by Criss Copp
“Coffee please... strong, white and no sugar.” I request.
He turns and does my bidding. I watch him lift the percolated coffee jug, pour me a mug and then place a dash of milk in it.
“You have the evening shift today?” Ben asks, bringing me the coffee.
“No, I called in sick!” I explain.
“Oh?” Sabrina enquires.
“I was feeling pretty miserable after Ben bawled me out the other day, and then last night I lost a patient, so I just thought I needed to take a sick day.” I explain.
“Sweetie, that’s horrible!” Sabrina soothes.
“Do you want to watch some movies with me Sabrina?” I ask, suddenly feeling a little animated. This is a woman I’m seated next to. Maybe she’ll like to watch a girly flick with me.
“Sure honey! What sort of movie do you have in mind?” she asks.
“What do you like in movies?” I counter-ask her.
“Oh... romance movies for sure! Comedy as well.” She explains.
“Okay, what was the last movie you hired, and did you like it?” I ask her.
Ben is watching our exchange with a massive grin. He’s leant up against the sink with his arms folded across his chest, and he looks like he could feed the world and cure it of all disease.
“It’s Complicated with Meryl Streep and Steve Martin; and I loved it!” she says.
“Wow, I can think of a few movies in that vein that have come out since then. A few of them I’d watch again for sure!” I say.
“Yeah? Can you think of one off the top of your head?” She asks.
“Oh yeah! Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Julianne Moore and Steve Carrell... in Crazy, Stupid Love!” I gush. “It’s funny and has some sexy romance in it too!” I explain.
“Exactly my style of movie!” she laughs. “Let’s get it out and watch it today while Ben does the yard work!” she reasons.
“Fabulous!” Ben grumbles.
I ignore him, but I smile at Sabrina conspiratorially.
“Ryan Gosling is so, so, so sexy in this movie! Like seriously yum!” I enthuse.
“Ryan Gosling? You’ve got to be kidding me. He’s a douche!” Ben guffaws.
“He is not, he’s my movie star crush!” I explain.
“What’s he got that’s so crush-worthy?” Ben asks.
I snort, I actually snort and I don’t even bother to hide it, because I’m not hiding anymore... right?
“Um... super, super sexy abs... killer body, sexiest smile and just... he’s beautiful.” I gush.
“Wait till you get my clothes off, you won’t need to look any further then!” He smiles seductively.
I go to say something, I mean, I really do. But the truth is, I have a fair idea what’s under his shirt. Just because it was darkish last night, doesn’t mean I’m blind.
“Cat got your tongue?” he teases.
“We’ll see... we’ll see what you have to bring to the table when the time comes.” I joke with him, nodding and giving him a quirky smile.
His eyebrows simply rise as high as he can get them in response.
I giggle and turn back to Sabrina.
“I don’t often do girly movies, but that’s a particularly good one.” I say.
“Okay, you go and grab it and we’ll settle in and watch it.” She offers.
“I’ll help get you ready for the day first if you like.” I offer.
“That’s okay, Ben normally does.” She says.
“Well if you want a lame-arse job done, I’ll leave him to help you.” I reply.
Sabrina giggles, “Okay, show me what you can do, and then we’ll compare quality.” She suggests.
“I’ll be kicking your arse from here to China!” I threaten Ben.
“Somehow, I think you will win on this score!” he laughs.
“Come on Sabrina, let’s start with a shower!” I say.
“Oh honey, I’m not looking so good these days.” She says. “Everything goes south you know.” She reasons.
“Sabrina, in case you didn’t know, I’m a nurse! And I see more tits, arse, dicks and vagina’s than you can scan in a week of internet searches. I’ve seen it all and I have the uncanny ability to switch to professional mode when the moment calls for it!” I explain. “But, I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable, so whatever you want.” I say.
“No, I think it would be good for Ben not to have to see me naked getting in and out of the shower for once.” She says.
“I second that!” Ben laughs.
“Okay, let’s go then!” I enthuse.
Ben.
Holy shit, when Mum comes back out from her room, she looks totally different, and Jade’s ready to depart.
“What did you do to my Mum?” I ask Jade.
“Made her ready to face the day? Why, is something wrong?” she asks, looking at my Mum.
“No way, she looks better than I’ve seen her in ages.” I explain.
“Oh, I scrubbed her back for her, gave her scalp a massage, did all the things she couldn’t do; didn’t we Sabrina?” she asks Mum.
My Mum’s beaming. Whatever happened in that shower made my Mum feel a whole load better.
“Yes, I actually feel really energised.” She says walking to the recliner, slowly but surely.
“I also put a bit of makeup on her face and we picked out some bright and cheery clothes.” Jade clarifies.
“Well, I think you look great Mum.” I say, going to her and giving her a big kiss on her forehead.
“Well, I’m going to go and see Silas quickly for a cuppa, then I’ll grab the movie, and I’ll be back before 11 to watch the movie with you Sabrina.” Jade reasons.
“I look forward to it.” Mum says, settling in with her book for a while.
“Can I bring my pyjamas back with me Sabrina? Only if it’s okay.” Jade clarifies.
I slap my right hand over my mouth in eager determination to stop myself from saying... ‘no, you’ll be naked tonight,’ and listen to my Mum giving this woman permission to come over to her house to sleep with her son.
Jade moves in to Mum and gives her a quick peck on the cheek, and then without any expectation, she comes up to me and stands in front of me and then leans in and kisses me softly on the cheek too.
I just want to grab her, throw her over my shoulder and in true caveman style, force her into my room where I intend to take full advantage of her body... repeatedly!
Instead I stop breathing at her touch and stare at her eyes as she moves away from my face.
She gives me a knowing smile and leaves for the front door.
After she’s out of sight, Mum looks at me and says, “I would love for you to convince that girl to move in with us, she’s better for you than I could’ve ever imagined... for both of us actually.” she chuckles, and then sighs.
“I’d love her to. But there’s Silas to consider too.” I reason.
“He can live in your old room.” Mum reasons.
“She won’t go for it, it’s too soon.” I say in defeat.
“Fuck too soon... I’m calling it, and I think it needs to happen! Time wasters, I can’t bloody well stand them!” she says grumpily.
“Mum... you swore, and on top of that, you’re the Queen of time wasters!” I reason.
“And look what that did for me!” she huffs.
“Indeed!” I agree.
***
I’m outside finishing the edging when Jade rides up. I watch her hop off her bike and walk over to me. I note that her backpack is fuller than normal; in fact it looks close to bursting. I cut the engine, and I think about beginning on the lawn; looking up, I note that there are some stormy looking clouds beginning to loom overhead, so I need to get on to this now, so I can be done before they begin dumping their load on us. I return my attention to Jade.
“You moving in here?” I ask, thinking seriously about what my Mum said this morning.
“Is that an invitation?” she asks coyly.
�
�Red, I’ll have you in here before you can blink if you’ll let me.” I offer.
“Hah, Poor Silas would be left to fend for himself!” she jokes.
“He can live in the flat downstairs; it was where I lived when I was a teenager.” I explain.
Jade’s face drops... her mouth literally drops open.
“Just saying!” I shrug.
“You’re just saying?” she says softly, “You sound like you’ve thought about it.” She argues softly.
“Of course! Silas is out of work; I can have him battle ready and out there earning money in no time if he were here.” I explain. Actually, I could do it anyway now that he has heaps of time. But I’m not helping my cause by indicating that to her, when in actual fact I’d really like her to move in.
“You might suck in bed!” she says, slightly smiling.
“I do, wherever necessary!” I tease.
She slaps me and laughs. Then she walks away, and makes her way upstairs.
At least I broke the idea to her without it being a deal breaker or a huge mistake. Now all I have to do is convince Silas to convince her. I’ll see him this afternoon.
“How’s Silas?” I shout to her as she reaches the top of the stairs.
“Better!” she shouts down. “I’ll visit him again later.” She says.
“Okay, I’ll go in soon then, so we can space out his company better.” I reason.
She actually takes a huge breath in, dumps her back pack and helmet and runs back down the stairs... to confront me.
“Thank you!” she says genuinely grateful, before moving swiftly in to hug me fiercely around my neck; like a small child might hug an adult that just gave them the best present ever!
“You’re welcome!” I say, returning her hug, by placing my arms around her slim waist.
We stay there for a while, both breathing each other in; before she looks up and smiles; and then dashes back to the stairs and up them to go and watch her stupid Ryan Gosling movie with my Mum.
***
“So do you think you’d be up for that?” I ask Silas.
“Really? You’d train me fulltime and I could live in your house?” Silas asks incredulously.
“Why not? You’re unemployed now, so once you get out of here, and your meds are tailored better, then we can get started on getting you better trained.” I reason. I’m not up with the whole mental illness and fighting professionally issue, but seriously, I just couldn’t see how it was anyone else’s business anyway; just as long as we make sure Silas is properly medicated.
“Wow, I’m... speechless?” he says.
“Thing is, we’ll have to work on your sister moving in too.” I suggest. vzyl
“You are one fucking huge glutton for punishment, and stubborn as all hell; continually running after her!” he chuckles, giving me a pointedly feral look.
“She stayed over last night.” I point out.
“So she tells me,” Silas confirms. “She reckons she’ll give you a go; try you on for size!” he laughs, moving his Knight and calling check on our game of chess.
“In the wise words of Yoda... she’ll either do, or not do! There is no try!” I put on my best Yoda voice, and move my King to safety.
Silas looks at me like I’m a moron.
“In the wise words of Silas, checkmate!” he says, moving his Rook into line with my King and its only place of safety. “You know, your shit at chess when you’re talking about Jade.” He states.
“You’re probably shit at chess when you think of Shae!” I counter.
“True.” He says.
“How’s Shae?” I ask. I know her parents don’t know he’s here, and that she’s been using her study burdens for excuses to hide the fact that she can’t spend nights with Silas at the moment. She catches buses to and from here to visit and she’s still apparently madly in love with the psycho bastard.
“Good, horny, but good!” he states.
Aren’t we all; I think.
***
It’s absolutely pouring rain when I get back home from visiting Silas. I’ve noticed that Jade’s bike is now in the garage as I pull in, beside Mum’s car. I pull up beside it and sit there for a second, before I turn the bike off and then remain for a further five minutes seated on my bike, allowing the water to slide off me as I think.
Despite wearing my wet weather gear, I’m still soaked. When rain is this determined to soak everything, it finds every damned crack in your armour, and my socks are soaking wet and my chest is feeling a little clammy under my jacket.
I climb off my bike and pull my helmet off; taking it over to the work bench and placing it there, alongside my gloves.
I’m wearing some camo wet weather pants that I found on the internet, and while they’re pretty good for the weather, and light weight, so that I’m not feeling like a sumo wrestler wearing them; they’re also not conducive to staying warm. I’m thinking right now that a hot shower would be good.
Turning around to make my way to the door for the internal stairs, I find Jade standing there looking at me.
“Nice weather for a ride?” she smirks.
“Even better that there are about twice as many arseholes trying to kill me out there.” I grumble.
I mean, what is it about people driving in wet weather? They lose their brains! I had my headlight on, I gave plenty of room; but they’re determined to drive more erratically in more dangerous weather than they are when the weather is fine!
“I know, people drive stupidly in wet weather, like they need to get out of it because they’re getting wet! When they should be slowing down and being more cautious!” she argues.
“I’m hearing you; they’re a bunch of dickheads!” I lament.
She chuckles.
“Mum okay?” I ask; pulling my jacket off, and hanging it on a peg besides the door she is standing next to.
“Yeah, she’s resting.” She answers. “We had a good afternoon. She agrees with me on the Ryan Gosling thing. She thought he was pretty hot for a young man. But she liked the guy in the other movie we watched better.” She laughs.
“Which was?” I ask.
“We also watched The Proposal.” She says. “It has my other movie star crush in it. She absolutely laughed her arse off at the bathroom scene. I think it broke her!” she says, laughing.
I’m standing there with my arms folded, all I heard from Jade after ‘other movie star crush,’ was ‘laughing’... who’s this other guy?
“Who’s the guy in that movie?” I ask; eyebrows definitely on the rise.
“Ryan Reynolds.” She gushes. “Is he a cousin? Maybe you can introduce me?” she smirks.
“What? No!” I answer disgustedly. “You’ve got a thing for Ryans!” I point out.
“No I don’t!” she defends herself.
“You do... Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds! Both of them your movie star crushes!” I remark.
“You jealous?” she queries, giving me a smirk.
“Not at all, I’m real!” I explain.
“They’re real.” She argues.
“Yes, they’re real, but they’re not in real life the people they play, they might in actuality be complete arseholes!” I explain, finally getting around to pulling off my boots and wet socks.
“I like you, and you’re an arsehole!” she says, shrugging.
I stop pulling off my socks and I stare at her, she smirks at me and then looks at the floor; smiling full strength at the concrete.
“What?” she says, looking up at me through her fucking gorgeous eyelashes as I finally pull off my other sock and throw it at the floor.
Her sexy smile and alluring look makes my heart jump into my throat; and suddenly, the cold’s not an issue anymore, due to the heat that’s just developed between us. But my breathing, it’s got issues.
If this was the perfect moment, I’d have washed my hands...
If this moment was perfect... I wouldn’t be standing in my garage looking like I’ve just ridden t
hrough the seven gates of hell.
If moments for finally cutting the crap came around with perfect timing, we’d all be perpetually showered, have a stylist on hand to make sure we looked our best and have just realised what was about to occur so we could smell good.
This was nothing like that... it wasn’t anywhere near perfect... but it was right!
The surging storm outside has nothing on the roaring that is currently thundering through my body in this moment.
She sees it, she sees the change in my look, the change in my stance, and the change in the electricity that surrounds us because it is in that moment that I alter into her predator.
Her chest is rising and falling in huge waves as she struggles to find a rhythm to her breathing. My body is screaming at me to reach for her... to grab her and lay her bare beneath me. The instinctual nature of my need for her is overpowering, and I’m not about to stop it; heaven help anyone that is going to try and get in my way, I may quite literally tear them limb from limb!
Jade.
Oh shit... oh shit... no, really; motherfucking shit and hellfire!
He quite literally crashes into me and pushes me back into the wall between the two doors, one is for the stairwell to upstairs, the other is the entrance to the flat downstairs; I’m at risk for another concussion, I hit the plasterboard that hard.
Somewhere amongst all that frantic movement, his mouth finds my mouth and his hands find my face.
And then the fires that have lain semi-dormant since he last kissed me are in full blaze, and I’m endeavouring to merge with him in ways that I have never attempted before.
There is a passion that’s reaching a fever-pitch right now, and I’m absolutely certain that there is nothing I can do to quench it. If we were able to stumble out into this pouring rain, we’d simply mist it up; because the water would evaporate within inches of approaching our entwining bodies.
Ben’s mouth is devouring mine, his tongue is fiercely claiming every surface of mine... his teeth are teasingly biting down on my tongue, and my lip. His hands are forcing my face to stay where he desires to keep it; to maximise his claim; and I’m matching him and pouring my molten desire into him, willing him to claim me entirely, to pull me to him and ram himself into me with enough force to completely merge with me and become one person.