by M. C. Cerny
“I’m going to pass on dinner because I think you need to give that man some attention.” Kelsey hugged me with a sly smile on her face. She shrugged her jacket on and collect her mat and purse slinging them over her shoulder.
I felt the panic rise. “Kelsey don’t go.”
“Come on. You were brave enough to go home with him and he seems like a decent guy pursuing you. Stop making excuses or I’ll rat you out to the Aunts.”
I pointed at her as I watched David in the mirror chat with the instructor asking for pointers. “You are a terrible sister.”
“Possibly, but I’m also asking you to be my Maid of Honor, so don’t disappoint me here.” She patted my arm and scooted out the door making eyes at me.
I scrunched my nose shaking my head at her. I’d pay her back during the bachelorette party by putting Dijah in charge of the entertainment.
15
David
Class was finally over. Ninety minutes of contortionist hell. I should have called my old commanding officer and told him to present this as new addition to boot camp. My manhood survived and shockingly my head felt clearer than it had in a long time.
I waited to approach Kiara and made small talk with the teacher soliciting a few additional stretches. I waved to her sister on the sly who winked at me. At least I had one person in my corner. Since I saw Chase it was agony waiting for the week to pass so I could see her again. Our schedules were not meshing despite feeling more settled into my job and position as the new official assistance coach.
“I didn’t exactly peg you as the yoga type.” Kiara’s eyes refused to meet mine and short of clutching her arm it didn’t seem like a good idea to hassle her outside of class and the yoga studio. There were at least half dozen women eyeballing me like I didn’t belong there. I didn’t disagree with them, but this was the only way to get Kiara’s attention. I probably looked like an ogre among maidens inside the yoga studio doing their silly stretches and breathing. I did it for Kiara though, I did it because she was worth all my awkwardness and embarrassment, and all the questions to my manhood.
“Gotta be honest, it’s different, but I like it. I’m more relaxed that I was at the beginning.”
“Look I’m not good at this relationship thing. I don’t even know what we’re doing.”
I shrugged and leaned in caging her body against the wall. “Who says we have to do anything? I thought I was on probation until spring away.” Kiara glanced up at me and her eyes sparkled as she bit her lip trying to tamp down the smile.
“You are on probation, David.” Her hand came up and gently pressed against my chest. I stepped back to give her some breathing room. I wasn’t a total dick.
“Hey, if you need to maintain a prickly attitude for your credibility, I can work with that, but I would like to see you more than a passing glance.”
“I’m not making out with you under bleachers, or in the classroom.”
“Whoa, that escalated quickly. I just meant that dinner would be nice.” I watched her eyes round like saucers. So she did think about me. That was nice to know because I definitely thought about her. Often. And in several positions and places I probably shouldn’t. The struggle was real.
“I like you a lot, Kiara. I’m putting my cards on the table.”
“Is this flirting? Are you flirting with me, David Easton.” She said bringing that sparkle back to her eyes.
“No ma’am. You would definitely know if I was flirting.” I took her yoga mat back and slung it over my shoulder. I would coax her to dinner if it killed me, but at the least I’d walk her to her car and see her safely inside.
“Well that’s a shame. I might need a date to my sister’s wedding in a six to nine months’ time frame.” She handed me her other duffle bag and I took that too.
“Will you now? Sounds like my probation might be up by then and I could be available.” I hemmed and hawed teasing her.
“So until then…” She trailed off and I took her hand in mine stroking her soft skin. She was like silk under my rough hands and I didn’t feel worthy of touching her. It was a privilege just being in her presence and I honored that.
“No games. But I do want to ask you to dinner. A real dinner, not a hook up. Doesn’t have to be a date if you don’t want it to be.”
She seemed to sway before uncertainty clouded her eyes again.
“Honey, just go. He asked so nicely.” The elderly lady who had been in the back of the room with me showing me some of the more complicated with her touchy feely hands winked and nudged Kiara.
“Vouching for him Mrs. Easterly doesn’t mean I’m going to go out with him.” She pouted. Her attitude wasn’t surprising, but my visceral reaction to it was. I wanted Kiara still and I wanted to kiss that pout off her face.
‘Honey, I’m old. It’s not every day a fine young man like this is going to court you. Get your panties out of a bunch and go before you’re dead.” Mrs. Easterly was quite convincing.
I put on my best puppy eyes and got a laugh out of both of them.
“Mrs. Easterly!” She exclaimed.
“Besides Kiara honey, he’s got an ass you could bounce quarters off of.” Kiara’s cheeks darkened and she bit her lip.
“She has a point,” I said waiting for a slap or recrimination of some kind.
“Honey, go get yourself laid and turn that frown upside down. Sadness isn’t good for the heart you know, but a good boot knocking will serve you just fine.” Mrs. Easterly made her way to the women’s locker room and I made a mental note to send her flowers and a case of our best brew. She looked like a pale ale IPA kind of gal.
“Fine. I’ll go, but I don’t have to like it.”
“Kiara-bear, I thought you would be a better sport than that.” Teasing her didn’t go over well when she rolled her eyes.
“Don’t call me pet names, David. We’re not there yet. Not by a long shot.” She said.
I obviously wasn’t going to win any points today no matter how I approached this situation. Her jaw was set and the slash of her eyebrows suggested I was treading on thin ice despite our humorous banter.
Clearing my throat, I started again.
“Don’t leave me hanging for a week and I won’t have to hunt you down in a yoga studio. Do you see how ridiculous these pants are?” I pointed to my loose spandex pants which I actually borrowed from Andy. After my junk had been plastered inside them, I wasn’t giving these hammer style looking pants back either. I tugged on the spandex. In some ways they were freeing, and in others embarrassingly restrictive and I made a note to wear a pair of basketball shorts over top next time. Especially, when elderly ladies liked to help themselves to my nuts and berries.
She crossed her arms over her taught breasts distracting me. “I don’t know. They certainly accentuate some interesting parts of your anatomy.”
“Really, Kiara?” I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah, when you go into downward dog, it’s like your bat can’t decide which ball it wants to hit in those pants.”
“I’m not a fan of downward puppy or baseball euphemisms unless you’re doing it.” I scratched the back of my neck giving the room a glance to make sure no one heard her as heat crept up my face.
“Next time put your mat in the front of the room.” She patted my chest.
I chuffed. “I only need you looking at me, not an entire class or the gilded age bridge team.”
“Aww, chin up David, it builds character.” She moved from patting my chest to my cheek. I didn’t know if she realized how much she had been touching me in the past five minutes. I mean, I wasn’t going to tell her because I liked it and I wanted her to continue doing it. It was nice.
“So did the Army, and I didn’t have to look like this.” I held my arms out and I finally had her laughing and agreeing to meet me for a date-ish-dinner later tonight.
16
Kiara
David convinced me to drop off my car, a decision I wavered on for a solid five minutes, he take
s me to dinner. I’m shuffled into his SUV having thrown a clean wrap sweater on over my leggings. He swapped out a fresh long sleeve t-shirt on but kept his hot pants saying screw it. There was something admirable about a man who owned his spandex. I pointed out they weren’t far off from his football uniform days and he steals an unsuspecting kiss before whisking me off to an Italian place as the base of the mountain ridge.
We opted for ice water and red wine making pasta our alter to worship on. David sampled everything while I took my time savoring the buttery garlic flavors and his enthusiasm for well cooked food. We covered more of the basics, like how his parents were adjusting to Florida life as mine continued to raise my hellion siblings which consisted of the twins still living at home.
Appetizers and meals morphed into gelato and tiramisu.
“So tell me about the guy who broke your heart.” David asked taking a spoonful of my dessert in his mouth with an unholy moan. If I didn’t get to church next Sunday for some godliness my mother was going to drag me there. I wasn’t offended by his question, clearly I had some hang ups in this department and he’d been fair with me.
Still, the need to deflect my pain was ingrained.
“Why does there have to be some guy who broke my heart?”
“Because I want to beat him up when I meet him for making my life so difficult.”
David made me feel special in his Neanderthal way.
“Oh, okay, I’ll be sure to give Deveraux a heads up.”
“Dev…is that really his name?” David asked, spoon midway to his luscious lips.
“Yes, but I feel like I’m an easy internet search target for you. So who was the girl that ruined you?” I leaned over the table and redirected his spoon to my mouth licking the sweet treat and watching his narrow on mine.
“Ah, you got me.”
“Mmm…come on spit her evil name out so I can hate her too.”
David huffed and leaned back like he was settling in for a good tale. I hadn’t expected that.
“Viola. Viola Marks.”
“Sounds like a real witch already.”
“Full on broom riding, spell conjuring harpy. She did move here from a little hamlet outside Boston, but now I just feel like we’re type casting her.”
“Did she have crazy hair and stormy grey eyes?” I kind of wanted to know more about this girl from his past. As in was she still hanging around. At least Devereaux did me the favor of leaving for the arid temperatures of the southwest for training purposes.
“I plead the fifth, but know this I met her at a pep rally in high school. I played football and she was a tennis player. She liked to hang out with the jocks. It’s all in the yearbook photos if you’re inclined to page through.”
“Did Amber tell you I requested them?” I was so going to interrogate my friend when I saw her tomorrow. That was akin to breaking the bonds of sisterhood and one night stands.
“The fifth, Miss Roberts.” David toasted me with his shot of espresso “Don’t blame me for the high school sports dress code. I was a horny teen. Pretty sure skirts are all I cared about. Tennis skirts, field hockey skirts, lacrosse–”
“Any other sports you’re missing big guy?”
“Anyway…”
“Yes, please continue.” I rolled my eyes as my finger made the circumference of my teeny-tiny coffee cup.
“I ended up reconnecting with Viola the summer I was on leave. We had a fling.”
“Naturally.” I hummed a few bars of Summer Lovin’ from Grease.
David smirked and continued his story. “I was deploying on my first tour and she tells me she’s pregnant.”
I didn’t see that coming. Insert my good foot into my mouth on that one.
“Oh. No. Wow.” My reply was lame and I started to see under the cracked shell he was ripping open for me. An exclusive sneak peak where he kept the vault of emotions he seldom expressed unless he was on the football field or untangling twenty years’ worth of computer wires from the ancient Mrs. Moore, our language arts chair.
“Yeah, well I wanted to do the right thing you know? Provide for them, so I married her thinking that she would move to the base I would have been stationed at.” He rubbed rub his chest absently like the loss hurt him more than he cared to admit. Its sweet, disarming, and hard not to notice when my heart squeezed inside my chest and my hands itched to grab onto him and hug him hard.
I encouraged him to tell me more.
“And then what?”
“Well, I obviously didn’t get Hawaii as my first pick. She wanted sunshine, beaches, and all the pineapple she craved. I ended up going to Fort Hood in Texas and ended up being there for all the craziness.” I remembered hearing about a solider firing on his squad. A few had been injured and two including the shooter died. It was terrible and frightening.
“Oh David, I’m so sorry.”
Our hands reached across the table and I didn’t let go when he started to pull away. I forced him to stay with me in the moment as awful as my inquisition had been he obliged me.
“It worked out, but Viola wanted no part of that. Anyway, I came home on leave thinking that she’d come back with me, but then I found out she was sleeping with someone else. The baby was his, not mine.”
“That’s awful and that poor kid.”
“Yeah, well, tell my mother that. She was so attached to the idea of a baby. She’d spent months buying clothes and things to keep at the house in her excitement. After my brother’s girlfriend skipped town she’s been on our case about grandbabies. We were young too, my brother barely eighteen. I think out of all of us, our mom had it bad.”
“Well If I ever see this Viola chick, I’ll be sure to go crazy on her ass.”
“I would be forever in your debt, but I did hear she relocated to Virginia and I hope she stays there.”
“Deveraux lives in Phoenix so unless we’re going on a road trip they will both live another day.”
“I’m sure we can come up with better things to occupy our time with.” David smiled.
“And that would be?”
The man winked, he actually winked and I was down with it. “Let’s get out of here, I promised you I’d take you home, but how about a drink?”
****
“I think you’re trying to get me drunk, Mr. Easton, and on a school night no less.” I raised my glass toasting him, my hand a little wobbly and I licked the excess from the soft place between my thumb and forefinger.
His eyes widen.
“That’s Specialist Easton, to you madam.” He tapped the edge of my nose playfully and I enjoyed this relaxed version of David.
“What? Ho!” I pulled him in for a quick kiss. Our lips smacked together to quick.
“Nope, not getting away that easily.” He tugged me forward and kissed me again, this time letting his lips linger over mine molding them and then slipping his tongue inside on a desperate moan. I tasted the alcohol on his tongue, smoky and bitter.
Delicious.
Divine.
David.
The irrational part of me recognized the slow decent into feelings-ville. I’d been here before, but this was a roller-coaster that bypassed all the safe stops. I was catching feelings for him and neglected to hit pause for the first time.
I needed to back the train up. I had feelings for this man. Serious as a heart attack kind of feelings. Of course I did, but love? I wasn’t sure where that came from, but I felt it in the deepest part of my heart. The part that said I’d never need love, or a man in my life to feel complete and yet here I was drinking on a Wednesday night without reliable transportation home and all my school stuff tucked away in my hall closet across town.
“Wanna play a game?” We separated for a fraction of a second.
“Any specific game, Specialist Easton?”
He looked at me with a deadpanned expression whispering into my ear.
“Seven minutes in heaven?” He said seriously as I busted out laughing. He could be so random.
“I figured you’d suggest strip poker?” I pushed his beer closer to him.
“Naughty girl. I was hoping to be lucky enough to get my mouth on you again and see what tiramisu, espresso, and dark beer might taste like on your lips.”
My core clenched thinking about that kind of kiss tucked away as we were at a private table without the scrutiny of the world around us. A very thorough exploration of each’s other lips, faces, and other parts that hands might stumble across. Refusing him would be like refusing air, water, or substance.
“Your place is closer and I’m betting you’ve got a closet that needs some…redecorating.”
My suggestion was met with wholehearted acceptance and muttered comment about showing me some damn redecorating. He practically cave-manned me upstairs locking the door behind us.
“I’d give you another grand tour, but I only want to point out one thing.” David took my bag dumping it on his kitchen island. “I have a note center now. For those situations that call for leaving a note and not letting me worry for 48 hours if you made it home alive.”
I smirked. Messaged received.
“Noted.”
“Good.” He said waving me toward a door I hadn’t noticed before. Stepping inside I realized it was a bathroom and I shivered at the chill in the air.
“Not exactly a closet is it?”
“Yoga made me sweat.” He explained turning on the shower. Steam filled the room and before I could politely decline or tell him I was happy to wait outside he pulled off his shirt dropping it on the floor.
Those unicorn abs of his were in full effect. Eight rippling sections that made me foolish and mesmerized.
David’s bathroom was large and a bench was situated outside the shower. It didn’t quite fit the décor and I wondered if it was newly acquired. He sat me down on the bench and followed by moving to haunch in front of me on one knee. If we’d been dating for any length of time the look in his eyes coupled with his new posture would have made me pause and consider his next question carefully. But we weren’t dating and this wasn’t a proposal, just a promise.
