David seemed to sense her shift, and asked with a small smile, “I suppose it’s no use asking you what you’re doing tonight?” I don’t think I’d ever seen Sarah blush, before or since.
“We were going—” I started, trying to save her.
“To my place to watch movies,” Sarah finished. She glanced at me and tapped underneath her chin with her index finger, and once again, I closed my mouth. I knew exactly what she was up to, and while I’d been the one to ask for it, I suddenly wondered what I was in for.
“Wanna come?” Her invitation was warm and genuine. I felt it in my belly at the sound of her voice, and David’s eyes were dark with his response.
“Yes,” was all he said, and I swallowed hard.
“Great, we’ll all make a night of it.” She got up to start closing up shop, brushing by him and intentionally—I knew how oh-so-intentionally—letting her hip rub against his shoulder as she reached for the light switch. I slid off the desk. I couldn’t do anything now but follow. I didn’t realize until later that it was what I’d been doing all along.
CHAPTER FOUR
The similarities between the night Sarah and I had first been together were eerie.
It served to be quite a bookend to our relationship, I suppose. When the three of us emerged from the building, the sky was dark and had opened up in sheets of rain. We stood huddled in the alcove for a moment, and I gasped and moved instinctively closer to David when lighting struck not too far in the distance. He offered to go get his car and drive us all to Sarah’s, but she shook her head.
“No, I don’t want to leave my car here,” she said. “Hey, Lizzie, why don’t you ride with David? You can show him the way to my place, and I’ll stop and pick up a movie on the way.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her and she just looked at me, steady. Okay, okay, so I was supposed to trust she knew what she was doing. I glanced at David and saw his disappointment at not riding with Sarah. I wondered if he could see mine… or if she could.
“Okay,” was all I could say. “We’ll see you there?”
“Yep.” She slipped off her heels, covered her head with her purse, and bolted for her car. The sight of her bare legs, the flash of skin under her skirt as she fled, her squeal at the stinging rain already soaking through her blouse, were enthralling. I looked over at David and saw the same thing in his eyes. What a pair we were.
“I’ll go get my car,” he said, not even looking at me. “You wait here.” I nodded and watched him walk through the parking lot while I stood in the corner of the alcove, just beginning to shiver. When he pulled up, he reached over and opened the door for me, and I slid inside. Just in the dash to the car door, I was soaked. It was warm and dry in the car, the heat already kicked up. I huddled against the door, my teeth chattering. He looked over at me and chuckled.
“Here,” he said kindly, reaching behind the seat and bringing forward his suit coat. “You look like a drowned kitten.” I tucked the jacket in around me. He was a big guy-it covered from just under my chin all the way to the middle of my shins-and although the outside was wet, the inside was dry, and brought a little more thankful warmth.
He turned the radio on low, to the alternative station I always listened to, which surprised me. I instructed him slowly, in stages, on how to get to Sarah’s, and he followed the directions casually. Other than that we were pretty quiet. He hummed along to the songs, and I stole sideways glances at him in the dimness. His hair was even more curly when wet, it seemed, and in spite of myself, I had a sudden urge to finger one of those curls at the nape of his neck. He pulled up to Sarah’s apartment but he left the car running.
“Looks like she’s still at the video store,” I said.
“Do you have a key?” The awareness in his eyes was unmistakable. He knew. I shook my head, denying it, although I did have a key and he probably knew that, too.
“Well… I guess we wait, then.”
The silence stretched and the rain fell steadily on the car roof. I looked up at the warm squares of apartment windows, wondering at the secret lives in each and if they compared in any way to the drama of my life in the past few months. I reached over to turn the radio up and he didn’t object.
Oh Sarah, what was I thinking? I mused, finding her window, lowly lit on the second floor, the balcony glistening in the rain. I love you and he loves you and how in the world is this ever going to make any of us happy? I almost expected her to come out onto the balcony, a modern-day Juliet. Romeo was here, sitting next to me in his Lumina… but who was I? There was no part for me to play here.
A streak of lightning followed a powerful crack of thunder so swiftly they seemed simultaneous. I gasped, clutching at David’s sleeve. Storms always made me both exhilarated and uneasy with their sheer force, but this was so abrupt it more than startled me-I admit it, I panicked.
The rain, which had been slowing a bit, instantly became a deluge, pouring over the windshield like a waterfall. Thunder rumbled again, and another bolt of lightening hit the ground in the middle of the field next to the apartment building. I gasped and jumped again. David instinctively put his arm around me and pulled me closer.
Then the hail started. The angry, tin-roof sound was deafening, and we watched as it hit the windshield and bounced off like ping-pong balls into the parking lot and onto the grass. It was surreal. Another clap of thunder had me whimpering and hiding my face against his shirt. He stroked my wet hair, cradling my head under his chin. He intuitively understood, I think, my reaction to the power of the storm. And I was thinking of Sarah, out in this by herself. Then I realized he probably was, too.
“Shh.” He comforted me, his voice soothing and low. I hadn’t realized until he said something that I was still whimpering. “It’s letting up. It’ll be over soon.” He was right. The deeper sound of the hail was slowing, replaced by the lighter sound of rain. As the storm ebbed, I slowly became aware of his body against mine.
He’d pulled me in tight to comfort me, and we sat thigh to thigh, my cheek resting on his damp shirt. The steady sound of his heartbeat calmed me.
I became aware of a few dark curly hairs framed by the edges of his white button down shirt where he’d undone the top two after taking off his tie-obviously all before I got into the car. I hadn’t noticed before. His hand was still in my hair, and I heard and felt him inhale deeply, breathing in the scent of me. I closed my eyes for a moment and simply let myself feel him, solid and warm, his breathing a little quicker now, his hand moving to my shoulder and squeezing slightly. It felt good. More than that-it felt right.
I tilted my head to look up at him, the outline of his jaw, the curve of his mouth.
He met my eyes and the power of what I saw there made me weaker and more afraid than I’d been a few minutes ago during the storm. I flushed with anticipation and he smiled, his eyes even darker, wolfish in their sudden hunger. How had we gone from me huddling against the door, jealous and petulant and as far away from him as I could get, to this warm and intimate embrace? Ten minutes ago I thought the distance between us was immeasurable. A thunderclap later, I realized, the actual distance was just a tug and slide across the leather seat and the inner distance was really much, much less than that.
Both of us startled when Sarah knocked briefly on the window and continued on to the apartment’s main door. We both quickly and a little guiltily untangled ourselves, and I silently handed his jacket back. I saw Sarah silhouetted in the doorway, waiting for us.