by Renee Hart
Chleo was beautiful herself. She had long curly black hair, almond shaped brown eyes, and dimples in both of her cheeks. Her smile gave her an air of innocence, but Chleo could be pretty silly and vulgar when she wanted to be. She was voluptuous and was unfazed by any negative energy that told her that she needed to lose weight or do anything to change herself.
She owned Any Blooming Thing, a flower shop in the heart of the city, with her best friend of almost 20 years. A lot, but also nothing, had changed since Jessica got married almost three months prior. They were still a dynamic duo, but now Jessica had a husband and step daughter to think about. That didn’t bother Chleo though. Things changed without getting worse…but the change reminded Chleo that she didn’t have someone of her own.
She met Arjun when her friend and coworker Petey had kittens. To be honest, she wasn’t a big fan of cats, but she took it in because, to her, it was a last resort to quiet her feelings of loneliness.
“You know, once you get over the initial fear of plummeting, it's actually quite beautiful up here,” Arjun said. He scooted closer and closer to Chleo who was opening a Tupperware container. There was leftover shrimp Alfredo with black olives and salad on the side. Arjun put a hand in the container and popped an olive into his mouth.
“I’m just happy we got permission to do this and we have harnesses.”
“I guess if you’re sweet and pretty enough, you can get away with doing a lot of things,” Arjun said.
“Are you talking about yourself?” Chleo teased. Arjun scooted even closer until he was sitting with his side up against one of Chleo’s folded legs. His fingers grazed her knee. His touch was always gentle and always so sure. Chleo had no doubt in her mind that he cared about her. It was like they could both tell what the other was feeling at any given moment, even without words.
“I could be talking about both of us,” Arjun said with a smirk. His hair blew in front of his face and Chleo’s heart melted. She still wasn’t used to just how beautiful he was. And he was hers.
“I keep saying that you and I would make an amazing crime couple. We’re very smart and persuasive, you and I,” he said when he ran his hands through his hair.
“Once we get through the rest of both of our bucket lists, then it’s something I’m willing to consider,” Chleo said. Arjun tried to steal another olive from Chleo’s container, but she playfully jabbed her plastic fork in the direction of his greedy fingers. He pulled away, but she pierced an olive with the fork and fed it to him.
Arjun turned around and pulled his own container out of the basket and then picked up the bottle of wine to start fiddling with the cork. When he managed to get it open, he let the excess foam spill out into the breeze and plummet towards the earth below. He poured a plastic cup with some of the white wine and did the same to another cup.
“I’d like to propose a toast,” he said. He kept having to brush his wavy hair out of his face, and eventually he kept one hand on his head with his hair pulled back.
“What are we toasting?” Chleo asked. The butterflies in her stomach floated up towards her heart.
“Us,” Arjun said. He furrowed his eyebrows and moved his head back a bit as if to say, ‘what else could we be toasting?’
“Yeah? And what about us?” Chleo asked. She wanted to be coy. She wanted to play dumb so that he could spell it out for her. He had never said he loved her, and she didn’t want to say something like that so soon into their relationship.
Arjun’s romance was more playful than anything. She hadn’t really seen him vulnerable or extremely romantic. She didn’t want to change him, she was just curious to see how their relationship would blossom over time.
Arjun lowered his face shyly and eventually took his hand out of his hair. It wasn’t so windy anymore so the coils fell about his face and neck. She was expecting him to say something silly, and to tease her like he usually did. He used his free hand to brush against her cheek like he did the first time that they kissed. His thumb paused and grazed against her bottom lip. She smiled and turned her head to rest her cheek in his hand as if it were a pillow.
“I’m just grateful that I have this time to spend with you. I’m grateful that out of all the vet offices, you chose mine. I’m grateful that it’s been three wonderful months with you and it feels like the first day, and at the same time it feels like I’ve known you for a lifetime,” Arjun said. His words surprised her. He wasn’t his usual casual self. His fingers were still rubbing against her face and she looked up at him.
Words escaped her. She wanted to say the same to him. In her mind she was telling him more. She was going to let him know that she was happy that he had been there to encourage her, to remind her to never give up on anything that made her happy, and just for being the man in her life who truly cared. She wanted to say all of that, but her words caught in her throat when she thought of how happy he had made her by his words.
Chleo swallowed the lump that was forming in her throat and held onto the hand that Arjun had still rested on the side of her face.
“Happy three months, Arjun,” she finally said when she had collected herself enough. She turned her head and kissed the palm of his hand.
“Happy three months to you too, Chleo.”
Chapter 2
It was a beautiful morning in the middle of fall. The leaves on the very few trees that were in the city had faded to amber, shades of maple, to a bright pumpkin color. It was time to say hello to the pumpkin lattes and goodbye to the bright sun dresses. That didn’t stop Chleo at all though. She stepped into Any Blooming Thing in a bright green sundress with teal and darker green paisley patterns; wrapped around her waist was a thin rope belt. She had on shin high black boots, a jacket, and a big smile on her face.
“Well aren’t you stylish and chipper this morning,” Petey said when she stepped into the store. He outstretched his hands, and Chleo did a slow turn to show off her outfit.
“Clee, as pretty as you are, especially today, I’m holding out my hands so you can hand me a Danish and my cup of coffee.”
Chleo pouted, but took out a coffee she had in an egg tray, and then handed Petey an entire bag full of donuts and Danish. He thanked her profusely; ever the dramatist, and then set the items onto the counter.
“Ok, now let me look at you,” he said. He stretched out his hands again and Chleo rolled her eyes and twirled for the second time. Petey nodded his head in approval, silently judging her from head to toe. “Where’s Jess?”
“I left her at The Coffee Cup. She was too busy canoodling with Alfie,” Chleo said. Alfred Reynolds was Jessica’s long time crush when they were in high school. When Alfie and Jessica bumped into each other just around three years ago, they rekindled something that had never actually started when they were teenagers, but beamed at the idea of getting a second chance at potential romance.
It was more than a coincidence that Alfie’s store, The Coffee Cup, and Any Blooming Thing were less than a block apart from each other.
“Ugh, gross,” Petey groaned. He pulled out a brown sugar and cinnamon sprinkled donut and stuffed it in his mouth. His eyes rolled in the back of his head and then closed as he took in the sweet flavor. The Coffee Cup definitely had the best donuts and Paninis on this side of town. The fact that they knew the owner made it all the more wonderful for them.
“I know, right?” Chleo said with a giggle. She was still giggling when Jessica came waltzing through the bright red Dutch door.
“And what are you two snickering about?” Jessica asked mid stride. She had a small bag of extra donuts and sandwiches inside, but Chleo had already brought in her coffee.
“About how totally gag worthy you and your new husband are,” Petey said. He sounded so matter of fact about it that Chleo burst into a new fit of giggles. She pinched her nose with her fingers and covered her mouth with her hand to avoid too much attention to herself.
Jessica’s mouth flung open, her eyes darting back and forth between Chleo and Petey.
She raised an indignant finger, just about ready to retort until she stopped herself. She lowered her finger, shrugged, and then nodded.
“It’s true,” Jessica admitted. “We’re pretty touchy-feely huh?”
Petey put a finger in his mouth and imitated gagging sounds. Chleo looked at everything in the store except directly at Jessica. She was trying to be the innocent party in this whole thing.
“You’re one to talk Mr. Falls-In-Love-Every-Week. And I can still see you, Ms. Third-Month-Anniversary,” Jessica crossed her arms over her chest and harrumphed. Petey offered a middle finger rather than a verbal retort. Chleo was beaming. She was surprised that Jessica remembered. “What wacky adventure were you and your beau up to this weekend?”
“We had lunch on a scaffold a million miles from the ground,” Chleo said. “It was hella scary, but the lunch and being near Arjun made it worth it. He even got really sweet and romantic.”
Petey batted his eyelashes and made a dreamy look at Jessica.
“Young love. So pure,” he said. He picked up a potted zinnia and held it as gently as one would a child. Jessica and Chleo both groaned and pulled out pastries from their paper bags. It was going to be a long day. With Petey, it always was.
*
“Thanks for picking me up,” Chleo said. She was the last to leave Any Blooming Thing. Jessica left early to pick up her step daughter, Lydia from school. They normally closed at 6, and Petey left at exactly that time without a minute to spare. Chleo stayed just a bit later. She was ordering a new shipment of flowers and working on finances for the end of the month.
Arjun was in surgery for most of the afternoon. He was resetting the leg of a fennec fox that had been hit by a car. He was like a kid describing his very first day at school. He was grinning from ear to ear, but got awfully sad and pensive when he was talking about the fox that had been in pain. Chleo thought he should have been an actor with the way that he used his words and gesticulated. He made her feel like she was right there with him in surgery. He almost made her love animals.
“I’ve never done surgery on one before. He was a lot more docile than I imagined, and they’re usually so quick and agile. Poor thing looked really scared. But we took care of him,” Arjun said as he finished his story.
They were already pulling up by Chleo’s building when he had told Chleo about his surgery and all about his day. Normally Chleo would have a silly outburst with anything anyone said, but she and Arjun had a special relationship. Whenever she spoke, he listened. He was swept up in anything that she told him. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her, and she had his full attention. It was the same way for her.
Arjun had her completely transfixed. She liked listening to him. And there were times of comfortable silences when she would spend the night. And then he would pick up his guitar and play some of the songs that he knew for her. He insisted that he wasn’t any good, but the first time he played an original piece for her, it brought tears to her eyes. They were on the roof of her building. Something about being so high made them feel like they were alone in the world. It was strange to her that Arjun could be afraid of heights, but be brave enough to want to try to overcome that fear when they were together.
“Are you coming up?” Chleo asked. She gave him a sly smile, but didn’t turn her face to fully look at him.
“Would you like me to?” he teased back. Chleo bit her lip. She hadn’t yet even mentioned to her friends that she and Arjun had never had sex. She normally didn’t consider things like that. She decided that if something was going to happen, then she’d just let it happen. With Arjun, she was adamant on letting their relationship go on for 3 months without being intimate. It was for her own sake, she knew. She wanted that reassurance that someone cared about the kind of person she was beyond anything physical that she may have to offer.
Although Arjun had kissed her on the very night that they met, he respected her space and never pushed the topic further. He was patient and considerate and charming in a way that she wasn’t used to.
“I would,” Chleo said finally.
“Then I’d love to spend some more time with you,” he took her by the hand and kissed her knuckles.
Chleo couldn’t believe how perfect she felt. This was the first relationship where all of her boundaries were respected and where she felt there was a mutual connection; the need for their relationship to grow beyond the traditional parts are what kept her even happier.
She couldn’t believe that all of this started because she had hated cats.
Chapter 3
Chleo woke up to the sound of soft purring by her face. She groaned and rolled onto her other side, stretched her arm forward hoping to feel the warmth of Arjun’s body beside her, but there was nothing there. She fumbled around, her cat Luna meowing softly beside her, no doubt wanting to be fed her breakfast.
Another groan escaped Chleo’s throat, and her eyes fluttered open. She was still extremely groggy. Her brain wasn’t properly awake yet.
“Avi?” she called out in a tired voice. Avi was what she called Arjun. It was a nickname that came from his first name, Arjun, and his last name Vaswani. She focused her eyes and noticed an empty space next to her. She was about to roll over again when a big fluffy face with bright yellow eyes came into focus. Her cat Luna sniffed her hair. She was still half asleep when she raised her head.
“Ok Luna, I’m up, I’m up.”
The little ragamuffin purred with approval.
Chleo propped herself on her elbows and scoped the room around her. Arjun was definitely not there. She couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment. It was barely after 7. She remembered that they'd had a wonderful night. They played board games, crossed something silly off of Chleo’s bucket list, and watched movies until they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Chleo didn’t want to jump to conclusions or think too much about what could have happened during the night. With a loud yawn, Chleo pulled herself up from her bed and lumbered towards the kitchen. Luna followed beside her silently. There was a bounce in Luna’s step. She could probably sense that she was about to get some food. The kitten’s paws tapped softly against the wooden floors of Chleo’s apartment.
Luna pounced up on the counter and paced back and forth. Chleo had gotten so accustomed to her house guest that she was almost beginning to enjoy her company. It was so strange to her that cats were almost her least favorite animal, but this very cat was the reason why she had met Arjun in the first place. Luna was the source of Chleo’s new happiness with Arjun. It was a beautiful sort of irony. It was even more surprising to her that the way Arjun spoke about animals made her more curious about them and less disdainful.
“What’s this?” Chleo said aloud. She noticed a small folded paper on her kitchen island. Her heart skipped a beat when she approached it. She unfolded the note and read it.
‘Went home to get a change of clothes. Gonna bring back something to eat and take you to work. Be back soon. – Avz’
Chleo breathed a sigh of relief when she finished reading the note. Maybe she had seen too much Sex and the City, but she couldn’t help but think that Arjun was going to break up with her via Post it note. She wasn’t sure why it was that she thought that. Sometimes there would be moments when she would hold her breath and just expect to wake up from whatever dream this was that she was having.
It wasn’t that she felt that Arjun was out of her league, but she had been hurt a lot by men who claimed they cared, and was now getting used to rejection or being dumped just a few weeks into a new relationship. She was trying her best to let that go, and she knew she truly wanted to move on and move forward with Arjun, but there were clearly some things that she needed to get through first.
She got Luna some food and watched her eat. She thought of fixing herself breakfast, but she knew that Arjun would be back with something. No doubt it would be something unusual. He was always surprising her with new and exciting foods.
Chleo heard the gentl
e click of a key setting into her lock. She kept a spare key underneath a phony rock in one of the flower pots that was outside her apartment door. It was more than likely Arjun back with some food. She was glad; she was just on the brink of starvation.
The key jingled and moved clumsily about in the lock and Chleo rushed over to the door to open it. Arjun looked amazing. Chleo was speechless watching him. He had on a black shirt with the top 2 buttons undone and really nice pants. His hair was wet and fell freely around his eyes. It was like watching a model step out of a pool after a photo-shoot.
It took a moment for Chleo to realize that Arjun had too many bags in his hand. She jumped into action and took a white paper bag that he had clenched between his teeth, and two more plastic bags he had in his hands.
“Thanks,” he said. He wasn’t as cheerful as he normally was. It was strange to Chleo, because Arjun wasn’t just a morning person; he was an all-day-every-day kind of cheerful, which Chleo didn’t understand. To her, people were allowed to be grumpy until their first cup of coffee, and then could allow at least another hour of grumpiness when they were counting down until their lunch, and finally an hour of grumpiness before they locked up shop and headed home. It was a formula she had developed since grade school, and it had worked wonders for her.
“You’re welcome babe,” she said. She smiled with one side of her mouth and Arjun kissed the dimple it revealed. He stepped into the apartment and the two of them put the bags on the kitchen counter. Luna came tap tap tapping along the wooden floors at the scent of food. She raised her nose in the air, her round yellow eyes almost twice their usual size.
“Are you ok?” Chleo asked. She had learned by now to ignore Luna completely. This cat was going to eat her out of house and home if it were possible, and she was barely 4 months old. She looked like a miniature version of what a cat should have been.