“So has he kissed you yet?” Zoe asked and looked away. She did not want to make Elena uncomfortable by staring at her.
“Yes,” Elena admitted with a sweet, shy smile.
Zoe grinned at her. “About time, I’d say. Then what happened?”
“You are nosy, aren’t you?”
“Hey, you asked me about Eva.”
“Yeah, and I got way too much information!” Elena laughed. “I also seem to remember that you were showing me how much you loved Eva.”
“I showed you?”
“See what a little bit of the demon drink does to you, Zoe?” Elena teased her. “Remember the night of the dance?”
“Oh!” Zoe blushed a little and then smiled at the memory of Eva trying valiantly to control her groping hands.
“You love her a lot, don’t you?” Elena asked, bringing Zoe’s pleasant recollections to an end and reclaiming her wandering attention.
“Yes!” Zoe replied with conviction.
“I think I could love Friedrich that way, but I may have a problem.” She looked at Zoe shyly and revealed, “I’m not a virgin.”
“You’re not a virgin?”
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“Oh, I heard you, but what does that have to do with kissing Friedrich? You know, El, kissing someone doesn’t mean...”
“Sometimes, Zoe, you are such a surprise.”
“Why? What did I do now?”
“Um, would you like to walk with me? I would feel more comfortable talking about it in a less public place.”
“Sure,” Zoe replied. She picked up her handbag and followed Elena down the jacaranda-lined path. The clusters of purple blossoms on the trees gave the walkway a serene look. They walked silently together for a few moments.
“You know I was in Bergen-Belsen during the war?” Elena asked.
Zoe nodded. Elena had told them about the concentration camp when they had first met, but she had barely mentioned it since. Zoe had not wanted to pry and unintentionally cause her any anguish by bringing up bad memories.
“My mother was there, too, for a short time.” Elena went quiet, and Zoe just walked next to her, taking Elena’s hand and giving it a tiny squeeze in a subtle show of support. Elena smiled.
“Do you think Friedrich will still want me?”
“He would be a total fool if he didn’t. You are a gentle and loving woman. It wasn’t your fault that you were raped. You are not to blame.” Zoe kissed Elena on the cheek. “Are you going to tell him?”
“Well, he’s going to know when we...you know, get married. I have to tell him.”
“You’re going to get married! When did this happen? When did he propose?”
“Whoa, stop!” Elena pulled her hand out of Zoe’s grasp and held it up to halt the flow of questions. “He hasn’t asked me to marry him yet.”
“Why not?”
“Oh, I don’t know, but he hasn’t. I know we haven’t been together long, but it feels like I’ve known him all my life,” Elena said.
“If he asks, will you say yes?”
“I know I’ve fallen in love with him. And I want to.”
“Wow, I haven’t been to a wedding in such a long time,” Zoe said smiling and then stopped as a thought occurred to her. “I am invited, aren’t I?”
Elena put her arm around Zoe. “Yes, you are invited, but he hasn’t asked me yet.”
“He will.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have a feeling about it,” Zoe replied. “He would be an absolute fool if he didn’t want you.”
“But with what happened...”
“Did you want that to happen?”
“No!” Elena shook her head, her eyes wide in shock at Zoe’s unexpected question.
“Then it’s not your fault. How can it be?”
“I don’t know, maybe he’ll see me as—”
“El, Friedrich would be the biggest idiot on the planet if he didn’t want to marry you because of that,” Zoe reassured her. “Anyway, I want to be a bridesmaid, and I would be very annoyed if that doesn’t happen.”
“I promise, if I get married, you will be my bridesmaid.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
Eva opened the door to the apartment and put her handbag down. She was tired, but it was a different kind of tired from the one that she had grown used to while working at the biscuit factory. Where the factory made her ache all over, she found that now she was not physically tired, but that her new employment left her a little drained mentally.
Eva was about to call out but paused when she saw Zoe asleep on the sofa, several books scattered around her and stacked on the floor. She knelt beside the sofa and brushed away Zoe’s bangs. “Zoe,” she whispered, kissing her softly on the mouth.
“Oh, hi there,” Zoe mumbled. She opened sleepy green eyes and smiled. “What a nice way to wake up.”
Instead of replying verbally, Eva kissed her again. Zoe made room for her on the sofa and they snuggled up together.
Zoe said, “I had a headache, so I thought I would grab a few minutes sleepy time.”
“All gone?” Eva caressed Zoe’s head, and she nodded.
“So tell me, what was your first day like?” Zoe asked. “If you tell me your day, I’ll tell you mine.”
“Well, it was different. Very busy.” Eva took Zoe’s hand and began stroking her thumb across the knuckles. “I helped a few people today,” she quietly related with a touch of pride in her voice. “It felt good.”
“You look happy.” Zoe reached out and brushed a strand of Eva’s hair out of her eyes.
Eva smiled down at the woman in her arms and nodded. “I am,” she said, tilting her head to steal a quick kiss. “Want to go to dinner and a movie, Miss Zoe?”
Zoe grinned. “Wow, you mean going on a date?”
“Yep.”
“With who?”
“Only me.”
“Hmm.” Zoe considered for a moment. “Well, if it’s the best that I can do,” she teased, her fingers seeking out the ticklish spots on Eva’s ribs. Eva batted her hand away, and Zoe asked, “So what’s at the cinema anyway?”
“Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.”
“Sounds great. Why don’t you go and get changed, and I’ll tidy up in here.”
“It’s a date,” Eva replied. She gave Zoe a quick kiss before walking into the bedroom. For the first time in a long time, she felt her life was not going to come crashing down around her. Muller had been captured, her real father was back in her life, and all seemed right. Life in Sydney was taking a turn for the better. She whistled happily as she unbuttoned her shirt, getting ready to go on a date with her beloved partner.
***
A full moon illuminated the walkway as Eva and Zoe moved quietly up the path. Zoe bumped into Eva and they giggled. They continued on their way into the building’s foyer, where Mrs. Jenkins was taking out her cat.
She nodded as Zoe and Eva paused. “Hello, girls, did you have a nice evening?” she asked, smiling at them fondly.
“It was wonderful, Mrs. Jenkins,” Eva replied.
“Good, good. You young people need to get out and enjoy life. Good night, girls.” Mrs. Jenkins went into her apartment, closing the door behind her.
“She knows,” Eva whispered.
“Knows what?” Zoe whispered back.
“About us,” Eva continued to whisper and smiled at Zoe’s alarmed look. “Yesterday when we were doing our laundry...remember?”
“We didn’t do anything,” Zoe said, frowning.
“Remember the duel with the wet towel?” Zoe nodded. “Well, Mrs. Jenkins was in the stairwell,” Eva continued.
“Oh.”
“When you left she came over and we talked about this and that,” Eva recounted as they stood in the foyer. “She then asked me if we were really sisters.”
“Took her long enough,” Zoe said.
“Well, I couldn’t lie to her outright, so I to
ld her.”
“Oh, I guess she didn’t die on the spot, since she just spoke to us,” Zoe said. She sobered. “When do we move out of the apartment?”
“We don’t,” Eva reassured her. “She was a little upset that we lied to her.”
“She’s upset that we lied, but not that we’re lesbians?” Zoe asked. “It’s not like we can declare our love to everyone.”
“I know, love. She said that she has a sister who is a lesbian, and she understands.”
“She understands about what?”
Eva looked as though she would rather not impart the next piece of information. Zoe crossed her arms over her chest. Eva took a deep breath and said, “Mrs. Jenkins understands we have an illness and can’t help acting on our unnatural desires.”
“A what? An illness?” Zoe stopped walking and stood stock-still. Eva could see the scowl on her face in the semi-darkness. It was a minor miracle Zoe had not screamed in outrage. “You have got to be kidding.”
“Zoe, she doesn’t know anything about us, doesn’t know how much we love each other, and she’s at least trying to understand in her own way. Mrs. Jenkins believes what a lot of other people believe, what doctors say is wrong with lesbians and homosexuals like Earl,” Eva tried to reason with Zoe. “Isn’t it better for her to think we are sick than for us to be abused because we are different?”
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Zoe replied. “We aren’t sick. We just love each other. You would think we were murderers or something.” She let out an exasperated sigh.
“I know that, love, but isn’t it better for us?” Eva asked.
“It is.” Zoe nodded. “At least we won’t have to deal with her hatred, just her pity.”
“She’s not going to stop trying to set us up on dates, either.” Eva smiled and looked down at Zoe, who smiled back.
“All we need is a good boy to show us what we are missing and then we will be cured, right?” Zoe asked, only partly joking. Eva knew that Zoe did not have a lot of patience for ignorant people like Mrs. Jenkins, but she had a lot less for outright bigots, so she would live with the landlady’s misconceptions and be grudgingly grateful the situation was not worse. They could have been looking for a new apartment.
“Something like that, I’m sure.” Eva held the door from the lobby for Zoe to pass. They walked up the stairs in silence. Eva was about to escort Zoe into the apartment when they spotted Elena walking up the stairs with Friedrich. “So where have you been, Miss Elena?” Eva asked loudly.
Elena and Friedrich reached Elena’s apartment, hand in hand. “We went and saw Casablanca,” she said. She threaded her arm through Friedrich’s, and he gave her a shy smile in return.
“That’s where we were!” Zoe remarked, and they shared a laugh. “Where were you? We didn’t see you.”
“Um, we were at the back,” Elena said quietly.
“Did you see any of the movie?” Eva asked. Elena’s face turned a bright shade of pink.
“So you missed the bit where Rick kissed Ilsa on the tarmac, and then they flew away like Superman, high into the sky,” Zoe teased.
Elena stuck her tongue out rudely, which only made Zoe laugh harder.
“How’s the wrist, Friedrich?” Eva asked, seeing the plaster cast had been removed.
“Good as new,” Friedrich replied and joined in the chuckles. “Good thing I wasn’t hit in the head, eh?”
“I hear kissing helps in the healing,” Zoe said.
“Well, I guess we will leave you two lovebirds alone. It’s been a long night,” Eva said, waving goodbye and preceding Zoe into their apartment.
As Eva closed the door, Zoe wrapped herself around her and looked up into her eyes. “I hear kissing increases brain power,” she said, waggling her eyebrows. She stood on the tips of her toes and kissed Eva.
“Then we should both be geniuses by now.” Eva snorted, and they laughed. “Did you like the movie?” she asked. Zoe followed her into the lounge and sat down on the sofa next to her, cuddling close.
“Oh, yeah, it was so romantic!” she enthused.
Eva gave Zoe a quizzical look. “Did we see the same movie?”
Zoe swatted her on the arm, which earned her a hug. “Sing it to me again?” Zoe pleaded. Eva had sung her the song As Time Goes By as they walked home from the cinema. The warmth of the evening, with the sounds of the cicadas in the trees, added to the wonder of the night.
“Why, I can’t remember it. I’m a little rusty on it,” Eva replied, quoting a line from the film and grinning.
“I’ll hum it for you,” Zoe said. She began humming the song a little off-key. Eva’s grin turned lopsided. Zoe broke off her humming and demanded, “Sing it, my sweet Eva.”
Eva caressed Zoe’s cheek and sang a few lines of As Time Goes By, then bent down and kissed Zoe tenderly. She gazed lovingly at Zoe, who sighed and fell back into her embrace.
Eva sang the rest of the song, and her voice was sweet, the sentiment conjured by the lyrics even sweeter. When she finished, she looked deeply into Zoe’s eyes, and Zoe shivered at the intensity of emotion that washed over her.
“I love you,” she softly whispered. Eva gathered her close.
“I have this dream that one day I’ll just pick you up in my arms and take you to our bedroom. There we will make love.”
“Why don’t we leave the picking me up part and just walk there?” Zoe grinned, took Eva’s hand, and proceeded to throw her shoes off as they walked into the bedroom.
“I bet Rick wanted to do this to Ilsa,” Eva whispered in Zoe’s ear and closed the door with her foot.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“This is nice,” Zoe mumbled. Her head was propped on Eva’s chest, and her voice sounded hollow. They had awakened before dawn and stayed in bed cuddling, neither of them wanting to get up.
“Did you like the campus?” Eva asked, playing with Zoe’s hair.
“Apart from the racist woman? Yeah. It’s big though. Elena and I got lost a couple of times.” Zoe smiled, while Eva formed a mental picture of Zoe trying to find her way around the huge campus and getting lost. She had teased Zoe many times about her inability to follow a map as well as her appalling lack of any sense of direction. The baited trap snapped as she heard a deep rumble when Eva tried to hold back her laughter.
“Stop that,” Zoe mildly rebuked, slapping Eva’s belly, which only caused Eva to laugh harder. “It really wasn’t my fault this time. Elena took a left turn when she should have taken a right.”
“You could lose your way in Larissa,” Eva teased. Zoe gave her a mischievous grin and proceeded to tickle her. Eva squealed and fought off her hands. “Okay, okay! Stop! I’ll stop teasing you,” she promised. Zoe gave her a triumphant smile and put her head back down on her chest.
“Don’t mess with Zoe Lambros, or else,” Eva said, kissing the top of Zoe’s head.
“Tell me more about yesterday?” Zoe asked.
Eva thought back to her first day of work at the Interpreter Division. “I walked into one of the busiest places I’ve ever been in. People were everywhere. It was nice though. Do you remember Henry’s date?”
“Deborah Pearson, tall blonde with green eyes. She wore a flowery blue skirt and a white shirt with a cardigan. She’s not Henry’s type, although she was paying attention to Keystone Cop David.” Zoe looked up to find Eva grinning at her. “Yes, I remember her.”
“She’s the receptionist.”
“Hm, interesting.”
“She’s also dating Keystone Cop David, and they are very close according to the gossip I heard in the tea room.”
“See, told you she wasn’t Henry’s type.”
Eva grinned. “Yes, you did. Do you know what this place reminds me of? That refugee center in Egypt. So many different languages. The Patris docked yesterday, and it was incredibly busy — far busier than I expected. There’s so much information to read and things I should remember, but I think it’s going to be really good. The people are nice,
very friendly.”
“I hope you don’t have to deal with any Stalks like at the factory,” Zoe grumbled. “You know, Jack Stalk would have made a great Nazi.” She traced the tiny scar on Eva’s shoulder.
“I don’t think there are any Stalks there, but Debbie does all the heavy lifting.”
Zoe looked puzzled. “Heavy lifting in an office?”
“Yeah, all those files she carries!” Eva joked which only made Zoe groan.
“Your jokes are getting worse than Earl’s,” Zoe complained. She directed a mock scowl at Eva as she laughed. “I don’t care if she has to lift things, as long as you don’t have to. I don’t want you to hurt your back again.”
Eva grinned. “Nah, I don’t think so. I think the heaviest thing I’m going to be lifting in that office is my cup of tea,” she said.
“Do you know the only thing I will miss about you not working at the factory?”
“No, what?” Eva asked. Zoe did not answer immediately. She had become engrossed in blowing a piece of fluff across Eva’s chest. “Zoe,” Eva said, slightly impatiently.
“Oh.” Her attention recaptured, Zoe looked at Eva with a smile. “I’m going to miss not being able to escort you home.”
Eva sighed, suddenly realizing that she would miss Zoe’s presence at the end of the day too. “You can escort me home if you like. The college is only ten minutes away. I can always wait to carry your books.”
“That’s if I get in,” Zoe reminded her.
“You’ll be accepted,” Eva said reassuringly. “I know you will.”
“I hope so.” Zoe sighed. “If I had a car, I could come and pick you up,” she said. “Earl can give me lessons. That’s if I had a car. And if I had a license to drive this imaginary car.”
“You want to drive?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t see why you can’t.”
Zoe beamed. “You mean I can get a car? Wow. What color would you like?”
“The color of your eyes,” Eva whispered, and took a sweet kiss from Zoe’s lips before continuing in a teasing tone, “Do you think the world is ready for you and a car?”
“Ah, the world will never be ready for me,” Zoe replied and nuzzled Eva’s neck. “Hmm, smells like cookies here—need to investigate.”
Where Shadows Linger (Intertwined Souls Series Book 2) Page 29