“It looks painful though. You need to get inside and clean it, the fork is dirty you don’t want to get an infection. Can you stand?” His sudden caring attitude made me wish he would just pull me into his arms and comfort me that way. If he did that I would have been forever thankful for that stupid garden fork.
“Yeah, I think so,” I told him but he took my hand and helped me up anyway.
“Do you want me to help you get inside?”
“Would you mind?” I didn’t care that I was completely playing up to my injury now, but I couldn’t resist an offer of help from him.
“Of course.” He wrapped an arm around my waist in a way to support me and it was the closest we had ever been. I knew it was most likely all in my head but it felt so natural, him holding me like that. He got me into the kitchen and sat me down at the table then pulled another chair closer for me to put my foot up on.
“There’s hand towel’s in that drawer,” I told him and pointed to a drawer close to the sink. He took my direction and ran a towel under the tap then came back over and placed it on my leg.
“Sorry if it stings,” he said quietly as he dabbed the material over my skin to clean it. “It doesn’t look as bad as I first thought.” He smiled when he had got rid of most of the blood.
“No, it feels okay, honestly.” I smiled back but it was starting to sting the more he touched it.
“I’ve only ever been in the laundry room in your house,” he informed me and I felt pleased that this accident was allowing him to see a bit more into my life.
“So, you really have never got yourself a glass of water from in here?”
“No,” he laughed, and I loved the sound that escaped his lips. “I use the tap outside.”
“I did think it strange when you asked me to get you water. I wondered if you just didn’t drink anything all day.”
“Not at all. I just wanted to talk to you, seemed like a good excuse. But then you walked away from me.”
“I went to get you water.” I looked at him, a little stunned.
“You did?” I could tell he was holding back a laugh. “I thought that you were really angry that I had asked you and just stormed off.”
“No!” I laughed and gently pushed at his arm in a playful way. “I got you the damn water then looked round the gardens to give it to you. I couldn’t find you anywhere I felt like an idiot.”
“Ah, I’m sorry,” he smiled and bit his bottom lip. “Next time you walk away from me without saying anything I will have to remember that is just what you like to do.”
“Why did you want to talk to me anyway?”
“I don’t have many friends here. We are similar age, no? I thought we might have something to talk about.”
“You wanted to make friends?” His admission forced me to see a more vulnerable side of him, a side that I’m glad he possessed.
“Oui.” He focused again on my leg then placed a dry towel on it now it was clean. “There. I don’t think I’m going to need to chop it off.” He gave me a deadpan expression which made me laugh again.
“That’s a relief. I’m kind of fond of my legs.”
“Me too,” he smiled then moved to the kitchen doorway. “I…I think Andre and your aunt are eating dinner together.” His eyes narrowed as he tried to get a better view of the living room through the hallway.
“That would be a first.” I placed the towel down on the table and went to stand beside him to see if I could sneak a look as well and to my surprise he was right. They both sat in front of the fire place, glasses of wine in their hands and eating dinner on plates on their laps. There was something quite sweet about it and I smiled to myself.
“I should probably head home.” Ezra interrupted my train of thought and I frowned at him.
“No. Stay. You can eat here. We have loads of stuff,” I moved over to the work surface and got out a loaf of bread from the bread bin. “Bread. See? We have bread. And cheese.”
“Bread and cheese,” Ezra repeated and leant against the wall as he watched me.
“Who doesn’t like bread and cheese?” I got a bread knife out of the drawer and placed it on a plate with the bread before getting some cheese out of the refrigerator. “Come with me, we can eat in my study.” I was a little surprised that Ezra wasn’t making any protests and simply followed me out of the kitchen and down the hallway to my study.
We said very little to each other as we ate, both sitting crossed legged on the floor due to me only having one chair in the study and both being on the floor seemed like the only fair solution. It had started to get dark outside so at one point I had turned on my desk lamp and we sat in the warm glow it created in the room. Ezra had said he was thirsty and I had made my way back to the kitchen and got a bottle of wine, which he laughed at when I brought it back, asking if I planned on getting drunk again. My answer was no, of course not, but it didn’t look like Ezra believed me.
“So, did you draw that?” he asked, gesturing to a painting that was stuck to the wall of a man running through a poppy field.
“Yeah. But that was years ago.” I turned my nose up at the picture. “My work is a lot different now. I like…portraits. More specified subjects. I could draw you one day if you want.”
“No one has ever offered to draw me before.”
“It’s not a common thing to be asked.” I shrugged. “It was just a suggestion.”
“I would love for you to draw me.” He put the last piece of bread in his mouth and let out a long content sigh.
“And I would love to draw you. You have really defined features Ezra,” I told him, my tone serious, like it usually was when I was talking about art.
“Defined? Like your eye hairs?”
“Eye hairs?”
“These,” he said and pointed to his own eyebrows and I grinned at him.
“Eyebrows. You like my eyebrows?”
“Yes. Very expressive. Dark. I like them.” It made me smile that he had obviously studied me enough to come to that conclusion, and it was a sweet thing to say even though it was a little weird. He started to shift closer to me until his knees were touching mine and he lifted his hand to my face and ran his index finger along one of my eyebrows.
“Is this okay?” he asked and he looked a little nervous. I had to nod my response because my breath was caught in my throat. I was too scared to speak and break whatever was happening between us then, especially with how delicate he was being with me.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered and he brought his finger down to my lips and traced it around the shape of them. I couldn’t stop myself from gently kissing his finger when he brought it to the centre of my lips and he sighed and dropped his hand away.
“I’m sorry,” I said, knowing that I had definitely over stepped a mark that time, and I didn’t want him to leave more than anything.
“You don’t need to be sorry. I don’t want to do anything that could get us in trouble.”
“Why would it get us in trouble?” I asked and I could feel my heart racing in my chest.
“I don’t want to ruin the life I have here.” He really looked scared as he spoke so I reached for his hands and held them in mine.
“Are you worried about my aunt?”
“Yes.” He nodded and I nodded back at him.
“She can be intimidating. But there is nothing wrong here.”
“Yet.”
“Do you want to leave?” I asked but I dreaded the answer.
“No.”
“Then. Don’t be scared. You must know…you must know how I think about you?”
“I had some thoughts,” he smiled again, “but I wasn’t sure. You are complicated Charlie. And…Andre told me that sometimes you can be a bit…all over the place.”
“Maybe, but I am not nearly as complicated as you. You sometimes look at me as if you hate me.”
“No. I don’t. I just, don’t know how to look at you without giving everything away.” He took his hands away from mine
and brought one up to my cheek. “Can I kiss you please Charlie?”
“Yes, please.” I knew then what it meant when people said that they had butterflies in their stomach. He closed the gap between us and lightly pressed his lips to mine. It was a quick kiss, too quick for me to really enjoy what was happening, and before I could even close my eyes he had pulled away.
“Sorry. I just remembered that I was meant to be tutoring earlier.” He looked utterly beside himself for a brief moment then kissed me again, cupping my face in both hands this time. This second kiss lasted longer and I was able to really experience his lips against mine. I was a little surprised at how soft they were, not dissimilar to some of the female lips I had kissed before. When his lips left mine and I opened my eyes I saw he had a small smile on his face.
“Want to go out?” he asked and I gave a short laugh at the suggestion. I thought that the next words to come out of his mouth might have something to do with the fact that we had shared our first kiss, but no, he kept on surprising me.
“Where?” I asked.
“Town. It’s Saturday night. Let’s have some fun.”
“You don’t think I had enough fun last night?”
“No. Because you weren’t with me,” he said and planted a quick kiss to my lips. “Come on.” He started to stand up and took my hand to pull me up with him.
“You’re filthy,” I said and raised my eyebrows at his clothes. “And I would need to get changed too.”
“Stop thinking so much.” I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to go into town, but with Ezra being so suddenly spontaneous I didn’t want to put my foot down.
“Fine. But I need to tell my Aunt I’m going…meet me out the front?”
“Okay.” Ezra was practically beaming and I must admit that it was infectious.
SHERRIE
We left my study and I guided him back to the kitchen so he could get back out into the garden. Everything felt like it was happening so fast and I wished we could have spoken about what had just happened between us. But maybe this was the best way to proceed. To simply get lost in the night and enjoy each moment with each other without over thinking it. My aunt was still in the living room with Andre and I walked in with my hands behind my back a little sheepishly.
“Oh, Charlie!” My aunt looked like she had forgotten about my existence before I had walked in and actually looked a little embarrassed.
“I’m thinking of going into town to meet some friends,” I said and gave Andre an awkward smile.
“But you went out last night.” Oh? She knew I had gone out. So she was actually aware that I wasn’t there last night while she dined with Monsieur Bardet.
“I did,” I nodded, “and I’ve been invited out again. I’ve been working so hard lately I think I need to get more down time.” She looked a bit annoyed at what I had said but eventually gave a nod.
“Well. You are old enough to make your own decisions I suppose. Be careful. Take some money out of my purse in the kitchen so you can get yourself a taxi back. I’m not driving out there at night to pick you up.”
“Thank you,” I smiled and started to back out of the room just as sheepishly as I had gone in.
“And be back by midnight,” she said suddenly and I rolled my eyes.
“Yes fairy Godmother,” I muttered under my breath and went to the kitchen to take some money like she had told me to. Before leaving I checked my leg, Ezra had done a good job of cleaning it up and it really didn’t look more than just a graze now. Ezra was waiting for me at the end of the drive and I was half expecting him to tell me that he had changed his mind about going but he still looked as happy as he had before and greeted me with that beautiful smile of his.
“Come on,” he said and reached for my hand and took it in his then started to walk with me.
“So…” I said after a few paces, feeling a little bit giddy with him holding my hand. “This…is not what I was expecting to happen today.”
“Going into town?” I wasn’t sure if he was deliberately ignoring what I meant or if he was genuinely unaware so I gave his hand a squeeze.
“No. This.” I nudged his side as we walked with a smile.
“You mean us kissing and now holding hands?”
“That’s exactly what I mean. I didn’t think you would ever think of me in this way.”
“Why though?”
“I just imagined you having women falling at your feet and being interested in anyone other than me.”
“I’ve been with women before. And I’ve had a few propositions since I have been here,” he hummed, “but I’m not interested. I’ve known it a long while.”
“Really? How long?”
“Years,” he shrugged, “what about you? Or is this…just something you want to explore right now?”
“I have had girlfriends but I think I’ve known even since I was a child that I only see girls as friends. There’s never been a huge amount of attraction there. I can’t actually say I’ve ever really had a huge attraction to anyone until you turned up.”
“I’m glad that the attraction was mutual.”
“How come you speak English so well?” I asked then, not knowing anyone who didn’t speak English as their first language around the town to speak it as well as he did.
“My Grandfather was American. He came to France when he fell in love with my Grandmother. We spoke English mainly in his house, but I spoke French at school…so I guess that’s why I can speak it well?”
“But you’re so French,” I laughed, “I would never have
thought that you had American heritage.”
“Well, my Grandmother raised my Father speaking French and my Mother’s family were all from Bordeaux, so they were French. So I guess that explains why I, too…am French.” He was doing that smirk of his at me and I knew he was trying hard not to laugh at me.
“Oh come on, I was just surprised. Your English is amazing.”
“Thanks. Your French on the other hand is pretty terrible.”
“How would you know?” I scoffed.
“I’ve heard you trying to talk to Andre,” he grinned, “absolutely horrendous.”
“Well maybe you should have agreed to tutor me!”
“I don’t want to be your tutor. Not in a formal sense. I knew that if I ended up tutoring you I would be far too distracted by you.”
“Then, tutor me in an informal sense. Just drop little things I should be learning every now and then we speak?”
“I can do that,” he nodded, “when we get into town I need to go to Coco’s to see if Emily is there, she is who I was meant to be teaching this evening.” Even though he was with me and holding my hand I felt a sense of jealousy when he mentioned a girl. Stupid, I know, but jealously was something that I had always suffered with.
“Oh right. Will she be mad do you think?”
“No. She missed out last lesson because she decided to nap and ended up sleeping for hours. She is very laid back. But I want to see if she is there so I can apologise.”
“I reckon there will be a lot of my class mates in Coco’s tonight. They usually go there on a Saturday night.”
“Oh, cool.” There seemed something unspoken between us that we knew that we certainly weren’t going to be holding hands in there, that there was a fear about it. It was coming from Ezra mainly, and as much as I wanted to never let go of his hand, I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable either.
“I can hang out with them while you speak to Emily,” I said, assuming that would be the easiest thing to do.
“Sure.”
Coco’s was busy on a Saturday night. There were people sat at the tables outside, bottles of wine on the tables and half eaten food on plates. People were far too into their conversations to eat. As soon as we approached the building someone shouted out to Ezra and he went over to them, we had stopped holding hands a while ago, but I felt a little abandoned when he went over to the group without saying anything to me. I watched as one of the gi
rls handed him an already lit cigarette and he took a drag from it then kissed her on the cheek. I stood observing him with them for a minute then realised that I must have looked a bit strange just staring so made my way inside the bar. Like usual it was thick with smoke, and I think that there was music playing but I couldn’t make out what it was over the sound of the many people talking. It wouldn’t be like this in a few months. It usually shut in the evenings and was only open for lunch bookings - typical for the town out of summer months. There was something quite nice about the atmosphere though, even though I didn’t like how the heavy smoke filled my lungs. I enjoyed hearing a mixture of languages, all flowing into one another without anyone caring or showing any prejudice.
“Charlie!” I heard my name over the sound of voices and saw a hand waving at me from a table in the corner. It was Henry with a few other people and I gave him a wave back as I went over. “Wow, I have never seen you here on a Saturday night. Are you feeling okay?” he laughed and patted a seat beside him for me to sit down.
“I’m fine,” I smiled, “Just fed up of being at home so I thought that I would come out. Guessed you might be here.”
“Who is this, Henry?” a girl asked and gave me a smile that I think was supposed to come across as sultry but she actually looked intimidating.
“This is Charlie, handsome isn’t he?” he said and put his arm around my shoulder. “Charlie, this is Sherrie, she is from Texas.”
“Wow. A long way from home,” I said and she flicked her long ash blonde hair over her shoulder as she nodded.
“I’m traveling the world,” she said and leaned across the table to me and even though she wasn’t particularly close I could smell alcohol on her breath. “You want to give me a tour of the town?” She bit down on her lower lip as she looked at me and smirked.
“Erm…sure? I’m sure someone else could give you a much better tour than me but I can if you want me to. Maybe next week?”
“No, now,” she said and stood up. “Come on.”
“Oh. Well, actually I was-” Henry pushed me up off of my seat before I could finish what I was saying and I gave him an indignant look.
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