Love Patterns

by Michael B. Malone

  He stopped again. What would be Claire’s reaction when she found out? He continued walking slowly. There was something about Claire, a hint of steel that warned him that she would make a bitter enemy.

  He groaned. “How did I get into this.” At six o’clock he’d been dating one woman and now by ten o’clock he’d dumped her, having fallen in love with her sister who was still a schoolgirl!

  He pictured Kirsty. Her elfin face, her mane of red hair, the way she held her head, the depths in her eyes. A strange excitement built up inside him. He could still feel the warmth of her moist lips on his own, the lightness, the sweetness, the promise in their softness.

  “I’ll let the future take care of itself,” he vowed and pushed the future showdown with Claire to the back of his mind. Looking up, he found himself back at the halls of residence. He went straight to bed, tired after his walk, and quickly fell asleep.

  He woke the next morning with the sun streaming into his window, chasing his dreams into oblivion, but he knew by his feeling of exhilaration that they’d been about Kirsty. He rose, shaved and showered then thought of breakfast, wincing as he sniffed the milk, but pouring it onto his cornflakes anyway. He looked round his room, wrinkling his nose and decided to give it a quick fumigation in case he brought Kirsty back. He wasn’t too sloppy but cooking smells and body odours just built up. He hunted through his linen basket and filled a plastic bag with dirty laundry. He decided to take the bed sheet as well and replaced it with a fresh ironed one. He sniffed around the cooker and the rest of the room but there was nothing too smelly, so he hung his duvet over a chair to air, left his window wide open then dashed to the launderette.

  As he watched his laundry whirl round in the washing machine his thoughts joined them, circling around Kirsty. How did she feel about him? He transferred his laundry to the spin dryer and again sat thinking and smiling. They’d only met for a few minutes, but they hadn’t danced around each other as the sexes usually did at first meeting. It was as if they knew each other already. He’d thought himself in love before, but the suddenness and intensity of his present emotions made him realise that he never had been. The spinner stopped. He roughly folded the bigger items, stuffed everything into his bag, then dashed back to his room, looking at his watch. He remade his bed, put his laundry away and tidied up. He looked at himself in the mirror, gave his hair a quick comb, then set off, berating himself for feeling like a teenager on his first date

  Kirsty awoke feeling wonderful. She hummed to herself as she held various jeans, skirts and tops in front of her, before the mirror and decided on jeans and a green jumper that matched her eyes. She examined her reflection critically, pushing the tip of her nose to one side to try to straighten an imagined crookedness.

  Claire shouted in passing. “I’m off then, see you at five, I’ll get the tea.”

  She ran the water for a bath and had a quick breakfast while it filled then took her coffee cup through with her, balanced it on the end of the bath and climbed in, tying her hair up on top of her head, for if she got it wet it would stick out in all directions and take her an age to persuade it into any kind of style.

  As she settled down for a good soak, she thought of Alan and Claire. Alan had said they were just friends, but she sensed that Claire thought there was more to it. But then Claire seemed to fall in and out of love quite regularly. She would ask Alan when she met him. Her heart beat faster in anticipation and she took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She remembered that first look. It had been as if they recognised each other and something magical had leapt between them. An awareness crept into her mind, she loved him.

  She remembered times when she was very young and had seen a certain look between her mother and father. She’d known then, there was a secret man-woman magic and that someday she would learn the secret. Maybe he feels the same way about me! The thought sent a delicious thrill through her.

  She climbed out of the bath and looked at herself in the mirror, rubbing her hand over the roundness of her stomach.

  ‘What would it be like to have his stomach touch mine?’ She thought. She had a sudden urge to see him naked, to see the play of his muscles as he moved. A warm glow spread out from the bottom of her stomach.

  Full of romantic dreams, she leisurely dried herself, dressed then set off to meet Alan.

  Alan waited at the top of the dozen or so steps leading to the union building, scanning the crowds of shoppers. He wondered if she would come. He glanced at his watch “Still two minutes” he muttered.

  He scanned the crowds again trying to spot her red hair. He looked at his watch again, one minute late. His spirits fell. What will I do if she doesn’t come, he worried. He looked at his watch again, three minutes. A heavy weight settled in his stomach. He spotted her! His spirits soared. He watched her face anxiously for her first reaction when she saw him, peripherally aware of her loose limbed, young woman stride, the sideways sway of her hips, the movement of her arms. She spotted him and flashed him a smile. He took a deep breath. Wearing slightly faded corduroys, sports shirt and a windcheater, Kirsty thought he looked a typical student. Her heart was racing even before she started to climb the steps. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. He came bounding down to meet her.

  “I wondered if you would really come,” he said.

  Again, his smile seemed to draw part of her inside him. She smiled shyly. “What would you have done if I hadn’t?”

  “Probably thrown myself under a bus,” he quipped, but his expression was serious.

  She hid her shock at the hint of his feeling for her. They looked long at each other and again Kirsty felt her heart pounding. She moistened her lips as she gazed up at him. He instantly responded by bending to kiss her. Her thinking seemed to stop. She was all sensation at the touch of his lips on hers. She wanted it to go on forever. He was the first to pull away.

  He asked, his voice hoarse. “Will we have a coffee before we look around?” She smiled, she could hardly bear to look away from him.

  “All right Alan,” she agreed. She liked saying his name, it felt tingly. They climbed the steps to the union and he opened the door for her and stood to one side to let her enter first. She smiled, Claire was right it wasn’t yucky.

  They sat for a long time in the union cafeteria over their empty coffee cups, while she told him about school, about her friends and teachers, and the subjects she was studying. He listened, prompting her, and she felt his complete attention and concentration wrap around her like an invisible wall, separating them from the rest of the students. He told her about his own schooldays and university life in Edinburgh, and the work he was doing and as she watched his lips move, she could hardly restrain herself from trying to kiss them.

  They both came out of their absorption as students streamed in for lunch.

  “I’ll show you around,” he said. As they vacated their table she felt his hand slip into hers and she felt the tingle again. She smiled and interlaced her fingers with his.

  He took her around the university and eventually showed her his own faculty.

  “My own little kingdom.” He indicated the desk.

  Kirsty took in the computer, the papers and the folders. I like it she thought, not too sloppy and yet not over neat. She twirled round on the revolving seat and looked up, smiling. He stroked her cheek. She put her hand over his and moved her face against his hand, loving the feel of his skin. She saw his eyes go out of focus as if he was trying to remember something. A student came into the room, so they left. As they walked back to the union for lunch, she slipped her hand into his, smiling at his sharp intake of breath.

  He carried their tray to a corner table, where they talked while they ate, darting furtive adoring glances at each other, their hands compulsively touching, their fingers intertwining like lovers caressing.

  She looked around. “I’m looking forward to being part of all this.”

  He stroked the palm of her hand with his thumb. “You’re just the right
age to get involved in all the activities.”

  Her nose crinkled with her smile. “Listen to the old man talking.” She watched him grin ruefully.

  “Doing post graduate work means I’m separate from the main student classes and …” he shrugged. “I am that bit older.”

  “You’re less than five years older than me.”

  Alan grinned. “It makes a big difference. When you are seventeen there are about forty-eight hours in a day and you’ve got the energy to fill every hour.” He sighed dramatically. “At my age there are about twelve hours in a day, my joints are getting stiff and I’ve started looking forward to my pension.”

  She giggled. “Maybe you need a nurse to look after you?” She noticed his sudden serious expression and felt like biting her tongue, she’d forgotten all about Claire.

  His expression cleared, and he asked gazing into her eyes. “Are you volunteering?”

  “I might consider it,” she replied nonchalantly.

  “Can I see you tomorrow?”

  She was taken completely by surprise and stifled the automatic, “Yes.” She pointed out to herself, “I’ve to study for my exams.” She saw his look of dejection and felt a thrill.

  “Maybe for a little while.” He brightened up immediately. She smiled. “Well I’d better be getting home,” she declared as she started loading dishes onto the tray.

  As he returned the tray to the counter, she watched the lithe, easy way he moved, somehow disturbing. The tightening of his trousers around his thighs as he leaned forward to return the tray. She felt a lascivious warmth in the pit of her stomach. She watched from underneath her eyelashes as he returned. His long athletic stride, the lock of hair that fell over his face, the way the contours of his face softened, when he looked at her. She felt she would like a peephole into his room so she could watch him all day.

  She knelt in front of him, grabbed his bottom in both hands and rubbed her cheek against the bulge in the front of his trousers. She looked up at him then around the room, no one was looking. She blushed at the vividness of her imagination.

  She stood. The top of her head came to just above his shoulder. She wanted to pull his face down to hers and stand kissing for an hour. She put her arm around his waist, smiling up at him.

  “I’d better help you out Grandad.” Her heart fluttered at his huge grin. He pretended to stagger, and his arm curved around her waist. She felt a kind of contentment, as if it belonged there.

  They waited at the bus stop. She saw her bus in the distance. “That’s my bus coming,” she said. She looked up at him. He seemed suddenly nervous. She stood close to him, looking up into his eyes. She moistened her lips and waited. He seemed even more nervous. She sighed, “See you tomorrow, same place same time Alan.”

  “Bye Kirsty.”

  “Alan?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I have my hand back?”

  “Sorry.”

  She boarded the bus and waved to him as the bus moved off, watching him until he was out of sight. She reviewed the last hour, the exquisite pleasure of the kiss on the steps of the union building, Alan’s eyes as he talked, the way his lips moved when he smiled, the touch of his hand, the feel of his hand in hers. She was disappointed he hadn’t kissed her again, but knew intuitively this was what happened when a man was in love, for she knew now that he loved her. The way he looked at her, the way he said her name like a caress, his gentleness, as if he was afraid she would break, his bouts of shyness. She jumped off her bus and walked home dreamily, floating in a rosy haze, feeling that this was the most beautiful day of her life. She danced up the path to her house and started on the household chores.

  She had an exam in two days, so she settled on the settee with her books where Bonny jumped onto her lap.

  “I love him Bonny,” she confided, feeling a thrill at saying it out loud. The cat, purring like a motor, pushed her head into Kirsty’s hand, she was used to Kirsty’s confidences.

  Claire was subdued when she came home and seemed locked in her own thoughts, so conversation was stilted. Kirsty wondered whether to mention that she’d seen Alan, but in view of Claire’s mood, decided to put it off till a better opportunity arose. She returned to her studies.

  Alan found himself back in his room, unaware of how he had got there. He lay on his bed, his hands behind his head, thinking of Kirsty, the way she turned her head, her smouldering green eyes, the way her nose crinkled when she smiled. The focus of his world had changed. His every thought, his every action seemed to be tinged with her essence. He repeated “Kirsty” with various intonations, tasting with his mouth and tongue. “You are hopelessly, utterly in love,” he told himself.

  Restless, he wondered down to the Ecology department to try to finish his report, but only managed a few pages. Marc looked in to chat, but Alan’s thoughts kept drifting away. He came to at one point to see Marc’s hand waving in front of his face and watched him put his hands to his head in mock horror.

  “Oh! No, I’d recognise that kind of fatuous grin anywhere. You’re in love!” Alan smiled happily at him. Marc shook his head sadly. “There is nothing I can do or say to help, there’s no cure. You have my sympathy.” He stood for a moment looking down at Alan. “You can’t even hear me, can you?” He left shaking his head.

  As Kirsty waited for the bus she thought of the previous day’s meeting with Alan. They hadn’t had long but they’d walked and talked, exploring the magic in each other, and he’d kissed her again, twice! She was meeting him after her exam today.

  She saw Marylin and Dorothy turning the corner. They couldn’t be more different Marylin was short and tubby, while Dorothy was slim and dark and much more serious. On the bus they tested each other with Chemistry questions. When they reached their stop Marylin gave her arm a shake.

  “Kirsty! Are you getting off?” Kirsty gave a start, then carefully replaced the memories of the previous days kisses where they belonged.

  “Sorry, I was miles away.” She saw Marylin give her a puzzled look.

  At school they sat in the hall doing last minute revision, then they entered the exam room.

  Two and a half hours later they staggered out. “I only finished four questions and started another one,” Marylin wailed.

  “I only did five,” moaned Kirsty. “But I didn’t have a clue about the last one.”

  “Maybe the second paper will be easier,” consoled Dorothy. “Maybe they put all the hard questions in the first one.”

  After their school lunch they gathered in the common room for coffee.

  “Will we have a coffee after the exam before we go home?” asked Marylin.

  “I’m not going straight home,” replied Kirsty.

  “Where are you going?” asked Marylin.

  Kirsty tried to appear nonchalant. “I’m meeting someone.” She hadn’t fooled them. They shepherded her into a quiet

  corner.

  “A boyfriend?” Marylin accused.

  Kirsty blushed, “Just a friend.” Dorothy and Marylin stared at her. She felt her face get even redder.

  Marylin grinned. “If it is just a friend, why is your face as red as a beetroot?”

  She put her hands to her cheeks. “Oh, you two!” she protested.

  “What’s he like?” Dorothy asked.

  She felt her eyes look inwards in a dreamy way. “He’s nice,” she breathed, her voice like candy floss.

  She saw Marylin roll her eyes at Dorothy then query. “Is that all?” She gave Kirsty a push, “I said is that all?”

  Kirsty floated back down to earth. “Well he’s got grey eyes that are sometimes blue.”

  “And?”

  “He’s got fair hair.”

  “And?”

  “Oh! For goodness sake.”

  “And?” Marylin insisted.

  “He’s doing a postgraduate course in Ecology at the university.”

  “How old is he?”

  “Twenty-two.”

  Marylin gave her an
intent look. “Has he tried anything?”

  Kirsty blushed again. “I’ve only known him three days.”

  “That’s long enough,” retorted Marylin. “When do we get to meet him?”

  Sometime.”

  “When?” Dorothy insisted.

  Kirsty gave in. “I’m meeting him outside the school after the exam.”

  They departed to the exam room where she noticed Marylin and Dorothy choosing seats near the door.

  Kirsty met Alan at the school gates and introduced him to Dorothy and Marylin. She eventually managed to drag him away from the simpering Marylin.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she apologised, when they were out of earshot.

  “Nothing to worry about,” he replied. “I was young once myself you know.” She saw his grin and gave him a push.

  Marylin watched the two lovers wander off, their arms entwined, oblivious to the rest of the world.

  “Well what do you make of that then? Little Miss Bulletproof Knickers in love?” Dorothy just smiled enigmatically, her eyes following the two lovers until they disappeared amongst the crowds of shoppers. “Isn’t he gorgeous?” Marylin went on “do you think they’re … you know?”

  Dorothy shook her head. “I don’t think so, I’m sure that I would know.” She sighed, “Isn’t it beautiful.”

  What?” Marylin queried, puzzled.

  “Being in love of course,” replied Dorothy enviously.

  “Oh!” Marylin felt abashed. They caught their bus home, with Marylin prattling on about Alan, while Dorothy listened with half an ear and kept her thoughts to herself.