission to travel within my shirt and I could sense how he desired me even through layers and layers of clothes. However, we had yet to go all the way.
So, when he told me he would have a gathering at his house the week after this one, I assumed it was another lunch with Herbie.
"Some of my pals from the Army will be here"
I froze on my tracks. Pals from where?
"You already know I was in the Army."
"Yeah, but you never told me why you left."
"I wasn’t around when gran died. Gramps was seriously on the downhill, she was his companion from a lifetime and I feared he wouldn’t come around. I couldn’t be here for her, but I could be here for him. So, I left the Army and applied to Marshall’s office."
"Don’t you miss it?"
"Life in the Army? Sometimes… this is just too quiet for me. But it was my choice and I don’t regret it."
By then I already knew he had been overseas a couple of time, but when time came he left. He still had friends there, in the active duty, but he seemed happy watching in the side lines. There was so much he could have done with his life, both in and out of the Army, I thought… his love for his family had brought him home, although I was fairly certain Herbie would tear him a new one if he knew he had such an important role in his grandson’s decision. And here he was… in the middle of nowhere… with me.
"I’m content with my professional life."
His emphasizing the professional part didn’t go over me, I understood a trap when a listened to one. Even so, I had to ask:
"And personally?"
"Let’s just say that I’m yet to catch a beautiful brunette with hazelnut eyes in my net."
His answer was accompanied by a smile and a slight touch of lips. His eyes darken with desire and my own breath caught up in my throat. He was cautious. He always was. He never stepped in the imaginary boundaries he had lined but we were dangerously near them. And for the first time in my life I wasn’t afraid. I wanted him. If there was pain, then so be it, but I wanted him and somehow I knew he would be different from Thomas. He held back because of me, waiting for me, and I could only be grateful. I was ready for the next step... wasn't I?
Too soon he pulled himself from the kiss, leaving me panting. A small smile creased all the way up to his eyes while he continued:
"But the guys from my former team will be here and I’d like you to know them, if that’s okay with you."
"How long will they be staying?"
"Only for a day, they have to return to base pretty soon."
"They’re all still in activate duty, I take it?"
"Yeah, I’m the only one that left the team. So…?"
"I guess it’s a date."
I answered shyly but his smile and his kiss swept of my feet.
- Writer
