by Ava Zavora
You have a tie on? Is it patterned? And what kind of shoes? Patent leather? Do you have your suits custom-made or are you able to wear them off the rack then tailored to fit you? Where do you buy your suits? Do you have a little handkerchief peeking out of the breast pocket? Do you wear cufflinks? Your necklace - is it inside your shirt or out?
Why are you working on a Saturday?
My stomach's growling. Where's MY breakfast??
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:12 AM
To: Eden E
I wouldn't, not if we were at home and you were feeling lazy.
Plain black silk tie. Black leather shoes, without laces. I shine them before every day I work. I have my suits custom made. I don't have to, but I prefer it, and I admire the tailor's trade. I don't like wearing brand names. I have a tailor in the UK, and one in Italy. I very occasionally have the handkerchief peeking out of the breast pocket, but only at very special occasions. I wear cufflinks 90% of the time, and 100% when I'm working. My necklace is under my shirt.
It was the only day all the people that needed to be in one room could be.
You're the woman. Cooking and cleaning is to be done by you. Chop chop.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:21 AM
To: Adam -
Now that I think of it, you were wearing a black suit in my dream.
What material is the suit? Do you have a tie clip? Are your cufflinks silver? Would the handkerchief be black also?
I'm definitely staying in bed and ignoring you then, with a remark like that. The only way I'd get up is if you brought me breakfast on a tray. On your knees.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:23 AM
To: Eden E
It would be black or white, depending on the occasion. I always wear a silver tie clip. I keep my money in a silver money clip as well. My cuff links are all silver.
A light Italian wool with cupro lining.
On my knees ... is that where you'd like me? :P
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:27 AM
To: Adam -
Yes.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:29 AM
To: Eden E
Haha, dominatrix.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:37 AM
To: Adam -
Do you have your Agua Lavanda on or Armani? Is it Armani sport code or just Armani Code?
What kind of hats? Straw? Fedoras?
What did you eat for lunch, was it during the meeting? Is it still going on? I can wait until tonight since you're busy.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:40 AM
To: Eden E
Agua Lavanda. Just Armani Code. I would wear it if I were to see you later on. Have you smelled it?
Usually snap brim trilbies, but I do have some fedoras and panama hats.
I haven't had lunch :( Feed me, Edie.
I am looking forward to it as well, I feel like since we ironed out our issues (American sense), we've become a lot more intense and close.
We're in the car on our way to another meeting.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:48 AM
To: Adam -
Haven't smelled it. That will be one of my errands today. The prospect of it is my impetus for getting up.
Drat, I have to go outside. Do you think it would be cruel and inhumane of me to inflict my malodorous, natural state on the unsuspecting general population? Especially when the weather's so hot? To take a shower or not to take a shower. Decisions, decisions.
You must have your hats custom-made. I don't believe they have any ready made to fit your big head.
No lunch? Are you in a meeting with Italians? Doesn't seem possible.
You asked me if I would take a leap of faith with you. Here I am leaping. Blindly.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 8:52 AM
To: Eden E
No, I asked us to take a leap together, so here we are, holding hands, leaping blindly together.
Don't shower. Don't go out unless you have to.
We haven't had time. It will be a big dinner though.
I do have quite a big head, and have had custom made hats. Though there used to be a hat shop in Pimlico, London, that used to have a range of sizes and very good quality hats.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:00 AM
To: Adam -
Too late, you've roused me.
I am now torn on what I should wear. A canary yellow dress or a tomato red (with a touch of orange in it) one. Both have spaghetti straps and fall above the knee.
I'll pretend I'll be seeing you after your meeting and before you go out with your friends. I'll wear heels. And dangly silver earrings. All my jewelry is silver. I'll be sitting in a cafe in town. I'll bring a book with me. And I'll be impatient for you to arrive.
How did I know you had a big head? See, I'm psychic.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:02 AM
To: Eden E
Roused or Aroused? Either way, how did I manage that?
The one with the orange in it, though had it not had orange in it, I'd have picked the yellow one.
If you're going to pretend that, then you need to wear the appropriate underwear, because I'd least have a grope before I went out in the evening. Even if only a quick hand under the dress job.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:08 AM
To: Adam -
You prefer the red? I'll wear the canary then.
I would be displeased that you kept me waiting and will be running off to meet your friends so there will be no groping. You'd have to do a copious amount of sweet-talking to get that and there wouldn't be enough time.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:11 AM
To: Eden E
I'll grope all I want thank you very much.
Do you ever wear short skirts?
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:15 AM
To: Adam -
I just noticed a bruise on my thigh - have you been around without me knowing it?
Yes, I do.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:15 AM
To: Eden E
I think I'd like YOU in a short skirt.
Yes I've been munching on your thigh in your sleep.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:16 AM
To: Eden E
Attach: BA.jpg
:)
Eden opened the attachment. It was a black and white photo of a pale, chubby baby with big eyes open in wonderment and mouth slightly open, the kind of baby that one longed to pick up and smother with kisses.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:17 AM
To: Adam -
Who is this?
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:18 AM
To: Eden E
me
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:23 AM
To: Adam -
You should have warned me. I didn't want to cry today.
You must have been over 6 months old because you have at least four teeth showing - unless you teethed early. It doesn't look like you were able to prop your head up by yourself. And those sausage arms - you would have been irresistible.
Thank you.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:25 AM
To: Eden E
Why did you cry?
Now imagine a bigger, more manly version of that, in a suit, and that's me, still with hair closely cropped.
I don't know how old I was. Sausage arms, haha.
I told you I had something nice planned for you.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:30 AM
To: Adam -
Tell me you still have those delicious chubby arms and I'm yours, completely.
Of course I'm crying. Seeing you, or a version of you, for the first time is emotional.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:32 AM
To: Eden E
More muscular now, ha.
I hope that was a welcomed surprise.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:34 AM
To: Adam -
Well, then I'm a goner for sure.
Is this mine or should I delete it too? I want to keep it.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:38 AM
To: Eden E
Attach: photo.jpg
You can keep that one. I promised you something. That is it.
I am sending you another one, but please delete it as I was reluctant to send it, but I thought I'd bite the bullet. This is the only other picture I have from my childhood. It's after a fight at school. My hair was blonde and got progressively darker as I grew up, but obviously here I'm wearing a baseball cap.
She eagerly opened the attachment. Adam didn’t want her to keep this one, so that meant the second photo of him was close enough to his current looks that he hesitated in sending it to her.
It was another black and white picture of a hulking boy in a white dress shirt with dark stains on it, loosened striped tie and slacks. A baseball cap sat on his head, with the brim turned sideways. He was sitting on a couch, looking straight at the camera, neither smiling nor frowning. His face held none of the innocence of the baby picture, with a big bruise around one eye. He might have been 10 or so, rather big and menacing looking. He emanated hostility, as though ready to swing a large fist should anyone touch him. If this boy had stood in a playground with other children, without hesitation, Eden would have picked him out as a bully, destined for a violent life of crime.
She placed the baby picture next to this one. There was a resemblance there - the round face shaping up to a square one, with the jaw becoming more defined. The shape of the eyes, the fair skin, the strong nose. Though this boy's face was still young, with a bit of baby fat around the chin, it wasn't a great leap to imagine the adult he would someday become.
She thought of what little Adam had told her about his childhood, things that made her heart ache. After years of neglect and who knows what else, somehow that baby turned into this tough, hardened-looking boy, with half-lidded eyes that discouraged anyone from coming near him. A history of hardship was written on his youthful face. This boy was who Adam was at his core, and it made her unbearably sad.
From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:42 AM
To: Adam -
How old were you? What was the fight about? Is that blood on your shirt? Is this a uniform or you wore suits as soon as you were able to dress yourself?
How long can I have it for?
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:45 AM
To: Eden E
Keep it until tomorrow morning at most.
8 or 9 there.
No idea what the fight was about.
Uniform.
No comment on the picture itself?
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:48 AM
To: Adam -
You look defiant. And your eyes - it doesn't look like it was your first fight. Who took the picture and why? You didn't want your photo taken? Surely there were other pictures taken of you when you were a child.
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:49 AM
To: Eden E
There were. My father threw a lot away once in a fit of rage.
I was defiant. By no means my first fight.
My Uncle took it.
I didn't want it taken.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:52 AM
To: Adam -
What would happen when you got in fights? Would you get a talk from your father or your uncle? Would you be punished?
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:53 AM
To: Eden E
It depended on the circumstances. My father didn't hit me until I was 14. It was always verbal before then.
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:55 AM
To: Adam -
Is your father big? Do you look like him? What were the usual reasons of why you got in fights?
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From: Adam -
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 9:56 AM
To: Eden E
I look nothing like him. He is not big, but strong.
There were a plethora of reasons. Being different never helped. And being bigger than the other children often served as a challenge to some of them.
Has seeing those pictures improved things for us?
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From: Eden E
Date: Sat, Aug 11, at 10:05 AM
To: Adam -
It's the strangest thing. I'm bound to this through words. Through voice. And now I have images.