by Cynthia Dane
“Evening.”
Was that his voice? Rachel spun around the moment she took out her phone to text him.
Sure enough, Zack stood right behind her, picnic basket back in his hand. “What?” he asked her skeptical face. “Didn’t think I was going to come?”
She pointed to the picnic basket. “Didn’t think you were going to bring me dinner.”
“Ah, come on, I’m not that heartless.” Zack shielded his eyes from the setting sun and looked around the crowded park. “But I am heartless enough to kick some people out of our way if it comes down to it.”
“I think I see a small spot over there.”
“Where?”
“Between the family on the red blanket and the screaming kid on the yellow blanket.”
“Sounds fun!”
“You get used to it.”
“This may come as a shock to you,” Zack said as they carefully dodged people already sitting on their blankets, “but I’ve done my fair share of partying with total strangers. Close contact, even.”
“Oh? Come to movies at the park often?”
Zack scoped out their small patch of grass. Rachel rolled out her blanket, letting Zack take the other end and line it up within the parameters of their allotted space. A few other onlookers gave them wary glances before going back to their conversations. Popcorn bags rattled. Glass bottles clinked together. More than one child was told to sit the hell down before they got themselves ran over.
“You ever go to a big party on a little yacht?” Zack plopped down onto the blanket. “Shoulder to shoulder with people you’re probably never going to see again.”
“Can’t say I’ve ever been out on a yacht before.”
“Oh, no, those kinds of parties stay at the dock.” Zack placed the picnic basket firmly between them. “You should come check out my yacht sometime.”
Rachel shuddered. “No thanks.” Boats were bad. Boats went out on the water, and Rachel was not fond of the damn water. But of course Zachary Feldman had a boat. He was young, rich, and not the kind of person Rachel needed to be entangled with. Fuck him, right?
Before Zack could ask why she had a problem with yachts, the last two members of their party arrived. Two people Rachel conveniently forgot to tell Zack were coming.
***
At first, Zack assumed the lovely young ladies standing behind them were merely on their way to another group somewhere in the field. Then he recognized Parvati.
Then he realized that both women were sitting down, specifically between the pair that claimed to be nothing more than friends.
“Uh…” Zack closed the lid on his picnic basket. “Hello there.”
“Hello again!” Parvati didn’t seem to realize that she was intruding on a “friend” date. Silly her for not recognizing this for what it was! Silly Zack for thinking this was going to be a nice, quiet evening with Rachel! “Zack, right?”
He defaulted to his natural charms. Best to keep the annoyance in the back of my mind. That’s it, buddy, swallow it down and pretend nothing’s amiss. Could they at least let him sit next to Rachel? Sheesh. “Yes.” He leaned forward and gave Rachel a sideways glance.
“That’s right! I forgot to tell you, Zack, but I invited Parvati and her sister. This is Sita.”
The other woman, who looked like an older, more sophisticated version of Parvati down to the conservative blouse and long, black skirt shyly waved at Zack. “Nice to meet you.”
“She’s getting married in August.”
Sita blushed. Isn’t she a lovely woman? All three women were lovely in their own way, from Rachel’s tomboyish looks to Parvati’s youthful jeans and T-shirts, but Sita was usually the kind of woman Zack flirted with. I have a thing for shy women, all right? They were the most fun to take out and spoil. Even more fun when they finally took off their clothes and let Zack have his way with them.
Not that he was planning on asking out – or even flirting with – Sita. She was engaged, for fuck’s sake. And this is a date with Rachel. She’s my focus.
Damnit. He thought of it as a date again. Zack was really not good at this whole “just friends” thing.
“Rachel did forget to mention that you were coming.” Zack knew how to spin this so the social onus was off him, however. “I only brought enough food for two people.”
“That’s okay.” Sita plopped her knapsack onto the blanket and pulled out two Tupperware containers filled with food Zack couldn’t recognize. “Brought some leftover curry from our lunch.”
“Ooh!” Rachel slammed her hands against the blanket, her smile so big that Sita had to laugh. “Happen to bring an extra spoon? I’m assuming this is your homemade curry.”
Tongue clicking, Parvati produced another spoon from a Ziploc bag. “Somehow I knew you were going to do that. That’s why I brought more of everything.”
Including people. Zack continued to smile.
“Sorry,” Rachel said with the fakest sincerity Zack had seen since his last date told him she might call him again. “I meant to tell you that I invited them, but it was sort of a last minute thing, you know? I mentioned the movie we were going to see and…”
“And I invited myself.” Parvati lowered her sunglasses and leaned toward Zack. “By the way, you smell awesome.”
Zack couldn’t smell anything but the homemade Indian curry unveiled in Parvati’s container. That’s intense. Zack loved him some curry, but only when he was in the mood for it. He was not in the mood for it right now.
He was in the mood for some alone time with Rachel. Foiled again.
“Thank you,” he said.
“You ever seen a Bollywood movie before?”
Zack turned his attention back to Rachel. Why the hell is she all the way over there? One thing when there was no one else between them. With two people, though? She might as well have been on the other side of the field! “Not that I recall, no.”
“Oh, man.” Parvati licked her spoon, the tip tapping against her bottom lip when she tucked her tongue away. “What’s it like going your whole life without ever seeing a Bollywood movie? Because I can’t even imagine it. We grew up on this stuff.”
Zack shrugged. “Never had the excuse to watch one before.”
“This is a great movie to start with,” Sita said with a smile. “We’ve all seen it a hundred times because it’s so much fun.”
“And because you’re in love with SRK.”
“Who the hell isn’t in love with him?” Rachel reached across her friends and tapped Zack on the knee. “If you’re not bisexual now, you’re going to be by the end of the movie.”
“I honestly have no idea who you’re talking about.”
Sita pointed to the movie starting on the screen. Most of the field either fell into reverent silence or clapped in anticipation. “Shahrukh Khan. He’s the star of this movie. One of the greatest men of all time.”
“Woo,” Rachel said with more laughter. “One of the greatest men? Do your dad and fiancé know you’re thinking that way?”
“My future husband knows what he’s up against. He’s already said we can get divorced if SRK asks to marry me instead.”
“He’s already married too, you know.”
“Things can change!”
Zack was confused as hell, but he leaned back with his sandwich and decided to make the most of it. How often did a man get to hang out with three beautiful young women in the park? While watching a movie he had never seen before? So what if I’d rather be getting closer to Rachel. It wasn’t even about sex now. It was purely the principle of the thing. Perhaps he would have felt differently if Rachel had given him some warning that she had invited other people.
He barely understood the movie. Even when Sita and Parvati explained the plot to him, he still damned his less than average eyesight. Because the movie was only half in English. The other half was in Hindi with English subtitles, and he couldn’t read them from so far away.
He supposed the point of these movies
wasn’t the plot, anyway. It was the song and dance numbers, so mind-numbingly colorful and catchy that most of the audience clapped and sang along to lyrics they knew so well that they could sing them in their sleep. Apparently, this was a remake of a more famous ’70s movie.
The weather was pleasantly tepid as the evening progressed and gradually turned into night. As the year wore on, the nights grew warmer and warmer. Gone were the heavy jackets people carried during the warm days to wear during the cool nights. Even Zack, who was a bigger fan of warmth than cold, didn’t need the sweatshirt he had packed into the bottom of his picnic basket.
“It’s getting cold.” Parvati said toward the end of the movie. She pulled her sweater closer to her body. Sita was already well layered. “You doing okay, Rachel?”
Rachel, who had not brought any kind of sweater or jacket, shivered where she curled up on the blanket. “I’m fine. I’ll make it to the end of the movie.”
Zack dug into the picnic basket and pulled out his sweatshirt. “Here,” he said, handing it to her. “Doesn’t smell like food or BO, I promise.”
Rachel stared at it. Parvati and Sita glanced between the man and woman who continued to swear they were just friends.
“Go on. You can borrow it. Just give it back soon.” Zack sighed. “Do you want to be so cold that you can’t enjoy the rest of the movie?”
Slowly, as if he had laced his sweatshirt in arsenic, Rachel took it from his grip and draped it over her shoulders. “Thanks.”
“For fuck’s sake, put it on. It’s gotta be roomy enough.” Zack was one of those guys who bought his sweatshirts a size larger than he really needed. The more room, the better. Especially when he was on his yacht in the late fall or midwinter.
With an audience looking at her instead of the movie, Rachel pulled the baggy sweatshirt over her head and down her torso. It looked like a giant gray sack on her smaller frame. Granted, a comfortable sack, but it was not flattering at all.
No. It was fucking adorable.
“Christ,” Zack muttered, looking away and wishing the sun was still out so he could get away with wearing his sunglasses. Why does she have to look so nice? Women didn’t have to be sex-sex-sex at all hours of the day. Hell, Zack would take a girlfriend who was simply cute most of the time. Rachel wore that sweatshirt like she had intentionally bought the biggest one possible. While she drowned in it, she did so happily. At least she’s warm. Zack wiggled his toes in his sandals. A bit of a chill crept over him, but he wasn’t about to ask Rachel for his sweatshirt back. She needed it more than he did.
And it would ruin his current image of her – a sin, truly.
Zack attempted to concentrate on the final dance scene of the movie. Bombastic neon colors swept across the large screen as the lead actress danced with a bevy of other beauties, declaring her undying love for the hero. The families around Zack clapped along. One woman in a sari clapped her baby’s hands together while softly singing the lyrics into his face. Beside Zack, Sita wiggled back and forth on her legs, hands lightly tapping against her thighs. Parvati bobbed her head along, and Rachel…
She was half asleep. Zack crept behind the sisters and gently tugged on the hood of his sweatshirt. He flipped it over Rachel’s head so she would have something soft to plop down on when she finally curled up next to Sita’s warm body. A mighty yawn erupted that made both Sita and Parvati laugh. Zack went back to his spot and wrapped his arms around his bent legs.
What the hell am I even doing? This wasn’t his usual Saturday. Partying at the clubs or on his yacht… holed up in his studio working into the early Sunday hours on his latest project… out on a date with a gorgeously tanned woman who may or may not have had real tits… that was his usual Saturday night. And he would make the most of it by getting drunk, getting creative, getting laid… or some intoxicating combo of more than one.
Soberly sitting in a park with three women he barely knew, none of whom were in the market to sleep with him, while they watched a foreign movie surrounded by large families… that wasn’t even on Zack’s radar, let alone his bucket list.
I came here so I could hang out with her. Why? Rachel wasn’t interested in him. Not romantically. He wasn’t going to get to sleep with her. Was that even the point of this? How sad am I? Only acting like this so I can fuck her?
No. If it had only been about getting in her pants, Zack would have moved on already. There were plenty of women willing to sleep with him out there. Or he would simply go without and distract his libido with creative expression. What’s the difference, really?
There was something different about Rachel. From the moment he first saw her in Opal’s Café, he had been intrigued by…
By what, exactly? Her simple, casual looks? Her sarcastic attitude? Her interests and career? No, such women were a dime a dozen, especially when Zack lowered his usual standards. By all accounts, there was nothing special about Rachel Taylor.
So then why did he keep calling her? Why did he keep entertaining her? Why – oh why -– was he a little excited to go out with her every time they made plans? Why was he irked that Parvati and Sita had tagged along this time?
Was he really content with being friends with her?
Get a grip, man. It’s nothing serious.
The credits rolled to thunderous applause across the field. The park buzzed with the life of a hundred families packing up their things and heading home. Kids mimicked the dances they had seen on the screen. Adults laughed and discussed their favorite parts. A few older women sighed and lamented that life couldn’t be like the movies. That was what Zack understood in English. He couldn’t understand any of the other languages peppering the warm summer night.
“We’re heading home,” Parvati announced. “You need help getting home?”
Rachel rubbed her eyes with the back of Zack’s sweatshirt sleeve. “I can walk.”
“Really?” Parvati scoffed. “That’s a mile.”
Rachel was too sleepy to reply.
“I can take her home,” Zack offered. “You too, if you need an escort.”
“We only live a few blocks away,” Parvati said. “Besides, we know half the people here if we need help. But Rachel lives way closer to downtown.”
“And I actually live in downtown, so I can help her home.”
Parvati shrugged. “Have a good night. Nice meeting you outside of the café, Zack.”
“Good night.”
Rachel had most of her things packed by the time the park cleared. Zack surveyed the roads and checked his Uber app. He could easily afford the peak fare prices, but the nearest car was half a mile away since everyone else was busy chauffeuring the other movie-goers. The buses were inconvenient. They would have to walk, since Zack had taken an Uber there and left his car and bike at home.
On one hand, he preferred to wait for most of the traffic to clear out. On the other, the longer they waited, the darker it became. Zack wasn’t worried about taking care of himself on the walk home. He was more worried about Rachel, who still sleepily swayed in his sweatshirt.
“Careful,” he said, picnic basket bumping against his left leg. Rachel walked on his right, the farthest from the street. Don’t want her wandering out there in my dark sweatshirt. “Here.” He swung his right arm around her, keeping her in a loose but protective hold. “Don’t even wanna hear it. Consider this for your own good.”
She looked up, hood slipping off her head. “Huh?”
They stopped at a crosswalk. “You didn’t hear any of that?”
“No.”
“You don’t care that I’ve got my arm around you right now?”
“You do?” Rachel laughed. “I don’t even feel it. This sweatshirt is huge.”
The light turned green. Only three quarters of a mile to go.
“Thanks for coming to the movie, by the way,” Rachel said. “Sorry I forgot to mention my other friends were coming. Like I said, it was a last minute decision.”
“No worries. I enjoyed myself
.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
Rachel shook her head in disbelief. “You’re kind of a mystery to me.”
“How’s that?”
“I feel like I could throw anything at you, and you’ll go along with it.”
“Perhaps that is a good way to describe me. Very go with the flow type.” Zack absentmindedly squeezed her shoulder with his tightening hand. “But next time I’m deciding what we do.”
“So we are meeting again?”
Zack scoffed. “Of course we are?” Are you kidding me? Is she used to people dumping her for no reason at all? Then again, how many people – let alone women – had Zack dumped with no warning over the years? Too many. I should change my ways. He only thought that halfheartedly. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Starting to think I hang out with you more than I do my other friends…”
Zack needed to change the topic, fast. “So how did you meet your friend from the café?”
“Parvati?” Only took half a mile of walking toward downtown for Rachel to wake up. “I met her at that café a couple years ago. She’s been working there longer.” They stopped at another light. “We got to talking, and it turned out we both enjoyed a lot of the same things. Next thing I knew, I was having dinner with her family and having old bootleg Bollywood DVDs dumped in my bag because they didn’t want them anymore. Rest is history, I guess.”
“So they got you into that stuff?”
“Yes and no. I said we had a lot in common already. A love for Indian cinema was the tip of the iceberg.”
I think you’re the real mystery here, Rachel Taylor. Zack lowered his arm now that Rachel was awake again. “Interesting.”
“Did you like the movie?”
“Sure. Very colorful.”
Rachel laughed in admonishment. “You didn’t understand any of it, huh?”
“Not a lick.”
“All right.” Rachel hoisted her blanket back up her shoulder. “Sometime soon I’m bringing the DVD over to your place so you can properly see it.”