by Cher Etan
“Mmm,” he said.
“Really?” Sophie asked amused, “again?”
“Please?”
“M’kay,” Sophie said with a shrug, throwing the sweatpants back on the table and coming into his arms. Tony kissed her hard and then turned her roughly around and bent her over the table, her naked butt sticking up in the air. Sophie’s mouth was open in shock as she took in his uncharacteristic roughness but before she could adjust to that he had buried himself in her to the hilt and was pumping energetically into her, groaning as he did so. Sophie had never been so turned on. She backed into him as he pumped into her, encouraging him to be as brutal as he wanted to. It seemed to drive him completely up the wall and his rhythm increased in passion and intensity.
“Tooonnnyyyy,” she moaned as he pumped harder and faster.
“Yes baby, let me,” he groaned as he felt the climax coming upon him. “Oh God, I can’t…wait.”
“Don’t,” she said mind clouding with passion, “Don’t wait.”
That was all Tony needed to hear apparently because his release thereafter was prolonged and intense, his back was bent almost double as he let himself go. His passion ignited hers and she felt something hot liquefy in herself; throbbing in tandem with her heart beat but yet seeming to want to escape from her body and explode into the cosmos in a flood of heat and light. Her vision went white and she felt like she was about to black out.
“Sophie,” Tony whispered and then collapsed on top of her.
There was silence in the room as aftershocks reverberated everywhere.
“Yeah,” Sophie said, not sure what exactly she was affirming. Her head dropped on the table and she closed her eyes, panting with satiation.
*****
They walked along the pathway between the gardens in Central Park, quite aimless in direction; just taking in the sights as they chewed on some hot dogs. The weather was balmy and there were kids playing with a Frisbee on the grass, shouting and hollering with glee as they did. Their mothers or guardians or nannies were sitting around on benches catching up on each others’ lives or their facebook pages. On the other side of the field was a playground with a carousel. A band was playing an upbeat tune nearby and some hippie looking chicks were dancing to it. Sophie led the way to a bench and sat on it, taking in the view.
“This is the life,” she said as she finished her hot dog. She looked up when she heard a bell ringing and saw an ice cream truck making its slow way toward the playground.
“God it’s a good thing I’m breastfeeding because I want me some of that ice cream,” she said.
“What’s that got to do with breast feeding?” Tony asked.
“Oh you know, burning calories and shit?” she said as she nudged him to stand up and go to the truck, “Vanilla and chocolate,” she said.
“Hmm, apropos huh?” Tony said.
Sophie looked quizzically at him, wondering what he was going on about. Tony smiled at her and then pointed a finger at himself, “Vanilla,” he said and then pointed at her, “Chocolate.”
“Oh,” Sophie said and smiled.
“I’ll get you that ice cream now. Stay put.” Tony said walking away.
“Aye aye sir,” Sophie mock saluted as she watched him go. She sat back on the bench smiling to herself.
“Sophie?” The man who was bending over her was unfamiliar to her, “Sophie Devereux?”
Sophie looked up and stared at the guy. He was a tall man with wavy bottle blonde hair. His eyes were blue and it contrasted sharply with his yellow mulatto skin. He was wearing a diamond stud in one ear and his jeans sagged enough to show his blue Calvin Klein boxers peeking out from them. He was wearing red sneakers possibly the ones designed by Kanye and his shirt was branded as well. Sophie looked into his face, trying to place him. His face was definitely familiar but…
“Stephen Jensen,” he said seeing her confusion. Sophie’s mouth opened in shock.
“What?!? Stephen? Stephen from high school?” she squeaked in disbelief.
“Yep, the very same. Fancy running into you here,” he said.
“Yeah fancy that,” Sophie said in bemusement. She’d had a gigantic crush on this man in high school; but she’d been sure he hadn’t even known her name. She was nowhere near thin enough or light-skinned enough for him. She had been sure he didn’t even know her name.
“Well…” she said taking a deep breath. ‘What does one say to a former crush after all this time?’
“Yeah, we should catch up. Are you alone?” he asked.
“No I’m with-“ Sophie begun to say but Tony walked up to them just then, tubs of ice cream in his hands. Sophie indicated her husband and Stephen turned around to look at him, one eyebrow raised in what looked like surprise.
“This is my husband Tony,” she said.
“Husband?” Stephen looked taken aback, “I hadn’t heard you got married.”
Sophie stared at him, wondering at that; why would he care if she was married?
“Yeah, er well it’s a fairly recent event,” she said. Tony handed her, her ice cream shaking his head.
“Not really all that recent,” he stated, moving to stand possessively beside her.
“Well I guess congratulations are in order. Stephen Jensen,” he said holding out his hand to be shaken.
“Tony Romanov,” Tony said.
Stephen reared back as if he recognized the name, “Really?” he exclaimed.
It was Tony’s turn to raise his eyebrows but he said nothing.
“Why really?” Sophie asked in his stead.
“Oh. Well I’ve heard the name,” Stephen said.
“You have? Where?” Sophie asked.
Stephen shrugged. “Here and there. You own some restaurants don’t you?” he said.
“Yes. I do.” Tony said, “How do you know Sophie again?”
Stephen laughed and shook his head. Sophie thought she heard something mocking behind it but she could possibly just be overly sensitive. “We were in high school together,” he told Tony.
“Oh you were,” Tony said visibly relaxing. “How strange that you should meet her in New York city.”
“How strange indeed. I take it you don’t live around here?” he asked.
“No, we’re just visiting for the weekend,” Sophie said marveling at how she absolutely could not remember what it had been about Stephen that had been so compelling in high school.
“Y’all need to come down and have dinner with me and my guys. We have this new concept restaurant you just gotta see.” He said talking mostly to Tony.
“Really? Well while we’d love to, our schedule is kind of full,” he said.
“Aww come on, don’t you wanna hear all about how Sophie was in high school? I got stories for days.”
“You do?” Sophie asked in surprise; as far as she knew she’d been invisible to him the entire four years.
“Of course I do. You and me we were tight right?” Stephen said making Sophie frown. Was he mistaking her for someone else?
“Sophie Devereux,” she said holding out her hand to be shaken. Stephen laughed but he reached out and shook her hand anyway.
“I know,” he said and there was definitely a mocking undertone. Sophie was sure now. She wondered if she should just come right out and ask him what the hell. Tony was watching her expressions with interest, maybe trying to gauge if she wanted to see this guy again or not…
“We seem to have different memories of high school,” she ventured.
“All the more reason to catch up. So you’ll come to our restaurant?”
Sophie shrugged. “I don’t know. We’ll see if we have time,” she hedged.
“Here give me your phone so I can program in my number,” Stephen said holding out his hand to her. Sophie couldn’t think of any reason to refuse so she handed it over, albeit reluctantly. Tony was staring sympathetically at her but he didn’t interfere. Sophie took her phone back from Stephen and smiled.
“Well this was fu
n but we gotta go,” she said, taking Tony by the arm and moving away.
“Hope to see you!” Stephen called as they walked away.
“Wow, he’s insistent,” Tony commented.
“Yeah. It’s kind of a shock because he hardly gave me the time of day in high school.”
“Well it’s too late for him to rectify that mistake now. You are most definitely taken.” Tony said pulling her close.
“I love it when you get all jealous and possessive,” Sophie replied.
Chapter 4
They called Benjy that night; or rather they called Katarina to hear how their son was. She put him on the phone so that he could coo at them and he could hear their voices. Unfortunately as soon as he heard his mother’s voice, he began to cry, which made Sophie cry and upset Tony.
“Don’t worry Mrs. Sophie; I’ll give him some of your breast milk that’s in the fridge and sing to him. He’ll be fine.” Katarina said.
“You’re a treasure Kat,” Sophie said wetly, “I hope Sol knows that.”
“I hope so too,” Kat replied. “I need to go take care of the baby now. So I’ll sign off. Here is Mr. Elijah”
She spoke to her grandfather for ten more minutes, he basically reassuring her that there was no need to come rushing home just on the strength of a few tears from their son. He let them know that apart from when he was speaking to his mom, Benjy was happy and well cared for and everyone was chipping in to make sure he stayed that way. Sophie thanked him profusely for the help and then Solomon came on to ask them whether they’d gotten him any bling yet.
“Sorry dude, all we’ve done is walk in Central Park,” Tony said amused.
“Booo,” Solomon replied.
“We ran into a school friend of Sophie’s called Stephen Jensen. Do you know him?”
“Huh. Yeah I remember him. Light skin dude. Full of himself. Sophie had a gigantic crush.” Solomon said laughing.
“Hey!” Sophie protested at the backbiting.
“She had a crush on him?” Tony said at the same time; surprise in his voice.
“Yeah. But don’t worry. He don’t hold a candle to you,” Solomon told Tony.
“He missed his chance anyway.” Tony agreed smugly.
“If y’all are finished…” Sophie grumbled hand on hip.
“Okay then I’ll let you guys be. Don’t worry about Benjy – we’re taking good care of him.”
“Thank you.” Sophie said and hung up. She flopped onto the bed with a sigh.
“Wow, that was hard,” she told Tony, “who knew it’d feel like this to be away from him for just a few hours?”
“You wanna go back?” Tony asked.
Sophie studied him for a few minutes, “Nooo…” she said slowly. “I think we need this time.”
“Yes we do,” Tony agreed quickly. Sophie smiled at him and then stood to go take a shower.
“I’ll shower and then we’ll go eat,” she said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Tony agreed.
Sophie was walking toward the bath when Tony stopped her by calling her name, “Sophie?” he said.
She stopped and turned around. “Yes?” she asked.
He stared at her for long minutes and then smiled, “I love you,” he said.
Sophie smiled back at him, the picture of content, “Right back atcha dude,” she said. Tony rolled his eyes at her unromantic reply but he was grinning from ear to ear.
*****
Stephen Jensen walked into the Pirates Café in Brooklyn and headed straight for the back. A burly man blocked the path to a table around which sat several gentlemen, smoking joints and having a discussion. A man in a white suit looked up from the table and saw who it was. He nodded his head and the burly man let Stephen through.
“Hey Lucas,” Stephen said sitting down, “Peanuts around? I have some news.”
“Peanuts ain’t seeing anyone today. You want to convey something to her, you tell me.” The man in the white suit said.
“This is big,” Stephen protested.
“Spill,” Lucas said.
Stephen sighed in resignation, “I ran into Tony Romanov today.”
Lucas stared at him in disbelief, “When you say ‘ran into’ you mean…?” he asked.
“I mean I ran into him and his wife who’s a former classmate of mine, in Central Park, today. I invited them over to take a meal and they said they might make it.”
“Wait, how is a former classmate of yours married to Tony Romanov?” Lucas asked in disbelief.
“Yeah. And this wasn’t even one of the hot girls. But there you are. Luckily she used to have a crush on me so I think we have an in,” Stephen said. Lucas laughed.
“She might have had a crush on you one time, but she’s married to Tony Romanov now so don’t get your hopes up.”
“I have her number.” Stephen countered.
“Yeah? Well I’ll let Peanuts know,” Lucas said dismissively.
*****
“You had a crush on that guy?” Tony asked as soon as they were settled in at the restaurant. It was a glass entity on the top floor of a skyscraper so the twinkling lights of the city lay below and around them. There was quite the waiting list as the restaurant was popular but Tony had given his name to the maitr’d and somehow a table had been found for them.
Sophie rolled her eyes, “Why did I know that was going to come up?” she said studying her menu. The sommelier came by with a wine list and she and Tony had a ten minute discussion on which wines worked with what. Sophie was content to let them talk but when Tony asked her opinion on what she would like, she asked for some sparkling water. Tony hit his forehead.
“I keep forgetting about the breast-feeding-therefore-no-alcohol thing,” he turned to the sommelier, “Never mind wine, bring us both sparkling water.”
“We have several non-alcoholic sparkling wines if you would like that instead,” she offered.
Tony looked at Sophie inquiringly and she shrugged one shoulder in reply. The sommelier took that as permission and went to get some.
“So tell me about this crush you had,” Tony persisted.
“Dog with a bone,” Sophie murmured.
“What’s that?” Tony asked.
“I was just saying it was a long time ago, he wasn’t even interested in me anyway. I wasn’t his type so really there’s nothing to discuss.”
“Looks like you could be his type now,” Tony said. Sophie didn’t miss the tightness around his eyes though he was smiling albeit with his mouth alone.
“Well he’s not my type anymore. I like my men tall, blue eyed and blonde,” Sophie said then paused looking up at him. She could see in her eyes that the same thought had occurred to him. That same description could fit Stephen quite well.
“And white Russian as well,” Sophie continued with a laugh. Tony smiled at her.
“That’s very specific. Do you have anyone particular in mind?”
“Yeah, he goes by Tony; he’s kind of my husband,” Sophie said grinning.
“Lucky guy,” Tony said.
“I know right,” Sophie replied.
The waitress came by to discuss entrées and they both opted for mushroom soup, with a fish and chicken platter to follow for Tony and Sophie respectively. They looked out the window as they waited for their food to arrive. Sophie turned to look around the restaurant. Even to her untutored eyes, she could see that they were among the crème de la crème of New York.
‘What am I doing here?’ she asked herself in bemusement. Tony reached out and covered her hand with his. As she looked into his eyes, she knew exactly what she was doing here. Having dinner with the man she loved. She smiled at him and he smiled back.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. I’m just glad to be with you,” she said.
“Really?” he asked sounding uncertain.
“Yes of course,” she said surprised that he should even question it.
“For a while there I wasn’t sure. You were so distant an
d irritable,” Tony confessed in a low tone like he was ashamed to even bring it up.
“Well, welcome to marriage,” Sophie said wryly. “You’ve met my inner monster. How do you like her?”
“She’s cute,” Tony said.
“You’re deluded,” Sophie replied.
“I concede that that’s a possibility,” Tony replied grinning.
Sophie’s phone rang at that point, the number was not familiar. Sophie stared at it, imagining that it might be Solomon or Kat calling from some hospital or something. She looked at Tony and he looked back at her with a shrug so she picked up.
“Hey Sophie,” a strange voice said.
“Who is this?” she asked cautiously.
“It’s Stephen. Stephen Jensen,” he said.
“Oh. Stephen,” Sophie said looking up at Tony. He grimaced at her.
“I’m sorry to bother you but I was telling my partners about meeting you guys today and they begged me to invite you to have lunch with us. On the house of course. They would really love to pick Tony’s brains.”
“Stephen I-“ Sophie started to say.
“Please,” he said, urgency in his tone.
Sophie opened her mouth and then closed it again, rolling her eyes. She covered the phone and spoke to Tony.
“He’s begging us to have lunch with him and his restaurant partners tomorrow.” Sophie said.
“Do we want to?” Tony asked her.
“Probably not but I guess it couldn’t hurt,” Sophie shrugged.
“It might cut into shopping,” Tony warned.
“Ha! Like your really expect me to believe that bothers you,” Sophie laughed.
“Tell him we’ll drop by for tea around 11am,” Tony said.
“Good call, then we don’t have to stay long,” Sophie agreed.
“Exactly,” Tony said. Sophie put the phone back to her ear and conveyed the same to Stephen.
*****
Solomon knocked tentatively on the cottage door and waited to see who would answer. He’d left Benjy with his grandfather while he came to say goodnight to Kat and Sam. She’d been acting weird all day ever since he said the L-word and he needed to know that everything was copacetic between them. Sam opened the door and then went back inside without looking at Sol.