Tainted Bodies

by Sarah Robinson

  You are getting way ahead of yourself, Kate reminded herself.

  Kate began chewing on her nails as she worried over all the possible reasons why he hadn’t called yet. She kept trying to push the thoughts out of her mind but she had never met someone like him before. She had never had so much fun and felt such excitement with one person.

  She was so deep in thought remembering her date that she didn’t hear the train conductor’s muffled voice over the radio call her stop. She realized as the doors were already open that she needed to get off the car. She jumped up and had to rush to the doors, getting caught between them as the doors tried to close on her. Forcefully, she pushed through the doors and fell onto the platform as she failed to catch herself in time. Embarrassed, she stood up and dusted off her knees and hands. She noticed a rip in her stockings and muttered angrily to herself as she attempted to hide it by pulling her skirt a bit further down.

  Kate had never been the graceful type. She had always wanted to be and tried her hardest but somehow she was still known for tripping over flat sidewalks, walking into parked cars, and subjecting herself to whatever other type of embarrassment came her way. She was just glad that at least Derrick had not seen that side of her yet and hopefully he never would. She couldn’t imagine the horror she would feel if she did something stupid like that in front of him!

  She looked at her watch and realized that she was running late for work even though she had left her house at the normal time that morning. She sighed as she realized she wasn’t going to have time to stop for her favorite vanilla latte, knowing that without the caffeine fix, her day at work was going to be more stressful than usual.

  Kate took the escalator steps up out of the metro two at a time as she hurried up the side, silently cursing at the people in her way. It always frustrated her how some people never understood the unspoken escalator etiquette of standers to the right, walkers to the left. In Washington, DC this was an essential rule that you had to follow and so you could always tell who the tourists were when they were in your way.

  As she emerged onto the street, she cast a longing look at her favorite coffee spot down the street. Kate sighed again, annoyed with herself, but then turned to head to work. She turned so fast after having glanced towards the Java Jolt that she hadn’t seen the man standing in front of her. She collided right into his chest as he took a step back in surprise, trying to balance himself and the two cups of coffee he was holding.

  Kate started bumbling an apology as she brushed off her skirt, but froze when she recognized the man’s laugh. She looked up quickly to see Derrick grinning at her. He was standing there in a dark brown suit, holding two coffee cups, looking amused at her clumsiness but also staring with dismay at the spilled coffee on his pants.

  “Derrick! I didn’t see you- I’m so sorry!” Kate’s face flushed red in embarrassment. Of course something like this would happen right after she had been thinking about the dread of Derrick seeing her clumsy side.

  “Don’t worry about it, I’m easy to miss.” Derrick grinned with his boyish smile to Kate, as she scoffed at his joke, staring up at this giant statue of a man. Derrick was easily one of the tallest men that she had ever met and towered over her and everyone else on the street passing by. There was definitely no way that anyone could miss him, except of course for Kate and her clumsiness.

  “This one is for you. Tall vanilla latte, right?” He handed a cup to her.

  Kate forgot her embarrassment for a moment and burst into a smile, realizing her day had just taken a dramatic turn for the better.

  “Thank you so much, you are a life saver! I was running late and was kicking myself because I didn’t have time to pick one up!” Kate smiled as she took a big gulp of coffee, but quickly coughed when she realized it was still steaming hot.

  “Slow down there, you don’t want to burn your tongue. It might be too hot.” Derrick said and then winked at her. She rolled her eyes and touched her lips with her fingers to assess the damage. It didn’t hurt very badly and she figured that she might have only singed a few taste buds.

  “I don’t want to make you more late, but I thought asking you in person would be a little better than calling you.” Derrick said, shuffling his feet as he began to feel a little bashful and look down at the ground.

  “Ask me what?” Kate said, focusing on trying to read his face, hoping her fears on the train this morning were about to be proven wrong.

  “Kate, I had more fun with you on Friday night than I have had in years. Hell, even longer than that maybe. I would be the stupidest man alive if I let you get away now.” Derrick smiled at her as he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her towards him, pressing her up against his chest and looking down into her eyes.

  “Is that your way of asking for a second date, Mr. Kane?” she teased, coyly.

  Derrick responded by leaning down and kissing her firmly on the lips. He slipped his arms around her back as he felt her sag against him, forgetting that they were standing in the middle a D.C. sidewalk in front of the metro and that dozens of people were swarming past them. Most were clearly annoyed at the public display and just wanted to get past them. The two ended up quickly pulling apart after being knocked into several times by people passing by who had no qualms about making their opinions loudly known.

  “Nope, that’s my way of asking.” Derrick teased back, talking about their kiss, as he let go of her and took a sip of his own drink. Kate cleared her throat and tried to collect herself, smoothing her shirt and repositioning her purse on her shoulder.

  “Well, I guess that’s a pretty good, uhm, yeah…yes, I’d love to.” Kate stuttered, still trying to recover from the fuzziness that had overtaken her thoughts after that kiss. Derrick’s face lit up with a big smile at her response.

  “Perfect, I will be at your place on Friday at 8:00pm. Text me your address, beautiful.” He leaned down and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, then turned and walked away.

  Kate stood there for a moment, watching him head to work. Even from behind and moving away from her, he still was the largest man on the sidewalk and it was clear that his muscled arms and strong bulging shoulders barely fit inside his suit jacket. Kate smiled as she stood there and sighed, then looked down at her coffee. Suddenly she realized that she was still late for work and mentally smacked herself for wasting so much time standing there. She quickly turned around and raced down the sidewalk towards work, attempting to balance her coffee so that it didn’t spill all over her outfit.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next few weeks passed in a flurry of dates, flowers, and morning coffees. Derrick and Kate enjoyed their coffee together almost every morning before work, completely oblivious to the crowds around them. They always met up around the same time and the same place, having adapted to one another’s schedules almost seamlessly. The couple would laugh and giggle in line while waiting for their coffee, shamelessly flirting and sneaking the occasional kiss. The Java Jolt was their place, it was where they first met, where their love continued to bloom, and where they met every morning.

  Jimmy, the barista at the coffee shop who was infatuated with Kate, became increasingly mean to Derrick as he discovered that the two were dating. Over the weeks, he had not gotten Derrick’s order right even once and usually charged him more than what he ordered. Neither Kate nor Derrick seemed to notice though, since they were completely engulfed in one another as they took full advantage of this infatuation stage of their relationship.

  They had only been on about five or six official dates, but they saw each other so much that they felt closer than that. Meeting every morning and then spending every weekend together for about a month made them feel like they had been together forever and the idea that just a short month ago, they had not even known one another, seemed like an absurd concept.

  Today was the first time that Derrick was going to come over to Kate’s apartment, since all of their dates had been out at restaurants or other public locations. Kate busie
d herself around her apartment on this particular Friday evening after work, cleaning to make sure everything was presentable for Derrick since her anxiety was pretty high at the idea of him seeing her apartment for the first time. She worried that he would see something he didn’t like or that them being alone together would make things different than they were in public. Their dates out were amazing and the chemistry was dynamic, but would it be the same way in private?

  Kate found herself remembering their second date as she continued cleaning around her home. Derrick had taken her bowling which was something she had loved doing as a child with her father, but hadn’t done much since his death. She didn’t tell Derrick that though. It just seemed like too much information to share that quickly to anyone. In fact, there was still a lot about each other that they didn’t know.

  “That was definitely cheating!” Derrick called out to Kate as he pointed down the bowling lane at her bright pink ball slowly careening towards the pins.

  “I turn around for half a second to drink my beer and you put up the bumpers! Those are for children, Kate.” Derrick told her, scolding but still smiling.

  “I like to think I am a child at heart.” Kate grinned as she looked back at him over her shoulder, then turned back to watch her ball slowly knock into the front pin and, in a painfully slow motion, push the rest of the pins down with it.

  “YES!” Kate shrieked and jumped up, clapping her hands as she had scored her first strike for the game. As she came back down to the ground, her slippery bowling shoes slid out from under her and she began to tip over as she let out a squeak of fear.

  Luckily, Derrick had been close behind her and he grabbed her with such ease, you would have thought he could toss her down the lane as easily as a bowling ball. He righted her back on her feet and brushed the hair out of her face.

  “You alright there, Strike?” Derrick laughed at her. She regained her composure and smoothed out her shirt and shrugged her shoulder at him nonchalantly as if nothing had ever happened.

  “Better than you because I just pulled into the lead.” She pointed at the television screen above them that showed their scores. Sure enough, her strike had brought her four pins ahead of him. She figured that that made up for the embarrassment she just caused herself of almost falling on her rear in front of him.

  “How am I ever going to catch up to you?” He said sarcastically, rolling his eyes, as he reached for his bowling ball. His was a dark and swirling blue color and much heavier than her little pink bowling ball. He placed it in front of his chest, one hand steadying the ball and one hand linked into the ball. He walked onto the lane and focused his eyes at the center pin then took two long steps, lowering his arm, and rolled the ball forward straight down the lane. It was going incredibly fast and hit the front pin’s neighbor with such force that all the pins slammed in different directions. They quickly all tumbled down to the ground and Derrick pumped both of his fists into the air and turned around to brag about his strike to Kate.

  “See that, Kate? That’s how a real adult plays the game. No bumpers but still a strike.” Derrick beamed proudly.

  Kate raised her eyebrows and smirked, not saying anything, instead she just pointed behind him. He turned around to look down the lane and realized that one measly little pin had managed to stay standing in the very corner of the lane, mocking him.

  He turned to look at Kate and slit his eyes as if in a warning.

  “You saw nothing.” He said with serious eyes, but a big smile across his face. She leaned back in her seat and laughed as she looked up at the scoreboard and watched him take the lead again with his nine pins.

  “How about a spare? You can do it!” Kate tried to be his cheerleader but he only rolled his eyes at her, knowing that she was just as competitive as him and was definitely not hoping he would do well.

  “Already done, beautiful.” He said arrogantly, but then he followed through on his promise and rolled his ball right into the remaining pin, celebrating with a little victory dance as the spare popped up on the scoreboard.

  “Never doubt the master.” He said, still walking around with his chest puffed out like an alpha male needing to make sure that everyone knows he is large and in charge. He went over and chugged down the rest of his beer and nodded to the server behind the counter for another.

  Kate came up behind him and ducked her head under one of his arms and reached her hands around him to embrace him.

  “I would never even consider such a thing.” She told him and leaned up onto her toes to kiss him. He pulled his arms tight around her, holding her up so she was almost dangling on the ground. He kissed her again.

  “Is this my winning prize?” He said, “I deserve something after just slaughtering you on the alley like that.”

  Kate scoffed and rolled her eyes at his sarcasm.

  “Oh please, by a few pins at best, we will have a rematch one day and your luck will run out.” She told him, looking up at him again and smiling confidently.

  “If I am with you, I don’t think my luck will ever run out.” He said softly as he kissed her again.

  ~~~~

  Kate stood in her kitchen, wiping down the counter with an antibacterial wipe, and couldn’t help but smile at the memory of that date. Even though it had only been their second date, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other and they knew how lucky they were to have found one another. Kate sighed happily and then tossed out the wipe as she finished cleaning and headed to the bathroom to shower and get ready for Derrick, who would be arriving shortly. They planned on just spending the evening on the couch watching a movie, probably their first low key date so far since they always did some type of activity each time they were together. However, they did see each other every morning for coffee so it was hard to count the number of dates they had been on if you included those meet ups as well.

  About an hour later, Kate was just finishing swiping some eye shadow onto her lids in the bathroom mirror when she heard the doorbell buzz to her apartment. She quickly skipped over to the front door and clicked the button to unlock the downstairs door so he could come upstairs. The lock never worked down there anyways but most people didn’t know that so they would ring the buzzer anyways. If they didn’t hear the click from her, then they would just stand there waiting to be let in. She made a mental note to herself to remind the landlord again about fixing that. It had been broken for at least two weeks now and several tenants had complained but it still hadn’t been fixed.

  With her last few seconds to prepare before Derrick arrived at her front door, she quickly fluffed out her hair and put a bit more lipstick on in the hall mirror. She took a deep breath and examined herself and then let out a sigh.

  Well that is as good as it’s going to get, she thought to herself.

  She was wearing casual light colored jeans and a baggy jersey type shirt that hung off one shoulder. Her hair was down and curly and her makeup was minimal. She was trying to look casual since they were spending the evening at home, but she wasn’t about to let him see her without make up yet. They hadn’t even spent the night together yet, so she certainly didn’t want him to run away if he saw her au natural. She knew her sister would yell at her right now if she could hear what Kate was thinking, Annie always said that Kate was way too hard on herself.

  There was a knock on the door and Kate quickly took the two steps needed to get to the door and opened it for her date. She leaned against the open door, attempting to act casual, and smiled at Derrick who was standing there blocking almost the entire doorway with his large frame. His dark chocolate skin was probably the furthest extreme from her pale complexion and his light hazel eyes shone so brightly even in the dim apartment complex hallway. He was wearing a long sleeve t-shirt and jeans and black sneakers. In his hands was a large bouquet of mixed flowers, almost every color represented in the bunch. It was very beautiful and Kate couldn’t help but smile when she saw them.

  “Hi, beautiful.” Derrick smiled at her
and stepped into the apartment. He placed the flowers down on a side table in the hall by the front door and then turned to her, wrapped both arms around her waist and lifted her right up off the ground, tight against his chest. Her arms folded around the back of his neck and the two kissed passionately. Her foot kicked the front door closed behind them for privacy and then she lifted her legs up to wrap them around his waist, their kiss continuing. He walked with her still wrapped around him down the hallway and pulled away from her briefly to ask a question.

  “Bedroom?” He whispered, his breath raspy and his voice hoarse.

  She nodded to the right and he quickly walked that direction with her still in his arms. They returned to kissing and holding onto one another as they entered the bedroom. He walked to the edge of the bed and with a gentle pull he separated her from him and gave her a small toss onto the bed.

  She squealed as she collapsed in a bounce onto the comforter and looked up at him standing above her. His bright hazel eyes had turned cloudy and she grinned in excitement at what was coming next. He pulled his shirt off over his head, revealing an insane amount of abs. She didn’t even know it was possible to have more than a six-pack, but apparently he had proven that wrong.

  He tossed his shirt onto the ground and smiled at her as he descended onto the bed on top of her, pressing his body against her and pinning her hands with his. She tilted her head up to find his lips and locked him into another deep kiss. Even though they had been dating for a month, they had kept things very tame and so the two knew that they couldn’t wait any longer as they started pulling clothes off of one another. This was definitely the best way to start a date.

  ~~~~

  About an hour and a half later, Derrick was in the living room setting up the movie on the DVD player while Kate was in the kitchen starting some popcorn. She was leaning against the counter smiling, thinking of everything that had just happened. She was only wearing his long sleeve shirt and so her legs were bare. She was so distracted that she had not been paying attention to the popcorn in the microwave until the blaring sound of the kitchen smoke alarm brought her back to attention. Startled, she jumped and turned around to see the microwave had smoke coming out of its corners.