Weighing of the Heart (Volume 1)

by Jessica Florence

  He kept walking along the boats until we stopped at a nice boat that had to be about twenty-three feet. Which was comfortable, and it wasn’t one for fishing, but traveling. He let go of my hand to step inside and then helped me inside. I looked at him like he had some explaining to do. “I’ve got the hook up. Hope you don’t mind riding on a boat because this isn’t the whole surprise.” He smiled as he spoke, he knew he was messing with my head, and he liked it. “Trust me.”

  I walked to the little bench seat on the front of the boat and sat down. “Aye, Aye, Captain! Take us to our destination,” I said in my best pirate voice. He just smiled and started the boat; it practically purred it was so quiet.

  I sat comfortably and looked at the scenery while he drove us somewhere. It was dark, so I couldn’t see much. We started to slow our driving. I tried to look as best as I could and I saw the outline of something. An island! Okay, he was getting some major cool points. This was by far one of the most interesting dates I had ever been on. We got closer and closer to the island until we were finally pulling up into the sand.

  Chapter 8

  “Welcome to Spectacle Island! Have you ever been?” he asked. Then he took off his shoes and jumped in the water, holding out his hands for me. I slid off my sandals and grabbed his hands.

  “Nope. Although I’ve seen it from a far, I have never been. I know it’s a popular park though.” I took a leap of faith and jumped out of the boat with his hands to steady me.

  The water wasn’t cold, and when Tristan wrapped his arms around me to keep me steady, I suddenly felt on fire. How was it possible he does this to me? I looked into his eyes. He had a look of pure adoration. I gasped. Ugh, this was so weird; it was like everything in me was saying Go for it! You know him! But I didn’t! This is so confusing! I saw confusion mirrored in his face. He let me go and then gestured for me to walk to shore.

  I didn’t know what to say and these strange feelings I was getting were overwhelming me. I look around and a light catches my eye.

  “Oh, my God,” I whispered. I practically floated towards the lights.

  “Yeah, I hope it isn’t too much. I just really wanted to make a good impression.” Tristan came up next to me. He looked kind of nervous, like I wouldn’t like what he did. He had set out a big blanket, with a little bonfire on the beach. He had a basket of goodies there too. This was so romantic.

  “I love it,” I whispered. I turned to him and hugged him tightly. He was so hard pressed up against me. I really liked being close to him. “Thank you! This is by far the most romantic thing anyone has have done for me.” I pulled back and looked into his eyes. He was smiling like I just gave him a million dollars.

  “Glad you like it; now let’s go check it out.” He let go and led me over to his amazing picnic. I let go of him and sat down. I just stretched out and laid back to glance at the stars.

  “So tell me more about the man behind the best picnic ever,” I asked. In truth, I really did just want to know everything about him.

  “What would you like to know?” he countered. He was sitting next to me in all his sexiness looking down at my face.

  “Um, what are some of your likes? Like, um, favorites.” I didn’t want to jump into the hard stuff right away. Baby steps.

  “My favorite color is red. My favorite song is “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult. My favorite food is a big fat burger with bacon and cheese fries. I like all things Egyptian. I help families of fallen soldiers. What about you?” he asked.

  That was definitely some interesting stuff he told me. Only fair it was my turn.

  “Um, my favorite color is turquoise, my favorite song is “Yellow” by Coldplay, and it’s such a sweet song. My favorite food is gyros with extra tzatziki sauce. I also love all things Egyptian, and of course, Greek. Like, I love their art, architecture, mythology and stories. It’s so cool. That’s why I love my work at the museum.” This was nice, just relaxing on the beach with him.

  “Who are your favorite people out of the mythologies?” he asked. I had to think about that one, it was a hard question considering I love it all.

  “Hmm… you ask a hard question there, but hmm, I guess if I had to choose a favorite person from Greek mythology, I would choose Aphrodite. She just seems really interesting. Did you know she was even older than the gods? Love is eternal.” I’m sure I was coming off as a geek to him. but whatever.

  “And I guess for Egyptian mythology. I would say I always had an interesting fascination with Anubis. I mean, he is pictured everywhere around Egypt and he is definitely the most well- known. But it has to be a hard job what he does, being a god of the underworld and all. Plus, if he looked like the Anubis in The Mummy 2, all rippling muscles, what isn’t to love, you know?” I turned my head and looked at him. He had a weird facial expression I couldn’t place. And then he busted out laughing.

  Like curling over laughing so hard, it made me laugh seeing him like that. “What’s so funny?” I ask through my laughter.

  “Everyone thinks of Anubis as this super jacked up jackal. I find that amusing. I guess he must work out a lot.”

  I guess when you think of it, it was kind of funny. No other pictures of gods from that time were ripped. I guess Anubis did Egyptian steroids. I continued to laugh along with him until tears were running down the sides of my face. “That is priceless.” I said.

  Our laughter finally started to slow when he spoke again. “I like hearing about you; tell me more, Thalia,” he coaxed me on. I thought about all the things I wanted to tell him. I had the urge to tell him everything, to have no secrets from him.

  “Ask me anything, Tristan.” I heard a low growl from his direction. I turned to him to see his eyes had that edge of possessiveness to them. Shivers once again took over my body. Dear lord what is this man turning me into.

  He came closer, slowly. I froze, just waiting to see what he was going to do. His hand brushed through the hair on the side of my face. “Anything?” he asked. It was like he was daring me, and I dared him right back.

  “Anything.”

  “Can I kiss you?” he asked in a breathy, rough voice. I couldn’t speak. I’ve wanted to kiss him since I dreamed of him. I was suddenly very nervous. I somehow knew that once I kissed him, something big was going to change. Was I ready for that?

  “Please.”

  I decided I didn’t care what would happen after kissing him. I just knew everything inside me was clawing for him. I needed it. I looked into his dark eyes one last time before he closed the distance between us.

  I melted into his lips. It was like I found the other part of my soul. Something in me was flowing into him; I didn’t know where I ended and he started. He was perfection. His kiss started gentle and then grew with hunger. Passion.

  I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair. It was as soft as I somehow knew it would be. I was pulling him closer. We weren’t nearly close enough.

  His hard chest connected with mine as his hands went to my hip, pulling me towards him. This kiss was all-consuming. He was possessive as he ravished me. Our mouths meshed together. He tasted like spice and cinnamon. This was right, nothing I had ever experienced in my life felt as right as this.

  Suddenly, an image came through my mind.

  Him bare-chested except for the covers covering his lower half above me. His eyes were tender as we were in throes of heated passion. I felt so alive. He was made for me. His kisses and body brought me to ecstasy as he moved over me.

  “You are my destiny, Thalia. You are mine.” He growled into my lips as he continued to make love to me. My hands clenched his shoulders. The markings on his chest made me feel all the love he possessed for me, and I for him. I touched the markings. “Yours, forever love.”

  My head started to hurt ferociously. What was that? I didn’t realize Tristan was talking to me and we were no longer kissing.

  “Thalia, are you ok? Please say something?” My headache started to ease. I still didn’t kn
ow what just happened here except that I needed a little space. I started to rise and he let me do so while grabbing a bottle of water.

  “Here drink this. Gods, Thalia are you ok? You just stopped kissing me; your face was looking like you were in insane pain,” he said. His voice was laced with panic.

  “I’m ok, I… don’t really know what happened there. I’m sorry,” I told him and drank some of the water. His face was full of concern. I just didn’t really know what to tell him. I was pretty freaked out right now. But he seemed to understand.

  “Let’s enjoy some of the snacks I brought. You can tell me about you, your hopes and dreams.” I nodded as he handed me some goodies. We just sat there for who knows how long and just talked back and forth about our lives. He expressed deep sympathy about my parent’s passing. He definitely had a way of making people feel better about death.

  Finally, we decided it was time to go back to the real world. He packed everything into the boat and we took off for the marina.

  We were at my apartment building in no time and I was aware of everything. How he maneuvered his motorcycle, every breath he took. Little sounds he made as I touched him while holding him tight. I knew something would change between us when we kissed, and I’m still unsure what that something was but I knew it was right. He walked me to the door to the building.

  “Thank you for giving me the chance, Thalia,” he said confidently. I was close to saying no, especially when he took me to the marina. But I was glad too.

  “Me too. I would say it was one of the best nights of my life,” I confessed. He brought his hand up to my face and ran his thumb across my lower lip. He wanted to kiss me again, but I was unsure after what happened last time. Screw it. I wanted it too. I nodded and I closed the distance.

  This kiss wasn’t as full of need like the last one. This was gentle and sweet. He pulled back and kissed me on the forehead before stepping back. “I will see you soon. Sleep well,” he said and then walked towards his bike.

  I watched him ride off into the city, and then went inside.

  “Hey! There’s my girl!” Leander was sitting on the couch watching a movie.

  I walked over and cuddled up close to him. “Hey, what are you watching?” I said as I stole some of his popcorn.

  “Fast Five. It’s awesome. They are going to rob a police station. So where were you all night? It’s, like, almost midnight.”

  Wow, was it really that late? “Um, I went on a date with Tristan.” I heard him take a deep breath. I turned to see his face.

  “Oh? How did that go?” He looked sincere in his question.

  “It was really nice; he took me on a boat ride to Spectacle Island. He had this whole picnic set up. It was really romantic.”

  He had an amused face. “Really? You let him take you on a boat to an island alone?” he started laughing. When he put it that way I did feel a little ashamed that I practically let a stranger take me to an island alone.

  I sighed to myself. “Yeah, I get it, but it was really amazing. He was respectful, super sweet. We talked for hours it seemed.” I gushed out to him. Thankfully I was always able to talk to him about this type of stuff. I didn’t really have anyone else, besides Lacey.

  “Yeah, sure you talked all night.” He did finger quotes around the talked part. Ass. I shoulder bumped him in annoyance, he knew it.

  “He did kiss me.” I was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning.

  “So did he beat out all those other losers?” he asked while shoving popcorn in his trap.

  Tristan’s kiss had blown any other kiss I have ever had to pieces, the connection, the passion, and of course the strange sex image that assaulted me. Well, and the headache, but otherwise I loved it. Of course I wasn’t going to tell Leander all of that.

  “Oh yeah.” I think I will leave it with that. We snuggled in closer and watched the rest of the movie together in comfortable silence and then went to bed.

  Chapter 9

  I woke up for the first time in the past few days having a dreamless night. I looked around my bedroom making sure this wasn’t a dream. And I was still on the bed! I mentally patted myself on the back for that. I reached over to my phone to see the time and saw a message from Tristan; he was saying good morning beautiful again. Ah, I felt all giddy again. I got out of bed, went into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready for work.

  The next few days pass the same way. Dreamless sleep, texts from Tristan, and work. I found myself a little disappointed that I didn’t actually get to see Tristan this week, but I kept myself busy.

  As I was packing up my things at work to go home, Lacey walked over to me. “Wanna go out for dinner?” she asked me.

  “Sure, I didn’t have any plans. Where did you want to go?” I asked her.

  “Oh! How about that new sushi restaurant a few blocks over. Sushi Love, I think it’s called.”

  I did want to try that place. “Let’s do it.” She grabbed her purse and we walked the two blocks over to the restaurant.

  “Wow, this is amazing!” I mumbled while eating my sushi roll. This place was a great idea.

  “I know. Mm-mm,” Lacey groaned as she chewed. I told her about my date with Tristan, which she caused her to fan herself because he is really hot. I agreed. He was smoking.

  “Hey Thalia!” a voice called from behind me. It sounded familiar.

  I turned around and saw Orion walking this way. I smiled at him. “Hey Orion, you like sushi too?” I asked.

  He gives me a face of horror. “Are you kidding me, I love it!” he answers.

  A cough comes from Lacey’s area, I look at her and she is giving me the introduce me or else bitch face.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. Orion, this is my friend Lacey; Lacey ,this is Orion. He works out in my building. Wait, do you even live in my building?” I asked, realizing I didn’t even know.

  He laughed as he waved at Lacey and she at him. “Yeah, I do. I’m at 20B.”

  “No way! I’m at 20D! I’ve never seen you on our floor before.” He lived so close. I wondered if he has like a night job or something where he only comes out at night. But I guessed unless we are coming and going at the same time we probably wouldn’t see each other. Stupid, stupid.

  “Nice.” he muttered. Lacey suddenly found her voice.

  “So Thalia and I were thinking about heading back to her apartment after dinner and watching a movie or playing some games. You should come with, since you are neighbors and all!”

  I look at her like she grew nine heads. “We were?” I sounded as confused as I felt.

  She winked at me. “Yep, so what do you say, Orion? Want to hang out with us sexy bitches?” she asked him.

  He just smiled. He had that cute boy next door look going for him. The front of his brown hair was gelled up towards the sky. His golden eyes seemed to brighten like the sun. He had a perfect smile. I felt mesmerized by it, drawn to his happiness like a gravitational pull.

  “Sure, I’ll hang out with you ladies till my takeout is done and then I’ll meet you at 20D.” he answered. Lacey smiled at me. What is she up to?

  We talked with Orion while he waited for his food. Turned out he was pretty interesting. He loved sports and cooking; he did martial arts and was a ranger. He wouldn’t say more about what a ranger does but I figured he was like the Army Rangers. Or a park ranger. I could see him being either one. I was surprised that Lacey wasn’t eyeing for his attention. Instead she kept pushing him towards me. Which he was more than glad to do.

  I kept giving her the what the fuck face when he would look away. I just told her about my awesome date with Tristan and she was pushing this guy into my lap. I mean, I didn’t think we were dating. We were something, though. The waitress brought Orion his food and we all paid and headed home.

  “What the hell, Lacey?” I said as soon as we got back to the museum.

  “What?” she said innocently.

  “Um, you were totally pushing Orion at me. I like Tristan.” I answered
and she just looked at me.

  “Yeah, and? You haven’t even seen him this week. Trust me; this is a good thing. Just go with the flow.” She moved her hand like a flowing river to demonstrate. I sighed. I guess Tristan and I weren’t together, together so hanging out and a little flirting here and there wouldn’t be so bad.

  “All right. I’ll meet you at the apartment,” I said as I got into my car.

  I got home and cleaned up before everyone came knocking. I picked up my shoe pile by the door and threw them in my closet. I heard a knock on the door as I tried to finish putting Leander’s junk food in the pantry. I took a few breaths and opened the door.

  “Hi” Orion said as he walked by. “Nice apartment, Mine has almost the same layout.” He said as he looked around. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be alone with him. He was nice, but I still just wasn’t sure.

  “Would you like something to drink?” I asked him as I walked to the fridge to get myself something.

  “Sure, surprise me,” he said as he sat down on the bar stool to the island. I bit my lip as I chose something for him and me.

  “Ok here.” I set down some beers for us.

  “Thanks.” He took the beer and snapped it open. It grew silent in the room. Where was Lacey?

  Just then, I heard another knock on the door. I hustled to the door and opened it.

  “Hey, sorry I wasn’t here right away. I had to fill up my car.” She hugged me and walked in to say hi to Orion.

  Orion was really fun, he was funny. He smiled a lot and he was definitely interested in me; that much was sure. Every chance he got he was making nice comments about me. I blushed a lot. It was all very flattering, but I felt like such a mess on the inside about Tristan.

  “Let’s play Truth or Dare!” Lacey squealed. We had played other drinking games at the kitchen table. It was fun, but I didn’t know about Truth or Dare.