by S. L. Baum
Pete gave Opal a wink. “That’s my girl.”
It took almost two hours for Sam, Opal, and Jim to get through the wave of people who continued to arrive for dinner. During much of that time, Krista sat at the counter reading on her phone. When it was finally slow enough again, Opal and Pete tucked themselves into a booth in the corner. They sat next to each other, Pete’s arm draped around Opal’s shoulders. Abe and Eli had pushed the chessboard to the side and ordered dessert; two slices of pie with vanilla ice cream. Once Sam was finished with them he parked himself in front of Krista, on the other side of the counter.
“Can I get anything else for you?”
“Can you make another one of those paper swans?” Krista asked. “I want to watch you do it, to see how it’s done.”
“With pleasure,” Sam said. “But I’m gonna go in the back and get a piece of white printer paper. It’s bigger and you can see all the folds better,” he explained.
“Awesome, thank you. This little guy is so cute,” Krista said with a smile, pointing to the paper swan he’d made from an order sheet. She had it balanced on top of the saltshaker in front of her. “I’ve never tried origami, except for those fortune teller things we used to make in elementary school.”
“What do you mean?”
“Grab an extra piece of paper and I’ll show you,” Krista told him.
Sam disappeared through the swinging door and came back with two sheets of paper. He sat down on a stool next to her and handed one of the sheets to Krista. “Maybe I should have grabbed more paper. Do you want to do a swan with me or just watch me?
“Oh. No. This is good. I think I’d fumble my way through, and it would end up contorted and wrong. Too many tiny folds. I just want to watch you.”
“I’m sure you could do it, but okay. Here it goes.” Sam bit his lip in concentration as he made the first fold. “I’ll do it slow.”
Krista leaned forward and watched his hands as they folded and manipulated the paper. “Are there different ways to do it?”
“There are different swans you can make. They can look like they’re in flight or like they’re floating on a pond. You can give them skinny pointed tails, thicker bent ones… actually, there are lots of variations,” he told her as he continued to fold. “This part will be the wings, this part the neck, and the tail is here,” Sam explained, pointing to the different folds in the paper.
Krista watched his fingers as they expertly and carefully brought the swan to life. She thought Sam had strong looking hands, and she found herself concentrating on them more than the paper. When he folded the neck of the swan, all Krista could think about was that she wanted to feel his hands on the back of her neck, his fingers trailing down her spine. She closed her eyes and took a long, slow breath. She had no idea where that thought had come from, and it shocked her. Sam was obviously an attractive guy, but she didn’t want that kind of attention from him… or did she?
“Are you falling asleep on me?”
Krista’s eyes popped open. Sam held the swan barely an inch from her face. She was nose to nose with the paper creation. “No. I was just… just trying to visualize, to recreate your steps in my mind.”
Sam placed the swan on the counter in front of her. “Yeah. Okay. So, your turn. Fold up a fortune teller.”
Krista folded one corner of the paper until it touched the long side, and she made her first crease. “It’s got to be a perfect square so you can cut this bottom part, or tear it off. I usually just tear it,” she explained as she creased the bottom with her fingernail and then carefully ripped two and a half inches from the paper. “So now this is a square with a diagonal fold, and then you fold it on the other diagonal.” Krista continued to talk through her motions, folding corners up, and back until she was able to move her hands into position. “Thumb and index finger,” she explained as she alternately opened and closed the fortune teller.
“I totally remember these now. I don’t think the girls at my school called them fortune tellers, though. Don’t you write words and numbers and stuff on all the little flaps?”
“Yup!” Krista smiled. “Or you could play MASH with it, but I always played MASH on just a plain piece of paper with a pencil or a marker, writing all the stuff out. That way we could change up the boys’ names every time.”
“Mansion, apartment, shack, house,” Sam said. “Alright, it is all coming back to me now. Cootie catcher! That’s what they called these things at my school,” he exclaimed, pointing to the paper she held. “Wow, that brings back memories. Give it here. “He snatched it from her hand. “I want to write on it.”
Sam pulled a pen from his apron, angled his body away from hers, and started writing. Krista grabbed his shoulders and tried to get a peek at what he was doing, so Sam moved further away.
“Oh, come on,” Krista protested. “I made the thing.”
“Patience.”
“You use that word too much.”
When Sam turned back around he was holding the fortune teller with his thumbs and index fingers. “Pick a color.”
Krista looked at her four choices. “Yellow.”
“Y.E.L.L.O.W.” Sam spelled out the word as he moved the paper flaps back and forth with his hands. “Pick a number.” He angled the fortune teller toward her so she could see the choices written inside.
“Four.”
“One. Two. Three. Four. Now pick another number.”
Krista looked again. “Six.”
Sam opened the flap with the six written on it, and let Krista read what he’d written inside.
“Sam’s the greatest!” Krista read out loud. “Maybe I should have picked number eight.” She took the fortune teller from him and opened that flap. “Sam’s the greatest!” Krista opened the rest of the flaps. “They all say, Sam’s the greatest!”
Sam bobbed his head up and down. “He kinda is!”
Krista reached over and smacked him on the shoulder. “Don’t you have some work to do?”
Sam laughed. “But I do excellent work of getting on your good side!”
“You’re a piece of work, that’s what you are.” Krista laughed with him. “I think I’ll go home now. Thanks for the origami lesson. Bye, Abe. Bye, Eli.” Krista waved. “Goodbye, lovebirds,” she added as she blew a kiss over to Opal and Pete.
Sam walked with her to the front door. “Can I come by later?”
Krista looked down at the two swans she held in her hand. “If you want.”
Sam took a step closer to her. “What do you want?”
Krista looked up, meeting his gaze. “Yes. Come over. I’d like that.”
Chapter Twelve
Krista was on her couch, half asleep, when she heard a knock at the door. She’d changed into pajama shorts and a t-shirt and then put on a movie, when she got back from the diner, but she had ended up dozing off about half way through. Krista sat up and stretched her arms above her head, letting out a yawn. “Coming,” she mumbled.
The scratch in her throat as she uttered the single word reminded her of the mint tea she’d left on the table before falling asleep. Krista reached for the glass and took a gulp as another knock sounded. “I’m coming,” she said a little louder, standing up from the couch. She put her hands in her hair and rubbed her scalp; a little blood flow to the brain always helped to wake her up. Her grandmother had sworn by it.
When she opened the door, Sam took one look at her tired eyes and tousled hair and gave her an apologetic smile. “I woke you. Sorry.”
Krista rubbed her face. “I must have been exhausted. I don’t even remember closing my eyes. Come in.”
Sam stepped forward, closing the door behind him. “I stayed a little later than usual so I could close up with Jim. Opal and Pete took off right after you did.”
Krista leaned against the wall and smiled. “They are so cute together.”
Sam noticed his two swans on the table near the couch and placed the fortune teller down beside them. “I thought you might want t
his, since it tells the truth and all.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sam’s the greatest.”
Sam stepped closer to Krista and placed his arms on either side of her shoulders, his palms pressing into the wall. Krista looked into his eyes, suddenly awake. She felt the heat of his body as he leaned forward, getting even closer to her. She arched her back, an automatic response to his nearness, wanting to close the gap between them.
“I really want to kiss you,” Sam told her in a quiet voice.
Krista’s only answer was to quickly bring her mouth to his. She placed her hands on his hips and pulled him against her. Sam closed his eyes as his body pressed her flat against the wall. He moved his hands to the sides of her face, kissing her with abandon. Krista softly moaned against his mouth, and Sam could feel flames igniting inside him.
He pulled back and looked at her. “I’ve been picturing this in my head for weeks, maybe since the day I met you.”
Krista’s chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. “You hated me then,” she reminded him.
Sam shook his head. “I tried to. It didn’t work.”
He brought his mouth down on hers, hungry for the taste of her once again. Krista moved her hands under Sam’s shirt, gripping his back, pulling him even closer to her. She nipped at his upper lip and drew his bottom lip into her mouth, sucking on the flesh. She leaned her head back slowly, dragging her teeth across the tender skin as she released his lip from her mouth. Sam drew in a slow ragged breath as Krista pushed the front of his shirt up. She kissed his skin; it was smooth and warm, and she could feel his muscles contract as she moved her hands over his chest.
His flesh dotted with goosebumps, either from her cool hands, or from the excitement of it all… or maybe it was a combination of both. “You’re killing me,” Sam breathed.
Krista raised her head, her full lips slightly swollen. “I’m sorry, I kind of attacked you, didn’t I?”
“No need to apologize.” Sam kissed her. “I’m not complaining.” He kissed her again. His hands were in her hair, and then they moved down her body, resting on her hips. His fingers found the inch of exposed skin on her lower back, between the bottom of her shirt and the top of her shorts, and he trailed his fingers along that line as they continued to kiss.
Krista finally pulled back. “We should probably take a step back and slow down.” She bit at her bottom lip. “I’m not really sure how far I’m prepared to take this tonight.”
“We’ll take it as far as you want to, and not a step further,” Sam told her as he pushed the hair back from her face. “Just to be clear, does slow mean stop? I’m just asking.”
“Not yet,” Krista answered with a smile. “But the couch might be a more comfortable place to take it slow.”
“Thank God!”
Krista laughed. “Not ready to stop?”
“Hell no.”
“Me either,” Krista whispered. She took his hand and led him to the couch. “Tell me if I’m asking too much, but… shirts off? But my sports bra stays on and so does everything else. I just want to feel your skin against mine, but I’m not willing to take off any more and I don’t want to push you too far over the edge. So just say no if that’s going to maybe be an issue. I’m talking too much… terrible habit of mine.” She looked down at the floor. “I’m ruining this, aren’t I?”
“Whatever you want, Krista. I’m game for whatever you want to do.” He pulled his shirt over his head. Sam held her face and kissed her softly. “I’m not some oversexed animal. I can control myself. Cross my heart,” he whispered against her lips as they stood in front of the couch.
Krista pushed him down on the couch and moved over him, straddling his body. She pulled her shirt off and froze for a moment. What was she doing? What was she thinking? When Sam put his hands on her waist and looked up at her, her worries disappeared. She slowly lowered her body and he twisted onto his side so she could lie beside him, facing him. Sam placed his hand at the small of Krista’s back and waited for her to make the next move.
Krista traced the contours of his face with her hand, the line of his jaw, the bridge of his nose, the stubble on his cheeks. She traced his lips with the tip of her finger and brought her mouth to his. She kissed him softly, small airy kisses at the corners of his mouth and then pressed her lips firmly against his. When Krista traced Sam’s lips with her tongue, he groaned, pulling her hips against his.
He kissed her deeply, explored her mouth with his tongue, while his hand moved slowly up and down her spine. Their mouths crushed together. When Sam trailed kisses down her neck and across her shoulders, Krista’s breath caught in her throat. She moved her head back, lengthening her neck, and scratched at his back with her nails.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered against her skin. “And I would like nothing more than to continue with this,” he told her between kisses. “But if I am going to maintain my control, I think we should definitely stop.” He placed a kiss in the hollow of her throat.
Krista looked at him with half closed eyes, and then kissed him softly on the lips. “I think you’re right,” she told him. She turned around, pressing her back against him, and reached for the TV remote. Sam rested his hand on her stomach and as she searched for something to watch, he kissed the back of her neck and the tip of her ear.
“I thought you said we should stop?” Krista said with a soft laugh.
“You can’t give me that drug and then expect me to stop cold turkey. I’ll ease myself down from the high.”
Krista snuggled herself into the curve of his body. “You can do that as long as you’d like. It feels amazing,” she told him.
Krista put on an Eighties teen flick, and Sam continued to place small kisses on the back of her neck. She closed her eyes and started to fall away, melting into the feeling of him.
As Sam felt her body relaxing against him, he whispered her name. “Krista?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you landed in Cedar Creek.”
“Me too.”
When the alarm on Krista’s phone started to go off, her eyes opened and she found herself in her bed. Sam was there, his arm draped across her stomach. She vaguely remembered Sam turning the TV off and walking with her to the bedroom. They’d both crawled under the covers and fallen asleep.
Krista grabbed her phone from the nightstand to quiet the buzzing.
Sam stirred beside her, and Krista turned her body to look at him. You’re an idiot, she told herself. You are getting ready to take a death, and you start something with the nephew of your landlord. Good thinking! “I should have waited,” she whispered.
Sam heard her speak, but didn’t open his eyes. She should have waited? What did Krista mean by that? He assumed that she didn’t intend for them to jump headfirst into a make out session like they did. Did she regret it? He replayed the first kiss in his head. While he was the one who said the words, she was the one who initiated the kiss. She wanted to be there with him, just as much as he did, he could feel it. He just hoped she wasn’t feeling buyer’s remorse, after having some time to think about it.
Then another thought occurred to him. Damn! She didn’t mean wait for someone else, someone better? Did she? His eyes popped open “Waited for what?”
“You’re awake. Oh God, morning breath.” She jumped up from the bed and ran into the bathroom.
Sam heard the water turn on and then the sound of brushing. He got out of bed and followed her into the bathroom. He reached over her shoulder, grabbed the toothpaste from the counter, and squeezed a little onto his finger. “This wasn’t exactly a planned sleep-over, but this will do.” He did a little finger brush of his teeth and then rinsed his mouth out.
Krista finished, rinsed out her mouth, and then turned to him. “You’re in your boxers,” she stated.
Sam smiled. “You’re in sexy little shorts and a sports bra.”
“Sorry. Stating the obvious. The last I remember, you had jeans on.”
“Too uncomfo
rtable to sleep in. I took them off,” he explained. Sam took a step toward her, backing her up against the bathroom wall. “I heard you say that you should have waited. Waited for what?” he asked again.
Krista stared at his chest, she wanted to put her hands on it and trace all the curves in his skin. She wanted to kiss every inch of him. Stop it! “I was just thinking that we could have shared a kiss or two, and then watched a movie. But instead, I jumped all over you… and then I pulled everything to a stop.” Jeez, those boxer briefs look amazing on you!
Sam put his hands on either side of her face and tilted her head up to look at him. He kissed her softly on the mouth. “I wanted you to jump all over me and I was willing to stop. It wasn’t a mistake. Nothing that feels this good could be a mistake.” He kissed her again; harder, deeper, and more intense than any kiss they had shared the night before.
Krista could feel the ground fading away from beneath her. She ended the kiss and put her hands on his shoulders. “You can’t do this to me right now. I have to get to Marlene’s, I have to go to work, I have to get away from you before I do something that I just don’t want to do right now. Damn, you’re really freakin’ good at that.” She licked her lips and took a breath. “Why do I have to be so sensible?” she muttered as she walked away from him, leaving him standing by the bathroom door.
“I’m working at the diner again tonight, with Friday nights being so busy and all, but I’m coming back here the moment we close,” he called after her. “No obligations, no work tomorrow, nothing but you and me.”
“I’ve been warned.” Krista grabbed some clothes from her closet and set them on the bed before she returned to where Sam still stood. “I’m getting in the shower now, and I’ll be closing this door behind me. Get dressed, go home.”
Sam leaned in and placed a kiss on her shoulder. “But come back?”
“Yes. Come back.” She pushed Sam away from the door with a smile and closed it behind her.
Sam pressed his forehead against the bathroom door as he listened to Krista turn on the water. “I’ll see you tonight.”