“I'd had a very bad day. My stock dropped.”
“And that makes you sleep with people you don't like?”
“No, it makes me drink vodka tonics with extra lime. And sometimes it leads to sleeping with someone I don't like. But it's not that I dislike Michael as a person. He's a good-looking enough man.”
“Who fundamentally disagrees with everything you stand for.”
“Well, he has bought stock in my company, so he can't be all bad, political, social and spiritual views aside.”
“What other view is there?”
“The strictly physical view. Nice smile. Nice body. Nice voice. Nice hands.”
“I've never noticed his hands.”
“That's because they haven't been all over your body.”
I cringed. “ Ewww. Okay. I still think of him as a brother, so you can leave the deets out of your conquest this time.”
“He's an amazing lover. Quite aggressive.”
“Must be why he and Rachel stayed married so long. So what does this mean? You're not going to start dating him, are you?”
“I can't imagine what we'd possibly do other than what we've already done, which is fine by me. There are four basic human needs. Do you know what they are?”
“I have a feeling you're going to tell me sex is one of them.”
“Food, drink, sleep, and sex. And not exactly in that order, either. I'll admit Michael wasn't my first choice, though. I had a drink with Cortland before he had to jaunt off to some play of Zoe's.”
“Ohmigod. You're the reason Michael was late to Zoe's play?”
“He made it in time for the third act, didn't he? Besides, I think our first two acts were far more interesting.”
I shook my head. “No wonder he was in such a good mood when he arrived.”
Anh smiled proudly. “Michael was in a good mood? Of course he was in a good mood, what am I saying? And now that I think about it, all Cortland did was ask questions about you before he took off.”
I straightened my shoulders. “He did? What sort of questions?”
“About you and da Vinci, for one thing. If you've dated since you lost Joel, how it happened, how you're coping with the boys. He didn't mention your sister once.”
“He just wants to get to know her family better is all. I think she might be getting serious about him. They're all coming here for dinner on Sunday. It's Dad's birthday and I get birthday duty.”
We bagged up the leaves, and I tried to get Cortland out of my mind. I don't know why I was looking forward to seeing him again. So my sister was dating a nice, sweet, funny guy who asks about me. Big deal.
Anh placed the bags in the trashcan and we went inside. My neighborhood coffee was in thirty minutes, just enough time to shower and put on the coffee and rolls.
“Here's the number you asked for,” Anh said, handing me a business card. The chakra specialist. I couldn't believe I was going to see a yogi. “You'll thank me later. I can't wait to see what the new and improved Ramona looks like. Scratch that. What she feels like.”
After Anh left, I peeled off my clothes and stepped into the shower and began humming a favorite song of Joel and mine: Sonny and Cher's “I Got You, Babe. ” Sometimes I thought the shower hitting my scalp was like pushing the on button on the stereo in my mind. I only sang Sonny and Cher in the shower, and even then, I sang badly but with fervor.
When I paused to grab the shampoo, the song went on without me. Through the shower glass, I saw a frame, da Vinci's frame, as he peeled off his shirt and hummed the song I didn't even know he knew. “Is okay to shower now, Mona Lisa?” he asked.
I instinctively covered my body parts, which was ridiculous since he obviously meant to get in with me. The very naked me. I sucked in my stomach, stuck out my chest and smoothed my hair back. “Come on in, da Vinci.”
When is a shower more than a shower? When you share it with someone else. Especially a someone with a hard, wet body pressed up against yours, thigh to thigh, chest to chest, arms wrapped around each other's slick, soapy bodies. And then? Lips on lips. Lips on collar bone. Lips on breast, stomach, thighs. Anh was right. Enlightenment can come from the simplest things. We hadn't even gotten to actual sex yet, and I was feeling the out of body experience that came with the transition from becoming to being.
I wasn't thinking of anything while we were in the shower, mind you. It was better than getting back on a bike, one thing leading to another and I would have most certainly let nature take its course if it hadn't been for Zoya and Gabriella both calling my name in their thick accents beyond my bedroom door. “Ramona, we're here.”
“Shit.”
“No stop,” da Vinci said as he continued to kiss me.
I began to panic. “Didn't you hear that? My neighbors are here. I can't believe we've been in here thirty minutes already.”
“Just five more minutes,” da Vinci said, and as much as I would've liked to have gone through with it, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it knowing my neighbors could walk in on us any minute. They had no idea I had company. Why would they?
“Here's the plan. I go out first. You wait five minutes, get dressed. Fully dressed, da Vinci. And walk out the front door and around to the studio. Okay?”
Da Vinci scrunched his brow but said okay. “But shower nice, no?”
I kissed him one last time, hard on the lips. “Yes. Shower very nice.”
Gabriella, Zoya, and Simone were already eating cinnamon rolls they had heated themselves when I joined them.
Zoya was complaining, her hands flying everywhere as she spoke. “I'm tired of baby-trying,” she said. “Used to sex two times a week. Now sex every night. Zoya don't need baby that bad.”
Gabriella, who had five children, reassured her. “Just get pregnant, and you'll get sex much less often. He'll be afraid to hurt the baby and after baby comes, you'll get sex hardly ever.”
“Really?” Zoya's eyes widened. “Then maybe baby now good thing.”
We laughed, but my neighbors stopped laughing, Simone's eyes like saucers, when da Vinci, wearing only a yellow towel that barely closed, walked through the kitchen, his hair still dripping wet. “Da Vinci!” I yelled, wishing I had a dishcloth big enough to cover his whole body. What part of get dressed and go through the front door did he not understand? I swear. Sometimes he says okay when he has no idea what I'm saying.
“ ¡Dios Santo! “ Gabriella gasped in Spanish. Sweet Lord in Heaven.
“ Pelo amor de Devs! ” Simone whispered in Portugese. Heaven help us.
“ Glückliches weibchen, ” Zoya said in German.
“Zoya!” I scolded. She'd called me a lucky bitch.
“Ladies,” da Vinci said, walking casually over to me where he planted a kiss on my temple. It didn't take a brain surgeon to figure out we both had wet hair and had come out of the bathroom within minutes of each other. And the kiss said more than any explanation could. “Good morning.” He proceeded to pour himself a cup of coffee while we all stared at him. What could I do?
“Good morning, indeed,” said Gabriella.
Simone slit her eyes. “You didn't tell us you'd already had breakfast, Ramona.”
“The shower in the studio is broken,” I told them nonchalantly.
“I'll have Jesús fix it,” Gabriella said, then raised a brow. “Or perhaps not so fast?”
We smiled, the chemistry in the room thick with surprise, our eyes all on da Vinci's back where drops of water glistened on his shoulders.
“ Schlechtes Mädchen, ” Zoya said as she wagged her finger at me. Bad girl.
Being bad had never felt so good.
Chapter 10
I'D NEARLY CONVINCED MYSELF the shower scene was an anomaly, an erratic blimp in an otherwise normal platonic relationship, yet for the life of me, I couldn't get it-or him-out of my head.
The cursor blinked on the screen, beckoning me to conjure the words, to fill the white space in the quiet hours meant for my dissertation. My outline clearly demanded I write about the history of love letters, but contrarily I'd spent the morning reading the most romantic love letters the world has ever seen and fantasizing about finishing what da Vinci had started.