Innocent Ride

by Robertson, Alethea

  “Yeah, sure!”

  “You ready for a ride?”

  “Yeah!” I said, and Robbie gazed at me with a helpless grin, his eyes as wild as the surrounding prairie grasses. Then his brows furrowed and he pulled his phone from his pocket to read a text. His mood suddenly darkened, his eyes becoming distant and his countenance grim. He shoved his phone back into his pocket, but his mood remained somber. I scooted back and Robbie jumped onto Roxanne. We turned onto the highway and Robbie cranked the throttle vehemently. We rode forcefully into the emerging night.

  By the time we got back to my house, the normal animation in his countenance had all but faded away. I wondered if it had anything to do with him leaving for Kansas City in two days. The thought gutted me. Again. Robbie followed me in silently, his arms wrapping around me from behind. I turned around in his embrace, my chin against his chest, and looked up at him, my prince.

  Was I supposed to say something? Why hadn’t he said something? After all, Robbie was the one who had pursued me. He pecked me on the forehead and promised to pick me up in the morning. I watched him walk to his bike, wondering how long we would pretend we weren’t doing anything wrong.

  The next day was different. Robbie got me into second gear after work, as promised. Then we went for another ride, returning to the abandoned church, where Robbie kissed me again. This time it seemed he was savoring it—as if it could be our last kiss. That thought worried me. My chest sank into my stomach. I felt it hovering there, waiting for some comfort. None came, other than Robbie’s perfect lips pressed against mine, his tongue swirling in my mouth. Could he be one of those guys that led a double life?

  Suddenly, without warning, Robbie was done. He wrenched back. “I better get you home. I have to leave early in the morning.” For Kansas City, he didn’t say.

  I nodded.

  Robbie fired up Roxanne. She grumbled between our legs until he rolled her into submission. It was a quiet, cold ride back. I held Robbie tight. His hand held mine, squeezing it every now and then, as if to say it’ll be okay. But it wouldn’t. How could it? He was my prince, and I couldn’t have him.

  Chapter 10

  IT SEEMED LIKE the longest weekend ever. I kept myself occupied by bottling kombucha, blogging, and finally addressing that nagging letter of denial from the Department of Ag. Anything to keep my mind from wandering to the things that could be occurring at this very moment…

  Why should it have bothered me that Robbie was in Kansas City, anyway? Lucy had been Robbie’s fiancée for a lot longer than he’d been my prince. They were engaged to be married! We were just…in love. Last week, Robbie had been nothing more than a friend. Yet, today, my heart irrevocably belonged to him. It was true. The mind had no power over the heart. Were it possible, my mind would have turned off my heart already.

  I continued my research online, reading other kombucha success stories. Apparently, Kansas wasn’t the only state fighting kombucha brewers. But there were so many states that supported progress in health and freely accepted kombucha as a healthy beverage. I wondered if Kansas would consider these examples. If so, how to get them to look? I posted my findings on the blog.

  When Sunday finally arrived, I could hardly believe my eyes. I answered a knock and opened the door to find Robbie leaning against the porch column, cool as a summer melon. A devious smile curled his lips. He lifted me in his arms and held me suspended, like my heart had been all weekend. Our lips fell instantly into an ardent battle.

  Robbie pulled back. “Candace,” he said, his smile wiped clean. “There’s something I should tell you….”

  The feeling in my chest sank. It was too good to be true. With a heavy heart, I gestured him inside, where we settled on the couch.

  His expression was enigmatic. “I should tell you. This weekend….”

  My heart held its breath. Please, don’t say what I think you’re going to say…

  “It’s officially over between me and Lucy…well, I should clarify. It’s been over for about a year. But this weekend, we finally did what I should have done a year ago.”

  My heart breathed again. Had I heard that right? Looking back, I guess it made sense. He’d seemed miserable with her for as long as I’ve known him.

  “What happened?”

  Robbie’s lips parted, but he hesitated, his eyes calculating. “I guess, in the end, she wasn’t the one for me and I wasn’t the one for her.”

  “You both get your happily-ever-after.”

  “Something like that,” Robbie said, though something about the way he said it made me uneasy. Something he wasn’t saying, something he didn’t want me to know, wedged in the air between us. He inched closer to me on the couch. “But you,” he said. “I knew you were the one for me the day we met.”

  My heart could hardly believe my ears. Speech wasn’t a possibility at that moment. Robbie’s lips grazed mine, then inched down my chin, trailing my jawline, and down my neck. One of his hands gently held me around my nape, the other at the small of my back. Could this be true? Could I really keep my prince, my Romeo? He pulled back, leaving me with my shallow breathing. “Come on. It’s time to get you into third gear.”

  He led me outside. I mounted and started the bike. I put her in gear and I was off. This time, Robbie had to stay behind. Roxanne pulsated beneath me, her pipes a loud, popping cadence. She liked third gear. This was the fastest I’d gone. And I didn’t dare go faster. Not on my own, not yet.

  I toured the neighborhood, slowing to stop to walk the bike around corners. When it was time to come home, Roxanne whined, braking to her final stop in my driveway. Robbie grabbed the handlebars, his hand brushing mine, sending a wave of electricity through me. I scooted back and he saddled on. A moment later, we were cruising down a country road, the afternoon sun warming my flesh. We ended at the abandoned church, clearly our spot now, nothing but raw passion between us, the bike a constant rumble between our legs.

  Robbie killed the engine and we dismounted. I accepted his proffered hand. He led me across the vacant lot, toward the precarious steeple towering over us, threatening to crumble at the slightest cough. Even in daylight, the building was a dark shadow. We walked around the base of the church, where the lot turned into a narrow back road edged by a steep ditch. I got the feeling Robbie had walked this way many times, and I wondered again why he would need to come out here to not be found, as he’d put it.

  “I wonder how long this place has been abandoned,” I whispered, as if it could hear me.

  Robbie shrugged, studying the creaky structure. Amazingly, the windows were still intact. They were stained and ominous and it really did feel as if someone inside was watching. The breeze was a gentle warning not to get too comfortable. Aside from the fact that the church was abandoned and clearly not stable, there was something else about this place that gave me the creeps. Fresh leaves wisped across the narrow path. We turned the corner.

  Behind the church, a narrow road led to the other side of the lot, boarded by another ditch and a row of shrubs. Beyond the shrubs, we saw the most incredible sight.

  A vast field of daisies stretched as far as we could see. And it wasn’t even the daisies themselves that were extraordinary, but the way in which they had been planted. I think every color in the rainbow was represented. Irregular rows of lavender next to rows of red, then orange and yellow, followed by shades of blue and violet. They ran for acres and acres, each row, each flower, an integral part of a grand design.

  “It’s crazy, isn’t it?” Robbie said. “The church and the hill totally block it all. I don’t think anyone knows about this.”

  “Someone has to know. I mean, flowers don’t grow in rows naturally.”

  “Are they really rows, though?” Robbie scratched his head. “Looks naturally scattered to me.”

  “You don’t think someone designed it this way?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe so. These are perennials. They’re meant to come back over and over.”

  “You know
about flowers, do you?” I teased. I sighed and gazed out at the fields. “Too bad the church totally blocks these…rainbow fields.”

  “Rainbow fields?”

  I blushed. “Well, that’s what they are. Endless fields of color.”

  Robbie shrugged, nodding his agreement. “The whole hill the church stands on blocks them.” He turned to me and tugged me into his embrace. Our lips brushed one another. Energy shot through me. I could feel as our connection strengthened. We were one, a force beyond reason, our souls bound together. I wanted to hold this connection forever. We gazed at the rainbow fields until the sun descended and a chill blew our way.

  Back at my house, we drank kombucha from wineglasses and played Star Wars Monopoly on the living room floor. Robbie was Anakin, slowly tipping to the dark side. I played Obi Wan, burned by his betrayal. With a single roll, Robbie was forced to pay me all he had left. A moment later he had me on the floor, his strong hand at the small of my back, pressing me to him. “You win,” he breathed in my ear.

  “They say the board reveals your relationship with money.”

  “Is that so? What does this reveal? That you own me?” He trailed his lips down my neck, to my clavicle, his breath silky-smooth against my skin. I would never get enough of this. He settled on his side, over me, propping his head on his elbow. His fingers traced my breasts. “Tell me about your business.”

  “My business? I don’t really have a business.” But I told him, anyway, about my plan to brew kombucha for people. I told him about the blog. It got a pretty consistent flow of traffic. All I did was share my findings on diseases that came from an unhealthy gut and how our diets cause them, mostly sugar and all its variations, from corn syrup to high-fructose corn syrup to dextrose and all the other ’oses. “Sugar’s the poison that’s killing us. It makes us age faster than we should and leads to the diseases that kill us. Our bodies aren’t meant to age so fast or to die of disease.

  “It’s so addicting, too, and it’s in just about everything we buy at the store. It’s not even natural. Our bodies really aren’t meant for it. It’s just another toxin on top of all the other poisons in the processed foods we eat. That’s why I try to stick to whole foods grown locally.” Try was the operative word. Now wasn’t the time to tell Robbie about my own addiction. “What?” I said at the ridiculous grin plastered on his face. I sat up.

  “You’re cute when you’re passionate.”

  I blushed. “Tell me something about you. Something I don’t know.”

  “What’s there to tell?”

  “There has to be something that excites you.”

  “There is one thing…” He shifted into a cross-legged position across from me. “Real estate.”

  “Real estate?” I hadn’t seen that coming. It didn’t sound like something anyone could get passionate about.

  “I want to be independent.” Independent, he’d said. That got my attention, but I didn’t say anything, and Robbie continued. “I just closed on my first rental property. I got a really good deal on it, which means I got instant equity. Soon, once I get renters in there, I’ll use the income from that to re-fi and get my next property. This one’ll be commercial property.” He was talking over my head. He must have seen the confusion on my face. “I’m going to fix it up and rent it out, then get another one.”

  “Ah, that makes sense.” Suddenly, Robbie was a grownup. I didn’t know what to say. “How does that make you independent?”

  He shrugged. “Well, eventually, it’ll produce a nice income, and I won’t have to work at the call center. I’ll be in a better position to contribute…maybe help people.” He paused to read me for a long moment. I could see the calculations going on behind his eyes. “There’s something I must confess. I hope you can forgive me….”

  “Oh?” I swallowed.

  He inched closer to me, hopefully oblivious to my bodily reaction. But my heart was racing, as it always did when he was in range. “I…hadn’t actually tried your kombucha until we drank it together, here at your house.”

  I laughed. “I figured that out, Robbie. But…I was wondering…you buy it from me all the time! Why don’t you drink it?”

  He shrugged and lowered his head, a light shade of rose priming his cheeks. Then he looked at me. “Guess I just wanted a reason to have you say my name…or look for me every time you bring a new bottle to work…or accidentally touch me….”

  I couldn’t pull away from his hazel gaze—which wasn’t hazel at the moment, but more of an emerald color. This was not the kind of confession I was expecting. He wasn’t done.

  “You’re…I’ve been…You….” He gathered himself. “It’s you.”

  “Me?” My voice was barely a whisper.

  “Candy…. You’re like…my own, personal, candy. Intoxicating me…poisoning my blood…and I can’t stay away from you…I have to have you. I need you…to belong to me.”

  By now, I think I’d stopped breathing. Was I hearing this right? Was I dreaming? This was the kind of stuff only uttered in romance novels. I was living out a romance novel! Guess it was true what they said, what you think about you bring about…

  He brushed the hair from my cheek, wrapping his grip around my nape. His lips were trailing my neck now, his breath tremulous, rippling chills across my skin. I was cool and warm and floating all at the same time. It was surreal, and yet so natural. And he was still murmuring: “You have me, Candy. I—I’m addicted. My candy. I don’t just want you…I crave you. I need to taste you….”

  When our lips finally touched, it was electrical, the charge connecting our bodies through the unstoppable force of its current. We were that current, together. One.

  Chapter 11

  MONDAY MORNING, I woke under my sheets in Robbie’s arms. Sleepily, he pulled me close to him and rolled on top of me. He pecked my lips, then my chin, and neck…. I tried not to breathe morning breath on him. We rode to work together. It was a sunny day, but the weather report was already forecasting dark days ahead.

  The picketers were in their usual spot.

  “Jeez,” Robbie said. “How long do they plan to picket?”

  And to what end were they doing this? I thought, still unable to figure out their purpose.

  Upstairs, Robbie walked me to my cubicle. We ignored Carrie’s skeptical stare and Pete’s approving grin.

  Ollie bobbed his head over the divider, clad in a black suit, skinny tie, and obsidian sunglasses. I think everyone was waiting for him to whip out a futuristic machine gun and start firing at aliens only he could see.

  “Hey, Ollie, what’s with the Men In Black suit?” Pete called from his cubicle across the narrow hall.

  “You had to go and say it, didn’t you, Pete?” Carrie said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “We couldn’t figure it out ourselves.”

  Oliver lifted an indignant chin. “Excuse me, but I don’t know what either of you mean.” He twirled around and descended behind the divider.

  Pete shook his head, chuckling, and sat down.

  “When’s your lunch?” Robbie asked me. I scanned my calendar. He followed, confirming what I already knew, that we had the same schedule. Of course we did. We’d had the same schedule since he’d started here. Why would it change now? Could things get any more perfect? Riding to work together, eating lunch together, flirting…. “See you at lunch, then?” He pecked my forehead, his hand gliding down my arm to my fingertips, lingering until he finally had to let go.

  Lunch took forever to arrive. Robbie was the only one in the break room when I got there. He was on his cell, his brows furrowed, and I knew immediately it was not a good call.

  “I gotta go,” he said when he saw me. He clicked off and offered me a smile, but it did nothing to alleviate the creases in his forehead.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah. Just…nothing.” He pulled a chair out for me, then took his seat.

  Before I could ask for more details, Oliver, Carrie, and Pete arrived, dropping
trays and lunch bags on the table.

  “Look how cute they are. Can’t believe we never noticed,” Oliver said.

  Carrie said nothing. Come to think of it, she’d been unusually quiet about the whole thing, even sort of…withdrawn since the night at the karaoke bar.

  After work, Robbie and I went for a ride, ending at the abandoned church again. This time he drove the bike around to the rainbow fields.

  “What is it?” I asked when I realized his countenance hadn’t improved much since his phone call at lunch.

  He turned to me. “I’m sorry. I’ve been distant. You don’t deserve that.”

  I nodded in agreement to both.

  “I don’t want to keep anything from you.”

  “So, don’t,” I said.

  Robbie laughed, as if he should have thought of that. And with that, his entire state changed. He held my hand, his thumb caressing my finger. He leaned in to peck my neck, and I knew nothing could come between us. Whatever was bothering him disappeared at that moment like a dream in the morning light. But dreams have ways of returning when we’re not paying attention.

  Work the next day was worse. At lunch, Robbie was quiet and sullen. Even stranger was the way Carrie was studying him, as if she was expecting something. Occasionally, I offered her a smile, but all she gave me in return was a look of…well, it looked like pity, but that couldn’t be right, could it? Maybe she was having guy troubles. Whatever it was, I decided to ask her about it later, when we could be alone. But we hadn’t had a spare moment alone all day, and Robbie was taking me home on his bike today.

  At home, Robbie lingered on the pouch step. He’d fallen into texting when he got off the bike, and was now lagging behind me as I unlocked the door.

  “What is it?” I asked when I realized he hadn’t followed me in. I wondered if something had gone wrong with his new rental. “Do you wanna talk about it?”