A Winter Moon

by S. J. Smith

  Robert looked at her and sighed deeply before his eyes became obsessed with the floor.

  “I don’t know,” he said as if he was trying to figure that out himself.

  “I just saw that guy on you and I snapped, I don’t know. I just blanked out.”

  Leslie found herself slowly approaching the hunched over Navy officer placing her hand on his soft hair then running her fingers through it. He looked up at her and she looked into his eyes. She was sure that his eyes had turned black that moment back there at the bar.

  “You never answered my question,” Robert said slowly as his hand went to take hers.

  Leslie took her hand away from his and sat beside him with a sigh.

  “At the time I was scared, yes. I’m not right now. But I just don’t understand what happened back there,” she said truthfully, but avoiding his eyes.

  “I understand,” he replied placing his hand on her knee. “You know I’d never hurt you though, right?”

  Leslie gave him a small smile and nodded.

  “I know.”

  Leslie stood up and took his bag walking over to the guest bedroom.

  “I think you just need some sleep,” Leslie said from the bedroom. “It was a long day for you, and those drinks were pretty strong—”

  Leslie suddenly felt strong arms wrapped around her. They pulled her into his strong chest. She suddenly felt his lips press against her bare shoulder putting her in a frozen state. The feeling of his soft lips sent electric shocks up and down her spine.

  “Robert? What’s going on?”

  “I’m sorry,” he said to her shoulder as his arms tightened around her.

  Leslie wasn’t quite sure what to do, but his arms around her felt right. He felt warm and strong. Her eyes closed as his warmness engulfed her.

  Leslie slowly turned around after a moment, he released her from his embrace. She placed her hands on either side of his face.

  “I’m not scared of you okay, but if there’s something you need to tell me, you would right?” said Leslie.

  Leslie leaned up and placed a small kiss on his cheek before pulling away. Robert nodded as he returned a kiss but on her forehead.

  “I would tell you, of course.”

  “I think maybe you just need some sleep,” Leslie repeated as she placed his bag on the bed. It still nagged at her that he wouldn’t say what the matter was.

  Leslie placed a caring hand on Robert’s tall shoulder and exited the room closing the door behind her. She made the short walk to her room and softly shut it behind her. Leslie leaned against the white wooden door and sunk down to the floor. She wasn’t sure what was going on. Was this the same Robert she had grown up with?

  Leslie pulled herself from the floor and crawled into bed not bothering to change or remove her make up. She threw the soft sheets over herself and placed her head on the soft pillow with her thoughts ravaging her mind. Leslie couldn’t get them of her head; those cold black eyes that had stared back at her in the bar.

  *****

  Leslie woke up late that afternoon feeling more hopeful that some rest and a late breakfast would get them back on track on their week of fun.

  Leslie proceeded to shower and freshen up, part of her was reluctant to step out of the room but she knew she had to. She was the one that had to be positive and not allow last night’s little misfortune ruin the rest of this trip.

  She slowly stepped out in some sweat pants and a long white t-shirt. The quietness told her that Robert was possibly still sleeping which gave her time to cook up some breakfast. She went to the kitchen and decided that a good old fashion eggs, bacon and toast should suffice. As she began cooking, she heard a stir from the other room. Robert must have finally woken up.

  As she finished cooking the last of the bacon, Leslie heard the door slowly open behind her. She didn’t turn around, but felt his strong presence in the room. He stayed silent but Leslie could hear his footsteps approaching her. She didn’t move, even when she felt his close proximity.

  Her hand rose and went to touch his scruffy chin. His hand went to take hers and pressed his lips against her palm.

  “Good morning,” he said in a hoarse voice placing her hand back down to her side.

  Leslie finally turned around with a smile on her face. She could see that he still felt troubled, but she smiled and welcomed him.

  “Breakfast is ready, Chef Leslie has made; bacon, eggs and endless toast,” she said as she walked over to the table and poured him a glass of orange juice with her best impersonation of a housewife smile.

  “Looks great thank you,” he said genuinely pleased with the breakfast spread. Robert instantly began to dig in making noises that he was pleased with the taste.

  “So how are you feeling?” Leslie asked as shifted her food around with her fork. She wondered if Robert was thinking about last night. She sure was. He didn’t answer her right away; his eyes went to the plate before raising to look at her.

  “Good, I uhm, just needed some sleep,” Robert said as he shoveled some more food into his mouth. Leslie nodded accepting the lame excuse he gave her; she knew something was up and it wasn’t lack of sleep.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  Robert swallowed his mouthful, then put down his knife and fork.

  “I know,” said Leslie. “Fighting in war can mess you up. If something happened you can talk to me you know?”

  Leslie noticed his eyes had removed themselves from her and looked down at the plate. She could see that he wanted to say something but was struggling to do so. He finally looked back up at her with determination in his eyes. Was he going to tell her truth?

  “Something bad happened, I uhm, it happened when we docked, in Cuba a couple a months ago we got taken, native thugs that didn’t want us there and well—”

  Leslie’s phone began to ring stopping Robert’s already intense story. She stood up and went to the kitchen counter and picked up her phone. She read the caller ID and took a breath, wondering if she should pick up or not.

  “Are you going to answer that?” said Robert.

  Leslie looked back at Robert who was grabbing seconds from the stove.

  “I want you to finish,” said Leslie.

  “No, no it’s fine. Another time.”

  “But—”

  “Leslie, just pick up the call.”

  Leslie let out a frustrated sigh. If it wasn’t Max’s birthday she would have ignored his call all together.

  “Hi Max, happy birthday.”

  Leslie felt Robert tense up behind her as she said Max’s name. She chatted with her coworker for a moment, before saying her goodbyes.

  Robert was back in his seat and didn’t question what the call was about. He instead continued to gobble food until it was all gone from his plate.

  “Want to go out? It’s my coworker’s birthday and I’m sure he’d be happy to finally meet you. I’ve been gloating about you for a month now.” Leslie smiled and winked at him.

  “And maybe you could finish telling me your story,” Leslie added.

  Robert looked unsure and Leslie could see it on his face. All the while, Robert was worried about telling her about what happened in Cuba. He was fearful that she would hate him after what he had done. He was supposed to be the stable and calm one but he wasn’t anymore. He found that his temper was quick to rise above his calmness after the incident.

  Robert looked to Leslie and felt bad; she had opened her heart and home to him and the first night here he had disappointed her. He decided then that he would make it up to her and accompany her to this party.

  He stood up and approached her, fighting off the smile that he felt tugging at his lips as he looked at her body through the baggy clothes she wore. He went over to her and placed a hand on her hip and another under her chin tilting it upwards toward him. He felt her body stiffen and those big brown eyes widened at him.

  “Robert?”

  The unexpected closeness caused Leslie’s breathin
g to grow short and ragged. His strong body pressing up against her was not a bad feeling. Unexpected, but not bad at all.

  Leslie found that Robert’s lips was suddenly at her ear, not touching it but close enough to where his warm breath sent shivers up and down her spine.

  “Sure I’ll go,” said Robert. “And I promise to behave, too.”

  He moved his face away from her ear, and smiled at her.

  “I’ll go get ready,” said Leslie.

  Leslie stood there, her body on fire with just the minimal contact that Robert displayed. She sighed and rubbed her temple. Maybe this was going to be a more difficult week than she’d expected.

  But between the rising sexual tension and Robert’s odd behavior, Leslie was becoming increasingly worried.

  *****

  Leslie and Robert sat in the car in front of Max’s grand house. Leslie looked over to Robert who had his head turned to look at the large house to the left of them.

  “Nervous?” she asked.

  Robert looked over to Leslie; his blank face didn’t give her an answer to her question. He looked down at his hands realizing that he hadn’t come to terms with being back in civilian life. He was so used to operating in SEAL mode that normal situations like going to a bar and going to parties were no longer normal to him.

  “Hey it’s okay, you know I’ll be there with you,” Leslie said as she placed a hand on his knee. Robert placed his hand over hers and nodded.

  “Guess it’s still a little weird for me being back in the civilian world,” he said flashing her a smile to wipe away the concern that was painted on her face.

  “Well that’s understandable, but these people are friendly and nice and they’ll love you,” Leslie said as she gave his knee a comforting pat. She leaned in and gave Robert’s cheek a peck before reaching around to the back seat, grabbing Max’s present.

  The two of them stepped out of the car and began their walk to the door. Robert walked next to Leslie has they approached the large door of Max’s house. Part of Leslie knew this would be a bad idea, she already knew that Max had distaste for Robert despite not knowing him. However, a bigger part of Leslie wanted to change that; she wanted to show Max that Robert was a great guy.

  Leslie knocked on the door and turned to Robert flashing a confident smile. The door slowly opened and a familiar petite blue eyed blonde emerged.

  “Leslie!” said the blonde.

  “Bri!” said Leslie.

  The two women immediately embraced upon seeing one another. Brianna was a co-worker, well ex-coworker; she had moved on to her own legal business in immigration. Leslie was actually quite proud of Brianna’s accomplishments. Meanwhile, Robert stood there with a smile as the two women quickly chatted with one another before leading the two into the house,

  “Leslie, if I’d known you were bringing me such a fine Navy man I would have ended things with Max!”

  “Bri, your filter needs work,” Leslie said with a sigh, rubbing her temple. The immigration lawyer was dating Max, and Leslie found them to be a great-looking couple. Leslie turned and mouthed an apology to Robert who was visibly surprised by the comment made by the petite blonde.

  “Sorry, still working on that,” said Bri. She turned and winked at Robert, who had recovered from the shock and let out a small chuckle.

  Brianna led the two into a back area where a large group of people occupied the large space. Jazz played in the background as people chatted and helped themselves to the food and alcohol available to them.

  “Not sure where Max is,” Bri said scanning the crowd. “I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually, you two go get something to eat and have a good time. I’ll catch up in a bit.”

  Bri then excused herself to go greet some other guests that came in just moments after them.

  “I’m starved,” Robert said, making his way to the food table where the aroma grew to be too tempting.

  “How? You ate three plates barely a few hours ago,” Leslie said with genuine surprise as she followed him to the food. She did have to admit everything smelled delicious and looked it to.

  “So what’s your friend Max like?” Robert inquired as he fixed a plate and surprisingly handed it to her.

  Leslie took the plate and waited for him to fix his own as she thought about how to describe Max’s personality.

  “Hm. I guess he can be a bit snobbish. He’s pampered, and he’s kind of judging. Other than that he’s a great guy, he’s always there when I need him, trusting and—”

  “Well at least you had nice things to say at the end.”

  The voice caused Leslie and Robert to turn towards the person that was behind them. Max stood there in a casual black suit, looking like he was ready for work rather than his own birthday party.

  “Yeah finding nice things to say is always the hardest part,” Leslie said as she threw a playful look to Max before taking a bite out of the juicy barbeque chicken her plate.

  Despite not being properly introduced, Leslie could feel the static between the two confident men.

  “And you must be Max, nice to meet you, and happy birthday,” Robert said with a smile, sticking his hand out. Leslie held her breath as she wasn’t sure which way this interaction would go, with Max being his judging self and all.

  Max stared at the friendly hand a little longer than Leslie would have liked but to her relief he took it and shook it, returning the smile.

  Leslie felt all the tension in her body release as the two began chatting about Max being a lawyer and Robert being in the Navy and such. Leslie chimed in every once in a while but she was just happy that Robert was socializing. He was even gathering a crowd, mostly women, who were interested in his stories from overseas. She had forgotten how charming he was.

  Leslie excused herself from the story circle to head to the kitchen. One of the perks of knowing the host was that she got to raid the pantry for the good stuff.

  Leslie whistled a little tune as she tried to locate the pantry with the good snacks. She hadn’t been in this place for a while so her memory was rusty, not that it would deter her. Eventually her persistence would pay off and she found the Holy Grail of snacks. All the stuff that she liked in one convenient little place.

  “Thank you Max,” Leslie said with a grin as she pulled out a bag of chips.

  “Well someone is being very sly.”

  The voice startled her and the chips dropped from her hands. Leslie turned and found Max standing there leaving against the wall with a smug look on his face.

  “Jeez, you scared me!”

  “Shouldn’t have been snooping around.”

  Max walked over and grabbed the bag of chips from the group and handed them to Leslie.

  “You have my favorite snacks though,” Leslie said taking the chips from his hands and opening them up with a toothy grin. Max stood there and couldn’t help but to smile at Leslie’s excitement over a bag of chips.

  “You’re really cute, you know that?” Max said as he approached Leslie, who was more concerned with the chips rather than the fact that Max was drawing closer.

  Max grabbed the chips from Leslie’s hands, with much protest from Leslie, and placed them down on the counter. He took her salted fingers and placed one into his mouth not breaking eye contact.

  Leslie watched as Max took her finger into his mouth and sucked slow. Shamefully, she felt a warm sensation in between her legs.

  “Max,” Leslie withdrew her hand from his hold and brought it close to her. Her eyes went to the floor trying to make sense of what just happened. Max was with Bri, a very good friend of hers and here Max was sucking on her finger.

  “Listen, because you clearly won’t figure this out on your own, I love you, I always have.”

  Leslie shook her head unable to believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. Why now of all times? Besides she had feelings for someone else.

  “But, Bri,” Leslie started, still in disbelief as she stepped back, steadying herself against the count
er.

  “She’s great. It’s just, she’s not you,” Max said grabbing hold of her shoulders and pulling her into a forceful kiss. Leslie placed her hand on his chest to push him away but found someone had beaten her to it. Before Leslie could even think twice, Max was thrown across the room with one swoop. Leslie gasped as she experienced a flash back to the bar where Robert lost control. Unfortunately, history was doomed to repeat itself because Leslie saw Robert place his heavy body on top of Max’s and raised his fist in the air.

  “I knew there was something mental about you!”

  Max yelled at Robert from the ground as the two began to fight, drawing the immediate attention from Bri.

  The chaotic scene turned into the two women trying to pull Max and Robert away from each other. Robert’s eyes seemed to go black once again, and his face turned dark.

  “Tell your girlfriend what you did,” Robert said through gritted teeth as he fought off Max’s flying punches. Leslie swallowed hard; Robert had seen what Max had just done but there was no time to dwell on that. Leslie finally managed to pull Robert off of Max by his collar.

  “What is the matter with you?!”

  Leslie’s palm made a heavy impact with Robert’s cheek, stunning everyone in the room to silence. Whether it was frustration, anger or fear, tears began to flow from Leslie’s eyes. The slap was enough because Robert returned to reality.

  “Get out, both of you just get out,” Bri said suddenly as she kneeled beside the bloodied Max.

  *****

  Leslie let out a frustrated noise as she walked into the apartment with a sulking Robert behind her. Robert shut the door behind them and immediately went to the couch. Leslie placed her hands on her head as she leaned against the kitchen counter. It was déjà vu as she looked at Robert who was sitting in the exact same spot, in the exact same manner as he had the night before.

  “You have to tell me what’s going on, I just, I don’t get it,” Leslie said, exasperated by everything that had just occurred. Robert hadn’t said a word, not in the whole car ride back and not now. His eyes just stared forward.

  Leslie went to the unmoving man and kneeled before him, blocking whatever his eyes were so fixated on.