“No, don’t be sorry. We have to redeem the times. Let’s make the most of the tobacco companies’ repentance and the city’s largesse and use the facilities they have provided.”
“You sound like my Granny,” Vanessa blurted. Javier raised a brow in inquiry.
“She used to tell me that the highest mark of righteousness was accepting another person’s attempt to right a wrong, even if it was an inadequate attempt.”
“I remind you of your Granny,” Javier said, playfully.
“Not many people remind me of Granny.”
“A compliment, then,” his voice was sincere. “Thank you, Vanessa.”
When they arrived at the bike rental stand, it was closed. A sign informed them that the owner would return in fifteen minutes.
“We can wait in the air conditioning,” Javier smiled. “That is, if you don’t mind that I will have to idle the engine a little.”
“I think the environment will forgive us just this once. It’s such a hot day.”
“I can’t guarantee that the temperature in here won’t rise anyway,” Javier teased.
Vanessa turned toward him in her seat. She looked over his beautiful, masculine face, her eyes lingering on his supple lips. She leaned forward, and their gazes locked. Suddenly, Javier’s fingers wove through the hair at her neck. His face was an eye twinkle away from hers.
“That is, if you are not reminded too much of your grandmother to kiss me,” his voice was low and close enough that she could feel its vibrations in her body.
“Not at all,” she answered breathlessly.
Then her world turned hot pink and warm and wild, safe and dangerous at once. His lips pressed over hers firmly, possessively, and he caressed her neck with his hands. Vanessa swallowed her heart out of her throat. The thrill of his touch spiraled her through excitement to eagerness. She parted her lips slightly and kissed him back, exulting when she felt his lips part as well. They kissed deeply for a moment, until Vanessa felt Javier’s fingers touch her cheek. She opened her eyes to his intimate gaze. She was more than naked before him then, even though they were clothed, in broad daylight, in a public place. With a small, brave impulse, she decided to let him see what he would. She held his gaze, which seemed to ebb and flow with distant seas, the cadences of laughter and tears, the sounds of smiling and simplicity. They each gasped.
Javier moved his hand to her shoulder and sat up in his seat a little. He blinked a few times, slowly and as if in wonder.
“Did you-?” he groped for words. “Just now. I thought I saw a garden, and a warm blue robe like the night sky, and I heard a fiddle playing a sad and happy song, the kind that makes you dance.”
Vanessa nodded, unable to find words adequate to her experience.
They grinned and snickered, both self-conscious.
“That was some first kiss,” Javier smiled.
“You’re right,” Vanessa said playfully. “But just imagine what will happen if we practice.”
***
The women of Fructus listened with rapt attention to the details of Vanessa’s dates. Perla began to fan herself when Vanessa came to the amazing kiss in the parking lot. The rest of the date had been pleasant, but did not compare in the least with those few ecstatic moments when they had seemed to glimpse each other’s souls.
Gabi exaggerated her chewing motions when Vanessa finished. “Jeez, Nessa. I just thought you would be good in bed together, not that you two would form a cult or something.”
“It’s not a cult. It’s a mystical connection,” Carla chided. “That’s beautiful, mija,” she said to Vanessa. “You two are soul mates; that’s what I think. I’m going to get you a santo to help you along,” she smacked Gabi’s leg affectionately. “Remind me to give you a santo for Vanessa, okay?”
“I think Carla’s right,” Perla nodded. She was still fanning herself. “This man is the one for you, Vanessa.” She closed her eyes for a moment and smiled, “Yes. I see you two together. Dancing.”
“Just dancing? That doesn’t sound much like our Vanessa,” Squeak joked. “Are you sure that’s all they’re doing? Or is dancing a euphemism?”
“We are always all dancing, Brigit,” Percy said authoritatively. “But that’s not the part that interests me,” she smirked, teasing.
“What do you mean, mija?”
“I mean, dear Carla, that Vanessa has finally had a proper snog,” she finished in her posh accent.
Vanessa threw a pillow at Percy’s face, which the redhead batted away.
“And she made a man hear music,” Squeak smiled. “When’s your next practice, Vanessa? Shall we come along and play for you?”
“Play what?” Percy asked, intrigued.
“Banjo, of course,” Squeak blushed slightly. “I would have played for you before, but my hands were rather busy.”
“Get a room!” Gabi yelled, picking up the pillow and tossing it at Squeak, at the same time as Squeak exclaimed, “With crochet!”
Percy picked up a folded campus newspaper and pointed to the yarn-bombed statue on the front page. “James Duke needed a makeover. I think he’s best in summer colors, don’t you?”
“Really?” Vanessa humored. “I had always thought of him as more of a spring.”
“He’s an autumn. Those are chrysanthemums he’s wearing,” Perla teased. Squeak’s face reddened, but she was smiling.
“Besides,” Gabi continued, “you know Vanessa doesn’t want us there cramping her style. And how would Perla look, hauling a glass harp out to whatever nature-loving date place those two choose next?”
“Well, I could bring my psaltery instead!” Perla perked up. She had made Fructus endure an earth mother recital that she self accompanied with psaltery to celebrate the previous winter solstice.
“Thanks, Perla, Squeak, but I think I’ve got this covered. We’re meeting this week to have chocolate. If I can’t figure out how to kiss a sexy man while we’re having chocolate, then I’m beyond y’all’s help anyway.”
Chapter Five
Chocolate
You seem a little nervous,” Percy observed.
Vanessa moved gingerly through the dumpster, taking far more care for her cleanliness than usual. “It’s just that I want to keep my jeans clean.” Vanessa tossed a bag of old wool sweaters out of the bin, then noticed that her haste had cost her a mustard splotch across her knee. “Ish. For my date later.”
“Want to call it an early night here?” Percy offered. “Or better yet, just stand on the edge and direct me. I like being told what to do now and again.”
“As Squeak well knows, no doubt,” Vanessa teased.
“No doubt,” Percy smiled. “Where are y’all going, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“To the coffee and chocolate shop, Beans and Spice; then to the brewery. I can get free drinks both places. Elliot runs the chocolate place, and we have a sort of freegan arrangement.”
“Tit for tat?”
“European chocolate for local brews. My boss, Ruben, is fine with it, and of course Elliot doesn’t mind. He’s a partner in the chocolate business.”
“You know, that’s something I find fascinating. I read some articles on freegans after I volunteered to be one, well, sort of one. One can get the impression that the lifestyle is the last resort of the broke.”
“Some of us are low on funds, at least sometimes. But most of us also just really love the earth. At least around here.”
“I wonder if that’s a Southern thing?”
“You mean like church or bacon Southern? You have to love the earth or you can’t be one of us?” Vanessa laughed, “Maybe. But I doubt Yankee freegans are much different.”
“I guess being low on funds is relative, too. If Elliot is a business partner, I mean. He must be doing okay.”
“He does all right. The only one of us who is chronically underemployed is Bradley, really. He’s a part time barista in downtown. But that’s his choice. I think he doesn’t see a point in being ver
y ambitious. His trust fund kicks in a few years from now, and he wants to practice living off fifteen grand a year. Or mooching, in Bradley’s case.”
“And you do all right, too?” Percy kept her eyes on the bags of old clothes she was checking, not wanting to embarrass her friend. “I mean if it’s not too personal to ask. It’s just that Perla gives the impression that maybe money’s a little tight.”
“I do okay, for a history degree holder. I make about thirty eight thousand a year with tips. It would be a good living if I didn’t start out with seventy thousand in student loans to pay back. Freeganism makes financial sense in that way. I can usually double up my payments each month.”
“Wow. I’m sorry they are such a burden for you. Back when I consolidated mine, we could get two percent interest, not this eight and nine percent they charge now.”
“Hopefully I’ll be out from under them in the next couple of years, if all goes well.”
“Then what? What is Vanessa Fanchon going to do when she grows up?”
Vanessa was quiet for a moment. She found a bag full of gift bags and held one up for Percy to see. It was covered in yellow ducks and pale green frogs. “What do you think? Do you have a baby shower in your near future?”
“I might. Are they all baby themed?”
“Looks like it. Someone must be nesting in there,” Vanessa nodded toward the apartment building behind the dumpster.
“So, is that your answer, or are you changing the subject?”
“Mostly changing the subject. But it’s also my answer. I always thought I would want to travel a lot, maybe get involved in a lot of community activism, find some cause to champion, just me. But the farther I get from my crappy childhood, the more I think about having a family some day. Not that causes and traveling are out of the question, but family life seems more and more appealing.” She thought of Javier’s ease with children and smiled.
“You want lots of babies?”
“I want some babies, yeah. But I haven’t exactly been hanging out with family men these past few years,” she thought of Brian and his pregnant wife and corrected, “I mean, men free to make a family with me. So maybe it’s a moot point.”
“Maybe that will change tonight,” Percy smiled.
“Maybe. I think Javier wants children, but then again, he’s dating a freegan. You’d be surprised how many environmentalist guys are anti-reproducing. The green movement is pretty divided. There are the ecotourists, urbanist GINKs and the nature based, Montessori, Waldorf, granola child rearers. One wants us all to live in concrete with tiny patio gardens, and the other wants us to give suburbia a conscience.”
“And you are stuck between them?”
Vanessa sat on a bag of plus-sized pantyhose and old bras and looked at Percy. “I don’t think I have enough options to feel stuck.”
“I feel stuck.”
“You? How? A distinguished-professor-with-a-hot-girlfriend, stuck?!”
“Academic life means long hours. I can’t even think about asking Squeak to marry me, much less have kids with me, until I get tenure.”
“Whoa. Marriage? Y’all are there already?”
Percy looked at Vanessa with bright clarity. “I’m there. I haven’t asked Brigit yet.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything. Confidentiality of the confessional and all.”
Percy laughed, “I guess confessionals and dumpsters do have a lot in common, in a certain light.”
Vanessa smiled as she leapt out and helped Percy down. “You know, Perc, you are the only person I know who could make me feel less nervous by asking all of the big scary questions.”
“You’re welcome. I figured a third date doesn’t need to bear all the weight of a woman’s need to think out loud about her desire or lack thereof for bearing young.”
The women loaded Percy’s trunk with the sweaters, an immersion blender still in the unopened box, a couple of the baby gift bags, and a full set of posh dark blue glazed mugs, which they agreed to split evenly even though Percy had found them. Vanessa wiped the mustard off of her leg with the corner of a similarly-colored sweater. The stain would come out later when she felted the wool for a new purse. She pulled a vintage blouse out of her backpack and shook it out.
“Watch out for me for a minute, Percy?” Vanessa asked, as she pulled her smudged blue T-shirt over her head, revealing the sexiest of the bras Perla had given her. She buttoned a vintage tunic over her jeans, taking care to leave just one more button open than was respectable. The tiny pink flowers on a field of ivory lent a feminine contrast to her sexy demeanor.
“Wow. You look great. Doctor Mani better have a good heart,” Percy grinned. “You want me to drop you off early, or swing by your place first? I don’t mind holding onto your things till tomorrow if you’d like.”
“Let’s swing by my place. I left my lipstick there.”
Vanessa ran up to her apartment to deposit the evening’s haul of food and finds and grab her lipstick. There was a note under her door that she only noticed when she was leaving. She opened it as soon as she buckled back into Percy’s car.
“Would you look at this? Bradley must have run out of condoms again. He says he wants to meet with me about a matter of sexual importance. Probably wants me to give him his stupid Kung Fu DVD back.”
Percy was tensely silent.
“What? You think it’s something else? You don’t know Bradley. He either wants to get it on, or get something from me.”
“You don’t think… I mean, he cheated on you at least with one person you know about. He couldn’t have contracted something, could he? Maybe he wants you to be tested?” Percy swallowed, clearly feeling awkward about asking.
“No. Thanks for thinking of that. But no. Bradley and I only ever used condoms, none of which broke, miraculously, and we never exchanged bodily fluids any other way. As he will tell anyone who will listen, I don’t give head.”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. Just didn’t want you to be in harm’s way.”
“I know, Percy. That’s one of the things I like about you. You have my back.” They pulled up in front of the coffee and chocolate shop. “Wish me luck?” Vanessa raised her eyebrows and smiled nervously.
“All the luck in the world. Call if you need a ride home.”
Vanessa walked into the chocolate bar and looked around. She saw Javier right away, before he knew she was there. His skin glowed from under an open-necked silk shirt he wore over linen flat front trousers. His head was turned in conversation with a very pregnant blonde woman, so Vanessa took the opportunity to check him out thoroughly, from the way his thick hair waved around his collar, all the way down to his leather sandals. His trousers were creased and clean, but loose fitting. Still, they couldn’t hide the fact that he had a very nice derriere.
Javier looked up and caught her gaze as she contemplated these things. She looked down, pretending to have zoned out rather than stare at his bum, then looked up with a smile. He said something to the pregnant woman and walked toward Vanessa. Her heart sped up as he approached.
“Vanessa,” he kissed her cheek, “so good to see you again.” He gestured to the pregnant woman. “You know who this is, of course,” he smiled.
The pregnant woman smiled broadly at Vanessa, clearly trying to place her. Vanessa almost did not recognize her, but the vapid expression around her eyes seemed familiar. “Mary!? Vanessa,” she extended her hand and shook warmly, “I, um, didn’t realize you were expecting. Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” Mary placed her hands over her large belly. “I’m having twins in about a month. I’m so excited,” She turned to Javier and handed him her cup. “Javier, would you mind getting me a refill to-go on my decaf expresso? I already paid for it. It’s just so hard to get up once I sit down.”
“Of course,” he smiled politely at Mary, then looked at Vanessa. “I’ll be right back. Then we can get a table in the corner.”
“Forgive me, but where did we meet?” Mary
asked as soon as Javier walked away. “Javier says you call him by his first name owing to me.”
“It was at a benefit a couple of years ago. I can’t remember which. I was tutoring some kids in the West End at the time.” Vanessa hoped that the truth about tutoring would cover for her lie about the benefit meeting.
Mary looked confused for a moment; then her eyes cleared, “Oh! Yes. I had a few too many at that Literacy Center benefit. It was right after I had come back to the States, and I was showing around a photo of Javier and I. You know, I met my husband that night. We have been together ever since.”
“That’s great!” Vanessa said, glad for a change of subject. “Is he here tonight, too?”
“No. He’s working a late shift at the hospital. I’m just here on a professional basis. I do PR, launch parties, that sort of thing,” Mary handed Vanessa a flier for Beans and Spice’s launch party. “I’m doing this one. You should come.”
Vanessa looked over the flier quickly and beamed, “I’ll definitely be there! It’s at my brewery. Well, I’m a bartender there. I bet I’ll be working the bar that night.”
“Well, it will be great to see you. I told Javier to bring a date, and it looks as though you’re it, if I’m any judge of body language.”
“Thanks,” Vanessa smiled and bit her lip, casting a glance toward Javier’s backside at the counter, “I hope so.”
Mary leaned in as much as her belly allowed and stage whispered, “I hope you have taken a vow of chastity, though.”
“What? Who told you that?” Vanessa sputtered guiltily, Gabi’s coarse, “Nessa’s off sex” coming to mind.
“I’m just saying, is all. Javier has many fine qualities, but he does not put out. Unlike my husband, who cannot get enough. Well, when I’m not super pregnant with twins, anyhow.”
Vanessa tried to smile and nodded, not sure what to do with the suddenly intimate turn of the conversation.
“Speaking of who, I had best get back home for when he gets in.” Mary worked herself out of the seat she had taken and stood, “Nice to meet you again. I’ll see you at the party.” Mary smiled warmly.
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