The Strawberry Heart

by Finella Vane

  They found a place to sit that was close enough to a group of people Niav believed were tourists but far enough away for Niav to be comfortable. The artist took her bag from Anselle and attempted to distract herself from her surroundings. She sketched out the children’s play area, the walking path, added some random children and adults and finally Anselle lounging on the blanket. As Niav began to color in the sketch Anselle decided to take a short walk to take some pictures. The first picture she took was of her partner sitting cross legged on the blanket with the sketch pad in her lap and a serious frown on her face. Niav begged Anselle not to leave her but Anselle said she’d only be a short distance away and never out of her sight-line.

  Niav returned to her coloring as Anselle walked away. Every few seconds Niav looked up to make sure Anselle wasn’t too far. Things were going fine until Anselle got distracted by a group of tourists who held out their cameras to her and asked if she would take a group picture for all of them. At the same time a group of four women approached Niav to see what she was sketching. The artist knew they were there as she concentrated on her work harder and did her best to ignore them. One of the women didn’t get the message her body language was telling her and as she looked up to see if Anselle was coming to her rescue she leaned over and put a hand on her shoulder.

  When she felt the touch Niav was alarmed and scrambled to get away. When Niav moved so quickly it frightened the woman and she let out a little shriek. The other three women were startled but recovered quickly and tried to reassure the artist that their friend didn’t mean her any harm. A couple of other people had gathered close by drawn by the small commotion and they blocked Niav’s view of Anselle. Her head started to spin, her breath was coming in short gasps and she put her hand up to ward off the women but they didn’t understand what was happening and kept trying to soothe the distressed artist. One of the women picked up the sketch pad and held it out to her. She grabbed it from her and clutched it to her chest like a shield. She couldn’t understand why the women wouldn’t just go away and leave her alone.

  Anselle took the last of the group’s photos and turned to check on her partner but all she could see were people standing around and blocking her view. When she realized that the people all have their backs to her and were looking toward her picnic spot she momentarily froze before bursting into a run. As she broke through the crowd she saw Niav surrounded by four stooping women. The women had their hands up and were gesturing to her in calm down motions. Anselle threw herself onto the ground and took the shaking artist into her arms, “It’s okay Baby. I’m here. You’re alright. Just breathe for me.”

  When Niav recognized Anselle’s voice she buried her face in Anselle’s shirt. She heard Anselle telling the women that everything was fine and she’d make sure Niav knew that they didn’t mean her any harm. After the women left and the rest of the crowd dispersed Anselle returned her attention to her partner. Niav’s breathing slowly evened out and Anselle thought the girl in her lap was asleep but was proven wrong when golden-brown eyes turn up to meet her crystal blue.

  Anselle ran her fingers through Niav’s curly brown locks, “Are you alright?”

  Niav closed her eyes again and nodded against Anselle’s chest.

  “Do you want to go home?” To Anselle’s surprise Niav shook her head this time. “Do you want to eat?” Again Niav shook her head. “Do you want to lie down?” This time Niav nodded. Anselle rearranged herself so Niav could rest her head on Anselle’s leg. “I’m going to have a sandwich. I’ll try not to get crumbs in your hair.”

  Niav replied with a sleepy, “Okay.” But Niav didn’t sleep; every once in a while, even though her head was resting on Anselle’s leg, she opened her eyes to make sure her partner was still there. She hears Anselle munching away on her lunch and felt the occasional brush of fingers through her hair (she suspected crumbs were the reason). The munching she was listening to gradually triggered her own appetite and the brunette sat up to have a sandwich for herself.

  Anselle waited for Niav to be done with her lunch before she said, “I’m sorry I left you alone for so long and didn’t realize you were in trouble. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I knew they were watching me and that they were closer than I was comfortable with but when one of them touched me I was startled. I certainly didn’t expect to be touched. Everything happened so fast after that. I didn’t want them to come any closer or touch me again. I couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t go away and leave me alone. Then you were there.”

  “What symptoms did you have?”

  “I was dizzy and short of breath. I think I would’ve been okay if the woman hadn’t touched me or if there had been just one woman standing by me. But with the four of them standing over me….I couldn’t take that.” Niav took her journal out of her bag and Anselle watched as she made notes about the day’s events. “I forgive you.”

  Anselle didn’t have to ask what for, “Thank you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

  “Can somebody be nervous and confident at the same time?” Anselle asked her partner who was lying in bed even though it was going on ten.

  Niav had just climbed back into bed after making herself some tea and toast for breakfast. She had decided to spend a lazy Sunday in bed since Anselle didn’t want a full breakfast that morning, “You’re nervous about telling them but you’re confident it will go well because you have a solution, right?” She had surrounded herself with her art supplies so she could work on the tarot card submission.

  “That’s it exactly,” Anselle said as she eyed the woman, “Please don’t get any toast crumbs in the bed.”

  “I won’t but if I do I’ll change the sheets and send these with the laundry tomorrow.”

  “Okay.” Anselle did a pirouette, “How do I look?”

  “You look great, like usual, why? You got a date?”

  “Yes, with Gina and Lisa.”

  “Ooh…a threesome. Nice. I guess you’ll be too tired for me when you get back.”

  “Yup, sorry.” Anselle climbed across the bed carefully dodging art supplies and reference material to straddle her partner and give her a kiss.

  Niav tries to lie back on the bed and bring the blonde with her but Anselle broke away, “Sorry, Love, gotta go.”

  “Tease,” Niav moaned when her partner climbed off the bed. “You have the cheques?” Niav asked as she got out of bed herself to see her partner off.

  They kissed again at the front door, “Yes. Wish me luck.”

  “Good luck though you won’t need it. Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  ***

  Lisa was more than surprised when Gina called and said that Anselle wanted to meet on Sunday at the restaurant. As she walked to the restaurant several scenarios ran through her mind from Anselle announcing her break-up with Niav to the two of them getting married to Niav’s disorder being a scam to Niav having some sort of incurable disease; if there was something bad that could happened to Niav, Lisa thought of it though the woman preferred the first one. When she got to the restaurant, fashionably fifteen minutes late, Anselle and Gina were already there and waiting for her.

  Anselle got up from her barstool and asked Lisa to sit down. They didn’t exchange handshakes or hellos and Anselle didn’t thank her for coming. The blonde removed an envelope from her pocket and handed Gina and Lisa a piece of paper from it. The two women looked down at the paper in their hands.

  Gina was the first to ask, “What’s this?”

  Anselle took a few deep breaths, “It’s a cheque for your investment funds.”

  “I didn’t ask for this.”

  “No, I know you didn’t but something happened and I have to tell you about it.”

  Gina looked from Anselle to Lisa who just sat and looked at the cheque in her hand, “What happened?”

  “I made an investment and it didn’t work out. The cheque is my repayment to you for the loss.”

  “I don’t unde
rstand. Investments lose money all the time. Why are you paying us back?”

  Anselle paced in front of the bar, “Because it’s a lot of money and it didn’t just get lost it was stolen. A corporation was set up to attract investors and after a couple of weeks the people behind it disappeared with all the money. I should’ve known something wasn’t right. Everything looked too good to be true but I didn’t see it. I’ve been going out of my mind over this.”

  “This is why you’ve been so stressed and angry lately? And you feel like you have to pay us back? Why? It’s not your fault they money was stolen. You couldn’t have known what these people were planning.”

  Before Gina could continue Lisa finally spoke up, “You feel guilty because you lost all our money and now you’re paying us back with your money. I find it quite interesting that you find it okay to gamble with our money but not your own. How much did Niav lose?”

  “I never said I didn’t take a loss too and Niav didn’t lose anything and even if she did it wouldn’t be any of your business.”

  “Oh, that’s funny. You lose our money but not your lover’s. Did this investment take place before or after my incident with Niav?”

  “I didn’t lose any of Niav’s money because she never gave me any to invest. I can’t force her to give me her money. What’s your problem? Why are you turning this into something about Niav? I’m paying you back what was lost. Just take it.”

  “I just want to know.” Lisa demanded, “Was it before or after?”

  “The investment was before but the loss was after. Happy now?”

  “I can’t take it,” Gina held the check out to Anselle. “It’s not your fault. I assume the police or proper authorities were notified and reports were filed and these people are being sought.”

  “Yes, but Gina I want you to take the money. If the people behind this are caught and any money retrieved we can work it out later. I don’t want you to be out anything. As far as I know the authorities aren’t any closer to finding these people and I don’t know if they ever will. If they are smart enough to do this they’re smart enough to get away with it.”

  “Are we the only ones who lost money in this?”

  “No, a few others in my office had clients that lost and I found out that some other firms were hit as well.”

  “Are the other advisors in your office paying back their clients too?”

  “No, they’re letting the authorities handle things. Gina, we’re friends and I want to pay you back. Please, take the money.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me, I’m cashing this cheque,” Lisa was adamant then asked, “But if you lost too how can you afford this? Did you take out a loan?”

  “Sort of. Look, I don’t want to go into it. It doesn’t matter anyway. Your money is gone and I’m paying you back. That’s it. Period. The end.”

  “It’s Niav’s money, isn’t it?” Gina asked quietly and held out the cheque again, “I can’t take it. I’ll let the authorities handle it. My loss wasn’t that great. I won’t miss this.” Gina gained a whole new respect for the woman.

  “Niav’s money? Is it?” Lisa didn’t know how to react she just stared at the cheque in her hand. Why would Niav give Anselle money to pay her back especially after what she did? Slowly it dawned on her; Niav did it because she loved Anselle. It didn’t have anything to do with her at all. She didn’t know if she disliked Niav more or less because of it.

  “Please, just take the money.” Anselle didn’t wait for either girl to respond; she turned and walked out of the restaurant.

  ***

  Anselle broke into a run once she was outside the restaurant and didn’t stop until she had exhausted herself. She wasn't too from home but she didn’t want to go there yet. Anselle knew Niav was spending the day in bed so she went to the park to think. She found Niav’s favorite spot (behind the shrubs) and dropped to the ground. She didn’t expect them to fall at her feet in gratitude but she didn’t expect Gina’ quiet acceptance or Lisa’s anger at Niav. She wished they had yelled at her or showed some sort of dissatisfaction at the way she handled their money. Anselle thought it’s what she deserved. She could handle their yelling and their disappointment but she was not quite sure how to handle what did happen. She heard her mobile tweet; the text from Gina read ‘call me when you’re up to it’.

  ***

  Niav looked up from her sketching when Anselle entered the bedroom, “How’d it go?”

  Anselle moved over to her side of the bed and slid over to be next to her lover, “Can we not talk about it?

  “Sure. Are you hungry? Want me to fix you something?”

  “No.”

  Niav dropped her sketch pad on to the floor along with the reference material she had been using, “Come here,” she opened her arms to the blonde.

  Anselle slid into Niav’s open arms, “Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  When Anselle’s breathing slowed and evened out Niav carefully untangled herself and headed for the kitchen. As she walked she recalled the last time she tried to serve Anselle lobster macaroni and cheese and what a disaster it turned into but she smiled when she thought about how far she’d come since then.

  Niav hated cooking lobster; the poor live things; she had one brought over this morning (for which she paid very well) and she had put it in the fridge wrapped in damp newspaper to keep it moist until it was time to cook it.

  She removed the large pot from the cabinet, filled it with water and set it on the stove. Once the water was boiling Niav took the lobster out of the fridge, unwrapped it, cut off the rubber bands holding the large claws closed and with her eyes closed dropped it, head first, into the boiling water. The two pound lobster would take twenty minutes to cook so while she waited she set another water filled pot on the stove for the macaroni. After the pasta boiled for eight minutes she drained it, rinsed it under cold water and set it aside. There was still time left for the lobster so she moved on to the next step. Butter was melted in a saucepan over medium high heat and one small diced onion was added. The woman stirred the pot to mix the onion with the butter. That had to cook until the onion was softened and translucent, about five minutes. While she waited for the onion to cook the timer for the lobster went off, she drained the water from the pot and set the lobster aside to cool. The brunette stirred the onions in the butter for the rest of the five minutes then transferred it to a small bowl and set that aside next to the macaroni.

  She needed the lobster shell for the next step so she had to remove the meat even though the lobster hadn’t cooled down as much as would’ve liked. The first thing she did was remove the large claws from the side of the body by twisting them away. To remove the head from the body she held the lobster’s head and body firmly, twisted and pulled. Niav used a spoon to scrape out all the tomalley from the body and the head. The woman used scissors to cut along both sides of the shell under the lobster’s belly and peeled off the shell carefully to remove the meat. There was still some tomalley on the meat so she cut that off and removed the back of the lobster meat that still had some of the black vein. Finally, Niav turned her attention to the two claws. She broke each lobster claw into individual knuckles and holding both pincers of the claw she firmly pulled the small pincer outwards and pulled out the bony stem from the inside. She used the back of a large, heavy knife to break the claw shell. When enough of the meat was revealed she removed the claw meat in one piece. She removed the meat from the knuckles in much the same way then repeated the steps with the other claw.

  Into the empty onion saucepan Niav put the lobster shell, garlic, shallots, peppercorns and milk and brought the mix to a simmer over medium heat for twenty minutes. While she waited for the twenty minutes she started the rue by melting butter over medium-high heat. Flour got added and the two were whisked until the mix was paste-like and light-golden brown. When the time was up for the milk mixture she strained it and set that aside with the rest of the ingredients. She gradually added the mil
k mixture into the flour and butter whisking until it simmered. The combined mixes cooked and were stirred until thick and smooth. Once the mix was smooth she added the gruyere and Romano cheeses; stirring until they were melted and the sauce was smooth again. Salt, pepper, the lobster, onions and macaroni were stirred in until well combined and was then poured into a casserole dish and sprinkled with panko break crumbs.

  Just as Niav was putting the dish into the oven Anselle came into the kitchen, “Hey, Baby. What’s cooking?”

  “You’re wonderful girlfriend just put lobster mac and cheese into the over. It should be done in,” Niav checked the oven timer, “seven minutes and fourteen seconds.”

  “I have the best partner ever,” Anselle threw her arms around Niav’s waist pulling the woman close. “I’m starving. It smells so good but not as good as you,” she made a show of loudly sniffing at Niav’s hair.

  Niav giggled, “You’re so silly. You feeling better now?”

  “A little.”

  “Wanna talk?”

  “Nothing bad happened it just didn’t go the way I expected it too.”

  “Let me guess, if you don’t mind.”

  “No, go ahead.”

  “You expected yelling and you got sympathy from Gina and antagonism from Lisa.”

  “How did you know?”

  “Well, I still talk to Gina every day so I like to think I know her pretty well and you know how I feel about Lisa….”

  “Yes, I know. Gina didn’t want to accept the money especially after she figured out that I got the money from you. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out what Lisa thought about that.”

  “How did Gina know I gave you the money?”

  “Loaned me the money. Loaned. Lisa asked how I could afford to pay them back if I had lost money too and Gina, well, she just guessed. I didn’t confirm it but I didn’t deny it either. I just said that it didn’t matter. And it doesn’t. You did it for me, not for them.”