A Basic Renovation

by Sandra Antonelli

‘You like those disgusting apple pies from McDonalds, too.’

  ‘I really like spending time with you, Lesley, but if you keep insulting my taste in food—’

  ‘You mean junk food.’

  ‘No, I mean food, and if you continue to diss my love for McDonald’s apple pies, then maybe you should find yourself another boyfriend.’

  ‘Sorry. I didn’t realise you were my boyfriend.’

  He tossed the used toothpick into a trash can. ‘Of course I’m your boyfriend. What do you think we’re doing here?’

  ‘Buying brownies.’

  ‘No, I mean us. You and me, what we’re doing.’

  ‘We’re sleeping together.’

  ‘Don’t you know anything? Besides the phenomenal bed Olympics, going to a movie, like we did yesterday, makes it more. The fireworks we went to last week and grocery shopping together makes it more. Having a picnic makes it more. This is no fling, doll-baby. You’re the girlfriend, so that makes me the boyfriend.’

  ‘We’ve only been doing this for nine days.’

  ‘The duration is not important. You weren’t interested in a fling. I didn’t want that either. I’ve known you for years. Years, Lesley. So, call it what it is: a relationship.’

  ‘Aren’t I supposed to be the one using that word?’

  Dominic dropped a wedge of Jarlsberg Swiss into their little green shopping cart and wheeled it towards the bakery. ‘Gee, aren’t you being sexist?’

  Lesley followed along, looking at the selection of freshly made breads. ‘I thought I was being practical.’ She tried a sample of walnut-cranberry bread. It was a delightful mix of fruit and spice.

  ‘These things are never practical.’

  ‘I’m leaving, you know. In September I’m going back to Chicago.’

  Dominic stopped wheeling the cart and slid his arm around her waist. ‘September’s not now, is it?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then shut up and just be.’ He pulled her forward and kissed her, a hand at the back of her head.

  Lesley’s legs went as gooey as mozzarella, but her brain focused on a tiny detail. The longer this relationship went on, the more difficult it was going to be to end it. What she felt was more than lust, more than a crush. As much as she didn’t want to acknowledge it, as stupid as it was, she had fallen in love.

  Don’t love him, Lesley. Don’t do it.

  Given their history and the family he came from, a future with Dominic was out of the question. This could only end one way. She’d lug tools and a whole trailer full of hurt back to Chicago. Sure, she’d have a crater as wide and as dead as the once-volcanic Valles Grande where her heart was supposed to be, but it was dim-witted and absolutely pointless to love this man.

  Yet, as he kissed her she forgot all about self-preservation, about their weird past. Quite simply, now seemed to matter more than then, or later. Dominic’s tongue feathered over hers and she only wanted to stand in the middle of Whole Foods and make out.

  ‘Why? Why do you taste so good?’ he asked when he drew back slightly and slipped his hand to her shoulder.

  ‘It’s the spices in the cranberry bread.’

  ‘No. It’s you.’ With a low sound, he kissed her again, slowly.

  Lesley decided to stay in the here and now. Destiny was a tricky thing. It was better to not question why or contemplate the cons when she could walk out into the parking lot with a recycled paper bag full of cheese and brownies and get squished by a yuppie in a Hummer. This was worth having, even if it was just for today. She made a little noise of her own and dissolved into Dominic’s kiss.

  A throat cleared. ‘Do you realise this is a public place?’

  Dominic opened his eyes and slid his gaze to his left where Fabian stood chewing a piece of green chile-speckled roll. Gently, he withdrew his lips from Lesley’s and waited for the ‘I told you so’ comment.

  Fabian’s face split into a wide, very smug grin.

  ‘You’ve got chile in your teeth,’ Dominic said to his friend.

  ‘And you’ve got Lesley on your mouth.’

  ‘Hi, Fabian,’ Lesley’s laugh was soft.

  As she began to pull away, Dominic slid his palm down her arm and laced his fingers with hers. Her hands were so tiny compared to his monster paws, but the things she could do to him with them were astounding. Oddly, holding her hand in his gave him a little thrill. He shrugged at the simplicity, at the strangeness, at the fact it made him happy.

  Then a two-by-four came out of nowhere and smacked into him. Hard. His insides wobbled and bounced like a mound of Jell-o.

  Is this love? Is she the one?

  Well, is she, jackass?

  Maybe.

  Maybe? Don’t you know?

  Well, if I have to ask, no, I don’t know.

  He looked at Fabian. There was still a big fat amused grin on his hairy face.

  Glory frickin’ days, get a hold of yourself, Dom. She’s something, but not the one, just the one for now. So return to normally scheduled programming and wipe that look off Fabian’s ugly mug.

  Dominic let his mouth form an arrogant smile of his own. ‘Let me guess. You brought the family for the cheapskate’s lunch. Or are you here by your loser self?’

  ‘Kristi’s over at the fish counter, Callie’s at school. How can you call me a cheapskate when you brought your…uh, girlfriend here on a date?’ Fabian had a sip from a bottle of Arizona Iced Tea.

  Dominic squeezed Lesley’s hand. ‘See? Even he knows you’re my girlfriend.’ Yeah dummy, she’s your girlfriend.

  Tea sprayed out of Fabian’s mouth. Peach-scented liquid dripped down his beard, misty beads stuck to his moustache.

  Snickering, Lesley headed to the deli counter to ask for a couple of napkins.

  ‘You all right there?’ Dominic chuckled.

  ‘Dios mio, Sunday, your girlfriend? I thought you were just going to…’

  ‘Going to what?’

  ‘Have a night,’ Fabian said, brushing off the wetness under his nose. ‘Satisfy your itch; have a casual Dominic thing like you always do, but your girlfriend? Are you out of your mind?’

  ‘I thought I’d try something different.’

  ‘Does your mama know?’

  ‘I haven’t seen her this week.’

  ‘Chicken.’

  ‘There are a few things to consider.’

  ‘Like how to tell her you’re having cardinal relations with your brother’s not-so-lesbian ex-wife?’

  ‘Carnal. Carnal relations.’

  Fabian ignored the correction and quirked an eyebrow. ‘Isn’t laying with your brother’s wife a big Old Testament taboo?’

  ‘So’s masturbation. And their marriage was annulled. And I don’t think I want to discuss this.’

  ‘Chicken.’

  Lesley returned with napkins. ‘Here you go,’ she said affably. As she handed the wad to Fabian, Dominic slipped his arm across her shoulders.

  ‘Thanks.’ He wiped his beard and smiled at her. He smiled even wider at Dominic. ‘You know, Sunday, there’s a breed named after you. The Dominique weighs in at about seven pounds. I bet you’d win a blue ribbon at the State Fair. What do you weigh, two-ten, two-fifteen? Yeah. You’re a big, big boy. You’d take that ribbon hands down.’

  ‘What would Dominic take the ribbon for?’ Lesley asked.

  ‘Look, Lesley,’ Dominic pointed to a large wicker basket display at the end of the bakery counter, ‘brownies!’

  It hit Dominic the third time he tried to read Daphne’s note about sales figures. Wanting a woman this much was new. Feeling something so near to perfect left him giddy, which was another never-experienced-before sensation.

  He sat back in his cushy office chair and put his feet on the desk. The newness didn’t concern him. He was aware it was novel so he didn’t analyse anything or pick it apart. It was like spending a few weeks at an amusement park, a really grown up amusement park. He was enjoying the ride too much to dwell on the fact it would end.

/>   The intensity of what he felt didn’t concern him in the least. This was the honeymoon stage of the relationship. The force of passion was part of the time limitation, but he did realise having Lesley in his bed was a pleasure that wasn’t purely sexual. He enjoyed the actual sleeping part, the snuggled-up-to-a-soft-woman part. The spending time with her part was wonderful too; he loved her company, just like he’d told her. The last time he’d been so infatuated with a woman’s body he’d been eighteen. Here he was, coming up on fifty, and lovemaking was a potent activity that filled his thoughts and made him oblivious to the world around him.

  That wasn’t to say he was completely blind to tasks and day-to-day business now. He split his workday between the store, a landscaping job with Fabian, and Lesley’s renovation. She divided her daily life with house renovations and visits with her family. If they hadn’t seen each other at some point during the day, they’d be together sometime in the evening.

  Then he’d be inside her and she’d be wrapped around him, making whispery little cries as she came.

  Today might have been earmarked for Trujillo’s and this evening was Terry’s birthday dinner at his mother’s, but suddenly he couldn’t wait until seven o’clock tomorrow night to hear that sound. He jerked his feet off the desk, flicked aside Daphne’s notes, and decided to take an early long lunch.

  A short time later, the appetizing scent of turkey on rye bagels from Ruby K’s tantalised Dominic. Ravenous, he’d been a good boy and kept his fingers on the steering wheel instead of stealing into the brown paper bag to break off bits of lunch to nibble. As he pulled up the driveway, parked, and got out of his Jeep, he tried to decide what he was hungrier for. Food or Lesley?

  As if I really need to ask.

  Bag of bagels in hand, he smiled at the over-baked gingerbread house. There was a lot more house to look at than there had been yesterday, when he and Fabian had cut away the remaining overgrowth, chopped down three trees and started in on the landscaping. Lesley had been right; the house had good bones.

  The mission brown exterior hadn’t been touched yet; that would start in a few days, after Fabian did a bit of sanding and scraping. Abandoned mole holes still pocked marked the backyard, but the interior transformation was remarkable and almost complete, even with the bathrooms in a state of flux and boxes of new kitchen floor tiles stacked in a corner of the dining room. The new kitchen cupboards and butcher-block countertops were in place, wood flooring in the rest of the house gleamed in an airy living space that married the outdoor view with soft green tint of the walls inside. Best of all, the smell of litter box had disappeared completely.

  The lack of odour made him realise, with a twinge of melancholy, it wouldn’t long before the project came to a close – ahead of her September schedule.

  Dominic let himself in, set the latch on the screen door and lay his cell phone on the new countertop, dropping his baseball cap on top. His tool belt was right where he’d left it the other day, on the card table in the dining room. Grinning, thinking about what he wanted to hammer, he grabbed the pouch and snapped it on.

  Yesterday, Lesley mentioned she was ready to re-tile the master bathroom. She was down the hallway at back of the house, singing along to the music playing.

  He ran a hand through his hat-flattened hair. Glory days, he’d never known a woman who got as wet or as hot as Lesley did. All they had to do was look at each other and it was all systems go, like they were teenagers instead of smack dab in the heart of middle age.

  The music ended just as he walked into her bedroom. He tiptoed past the roll-away bed. While it would probably slide all over the place, and was much too small for a few of the things he had in mind, a bed was a bed and he’d make it work.

  Fuelled by new ideas, and a further kick of desire, when he reached the bathroom door he dropped the bag of sandwiches.

  And stared.

  Lesley ran a finger under her nipple, feeling for another whisker that would soon sprout into a dark vine like the last one she’d just tweezed out had.

  There was a small noise behind her, a scratching shuffle like rodent claws over paper. And cement. Lesley froze. Oh no, not again, not another one. Why didn’t I leave a trap in here?

  The tweezers were on a hand towel at the back of the sink. They’d make a lousy spear, but she could toss the towel over the creature to keep it from scurrying away. Except, that left the problem of what do with it once she caught it. Careful not to make any sudden movements that might scare the rat away, or cause it to scurry up her legs, she looked up into the mirror to pinpoint its location.

  Something human and very male stared back from the doorway.

  Her heart stopped. Automatically, she tried to cover herself, to yank her gaping sleeveless blouse closed, but her arms weighed a ton and moved as if they were pushing through ice-cream.

  ‘Don’t,’ Dominic said in a thick voice. His tool belt fell to the floor with a clunk. ‘Don’t move,’ he said, eyes fixed to hers as he stepped into the bathroom. One hand slid around her waist, the other settled over the top of the fingers covering her breast. His mouth slipped into the right curve of her neck, nosing aside the collar of her already open top. ‘Can’t stop thinking about me, can you? Good. Keep thinking about me. Don’t stop thinking about me and don’t stop what you’re doing.’

  ‘You want to watch me twee—’

  ‘Hush,’ he murmured, moving her fingers and his over her breast. He caught her other hand, keeping his on top, fitting his fingers in between hers. He skimmed down her waist to tickle across her hip and run inside the waistband of her shorts and elastic of her bikini. Go on,’ he urged, ‘go on. Finish what you started.’

  Shock had made Lesley a little slow, but it finally dawned on her. Dominic wasn’t interested in watching her pluck out nipple hair. He wanted to see something else entirely. She shook her head and tried to pull her hand free from his. ‘I didn’t start anything.’

  ‘Then start now.’

  ‘Um….’

  ‘Want me to show you how?’ Dominic didn’t wait for an answer. Fingers woven with hers, he guided their hands beneath her clothes and began to explore, watching her reaction in the mirror.

  Lesley inhaled and licked her bottom lip. Her head sank back against his chest. She turned her cheek to look up at him over her shoulder. Dominic kissed her and she made a little sound. Their hands parted. Her fingers withdrew from her shorts and half a second later, she’d reached around to grab his ass, squeezing, pressing him closer.

  For a moment, his hand left her breast just long enough to unbutton her shorts and shove them down her thighs along with her panties. God, how he wanted her. He wanted her from behind just like this. He wanted her sideways, flat on her back with her legs locked around his waist, straddled across his hips, balanced on the edge of the vanity, but as he jerked his shirt out of his own shorts he realised in his haste he’d forgotten a rather important detail.

  All the fuss he made about safety on a job site and he’d neglected to think of protection.

  There was a whole strip of Trojans in the Cherokee, but he was damned if he’d quit what he was doing and run out to the Jeep. No, this was going down fast, desperate, and now.

  In seconds Dominic had her breathless, low, quick sounds hiccupped from her throat. He didn’t have to think about it. It just hit him. The first time they’d made love had split the atom. Now, as their eyes met in the mirror, he knew this was not the work of basic physics. This chemical reaction was more than cell structure and metabolism. He and Lesley fused in a way beyond atoms joining to form molecules.

  Girlfriend? Who did you think you’ve been kidding?

  Instead of being shocked the thought exhilarated him. He had feelings for her, he’d realised that already, but he’d stumbled onto something he never even knew he’d been looking for, never even knew he wanted. And Dominic wanted. He needed. Now, next week, next month, next year, he needed Lesley.

  He wanted to laugh, but no noise came o
ut, and words he’d never uttered before formed on his lips soundlessly as he bent her forward, her hands splayed out on the ugly brown vanity, and he pressed his chest into her spine, his hips into the small of her back. Nimble and skilled, his hand tucked into her, and his fingers became slick with a gorgeous wetness that melted into his palms. His right hand skated in a pattern matching the movement of his left as it traced over her nipple.

  Dominic watched her eyes flutter shut and open again wide, blinking. She raked her teeth over her bottom lip, moaning, murmuring over and over, ‘Dominic, Dominic, Dominic.’

  It was heady, more electrifying than he’d expected and hearing his name like that stoked flames he knew would never be smothered. ‘Oh, Jesus,’ he said as voice finally returned. ‘Yes. You, Lesley, you.’

  Lesley felt his erection solid against her hip. She tried to slip her hand between their bodies to grasp hold of that hardness, but he ground against her tightly, blocking access. His breath rushed harsh and hot against her ear. She had never been with a man who was so interested in her response that his gratification took a back seat. Tension coiled inside her, tightening with every breath she took as Dominic traced over exquisitely tender flesh. Her soft moans reverberated off the tiles. The sounds seemed to be all he needed to gauge her reactions, to tease and coax her to a plane that was complete, indulgent delight.

  What was he doing to her? She was on the verge of losing control of everything intelligent, everything sane. Lesley began to think outrageous things she hoped she didn’t say out loud, things that included words like I and love and you. Then his fingers shifted ever so slightly and her brain switched over to pure primal function. His tongue darted inside her ear and quite suddenly, with a cry of surprise and astonishing pleasure she hadn’t experienced this way before, she fell apart beneath his touch, her elbows buckling.

  Eyes on the mirror, Dominic pulled her upright, shifting slightly to kiss her while tremors rolled through her body and heated flesh quivered into his hand. As her lips tangled with his, he groaned into her mouth, shuddering, finding it very hard to stay on his feet. He pushed her against the vanity, his hand finally leaving her breast to grip the ugly countertop and support their combined weight.