by Romi Hart
Being that I lived in a place that needed people like her to protect it, I felt a sense of gratitude for her and others like her. “You’re a good person, Crina. There aren’t many like you, I would venture to bet.”
“There are going to be more and more each day, Zanthe. Global awakening is becoming a thing. And we’ll all be better for it.” Her eyes went to my blood-caked, ripped jeans. “Shall you tell me what happened to you?”
“I stepped on a bear trap. That is the truth.” And it had hurt like hell too.
“And how did you manage to get better so quickly after getting whatever that was your brother injected into your neck?”
That wasn’t easy to answer. But I had to come up with something. “He’s not an actual doctor. Like, he doesn’t have a certificate or anything. But he’s had a lot of experience in the medical field and he’s come up with his own medications that work far better than the ones which are currently on the market.”
“So, you’re saying it was a miracle drug that he used on you to make your leg heal instantly?” The smirk on her lips told me she wasn’t buying it.
“It was.” It wasn’t that much of a lie.
“You know, we’ve got plenty to talk about. I have this feeling that you have some secrets.” Poking my right bicep, she stated, “Your muscles are beyond big. And you’ve got more hair than any person I’ve ever known.”
“I can cut it. I can shave it off. I can look normal. I swear to you that I can.” Her scent had snuck up on me. I’d been in the middle of hibernating when I’d been woken up. I wasn’t planning on meeting my next mate and hadn’t gotten cleaned up.
“I’m sure that you can.” Peering into my eyes, she had no idea how much she affected me. “Your blue eyes remind me of the ocean. I’m sure if you groomed yourself, you would be a fine-looking man.”
“I’ve been told as much.” Her attention to my better attributes had my libido on high alert.
“Come on, let’s get up to the parking lot.” She began to head toward the facility and that would mean she would soon leave me.
And we’d been getting along so well too. “I hate to lose your company already.”
“Yeah.” She kept on going as if she didn’t hate to lose my company at all. “You’re great to talk to. You’re funny too. And I like the fact that you’re on the same page, environmentally speaking, as I am.” Then she stopped and looked at me with her mouth pulled up to one side. “Why do you have to be so dang old?”
WTF?
4
Crina
My father had been ten years older than my mother. Now my mother was a widow and she wasn’t even fifty yet. Older men were out.
Not that I was attracted to Zanthe. He was a huge man, tall, broad in the shoulders, muscles upon muscles, and hairier than anyone I’d ever known.
Even with all the hair which covered his face, I could see what I’d said had pained him. “I don’t yet have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, Crina. It would be great if you stopped comparing my age to that of the crypt keeper. I’m merely in my mid-thirties, not mid-hundreds.”
“Sorry.” I was sorry that the words had slipped off my loose tongue. “So, who is older, you or your brother?”
“Oh, no.” Zanthe shook his head, making his long, shaggy hair bounce around his broad shoulders. “You’re not going to become interested in him just because he’s a couple of years younger than I am.”
“He is?” I had to joke with him. “So, thirty-one then? I could work with that age, I think.” I couldn’t work with it at all, but it was fun to watch Zanthe’s face go red.
“No!” His fists balled at his sides, then he huffed as he opened his fists, adding a chuckle to his voice, “You are a scamp.”
“Am I?” It was so much fun baiting him that way.
I’d been a tease since I’d hit puberty. Everyone told me as much. Boys would come around me, paying attention to me and I would let them think I might be interested. Then, when they leaned in for a kiss, I would walk away, leaving them wondering what they’d done wrong.
My friends had often told me that how I treated guys was mean. But I thought it was hilarious. After all, the boys only wanted to steal away my first kiss so they could run and tell everyone what they’d accomplished. I got the last laugh and that was all that mattered to me.
The spruce needled covered ground gave way to the asphalt parking lot and the tall lights showered us in their dim glow. “So, here we are,” Zanthe mumbled as he swung his arms at his sides. “The parking lot. Where your car is. And soon you will leave. Go home. Alone.”
“You seem like you don’t want to go back to your home, Zanthe.” Perhaps his brother had gone out. “Will you be alone when you get home?”
He looked at me for a moment. “Yes.” Then he shook his head. “No. That was a lie. My brother is at home. I wouldn’t be alone. But for some reason, I thought that if you thought I would be, then you might invite me over to your place for dinner.”
“You must think that all females can cook well.” I had no idea why he wanted me to feed him so badly. “I burn water.”
Grinning at me, he barely tapped me on the shoulder, playfully. “I doubt that.”
“No really, I have absolutely burned a pot that I was boiling water in. I’ve ruined my toaster by putting pancake batter in it, thinking I could use it to make pancakes.” I had ruined more than one appliance in my lifetime.
“Wow.” The total adoration in his eyes seemed to ebb a bit. “Well, not every female has to be a good cook.”
“You’re right, we don’t. I can toss frozen foods into the microwave though. And that is what I am going to do this evening. I will toss in a couple of corndogs, I suppose.” He had to stop thinking I was capable of feeding him.
“Perhaps I should come to cook for you then,” he said with a smile. “I can make cabbage rolls. Doesn’t that sound good to you, Crina? I could teach you how to make them. They’re so easy to make.”
“My mother made them. She tried to teach me. I’m clumsy with the rolling and ended up tearing the cabbage leaves. It looked more like a messy, cooked salad when I was done with it.” The idea of him showing me how to make the food sounded good to me though. It had been a while since I’d eaten anything that wasn’t made from frozen food.
“I will gather the things I will need to make the meal then meet you at your home.” He rubbed his palms together. “And I will bring some beer too. You like beer?”
“I do.” It was starting to sound like a lot of fun. “I know I’ve been wary of you, Zanthe. But my neighbors are so close, they can hear everything. And I have my pepper spray as well. So, I know that I’ll be safe, even if you are a creep.”
“Which I am not, and it will be wonderful to prove that to you, my dear.” He spotted my tiny smart car in the parking lot. “Is this one yours?”
“Yes, it’s mine.” Hurrying to the car, I pulled open the door. “Isn’t it cute?”
“Yes.” He poked his head inside. “And tiny.”
It was obvious that he couldn’t fit into my car. “So, I guess you’re going to be on our own, getting to my apartment since you can’t fit in here with me.”
“I will get my own way there. Give me your address.”
Holding out my hand, I wiggled my fingers. “Give me your cell and I’ll type in my contact info.”
Digging in his pant’s pocket, he finally handed me a very beat-up cell phone. “Here you go.”
“This is pretty beat up. Does it even work anymore?” I hadn’t seen one like his in a few years. “It’s old too.” Suddenly, I thought that he might be very poor and held my tongue from saying anything that might be hurtful. “I think that’s great that you don’t toss away a phone just because it’s older and has been through some stuff. If it still works, use it. You really do care about the planet, Zanthe.”
“I really do.” He took the phone back from me after I’d put in my contact information. “Is it okay if I
come to your place in about an hour?”
“That would be great. That’ll give me enough time to shower and change out of my work clothes.” I had to clean myself up. So far he’d seen me at my worst. Next, he would see me at my best.
“I too shall clean up and change. See you in an hour, Crina.” Then he turned and walked right back into the woods.
As I drove home, I wondered what he’d meant about getting cleaned up. Is he going to shave?
If he was going to do that, then I had to really up my game. Hurrying to get home so I could start getting ready, I parked my car then ran into my apartment building, then up to the third floor and into my little home.
Stripping off my work clothes as I went to the bathroom, I felt something funny in the pit of my stomach. Excitement!
I was really excited about Zanthe coming over. I was excited about making myself pretty for his visit. This had never happened to me before.
What am I feeling right now?
5
Zanthe
With the ranger station closed for the night, I’d found my way inside and happened upon some electric hair clippers. The entire wastebasket had been filled with all the hair I’d shaved off my body.
After using the shower facilities and borrowing some shampoo and body soap that I’d also happened upon, I looked and smelled like a brand-new man.
I had only one more thing to borrow and that was some groceries from their stocked fridge. Like all good Romanians, there were the makings for cabbage rolls in the fridge - plus, a six-pack of my favorite beer.
Even with the near-zero temperature, I whistled as I walked toward town. I’d never felt warmer in my life. A fat and sassy female waited for me. What more could a bear-shifter want?
In no time at all, I stood at her door, fist poised to knock. But first, I had to give myself the once-over to make sure the clothes I had found along the way on a clothesline behind a home with a man of my size living in it, looked as great as they did when I had put them on. Yep, still looking good. Knock, knock, knock.
The door opened and I hardly recognized the lovely girl who stood there, wearing a red dress and shiny black heels. “Zanthe?” she asked with wonder. “Is that you?” Her hand ran over my smooth cheek, making parts of my body hard in an instant. “I can’t believe it. You’re so – so… unbelievable.”
“Thank you?” I asked with some hesitation as I wasn’t sure what she thought. “And you look very different as well, my dear.”
A blush stained her now porcelain cheeks. A bit of makeup accented her natural beauty well. “You like?” Stepping back, she spun around, making the full skirt twirl around her shapely legs.
“I think you look lovely, Crina.” Stepping inside, I went straight to the kitchen to put down the bags I held.
Coming up behind me, she took the beer, taking out two bottles, then putting the rest into the fridge. “Shall we partake while you teach me how to make this meal?” Lowering her head as I turned to face her, she whispered, “You are very handsome, Zanthe. All that hair was hiding quite a man behind it.”
Catching her by the chin, I returned the compliment, “Not that I didn’t think you were beautiful before, but you look like an angel now.”
“Stop it.” She waved her hand as if trying to rid the air of all our sweetness. “Come, teach me, Zanthe.”
“Very well.” Without any ado, we got to cooking and she wasn’t nearly as bad at it as she’d said she was. “You’re rolling the cabbage well, Crina. I see no trouble at all.”
“You’re much more patient than Mom was. She was always in a hurry to get the meals done so my father could eat.” Raising her dirty hands, she reached for a towel she had on a hook nearby. When she yanked it, it pulled the hook right off the wall. “Oh, no!”
Quickly, I popped the pan of cabbage rolls into the oven, then picked up the fallen hook. “I can fix this. Not to worry. Do you have any tools that I can use?”
“In the closet in the bathroom.” She eyed me warily. “But you don’t have to fix it. I can get the handyman for the apartment complex to do it tomorrow.”
If a man lets another man fix his female’s broken things, then he might as well let the man take her as his own as well. “I’ll make the repair, my dear.”
“If you insist. There’s a pink tool bag where you can find the basic tools.” She sat on top of the counter, taking a drink of her beer. “I’ll watch and learn.”
When I went to the bathroom to find the bag of tools, I saw that the faucet in the bathtub dripped. With a quick twist of the wrench, I stopped the drip. And the handle on the toilet wiggled when I touched it. So, I tightened that up. The door didn’t stay shut when it was closed, so I fixed that too.
When I came into the kitchen, Crina held out the hook to me. “Took you long enough. Did you get lost?”
“No, I just fixed a few things that I saw needed fixing.” Taking the hook from her, I put it back on the wall then hung the small towel back on it. “And there you go, my dear.” Scanning the room, I noticed the lock on the door needed to be straightened up some. “Let me get that lock secured and then I believe all the honey-dos will be done.”
“Honey-dos?” she asked.
“That’s what most people call these little chores that a man does for his woman. Some women call their men, honey. Get it?” I used the hammer to pound in a new nail and the lock was once again straight. “There we go.”
When I turned back around with the hammer in my hand, I saw some strange radiant glow coming off Crina’s face. “Wow, you’re so handy, Zanthe.”
“Um, yeah.” I knew how to use tools. I had been around for a very long time and using tools had been one of the first things I had learned about. “A man must know how to fix things around the home or he’s useless to his woman.”
Smitten, Crina sighed as she watched me come toward her to put the hammer away in her pink tool bag. “I agree.” Fanning herself with her hand, she seemed to be getting hot. “Whew, the stove must be on high. I’ve gotten warm all of a sudden.”
Putting the tools away, it occurred to me that she was getting turned on by watching me fix things. “Well, if you like that, then there’s a whole host of things I could fix around here if I bring a few more tools.” I pointed to the light fixture on the ceiling that needed to be taken down and cleaned. “If I bring in a ladder, I can clean that light up for you.”
“Oh, I can’t ask you to do that.” Even though she’d said that - she bit her lower lip in a seductive fashion that I was pretty sure she had no idea was so sexy. “But if you have a ladder, then why not? It is dirty up there.” She took another drink of the beer. “Having a real man around is pretty helpful, I must admit. So far you’ve taught me how to make cabbage rolls, which my family will be shocked to find out, and you’ve shown me how those tools are supposed to be used.”
She seemed impressed. And I was glad about that. Leaning my shoulder against the wall, I picked up my bottle of beer. “After dinner, maybe we could play a game.”
Apprehension filled her, making her body rigid. “What kind of game, Zanthe? I know I seem a little awe-struck by your abilities, but I’m still not going to jump into anything. We still barely know one another.”
“Yes, I agree.” And that is why the game would be so helpful. “We can play Twenty Questions.” The way I would play it, would have the two of us getting to know one another so well, that we could get past all the barely knowing each other bologna and get to the getting to know each other part of it.
“I’m game,” she said with a smile.
Then, by all means, let the games begin.
6
Crina
Sitting on the tiny couch that came with the furnished apartment, Zanthe’s great size made it so our legs had to touch for us to fit on the thing. Balancing our plates on our laps proved precarious, but we managed somehow. “These are rolled nice and tight. You might make a cook yet, Crina.”
“All I did was put the cabbage
rolls together. You seasoned the meat and blanched the cabbage leaves in boiling water. I’m not quite ready for my own apron just yet.” Taking another bite, I had to let him know how yummy the food he’d made was. “I hate to admit this, but this tastes much better than my mother’s ever has.”
“I use secret ingredients,” he let me know as he finished off his food.
“Would you like some more? I’ll be happy to get up and get you some.” I was the hostess after all and already he’d done much more than I had. I’d merely rolled some leaves around some ground meat and drank a beer while he worked circles around me.
Getting up, he took his plate to the kitchen. “No thank you. I’m stuffed.”
I found it hard to believe that a man of his size could be stuffed by a couple of cabbage rolls, but who was I to say? “I have pudding in the fridge if you want something sweet.”
Washing his plate, he put it into the drainer then turned to look at me with a grin on his face. “I have my mind set on something sweet but it’s not in the fridge, my dear.”
I had the idea that he was talking about me. Only I wasn’t about to let him think he was going to get any kisses from me. I’d saved my lips for the right guy for twenty years. Zanthe wasn’t about to bargain with me for my first kiss.
Coming to me, he took my now empty plate out of my hands. “Allow me. It’s time for our little game. Take a seat on the floor. Sit with your legs crossed, one over the other. We’ll face each other while we ask each other questions. While I wash this dish, you might want to think about what you would like to ask me.”
I wasn’t sure I would like this game. It seemed as if he wanted to get to know lots about me without putting in the time. “I don’t move fast, Zanthe. I would assume that men your age do move fast. I mean, it’s not like you have the kind of time that I still do. You’re most likely in a rush to get married and have children before you get too old to do that.” I was kidding. Sort of.
