by Sandy Lowe
“Can I offer you something to drink?”
Gina hesitated, or at least, feigned hesitation. “I don’t want to keep you from what you’re doing.”
Kel looked at the mower shook her head. “Clearly, I wasn’t doing much of anything.”
Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard after all. “In that case, I’d love a drink.”
“Right this way.” Kel led them through the house to the kitchen. “I’m still stocking my kitchen, I’m afraid. I can offer you water, Pepsi, or a beer.”
“I’ll have a beer if you are.”
“Oh, I’d say we’re safely at beer o’clock. I’ve also yet to get a sofa. Shall we sit on the deck?”
They talked until the sun went down and the air began to take on a chill. They talked about jobs and hometowns and favorite movies and reasons for moving to Ithaca. Eventually, Kel offered to make dinner. Gina never expected things to go so well. She’d have to find a way to thank Olivia.
They threw some vegetables and skewers of shrimp on the grill. Kel opened a bottle of wine and they moved inside to the antique dining room table Kel had inherited from her grandmother. They polished off three of the cookies. Even after eating, they lingered at the table.
“Did you prime it?” Gina asked.
“Excuse me?”
“I was thinking about your poor lawn mower. Did you prime it before you tried to start it?”
Kel frowned. “I don’t know what that means.”
Gina looked at her. “Have you never used a lawn mower?”
“I just moved here from the city. I’ve never had reason to use a lawn mower.”
Gina resisted the temptation to tease her. It had only been a couple of years since she’d moved up from Brooklyn, and she’d had plenty of her own debacles with yard work. “There’s a little button on the side of the motor. You have to push it a few times before you start it. The engine is cold, so you have to prime it to get it to start.”
Kel smiled at her, easy and slow. “You know, I don’t know much about lawn mowers, but I’m familiar with the concept.”
The look on Kel’s face, combined with the subtext of her words, made Gina’s insides go hot and full of yearning. She returned the smile. Two could play at that game. “It’s like being neighborly. You want to ease into it with a little something sweet.”
Kel leaned forward on the table, bringing her face within a foot of Gina’s. “Is that so?”
Gina shifted slightly but didn’t break eye contact. She licked her lips in anticipation. “It is.”
“Is that what you’re doing here? Easing into it?”
“Something like that.” Gina would swear she could feel the heat radiating from Kel. Maybe it was her own temperature ratcheting up a notch.
“What about right now? Am I easing in too far? Too fast?”
Gina swallowed. Was Kel about to kiss her? It sure as hell felt like Kel was about to kiss her. “Not at all.”
Kel leaned in a little more, her lips mere inches from Gina’s. “How about now?”
Gina’s eyes flicked down to Kel’s mouth, then back to her eyes. They were so close Gina could detect the subtle flecks of mahogany in her otherwise dark brown irises. Gina parted her lips to respond, but no words came. She offered the slightest shake of her head instead.
Kel closed the remaining distance between them and covered Gina’s lips with hers. The kiss seemed to end before it began. Gina opened her eyes and found Kel looking at her intently. Gina smiled, then leaned in for another taste.
The move emboldened Kel, who took the kiss deeper and took the lead. When Kel’s tongue slid over her bottom lip, Gina shivered. Kel pulled back, searching her face. “Are you okay?”
Gina nodded, perhaps a little more emphatically than was necessary. Kel offered her a half smile and stood. Gina feared the spell had been broken. But she wasn’t ready to be done. All she could think about was more—more of Kel’s mouth, more of her ebony skin, more of the longing that threatened to consume her.
Fueled by that desire, she stepped closer to Kel and placed her hand on Kel’s chest, just below her collarbone. “Thank you for dinner.”
“Thank you for the cookies.”
Despite the banality of the conversation, the huskiness in Kel’s voice gave Gina courage. Just one more kiss, one more taste to take home and tide her over. She placed her hand on Kel’s arm, surprised by how muscular it was.
“You’re welcome. I…” Gina engaged in a rapid-fire internal debate about whether to take things to the next level, or whether it was too soon.
She must have trailed off, because Kel looked at her with a mixture of expectation and desire. “Yes?”
The word felt like both a question and an invitation. Instead of speaking, Gina leaned in and kissed Kel again. She ran her hand up Kel’s arm to her shoulder. Because they were now standing, she was able to move her whole body closer. One of Kel’s hands moved to the small of Gina’s back, the other into her hair.
The kiss went on and on. Gina snuck her hands under the hem of Kel’s shirt. Kel’s hand roamed up and down Gina’s back, making its way to her side and, eventually, her breast.
Kel eased back and looked into Gina’s eyes. “Stay?”
It was Gina’s turn to offer a slow smile. She said simply, “Yes.”
Kel took her hand and led her upstairs. The bedroom had the feel of someone just moved in—bare walls, boxes stacked in the corner. But there was a big beautiful bed, and it was made, so Gina had no complaints. The reality of what she was about to do sank in. “I don’t usually…”
Kel stopped and turned to look at her. “Me either. If you’d rather not—”
“No, I definitely want to. I think I needed to say this isn’t my usual way of doing things.”
Kel smiled. “Well, we’re in agreement, then.”
“Okay. Good. Now where were we?”
Kel leaned in and gave her a slow, teasing kiss. “Here, I think.”
“Ah, yes,” Gina whispered.
“And here.” Kel made a trail of kisses down Gina’s neck to her collarbone, pausing to run her tongue along the groove.
“Right.” Gina grabbed the hem of Kel’s shirt and lifted it over her head. She ran her fingers over the smooth, dark skin of Kel’s stomach, her chest. In return, Kel took hold of Gina’s sundress, working the fabric up her torso. Gina lifted her arms and the dress joined Kel’s shirt on the floor. Kel kissed her again and, without breaking contact, led them to the bed.
Despite the newness, it wasn’t awkward. Their bodies seemed to fit together. Gina marveled that Kel seemed to know just how to touch her, both to excite and to satisfy. At first, it felt like they were driven by urgency, a need to give and to take. What followed was something slower, more of a lazy exploration, that lasted until the early morning.
When she got home the next day, Gina realized she’d missed two texts and a call from Olivia. She dialed her friend and, after saying hello, apologized for making her worry. “I just got home,” she confessed.
“Home from next door?” Gina couldn’t tell if the pitch in Olivia’s voice came from excitement or disapproval.
“Home from next door.”
“You had sex?” Olivia’s voice went even higher.
“Why do you sound so shocked? You’re the one who said baked goods were seductive.”
“It was a figure of speech.”
“Well, the cookies opened the door and I figured I’d walk right on through.”
“I’m impressed. A little jealous, maybe, but impressed. Are you going to see her again?”
“God, I hope so.”
*
“I love that you want to recreate your first night together,” Olivia said as she scraped dough from the sides of the bowl and turned the mixer back on. “I think you might be in the running for most romantic proposal.”
Kel paced back and forth in Olivia’s small kitchen. “It doesn’t have to be the most romantic, it just has to make her say yes.”
“Well, I can’t pretend to speak for her, but I have a good idea of how she feels about you. I’m pretty sure she’s going to say yes and I’m pretty sure it’s going to have nothing to do with cookies.”
Kel continued to pace. “I hope you’re right.”
Back at the house, Kel hid the cookies on top of the fridge and got the rest of dinner ready. She resisted the desire to make something fancy, wanting everything to be the same as the first night she and Gina had spent together.
When Gina pulled into the driveway, Kel stood scowling at the lawn mower. Gina got out of the car and frowned. “Are you mowing the lawn? I thought we were going to dinner.”
Kel smiled. “I thought we’d stay in.”
“Oh. I’m not starving, so if you want to mow the lawn, then go ahead.”
“No, I was just looking at it.” Gina looked at her like she’d gone a little bit crazy, but Kel took her hand and led her around to the back deck. “I’m going for something here.”
Kel handed Gina one of the beers she’d set out a few minutes before. Gina took one, but the puzzled look remained. “What is that exactly?”
“I’ll give you one more hint.” Kel went through the sliding glass door to the kitchen and emerged with a plate piled with shrimp and vegetables.
A smile spread across Gina’s face. “It’s our first date.”
“Hard to believe it was a year ago.”
“A really good year. This is sweet. Thank you.”
“Baby, you ain’t seen nothing yet.” Kel grilled up the food and they ate at her grandmother’s table, just as they’d done that first night. When they were finished, she fetched the cookies. “I hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of procuring these.”
Gina laughed. “You thought of everything. Where did you get them?”
“I couldn’t find anything close at Ithaca Bakery, so I enlisted Olivia’s help. I wanted it to be just right.”
“And to think, when I brought you those cookies, I only had my sights set on getting you into bed.”
“Well, they worked.”
“For the record, I hadn’t actually planned to get you into bed that first night.”
“Oh, sure, you say that now.”
“I don’t regret it. I’m only saying I didn’t plan it.”
“Either way, it was an incredible night. It was also the beginning of the best year of my life.”
Gina’s smile softened. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“Just like that first night was the first of many, I’m hoping this first year is, too.” Kel’s heart pounded in her chest. Telling herself she shouldn’t be nervous did little to help.
“Well, I’m not going anywhere if you aren’t.”
“I’m not. Except somewhere exotic for a honeymoon, maybe.” Before Gina could come back with a witty reply, Kel slid from her chair onto one knee. She took Gina’s hand in hers. “I love you, Gina. I want to spend all my nights and all my days and all my years with you. I want a family and a forever and everything that comes with being your wife. Will you marry me?”
Gina’s eyes filled and Kel prayed they were the happy sort of tears. “Yes. Yes to everything.”
Kel thought she’d known joy in her life, but nothing compared to the feeling in that moment. She made to get up and realized the ring box still sat in her pocket. “Shit.”
Gina’s face registered alarm. “What? What’s wrong?”
She pulled out the box, opened it. At Olivia’s suggestion, she’d gone with an antique instead of something new—a single diamond in an intricate setting of pink gold. Kel took it out and slipped it on Gina’s finger. “You’re not supposed to propose without a ring.”
“It’s beautiful,” Gina said, “but I would have said yes without it.”
Kel chuckled. “I can’t believe I forgot about it. No one tells you how stressful proposing is.”
Gina smiled. “Well, the good news is you shouldn’t ever have to do it again.”
Kel smiled, letting that reality sink in. She hadn’t expected Gina to say no, but having her say yes added something official, something certain, to the prospect of their future. “Right. Since this is hopefully your only one, too, I’m sorry it wasn’t perfect.”
“It was pretty great. As far as I can tell, there’s only one thing missing.”
Kel’s mind raced. Other than the ring, she didn’t have anything in her back pocket, or up her sleeve, for that matter. “What’s that?”
“If we’re recreating our first night together…”
“Oh,” Kel let the word hang, “that. I’d never forget that.”
Kel took Gina’s hand and led her upstairs. The hesitation of that first night, the feeling of recklessness, was long gone. It its place, the confidence and desire that only comes after being with someone a while. Rather than diminished, Kel found the passion intensified by the added layers of knowing each other so well, of wanting a future together.
Later, when they lay in the afterglow with limbs twisted together, Gina said, “I feel like I should call Olivia and thank her for the cookies.”
“I know. It was very sweet of her to help me make them for tonight. I think they were pretty close to the ones you made for me.”
Gina buried her face in Kel’s neck and began to laugh. When she lifted her head and locked eyes with Kel, there was mischief in her eyes. “About that.”
“What?”
“I didn’t actually make the cookies that first night.”
“What?”
“I had a massive crush on you and didn’t know how to make the first move. The cookies were Olivia’s idea. And she’d say she helped me, but she totally made them.”
“You seduced me under false pretenses.”
“My pretenses weren’t false, only my abilities in the kitchen.”
Kel shook her head. “Were you ever going to tell me?”
Gina shrugged. “I kind of thought you’d figured it out given that I haven’t baked anything since.”
Gina often brought home treats from the various bakeries and restaurants and ice cream shops in town. Kel had figured it was more a time and convenience thing than anything else. “Huh. I guess I hadn’t noticed.”
“You know, for a lawyer, you always think the best of people.”
“Thanks?” Kel shook her head. “Any other deep dark secrets you want to share?”
Gina considered. Kel feared for a second that a more serious bombshell might be looming, but then she smiled. “No, I think that’s the worst of it.”
Kel kept her face serious. “I suppose that’s a relief.”
“Will you still have me?”
Gina looked at her with those big brown eyes, and Kel felt her heart swell for the second time that day. Kel leaned in and kissed her. “I’ll take you any day of the week, Morelli.”
Gina’s eyes sparkled and she laughed again. “That’s good, because I’m all yours.”
Neighbors
Elizabeth Black
The seventeen floors of the Calvert Beach Apartments stretched out like a pale, sleeping fat man at the edge of the dirty beach. The sand may have been pristine when the place was built in 1957, but by 2009 it had marbleized into swirls of dirt, oil, grease, Styrofoam coffee cups, and dog shit. A real tourist haven.
Annie had settled into apartment 15-E on the day she moved in. She didn’t own much: a queen-sized mattress and box spring on a frame. Several pots and pans she picked up at a yard sale. Her computer, fax, phone, printer, and copier. A TV / VCR / DVD player and stereo, stacks of videotapes, DVDs, and CDs, the mandatory can’t-live-without-it coffeemaker, and a few other possessions she had accumulated over the years.
In many ways, her life was in the same condition as her belongings. She took so much of herself for granted that she barely noticed her own existence. She didn’t purchase anything new because she felt quite comfortable with what she already owned.
Everything looked lived-in and safe. A new, shin
y item would jar her sense of security. She didn’t like adjusting to anything new and unusual. Some people might consider her a touch dull and conventional, but Annie didn’t care. She preferred to live her life on a predictable and even keel.
Sometimes the most steadfast people need a little jarring now and then to remind them that they’re alive.
Seven weeks after moving into her apartment, her routine was set. She freelanced for computer firms that specialized in creating websites for businesses. She met with clients on Mondays and Tuesdays, and she rounded out the rest of the week doing the computer work. Occasionally, if the weather was nice and if the ozone level was not so high that she was forced to breathe with the assistance of an oxygen tent, she’d blow off Friday and take a long weekend. She’d always wanted to live near the beach. This pitiful strip of it was less expensive than the coastal towns. Even though Calvert Beach sometimes looked like the local sewage dump, it was home. Her peaceful and quiet existence was set.
Then Charlotte and Angelina moved in.
While she brushed and flossed her teeth one morning, she heard the scraping of large furniture being dragged across the wooden floor in the apartment next door, amid bursts of cursing and laughter when something wouldn’t budge properly. Lots of bellowing and thumping and door-slamming for several hours. By noon, the stereo on the other side of that very thin wall blasted Lords of Acid. It was a good thing she didn’t have any clients on this particular Tuesday. How the hell was she supposed to get any work done with all that racket?
She wanted to knock on the door and ask them to turn down the stereo, but the last thing she wanted to do was get on the bad side of her new neighbors on their first day in the building. So she rummaged through her refrigerator, found some chocolate chip cookies she had baked the previous evening in a fit of domestic bliss, and tossed them onto a chipped china plate. Good idea—give the new folks some munchies to get on their good side and then tell them the stereo bass was so intense it was jostling the perfume bottles on her bedroom dresser.
The rhythm thundered in her ears when she opened her apartment door. If it was going to be like this every day, she didn’t know how she was going to survive. She walked to Apartment 15-D, held her breath, and knocked on the door.