by Hart, Renee
“Well aren’t you stylish and chipper this morning,” Petey said when she stepped into the store. He outstretched his hands, and Chleo did a slow turn to show off her outfit.
“Clee, as pretty as you are, especially today, I’m holding out my hands so you can hand me a Danish and my cup of coffee.”
Chleo pouted, but took out a coffee she had in an egg tray, and then handed Petey an entire bag full of donuts and Danish. He thanked her profusely; ever the dramatist, and then set the items onto the counter.
“Ok, now let me look at you,” he said. He stretched out his hands again and Chleo rolled her eyes and twirled for the second time. Petey nodded his head in approval, silently judging her from head to toe. “Where’s Jess?”
“I left her at The Coffee Cup. She was too busy canoodling with Alfie,” Chleo said. Alfred Reynolds was Jessica’s long time crush when they were in high school. When Alfie and Jessica bumped into each other just around three years ago, they rekindled something that had never actually started when they were teenagers, but beamed at the idea of getting a second chance at potential romance.
It was more than a coincidence that Alfie’s store, The Coffee Cup, and Any Blooming Thing were less than a block apart from each other.
“Ugh, gross,” Petey groaned. He pulled out a brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled donut and stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes rolled in the back of his head and then closed as he took in the sweet flavor. The Coffee Cup definitely had the best donuts and Paninis on this side of town. The fact that they knew the owner made it all the more wonderful for them.
“I know, right?” Chleo said with a giggle. She was still giggling when Jessica came waltzing through the bright red Dutch door.
“And what are you two snickering about?” Jessica asked mid stride. She had a small bag of extra donuts and sandwiches inside, but Chleo had already brought in her coffee.
“About how totally gag worthy you and your new husband are,” Petey said. He sounded so matter of fact about it that Chleo burst into a new fit of giggles. She pinched her nose with her fingers and covered her mouth with her hand to avoid too much attention to herself.
Jessica’s mouth flung open, her eyes darting back and forth between Chleo and Petey. She raised an indignant finger, just about ready to retort until she stopped herself. She lowered her finger, shrugged, and then nodded.
“It’s true,” Jessica admitted. “We’re pretty touchy-feely huh?”
Petey put a finger in his mouth and imitated gagging sounds. Chleo looked at everything in the store except directly at Jessica. She was trying to be the innocent party in this whole thing.
“You’re one to talk Mr. Falls-In-Love-Every-Week. And I can still see you, Ms. Third-Month-Anniversary,” Jessica crossed her arms over her chest and harrumphed. Petey offered a middle finger rather than a verbal retort. Chleo was beaming. She was surprised that Jessica remembered. “What wacky adventure were you and your beau up to this weekend?”
“We had lunch on a scaffold a million miles from the ground,” Chleo said. “It was hella scary, but the lunch and being near Arjun made it worth it. He even got really sweet and romantic.”
Petey batted his eyelashes and made a dreamy look at Jessica.
“Young love. So pure,” he said. He picked up a potted zinnia and held it as gently as one would a child. Jessica and Chleo both groaned and pulled out pastries from their paper bags. It was going to be a long day. With Petey, it always was.
*
“Thanks for picking me up,” Chleo said. She was the last to leave Any Blooming Thing. Jessica left early to pick up her step daughter, Lydia from school. They normally closed at 6, and Petey left at exactly that time without a minute to spare. Chleo stayed just a bit later. She was ordering a new shipment of flowers and working on finances for the end of the month.
Arjun was in surgery for most of the afternoon. He was resetting the leg of a fennec fox that had been hit by a car. He was like a kid describing his very first day at school. He was grinning from ear to ear, but got awfully sad and pensive when he was talking about the fox that had been in pain. Chleo thought he should have been an actor with the way that he used his words and gesticulated. He made her feel like she was right there with him in surgery. He almost made her love animals.
“I’ve never done surgery on one before. He was a lot more docile than I imagined, and they’re usually so quick and agile. Poor thing looked really scared. But we took care of him,” Arjun said as he finished his story.
They were already pulling up by Chleo’s building when he had told Chleo about his surgery and all about his day. Normally Chleo would have a silly outburst with anything anyone said, but she and Arjun had a special relationship. Whenever she spoke, he listened. He was swept up in anything that she told him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and she had his full attention. It was the same way for her.
Arjun had her completely transfixed. She liked listening to him. And there were times of comfortable silences when she would spend the night. And then he would pick up his guitar and play some of the songs that he knew for her. He insisted that he wasn’t any good, but the first time he played an original piece for her, it brought tears to her eyes. They were on the roof of her building. Something about being so high made them feel like they were alone in the world. It was strange to her that Arjun could be afraid of heights, but be brave enough to want to try to overcome that fear when they were together.
“Are you coming up?” Chleo asked. She gave him a sly smile, but didn’t turn her face to fully look at him.
“Would you like me to?” he teased back. Chleo bit her lip. She hadn’t yet even mentioned to her friends that she and Arjun had never had sex. She normally didn’t consider things like that. She decided that if something was going to happen, then she’d just let it happen. With Arjun, she was adamant on letting their relationship go on for 3 months without being intimate. It was for her own sake, she knew. She wanted that reassurance that someone cared about the kind of person she was beyond anything physical that she may have to offer.
Although Arjun had kissed her on the very night that they met, he respected her space and never pushed the topic further. He was patient and considerate and charming in a way that she wasn’t used to.
“I would,” Chleo said finally.
“Then I’d love to spend some more time with you,” he took her by the hand and kissed her knuckles.
Chleo couldn’t believe how perfect she felt. This was the first relationship where all of her boundaries were respected and where she felt there was a mutual connection; the need for their relationship to grow beyond the traditional parts are what kept her even happier.
She couldn’t believe that all of this started because she had hated cats.
Chapter 3
Chleo woke up to the sound of soft purring by her face. She groaned and rolled onto her other side, stretched her arm forward hoping to feel the warmth of Arjun’s body beside her, but there was nothing there. She fumbled around, her cat Luna meowing softly beside her, no doubt wanting to be fed her breakfast.
Another groan escaped Chleo’s throat, and her eyes fluttered open. She was still extremely groggy. Her brain wasn’t properly awake yet.
“Avi?” she called out in a tired voice. Avi was what she called Arjun. It was a nickname that came from his first name, Arjun, and his last name Vaswani. She focused her eyes and noticed an empty space next to her. She was about to roll over again when a big fluffy face with bright yellow eyes came into focus. Her cat Luna sniffed her hair. She was still half asleep when she raised her head.
“Ok Luna, I’m up, I’m up.”
The little ragamuffin purred with approval.
Chleo propped herself on her elbows and scoped the room around her. Arjun was definitely not there. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. It was barely after 7. She remembered that they'd had a wonderful night. They played board games, crossed something silly off of Chleo’s bucket list,
and watched movies until they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Chleo didn’t want to jump to conclusions or think too much about what could have happened during the night. With a loud yawn, Chleo pulled herself up from her bed and lumbered towards the kitchen. Luna followed beside her silently. There was a bounce in Luna’s step. She could probably sense that she was about to get some food. The kitten’s paws tapped softly against the wooden floors of Chleo’s apartment.
Luna pounced up on the counter and paced back and forth. Chleo had gotten so accustomed to her house guest that she was almost beginning to enjoy her company. It was so strange to her that cats were almost her least favorite animal, but this very cat was the reason why she had met Arjun in the first place. Luna was the source of Chleo’s new happiness with Arjun. It was a beautiful sort of irony. It was even more surprising to her that the way Arjun spoke about animals made her more curious about them and less disdainful.
“What’s this?” Chleo said aloud. She noticed a small folded paper on her kitchen island. Her heart skipped a beat when she approached it. She unfolded the note and read it.
‘Went home to get a change of clothes. Gonna bring back something to eat and take you to work. Be back soon. – Avz’
Chleo breathed a sigh of relief when she finished reading the note. Maybe she had seen too much Sex and the City, but she couldn’t help but think that Arjun was going to break up with her via Post it note. She wasn’t sure why it was that she thought that. Sometimes there would be moments when she would hold her breath and just expect to wake up from whatever dream this was that she was having.
It wasn’t that she felt that Arjun was out of her league, but she had been hurt a lot by men who claimed they cared, and was now getting used to rejection or being dumped just a few weeks into a new relationship. She was trying her best to let that go, and she knew she truly wanted to move on and move forward with Arjun, but there were clearly some things that she needed to get through first.
She got Luna some food and watched her eat. She thought of fixing herself breakfast, but she knew that Arjun would be back with something. No doubt it would be something unusual. He was always surprising her with new and exciting foods.
Chleo heard the gentle click of a key setting into her lock. She kept a spare key underneath a phony rock in one of the flower pots that was outside her apartment door. It was more than likely Arjun back with some food. She was glad; she was just on the brink of starvation.
The key jingled and moved clumsily about in the lock and Chleo rushed over to the door to open it. Arjun looked amazing. Chleo was speechless watching him. He had on a black shirt with the top 2 buttons undone and really nice pants. His hair was wet and fell freely around his eyes. It was like watching a model step out of a pool after a photo-shoot.
It took a moment for Chleo to realize that Arjun had too many bags in his hand. She jumped into action and took a white paper bag that he had clenched between his teeth, and two more plastic bags he had in his hands.
“Thanks,” he said. He wasn’t as cheerful as he normally was. It was strange to Chleo, because Arjun wasn’t just a morning person; he was an all-day-every-day kind of cheerful, which Chleo didn’t understand. To her, people were allowed to be grumpy until their first cup of coffee, and then could allow at least another hour of grumpiness when they were counting down until their lunch, and finally an hour of grumpiness before they locked up shop and headed home. It was a formula she had developed since grade school, and it had worked wonders for her.
“You’re welcome babe,” she said. She smiled with one side of her mouth and Arjun kissed the dimple it revealed. He stepped into the apartment and the two of them put the bags on the kitchen counter. Luna came tap tap tapping along the wooden floors at the scent of food. She raised her nose in the air, her round yellow eyes almost twice their usual size.
“Are you ok?” Chleo asked. She had learned by now to ignore Luna completely. This cat was going to eat her out of house and home if it were possible, and she was barely 4 months old. She looked like a miniature version of what a cat should have been.
“Not really,” Arjun admitted.
“What’s wrong?” Chleo’s stomach jumped a bit. Arjun wasn’t really looking her in the eye. Instead, he was unpacking spring rolls and samosas from the white paper bag that Chleo had taken from his mouth and put on the edge of the counter.
“It’s not that something’s wrong…” Arjun said slowly. He pronounced each word like he was trying to be careful in case any of them broke. “It’s that something unexpected has come up.”
“Oh dear. You have a love child,” Chleo said. She was joking…mostly. She wanted to read his face to see if she was anywhere near the ballpark.
“Cute,” he chuckled. “Wrong, but it does involve family.”
“You know you can tell me anything right?”
“I know,” Arjun said. He let out a sigh that sounded more like a hiss of a kettle that had been taken off of a stove.
“Ok, brace yourself…but…my mother is here.”
Chapter 4
“Is he serious? I can’t believe he hasn’t told his mom about you!” Jessica seemed almost angrier about the situation than Chleo. It was Petey’s day off and Chleo and Jessica were alone in the store. They each got a day off during the week, and the day depended on who called what day from the week before. Chleo was leaning over the counter when she filled Jessica in about the whole morning.
“I was too speechless to really do anything about it. When he said his mom was coming, I got kind of excited. And then he told me that she was nuts…”
“How nuts is nuts?” Jessica interrupted. She gesticulated with one hand before resting it under her chin. Her other arm was in front of her chest and balanced the elbow of the arm that now held her head with curious anger.
“His words were like the mother from Bend It Like Beckham without the hope of comic relief,” Chleo said. She made air quotes when she spoke his part and deepened her voice. “And then when I asked how long she would be in town for, and if I could meet her. He said maybe it wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“Asshole,” Jessica growled and shook her head to show that she was very unimpressed. Her voice was low, and she was conversing more to the situation than to Chleo herself with that remark.
“Yeah. We ended up eating very little, and then stuffing the leftovers in my fridge. I rushed to take a shower, and when we got in the car, we barely spoke. I didn’t wanna come off as a nag, but I wanted to know why it was he hadn’t told her about me. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt that maybe he wasn’t ready to tell his mom, but there was this part of me that thinks he’s ashamed of me,” Chleo said. She bit her lip halfway through her last sentence. It wasn’t something she was comfortable saying, even to her best friend.
Jessica’s glassy blue eyes gleamed and softened when she listened to Chleo speak. She went from upset with Arjun to the consoling best friend that Chleo needed.
“There’s no way he could be ashamed. He’s crazy about you. I’ve seen it myself,” Jessica said. “He probably just doesn’t want to hurt the two most important women in his life.”
“That’s a sweet way of looking at it actually,” Chleo said, feeling a bit better. She didn’t want to mention that Arjun had 2 older sisters, so she was definitely fourth on that list. It would have made her laugh to say it, but she wasn’t in the mood to make jokes just then.
“It’s strange though. He doesn’t want to hurt us, but in a way he’s hurting my feelings by making me feel like I’m not good enough, and he’s hurting his mother by not being honest with her. And he’s hurting himself because he’s not opening up and saying what needs to be said,” Chleo said. She looked outside one of the large glass windows, lost in thought.
“See, that’s good. Next time you see him…tell him that.”
“I don’t know when that’ll be. She’s gonna be in town for two weeks. He didn’t exactly say that he wasn’t going t
o see me, but he said he’d be spending a lot of time with his mother. I wouldn’t want him sneaking over just to see me,” Chleo said. She seemed like the more rambunctious one, even when she and Jessica were 15, but Chleo was certainly the more level headed one. Jessica joked and called her ‘mama bear’ a lot because Chleo took care of everyone’s feelings and tried to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes.
“I say you go right over and meet her,” Jessica said.
“He’s gonna get mad.”
“What? No way! It’ll be bold and passionate,” Jessica’s mouth transformed into a defensive O.
“And what if she hates me and really is a total bitch?” Chleo complained.
“Then stand up for yourself. You don’t have to be rude, but you really care about him, and he cares about you. He’s just being a nitwit right now,” Jessica’s arms flailed. With her ginger hair and arms moving about the place, she looked a bit like a woman on fire. “Or…”
Jessica paused her arm flailing and gave Chleo a slow devious smile. She only got that smile when she was planning on doing something bad.
“Where’s he taking her? We can spy on them and find out the kind of person she is so you can meet her and be the perfect girlfriend!” Jessica said with her eyes wide. She said that entire sentence in one breath.
“You’ve been watching too many Sex and the City reruns,” Chleo grumbled.
“There was a marathon on E! on Sunday,” Jessica admitted. She put a hand behind her head sheepishly and scratched. “But still. You’re Carrie Bradshaw and you need to meet Big’s mom! You just need to be willing to sneak into that church! I’m even your Miranda. I have the red hair and blue eyes too! See, this is fate.”
Jessica was getting way too excited about this.
“Let’s not forget that Carrie and Miranda caused a huge scene at the church and Carrie and Big broke up soon after,” Chleo pointed out.
“But they eventually got married,” Jessica retorted. She was being hopeful, and she didn’t feel like backing down.
