The Christmas Quilts

by Olivia Gaines

  His wish came with no luck. Cody entered the hotel room, hoping Bisa would still be sleeping, but she was up, milling around in the kitchen in a nightgown. The kind of soft cotton gown worn on a woman in a nursing home would have been appropriate. On Bisa, it was provocative. Especially with the sun shining through the window, backlighting all of her feminine glory.

  Cody lowered his head in silent prayer, waving at her trying to get to the bathroom.

  “Good morning to you as well. I hope you enjoyed your run,” she told him. “I made you coffee.”

  “Thanks, I will get it after my shower,” he mumbled, trying not to make eye contact with her.

  “Wait, Cody. This is not like you,” she said, walking closer to him, the imprints of her loveliness clinging to the fabric as she moved. She reached out to touch his arm, making Cody skirt sideways avoiding her touch.

  “Bisa, please don’t touch me right now,” he said, moving out of her reach again as she tried to touch him.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No. I just ran three miles in 90 degree humidity in a mountainous region. My endorphins are off the chain and I am an exposed nerve. Touching me right now would not be a good idea. So please, I’m begging you, give me a moment to shower and I will join you in a second,” he told her.

  It was stupid, but she couldn’t help herself. As he passed her, covered in sweat and filled with emotions, her fingers grazed him across his midsection, her nails raking the soft, damp fabric. A low growl emitted from Cody’s throat as the desire to have her overtook him.

  Bisa didn’t have time to react as he lifted her in his arms, his mouth claiming her lips lips, slanting over them several times as his tongue dueled with hers. She clung to him as he wrapped her legs around his waist, carrying her to the bedroom and falling in a heap of tangled legs and arms onto the mattress.

  “You feel so good under me,” he muttered into the side of her neck as he moved against her.

  She was lost in the passion of the moment, drowning in the desire to give herself to him. Her nails raked at his back as she kissed him hard, fevered in her need to connect on a deeper level with him. Bisa kissed Cody with abandon.

  “Not like this,” he whispered. “Tell me to stop, Bisa, and I will.”

  The words seared her ears as her body reacted to his touch. His hands on her thighs pushed them upwards to accommodate his body. In her head, she wanted to contue; in her heart, she knew it was too soon.

  “Tell me to stop, Bisa. Tell me I need to wait for you,” Cody said, struggling with his running shorts.

  In a minute, it would be too late. His mouth was on her neck. Cody’s body was demanding her participation. Her body, hungry for attention, was following his lead.

  “Not like this,” she whispered, clinging to him, moving against him, wanting what he promised. “Cody, I need you to wait for me. Please stop.”

  His body went limp, collapsing on top of her. Frustrated. Starving for the connection, he pushed his body upwards, sitting on the side of the bed. He looked back at her, the thin gown up around her waist, the girl curls damp with her anticipation of receiving him. Swearing under his breath, he stood up, pulling off his wet shirt.

  “Please, just don’t make me wait too long,” he said, walking away.

  Chapter Fourteen – Trimming the Edges

  The tension in the room was tighter than panties on a big girl as Bisa, fully dressed waited for him to join her in the living room. Her lips still tingling from his kisses, her body tense as spark in a room full of gasoline. Waiting for their first encounter with lovemaking was the right thing to do, but right now she felt full of regrets. Her body told her she was stupid since it had been nearly six months since she and Antoine had been intimate.

  Who am I kidding?

  There is no intimacy with Antoine.

  Kicking it with him would have been the equivalent of what she and Cody almost did; two people flexing a muscle. She wanted more and deserved more. The beautiful thing about the whole weirdness which was going to ensue was that Cody was right. I needed to make him wait for me. We both need to wait until the time is ideal and we go into it with clear heads, not hot bodies.

  Cody came out of the bathroom, looking for that cup of coffee. He needed to sober up since he was still high as hell from her touch. The responsiveness of her body made him crave her all the more and getting through the next few days would be tough. I am an adult. I can do this.

  She called his name.

  Looking up from the mug, he was grateful she was fully dressed.

  “Cody, there is a session today I think would be ideal for you to attend,” she told him, passing him the conference schedule. A red ring had been circled around a session on convergence quilts by Ricky Timm.

  “Who is she?”

  “It is a he. Ricky makes amazing quilts and his sessions are packed with other men who quilt, knit, and make fabric crafts,” she said.

  His face held no expression as he looked at her.

  “Okay, do we need to talk about what happened this morning?”

  “No. There is nothing to say,” he said.

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “No. Not at all.”

  “Then why the clipped answers and death stares?”

  “Bisa, I asked you not to touch me and you did it anyway. Now I feel like some kind of rabid dog that you will need to put down in order to alleviate my suffering,” he said, feeling a tinge of anger.

  “Stop being so dramatic. You were hot and horny and I was here. You are a man and I am a woman,” she said.

  “Yes. A woman waiting for me in a see-through night gown,” he told her.

  “My gown was not see-through!”

  He moved around the counter and stood in front of the sliding glass patio doors. Holding up his arms, the light shone through his shirt making the fabric almost translucent. Bisa’s mouth dropped open.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize. I just woke up and you weren’t here and I was worried, but we are not going to act like children about this” she told him.

  “You make it sound like we both had an itch that needed to be scratched,” he said flatly.

  “Well, you made me all itchy!”

  “And I was going to scratch the living hell out of you too,” he said, laughing.

  “Yeah, you were,” she said, winking at him.

  They both laughed at it for a second and Bisa wanted to know if it was okay to now touch him. She reached out to feel the muscles in his arm and he moved away.

  “Hell no! I am still itchy,” he said.

  “Okay. I will keep my distance,” she said, loading up a few more boxes on a hotel cart. “It is going to be a long day today. We have to get ready.”

  “Ready? Is it going to be anything like yesterday?”

  “Unfortunately not. Today’s crowd will be the hee-hawers and naysayers. The hardcore collectors and quilt makers came yesterday with a set budget and items in mind. Today is more lookie-loos who want to open everything and touch anything as if they will acquire quilting skills through osmosis. Today is the hard line and hard sales day,” she told him.

  “Depending on how it goes, hopefully tonight we can go out for dinner,” he said, nibbling on a strip of bacon and a room service tray which had arrived earlier.

  “I don’t know, you were so wiped out last night. I think we should play it by ear,” she told him.

  “Sounds good. Let’s do this,” he said.

  Bisa’s estimation was incorrect. By the five o’clock bell, she had sold out, Cody wanted to learn how to make convergence quilts, and she was itching all over for another opportunity to have him scratch her entire body. Instead of tempting fate, Sunday after breakfast, they shopped for Cody’s materials, found him a quilting machine at good price, and hit the road for home.

  The kiss goodnight was brief as he set the materials he purchased in her office before driving home to check on his Nana. The time away gave him a new opportunity to tak
e a really good look at the matriarch. Changes in her he wouldn’t normally notice he could now see. Looking at her every day, he couldn’t spot the tremors in her hand or the slowness in her gait.

  Time was counting down for his Nana and he had work to do.

  MONDAY WAS AN IDEAL day to work at the shop setting up his quilting machine. Cody was already scheduled for the day off and Bisa’s shop was closed. Purchasing the same wood her father used to make the quilting stand for her machine, Cody replicated it down to the bolts for his own quilter. Side by side the machines stood like sentries awaiting a call to arms.

  “That looks amazing,” Bisa said. “Wednesday, we should be done with the baby quilt and you can get started on your Nana’s.”

  “Looking at her last night, I almost wish I had started sooner,” he said.

  “Is Ms. Lily okay, Cody?”

  “I don’t rightfully know. I will make an appointment for her this week, but Bisa, I think the light is starting to dim. In my heart, I know she is holding on until Christmas Eve next year...,” he started to say and stopped.

  “I will help you as much as I can,” Bisa said, rubbing his back.

  “You’ve already helped. In a month, my life has changed so much that I don’t know if I am in love, lust, or simply confused with the desire to play with fabric,” he told her.

  “Seriously. It is hard to believe you are still single,” she said with a twist of her lips.

  Cody knew why he was single although her snide comment was a dig into his dry manner and even dryer humor. His life didn’t yield itself to many smiles. Every relationship he’d ever started ended because a woman lied about the one thing he didn’t joke about – children. It befuddled him to no end why a woman would believe that lying to a man about carrying his child could save a relationship.

  “I have trust issues,” he said.

  Bisa wanted him to elaborate, but instead only added, “Don’t we all.”

  “What are your trust issues, Bisa?”

  “Oh that’s an easy question. I don’t trust any man with my dream. Everyone that I have run across has either wanted me to quit my job, not work so hard, or my favorite, ‘why do you need two buildings?’ I really and truly hate that,” she said.

  “You have a second building?”

  “Cody, do you see anywhere in here to dye fabric and hang it to dry?”

  “I thought maybe you did it in small batches,” he said.

  “Initially, when I started, that’s how it was. Last year, I made enough to buy this building and turn this into my home and shop,” she said.

  “You don’t talk about your family. I take it your dream is entrusted with them,” he said, looking at the beautiful full lips.

  “It’s just me and my Mom. My father passed last year from a heart attack which is why I left the firm. If I was going to be stressed out, it would be for my own business, my own money, and my own time,” she told him. “What about you? What more is there to Cody Richardson?”

  “Until about a month ago, my life was running, working, and taking care of Nana,” he said, staring into her eyes.

  “A month ago...,” she said, arching a brow.

  “A month ago I walked into this little quilt shop on Deckle Street and the woman behind the counter changed my life,” he said.

  Bisa loved that his guards were coming down and he was allowing her to see behind the curtain. The wall was cracking but she needed to see more. For the damnedest reason, she needed him to be raw.

  Almost exposed with her.

  Her father always told her that there was honesty in exposure. The rawer the wound, the purer the cry. She waited for him to finish the thought.

  “I feel alive, Bisa. The day I walked into this shop and met you my life gained meaning other than being the caretaker for Nana. I don’t know what this is and I don’t care because whatever it is, I want it. I want to grab hold of it, you and a bunch of fabric and hold on for dear life. This, unnamed fear taunts me that if I close my eyes and blink, you will be gone. Riding off in the sunset with Antoine,” he said softly.

  “Explains why you pushed me to make us wait,” Bisa said.

  “For once in my life, I want to be sure if the direction in which I am headed is for the right reason, instead of it just feeling good. My life needs some good,” Cody told her. “I will wait for the great girl. You are a great girl.”

  “You need to hush with that hokey crap about me being a great girl. I am a phenomenal woman,” she said, laughing loudly as she climbed the stairs to her apartments. “Lock up when you leave.”

  “Good night, Bisa. Be safe.”

  Chapter Fifteen – Basting

  Tuesday afternoon crept by slower than an octogenarian on a scooter with a run-down battery. He rarely, if ever, took any time off outside of the holiday season and after three days out of the office, his co-workers acted as if he’d been gone for a month. The number of emails and voicemails took over an hour to sift through, react, and take action in a response or doing the requests. Seven new projects had arrived in orange folders sitting on the corner of his desk as if in accusation of him stealing away for the weekend with Antoine’s girl.

  Three seconds would have been all it took to make Bisa his. They were right there in the moment. Three seconds away from completion.

  Three bleeping seconds.

  “Hey, what are you thinking so hard on over there, Cody my man,” Antoine asked.

  “All of this work. I was only gone for three days,” he groaned.

  Antoine had an axed to grind with Cody. He had questions that he wanted answered about the three days he missed from work, which coincided with the same 3 days Antoine was supposed to have been in Kentucky with Bisa. He couldn’t contain the unwarranted jealousy.

  “The same three days my girl was out of town. Did you go to Kentucky with my girl?”

  “I went to Kentucky with my friend Bisa who needed my help because her asinine boyfriend backed out on her at the last minute,” Cody retorted.

  “Did you touch my girl, Cody?” Antoine hissed through clenched teeth.

  “Man, I went and worked. I was her assistant and I helped out my friend and made a few bucks,” Cody said. “You can see it all over the internet and C-Span. At one point, I ran her booth by myself.”

  “Yes, but you shared the same room! I know because I called and tried to get a hotel room and everything in the city was sold out!”

  “Calm down man. I slept on the couch,” Cody said, laughing.

  “This is no laughing matter. I know men like you, Cody. You will have some fun for a few months, create some memories you can share on the links with your college frat buddies about the time you got down with a sister, but you will never take her home to meet your parents. You will break her heart then run off and marry some pretty brunette from the country club,” Antoine said.

  Cody leaned back in his seat, rubbing his hand across his chin. He observed Antoine closely, understanding far more than just the words he was mouthing off out of fear. The fear was real because he also understood that Cody was going to take Bisa away from him. A phenomenal woman that he let get away.

  “Two things are very obvious, Antoine,” Cody said with a smile. “One is that you consider me to be a threat, and two, you definitely don’t know any men like me.”

  He turned in his chair and set about clearing the workload on the new projects. Tomorrow was a new day and he was planning to get the girl. All the stops would be removed as he took the relationship with Bisa forward. True, he wanted to beat Antoine at his own game, but more importantly, his mind went back to when he first walked into the shop and the old lady Clara said Bisa needed to know what it felt like to be treated like a lady.

  I can do that.

  THE BOUQUET OF WILD flowers arrived at the quilt shop right after breakfast- so did Aneta, Bisa’s mother. A head full of salt and pepper colored hair stood wildly about her face, giving Bisa’s mother the appearance of a crazed cat woman out for a da
y of shopping with a zippered plastic bag full of $1 off coupons. The grin on her face at the sight of the flowers meant the day for Bisa was going to roll downhill faster than a snowball from a mountaintop filled with a wad of hardened poop.

  “Mom, this is a surprise,” Bisa said.

  “So are those flowers. Are those from Cody?”

  “I guess so,” Bisa responded, disappointed that she couldn’t share the joy of the flowers in private.

  “When do I get to meet this man?”

  “He will be here tonight for class,” Bisa said regretfully.

  “Good! I will head to the market and start dinner for the three of us tonight. Does he have any dietary restrictions I should know about?”

  “Cody doesn’t like peanut butter, which is weird since he eats peanuts,” Bisa said.

  “Oh heck, that is nothing. I know people who hate tomatoes but will eat the hell out of some ketchup. People are weird,” she said, turning her back to Bisa showing a furry orange kitten hair pin, the size of an actual kitten.

  “Mom, there’s a kitten in your hair,” Bisa said.

  “That’s Dionysus. I thought it was adorable,” Aneta said, stroking the kitten.

  “It would be if you had on something orange. It doesn’t match anything you are wearing.”

  “And that is why it is so much fun. I call it a conversation piece,” Aneta said. “Now, I am off to the store to get some fantastic food so I can make this man of yours a meal he will never forget.”

  Bisa was attempting to talk her down from her cooking crusade, “Mom, why are you here?”

  “I was missing my baby. Besides I want to meet this man. You do know you two were on C-Span? Those lines of all the people wanting your products were amazing. On top of that, we need to do some dying this weekend. We are going to really enjoy Christmas in Hawaii this year,” Aneta said, jangling her keys.