Sweet, Sweet Wine

by Jaime Clevenger

  Riley followed her through the bathroom to the other side of the cottage. Ana’s bed was made with the corner tucked down, so Riley knew that Sharon been in earlier to tidy up. She had the same woodstove in the corner, but next to hers were two high-backed armchairs with a small table for magazines. Ana cleared off the magazines and set out a paper plate. She placed baguette slices with some sort of tomato and cheese topping on the plate and then pulled out two bottles of wine. Each was about two-thirds full, one white and one red.

  “Where’s your stuff?” Riley asked. “It doesn’t even look like anyone is staying in here.”

  Ana pointed to the closet and then to the dresser. “The only way I stay sane with this traveling schedule is if I unpack as soon as I get to wherever I’m going. I’ll unpack even if I’m only staying for two nights. I let it slide when I’m only staying one night, though.” She sank down on one of the chairs. “And I always try to stay at the same place when I travel for work. Red or white?”

  “Either. I don’t have a preference.” Riley wasn’t going to admit that she didn’t like wine to someone who had a career because of it.

  “Then we’ll start with this one.” She uncorked the bottle of white wine and poured two glasses, then handed one to Riley. “Don’t tell my boss, but I can’t tell most of the wines apart. I’ve never been much for wine, in fact. But I’m starting to have a few favorites. I only pick the ones that go down easy.”

  “I thought wine was your business. You don’t like it?”

  “I’m a business consultant. I happened to fall in with wineries. They’re big business in Napa. I always thought I’d like to live in Napa. Getting in on the wine business seemed like a good fit. Funny though, I’m never really in Napa. Anyway, the taste has grown on me.”

  Riley sniffed the glass. It smelled like peaches. She checked the label on the bottle. “This is peach wine?”

  “They add peach juice to a sauvignon. Then they can charge more for wine that, on its own, wouldn’t be worth the high price.”

  Riley took a sip. “Not bad.” She set the glass down and then checked the label on the red wine. “This one’s sweet too?”

  “No, that’s just the merlot that I like. I figured you’d be one for sweet wine, for some reason, so I grabbed the peach. Their merlot’s good, but it does have a bite to it.”

  “So I was in your plans for the evening?”

  “Maybe.” She took a bite of the baguette, coated with cheese, and then looked up at Riley. She licked cheese off the edge of her finger. “Are you going to sit down?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  Ana laughed. “Sit down. You’ll make me uncomfortable.”

  “What was up with this morning?” Riley sat down but kept her eyes on Ana. She wondered about the mixed signals Ana had sent earlier.

  “Can we forget about it?” Ana stared at Riley. After a moment, she said, “Maybe I changed my mind.”

  Riley nodded. There seemed to be a tacit understanding that this evening might turn into a late night so long as neither of them said anything to blow it. Riley had no intention of doing so. Ana had changed out of her business suit into a white cotton skirt and a gray tank top. She stretched out her legs, smooth and naked from the edge of her skirt downward, and gazed out the window. Raindrops splattered the glass and made rivulets as they descended. Ana played with the ruby pendant on her necklace and took another sip of wine. Riley decided on the second sip that the wine was quite drinkable. They polished off the pre-topped baguette slices and the first bottle of wine while listening to the rain and the intermittent flood siren.

  “I wonder if the lower parts of the town have flooded yet. We put sandbags all around the doors at the winery, but I doubt they’ll hold back much of the water. Do you want to turn on the news?”

  “Not really. There’s nothing we can do at the moment.” Riley stood up and went to open the door. If anything, the rain had gained in intensity. The flagstones were now entirely submerged and the patio lights reflected on what had been the path but was now a stream running between the door and the grass.

  Ana had come to the door as well. She dimmed the room lights and the porch lights shone brighter. They watched the rain for a moment, and then Riley reached over and took Ana’s hand. She lightly traced the lines on Ana’s palm and then continued with a fingertip stroke up the underside of her arm. She reached her other arm toward Ana’s hip and turned her slightly. Their lips met. The first kiss was tentative. Riley waited, testing Ana’s response. Ana didn’t move away, but she seemed to be waiting as well. Riley kissed her again, feeling her desire for Ana mount. Ana pressed into her this time, closing the door as they parted.

  “I think I should explain what I said earlier,” Ana started.

  Riley waited, holding Ana’s hands in her own. Ana gazed up at her but was silent. Riley kissed her again. “You don’t seem to want to explain.”

  “You’re right. I don’t feel like talking at all right now.”

  “Then tell me later.”

  “I doubt I’ll want to tell you later.”

  Riley ran her hand down the length of Ana’s skirt. “If it’s important enough to make me stop, you better tell me soon.” The cotton was so thin that she could easily feel Ana’s curves through the fabric.

  Ana pulled off her tank top and started working on Riley’s shirt buttons. Riley kissed her again, then moved toward the bed. She wondered how far Ana would want to go. She undid Ana’s bra and slipped it off, her hands tracing the shoulders she’d longed to touch in the hot tub. She kissed Ana again. “Should I keep going?”

  In response, Ana took Riley’s hands and placed them on her breasts. Riley cupped them, the satisfying weight resting in her palms and her skin a muted contrast to Riley’s in the dim light. Riley ached to feel more of her. It had been months since she’d done anything more than share a bed with Lisa and longer still since she’d really wanted to be close to her. The desire that choked her now was raw and overwhelming. She leaned down to encircle Ana’s dark nipples with her tongue, willing her body to go slow. Ana murmured in response. She sank down on the bed and stared up at Riley, then reached for Riley’s belt and pulled her down on top of her.

  The Levis and the skirt were off a moment later. Riley moved from Ana’s breasts to her soft belly, then lower to her hips and thighs, covering every inch with soft kisses. Ana caressed her back and ran her hands through Riley’s hair, tugging on the strands when Riley kissed a sensitive spot. Riley shifted lower to kiss between Ana’s legs and heard a murmur of encouragement. Ana pressed her body against Riley’s lips, her hands gripping Riley as she rocked her hips into her. Riley couldn’t slow her desire any longer. She had little doubt that Ana wanted what was going to come next as much as Riley wanted it.

  When Riley slipped her fingers inside, Ana’s nails dug into her shoulders. She kept her hands on Riley’s shoulders as she climaxed, gripping her legs together and clutching Riley’s hand. Riley felt her own body respond. Naked, sweaty skin aroused her every nerve, and her fingers were wet and scented with musk. Even without touching her, Ana had pushed her to the edge. She longed for Ana to reach for her; she knew she wouldn’t be able to hold back if she did. But Ana’s hands relaxed and lay still on Riley’s back. Riley slipped her fingers out finally and pressed her thumb on Ana’s swollen clit. She felt a satisfying tremor race through Ana’s body. Riley shifted off Ana a moment later. She lay on her side, watching Ana drift to sleep, the sound of the pelting rain on the roof soon overlaying all other sounds. She closed her eyes.

  * * *

  The morning sun glistened on the lawn chairs and every other surface beaded with water, which was everything, it seemed. Riley had slipped out of Ana’s bed in the middle of the night and awoke to Sharon’s knocking shortly after dawn. Sharon didn’t ask about the night’s events. Instead, she handed Riley a shovel. “We’ve got several inches of mud to clear off the sidewalk so guests can get out front. And the parking lot is full of debris. The ri
ver flooded. There’s mud and debris all across the road. It’s impassable at this point, so I don’t know why I care about the debris in the parking lot, seeing as how no one can drive anywhere at the moment, but I do. It’s going to be a long day.”

  Riley ran her hand through her hair, smoothing the tousled parts. “Let me splash water on my face and get dressed.”

  “I’ll be in the kitchen. No matter that the town’s flooded, there’ll be eight mouths wanting to eat in a couple of hours.” She turned to leave, choosing to walk through the wet grass rather than try to pick her way across the flagstone path, which now resembled a streambed more than a path at all. Her pink slippers padded across the grass, leaving a line of bent blades to mark her route.

  Riley dressed and used the bathroom. She’d just snapped the light off when Ana opened her side of the door and snapped the light back on. She leaned against the doorframe, staring at Riley. She was wearing a pair of pajama pants but no shirt. Her arms were crossed, barely concealing her breasts.

  “I didn’t think you’d be the type to leave in the middle of the night.”

  Riley looked at Ana’s reflection in the mirror. “I didn’t know how you’d feel about what happened last night by the time morning came round.”

  “It wasn’t like I was drunk. I knew what I was doing.”

  Riley nodded. “The river flooded. There’s standing water everywhere and apparently several inches of mud on the sidewalks and the main road. Sharon’s sending me out to clean a path so the guests can get to their cars.”

  Ana turned and went back to her room, switching off the light as she left. Riley sighed and headed outside. She could spend the rest of the morning second-guessing this conversation…and probably would.

  The morning sun was blinding. Rays bent across the water and prisms formed in every direction with no clouds to deflect the light. Riley took the shovel and went to the parking lot behind the yard, keeping clear of the puddles that had sprung up everywhere. She gathered up branches that had fallen in the rainstorm, some of them quite large, and then took the muddy back path that wound around the main house down to the street.

  Sharon’s description of the sidewalk and street had been accurate. It looked like a mudslide had covered the street. Aside from the mud and branches, there were a number of good-sized boulders littering the road. The river was still high, cresting just under the edge of the rock wall. Logs sped by as she watched, the river’s current fast and headstrong. She doubted Deb’s erosion control plan had withstood last night’s deluge and figured those hours of dragging logs were lost. She picked her way through the mud until she reached the staircase leading up to the porch and then, with determination, slid the shovel into the start of the mud layer.

  Within the hour, she had company. Several other business owners and locals were out to survey the results of the rainstorm and many of them had shovels. The sound of metal scraping on concrete echoed through the streets as shovels worked to clear a path. Ana came down the staircase with a mug of coffee in her hand. She offered it to Riley, then glanced down the street toward the wine shop.

  “What’s your guess?” Riley wondered.

  “I already know the building flooded. I got a text ten minutes ago from the owner. He says there’s over a foot of mud in the restaurant that shares the same building. One of the glass panes broke and the water must have just ripped through the place. The winery wasn’t hit as hard as the restaurant, but I doubt there will be any other bit of good news today. He said he was standing in several inches of water while he was texting. I’m about to go see how bad it is in person.”

  “I’m close to done here. Give me a minute and I’ll go with you.” Riley leaned the shovel against the stair railing and went up to tell Sharon that the sidewalk was cleared as far as the end of their block. Sharon was scuttling from one table to the next with maple syrup in one hand and a pitcher of coffee in the other. She went to the kitchen for a sandwich she’d fixed for Riley and then nodded her off to help the ones downriver.

  Ana led the way, picking slowly through the muddy parts and climbing over branches the size of small trees that were blocking the sidewalk. Riley, distracted by the view of Ana’s backside, reprimanded herself every time she stumbled on a branch or the fist-sized rocks that were strewn everywhere. Finally they reached the footbridge. The news van that had been parked by the bridge the night before had returned to cover the scene. The reporter was interviewing the restaurant owner and already the place had a dozen or more volunteers shoveling mud.

  Ana, Riley decided quickly, was much more attractive than the newswoman. She was, in fact, probably too attractive. The idea that their one night together might lead to anything more became a distant thought with every glance she had of Ana in full daylight. Even dressed down in faded blue jeans with mud up to her knees, without a bit of her usual makeup and with her dark brown hair pulled back in a ponytail that Riley longed to grab, she was the most striking woman Riley had ever slept with.

  They passed the chaos of the restaurant and met up with the owner of the wine shop, who Ana quickly introduced as Joe. Ana introduced Riley only to say she was a volunteer. Joe wasn’t one to mince words. He saw Riley’s shovel and pointed her to the entrance of the shop, where mud had piled up against the door. After the mud had been cleared and the door propped open with a log that was lying next to the pile of shattered glass, Joe led her inside the shop. Ana had gone in through the back entrance and was standing ankle-deep in water wielding a push broom.

  The wine shop had little furniture and most of that was metal, so the water wasn’t immediately a crisis here. They moved the toppled chairs and tables outside to the brick patio to dry in the sun, then swept out the water with big push brooms, one from the wine shop which had a handle shaped like a grape leaf that someone had clearly added to be cute and one that someone from the restaurant had loaned them. After the bulk of the water had been cleared, Ana said, “The real problem, of course, is the wine.”

  Joe sighed. “You know, I think it would be easier if we were a regular wine bar. All we’d have to deal with would be bottles of wine. What do you think about that idea?”

  Ana shook her head. “Well, the business model for the franchise isn’t that, you know, Joe.”

  As it turned out, there were boxes and boxes of bottled wine in the place, but since the shop made the wine on the premises, they also had juice and barrels of wine in different stages of fermentation. Most of the barrels were too large to move, so Riley was set to shoveling the mud and removing debris from around them. After the debris was removed, the place could be power washed. When she’d finished with the shoveling, she helped Joe and Ana move box after box of wine upstairs. He and his wife lived in one of the apartments above the wine shop and the front room of their apartment was soon lined with boxes. Joe’s wife helped intermittently with the work but spent most of the morning yelling into her cell phone at their insurance agent.

  By lunchtime, Riley was exhausted. She stepped out to the back patio and weaved her way over to the railing to have a look at the river. The water level had dropped to about a foot from the top of the bank. She closed her eyes for a moment, listening to the fast-moving current, and enjoying the sun on her head. She felt a hand on her back and turned to see Sharon.

  “Don’t look so disappointed! Who were you expecting?” Sharon laughed. She handed Riley a brown paper sack. “I figured you’d be hungry. By the way,” she swept a hand across Riley’s brow, “you have mud here, and…”—she tapped Riley’s cheek—“and here, and…”—she tapped the other cheek—“here too.”

  “Thanks for lunch.” Riley pulled over one of the chairs and sat down within view of the water. “What’s the weather report?”

  Sharon sighed. “More rain tonight.”

  “It seems futile, doesn’t it? I think they should simply close down the businesses that are this close to the river. Reopen them after the burn scar has had time for some plants to take root and well after t
he monsoons.”

  “That would be ten years from now, at least. Maybe twenty. And the view is nice, isn’t it? Besides, we wouldn’t necessarily need a monsoon. Just a few inches of rain and a slow-moving storm that settled in the canyon…”

  “Well, then, close these places indefinitely.”

  “As their business consultant, I wouldn’t advise that,” Ana said. She had come up from behind Riley and now pulled a chair over to where Sharon stood. “Have a seat, Sharon.” She got herself a chair as well and looked expectantly at the bag that Riley held.

  “Yes, there’s a sandwich for each of you in there,” Sharon said. “I’m heading over to check on a friend. I couldn’t get an answer from her on the phone this morning and her house is on the other side of the river with a foundation two feet below where it should be. Did you hear that two people were killed last night? They found the bodies this morning, though far enough downstream to be out of our police officers’ jurisdiction.”

  Riley and Ana ate silently after Sharon had left. The mud and destruction of the buildings were easy enough to get past, but the thought that people had died in the flood made Riley shudder as she gazed again at the river.

  Riley returned to the cottage late that afternoon. She’d gone from the winery to Sharon’s friend’s house, which had indeed also flooded, and then on to another neighbor’s place from there. Her muscles were shaky from all of the shoveling and she was splattered from head to toe in a mud that smelled like something from the depths of a swamp. She peeled off her clothes without even going into the cottage, after making certain no one was near enough to see her in only underwear and a bra. Her hiking boots were so disgusting that she considered throwing them straight into the trash. She showered, scrubbing thoroughly, then dried off only enough to manage getting her damp body into the bathing suit.

  Ana met her on the path, now a path again with the water miraculously evaporated in the day’s heat, and nodded at the hot tub. “I’m on my way there as well.”