Vision Ch. 06

"Awww, Come on Lou?!"

"I don't know what to tell you, it's the rest of the back of me, legs too please."

I groan and do as asked and sure enough before too long I'm hard again. She turns and arches that eyebrow and with a mischievous gleam in her eye pulls back the spread and the sheet and lies down and places my hand on her breast.

"This is reckless."

"This is life Dax, now let's get on with it. Love me."

"So this time you want lovin'? What happened to fucking?"

"You could do that again too, either or is fine really." She shrugs. Impossible.

"Life at the equator has made you even more aggressive."

She sits up and puts her arms around my neck and pulls me down on her softly scented body. Two hours later we're sitting in the well-rumpled mess of a bed wrapped in sheets suffused with golden light that seem to glow around us as we silently watch the sunset, huge cumulus clouds tinged with rainbow fire.

"I'm starved, let's order in tonight."

"Do it woman!"

"Bonsoir, c'est Mme James et j'aimerais commander le service d'Ätage pour le döner ce soir si possible. Bon! Nous aimerions que votre Gambas tempuras et deux poivrons thon carpaccio de . . . . . . Chateaubriand sauce bearnaise et des frites. Deux mango salades et une bouteille de Pouilly Fuisse avec son vin blanc Champagne, pour terminer la noix de coco mille-feuille avec sorbet ê la mangue et le Chëteau, mousse au chocolat. Oh, et Absolument aucun persil veuillez, No. Merci!"

"Your French is beautiful. But that sounds like a lot of food."

"Thank you. It is a lot. I've had a lot of sex and am very hungry. It's going to take them a while and I still need to wash my hair, I was about to when I was distracted." She smiles mischievously.

"When we get home we are going to sort out birth control Lou. We at least agree that we both hate the condoms but I will not risk your health by getting you pregnant. The rhythm method is a dicey business."

"I have ovulation tests with me. I tested as soon as you got here and I'm not ovulating. You cannot seriously tell me what I can and can't do with my body."

"Yes I can, because I care about it and want it with me for a long time."

"Birth control pills. If I don't die of a blood clot, I'll gain a ton of weight. Why isn't there a pill for men?" She grumbles.

"I wish there were I'd take it in a heartbeat."

She looks at me thoughtfully. "You would too, wouldn't you?"

"That streak is almost blond."

"Inherited from my Mormor, if she's any indication, one day it'll be a solid bride-of-Frankenstein white stripe." She grimaces.

"A white-haired Lulu. Something beautiful to look forward to."

Rolling her eyes to the ceiling she shakes her head.

"But I'm curious, how is it you have so much hair here and none here? I touch her little bare mound and slit and she gasps, opening her eyes very wide."

"Dax! I promised to be good, not saint-like, stop that!" She slaps my hand, pushing me away, laughing. I chuckle with her. We both go into the bathroom and get in the shower.

"If you must know, twice a month I wax my legs, underarms and lady bits. It's easy to maintain and I find it makes me feel cool and clean. Trust me you don't want to see all this covered in hair. You've seen how hairy Lenny is, would you want to make love to that?"

She's lathering and washing quickly. I take the shampoo and she tilts her head back.

I laugh with her. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

"Humph! Close enough, I still have to shave my legs between visits. Luckily they have spa services here. In fact, I have to fly out tomorrow on business you should go down and have a massage and relax a bit. I'll see if I can perhaps persuade Antreas to take you out fishing maybe, keep you out of trouble while I'm gone.

I think he's looking to win back all the money you took off him. By the way he called you cut-throat in Greek amongst other things." She laughs.

"Leaving me again." I sigh.

Working conditioner into her hair she turns to look at me.

"I'll be back tomorrow night. I promise I won't take off. It almost killed me I think and I mean that literally. My blood pressure was 150/90, between that and the heavy bleeding, it was all I could do to get Eddie to let me fly out after a day or so and not have me locked away. She was rather insistent that I talk to you, quite the Dax advocate she is."

She purses her lips in annoyance.

Well color me surprised. Really? "I thought she was going to slap me last time I saw her."

"I heard about your talk and believe me she wanted to. Had you not been in public I don't know how it would have gone down. You think I'm violent? Eddie will cut first and ask questions later."

I'm not surprised. Eddie and Lou are highly protective of each other.

"Which reminds me, we have one last bit of unfinished business."

"Oh?"

She turns off the shower and gets out and dries off, wrapping a towel around her and one around her hair.

I come out and wrap a towel around my waist. She looks pretty mean all of a sudden. What now?

Her eyes flash and she slaps me twice hard and shoves me.

"WHAT THE FUCK LOU?!"

"That was for grabbing me and shaking me. Unless it's to save my life, don't you ever, ever, touch me like that again." She stabs her finger at me.

"Well couldn't you just say that, did you have to slap me? I'd never abuse or hit you."

"You hurt me Dax! Look."

She holds up her arm and there are three marks faint but still clearly visible on her inner arm. Finger prints. It's been weeks, that must have been quite a bruise. I had no idea I'd grabbed her so violently.

"More than that, you scared me."

I finger them lightly and feel a deep shame spread through me.

"I'm sorry. The last thing I ever want to do or would do is hurt you. And I certainly don't want you scared of me. Come here."

I take her hand which is throbbing and red and wrap her fingers around a block of ice. For all her rough and tumble toughness she's a tender little thing.

"I believe that. You've always been gentle with me. But I misspoke. I wasn't scared of you. I was scared for you. I wanted to kill you." She's quietly staring at me.

"You're serious?"

"I was going for the Glock. I decided to take a long drive instead. By the time I calmed down I was at Eddie's and remembering the look on your face. I was convinced you'd never forgive me, so I got on a plane."

"What am I supposed to say to that?"

"I've got issues, issues on top of issues. I don't easily make friends and sport sex aside can count my serious lovers on one hand. But I more than love you, I like you. You're strong and draw me out and aren't intimidated by me and for the most part you seem to see my bullshit for what it is and either call me on it or ignore it and love me in spite of myself.

At least that's what Eddie says, she's very sensible about these things. I trust her. And for all those reasons I want you. I'm still not down with the whole marriage bit, but I want to be with you as long as you'll have me."

"So what are you asking me?"

Squaring her shoulders she looks me in the eye.

"Stay with me. Love me, be my friend? We're going to disagree. We are going to fight. Hopefully not all the time but it is going to happen. My othermama used to say 'even teeth and tongue fall out sometimes and they live in the same mouth', people are no different."

"Sounds very wise."

"Eh - she had her moments. She was also famous in our neighborhood for having chased her husband through an alley with a frying pan."

Lou shrugs. "So much for wisdom."

I laugh. "So you want me Lou?"

"I do."

"Aha! I knew I'd get you to say it."

She rolls her eyes. "For fucks sake man, what's it gonna be?" She gives me a little shove.

"I'm in it till the wheels fall off 'lil bit."

She smiles at me and there's nothing to do but smile back.

There's a knock at the door and she jumps up flustered yelling 'just a minute' before putting on a robe. She shoos me away to the bathroom where I quickly pull on boxers and a shirt.

The wait staff set us up on the deck outside, tablecloth and napkins and glasses and silverware and flowers. I sit my iPhone in the docking station. I loaded music from her computer.

She ducks into a closet and comes out in a simple tank top and a pair of my boxers.

"I like these curls."

"Too much conditioner." She looks embarrassed or shy not sure which.

I break off a flower and tuck it behind her ear. "I think I'll start doing that every night."

"Perhaps I'll let you." She gives me this perfect soft look.

The food is too good. We eat from one another's plates so much that we finally switch and I end up with the lobster and she with the Chateaubriand, the way she's been complaining of cold I suspect she needs the iron.

Thirty-five minutes later and we've pretty much polished off everything and are leaning back in our chairs replete. Lulu is groaning.

"Oh my god! I hurt now! I ate too much, but it just couldn't be helped, it was so good. I think we pushed the envelope having dessert right after though, we should have waited."

She grunts and groans. We both laugh a little.

"Maybe we should go for a walk."

"Only if you carry or better yet roll me. I cannot possibly move right now. In fact I feel a strong case of the 'itis coming on. I hope you remember what you said about fattening me up, because when I can't fit through the door I mean to remind you."

"I like my women with meat on their bones, makes it easier to find them under the covers. Besides, you seem to be holding on to that ass and that's the most important thing. More cushion for the pushin."

"Eeew! That was base and disgusting." She laughs though, snorting indelicately.

"This from the pygmy-sized Amazon that jumped me in the shower? Please."

She arches that eyebrow. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to stand too close to the cages at the zoo? That'll teach you to dangle bait in front of people."

"I'm bait?"

"Catnip for sex fiends."

We are laughing and just having a good time of it.

"How'd you find me Dax?"

"I looked and I found."

"Mmmm, hmmm. You either hacked NASA or searched June's emails. I told June to delete those."

"I finally broke down and searched the emails. She actually uses the rules on her mailbox and has it setup to auto save all emails with attachments which is a good user habit and that particular email had one. It was difficult what with you two corresponding in Spanish, if it weren't for that pet name of yours for her 'Cujita' I'd have gone right past it. What does cujita mean anyway, I can't find a translation for it anywhere."

She shakes her head at me. "Cujita is a non-word or rather it's the Spanish feminine for Cujo. It's my personal term of endearment for how simultaneously sweet she and vicious she can be. But Dax how did you find me here. I never mentioned where I was."

Telling her I had my brother at the NSA run a search for her could very possiblyget me killed. I shrug, watching her carefully. She finally shakes her head and lays back again in her chair.

"There's no escaping you is there?"

I decide to tell some of the truth. But even then . . . I just know.

"I couldn't find you. I checked everything, bank accounts, credit cards, everything. Found some parcels of property scattered here and there. I suspect you have accounts under another name."

Her face is completely smooth as she leans back in her chair watching me. Her poker face; I can't get a read.

"I finally just hacked your facebook account looking for clues."

She sits up, looking at me disapprovingly. "You have got to be kidding me. That's a touch much."

Not upset about me poking into her finances, but draws the line at social media.

"We weren't friends even though I'd sent you several requests."

"Are you for real? We're adults. Who pays attention to that crap? If you bothered to pay attention to the news feed you'd notice that the only people I'm in touch with are the few girls I mentor. I'm hardly even on that thing."

"Only this last month or so have you not been online. I'm friends with Lenny and Uncle Jack and see you pick on them at least twice a week. I suppose I should be grateful that you actually deigned to at least like some of my comments. I notice you like all of Harry's."

"Harry's funny as hell, especially in print."

"You're actually in touch with any number of people, most of them men. Besides the girls from the school, Eddie, June and Lili are the only women friends you have. I also noticed that your relationship status read as single."

Shrugging, she leans back, closing her eyes again before frowning. "That's a lot of past tense language. You just used the word 'read' as a past tense verb. Does my status no longer read single?" She opens her eyes and looks at me.

I say nothing. She goes to the computer and logs in.

"You've added pictures, recent pictures. Me, in a bikini, online. Mother-effer! Now I have all these comments and questions to deal with, un-fucking-believable."

She turns and looks at me.

"You are a special kind of bastard! Do you really feel that much better having marked your turf in cyberspace?"

"Frankly, yes. 135 friends and only 3 women and 25 girls. C'mon Lou. Hell yeah - I feel better!"

I'm feeling stubborn and defiant myself. The silence stretches. She stands and rubs her jaw, working to curb her anger. Turning to me and emphatically holding up a rigid index finger she says, "Alright, that's your one. I will tolerate this once. Once. Because there were extenuating circumstances and we're trying to work things out. Once. I don't fucking care who you are, you hack into my life again I will sue the living fuck out of you."

She's snarling mad.

"Not wanting to be presumptuous you didn't bring condoms, but you don't bat an eyelash at invading my privacy and putting my shit on blast. I do not share what appears to be this mass compulsion these days to make my private life public. Most of those guys are fantasy football people. We do nothing but talk smack. Now every one of those guys knows what I look like practically naked. Brilliant! I am supposed to be out here on business and you are fucking up my groove"

She's pacing and mumbling to herself in Spanish. Why is Spanish her language of choice when she's pissed?

Shit, I hadn't thought of that only how happy and pretty she looked.

"You are really testing the fucking friendship." Taking a breath she looks at me again, looking more than a little harassed.

"I confess to being more than a little drunk at the time."

I look at her sheepishly and shrug. I decide to change the subject. "So, you were a dance major in undergrad?"

"I can't imagine at this point that there are many details about me you don't have, but yes if you must know, I majored in linguistics and minored in dance and actually aspired to be a diplomat at one point. Susan Rice was and is a role model of mine."

"How'd you end up a lawyer?"

"An unhealthy mix of brain power, curiosity, and disappointment. Back home I was pretty good, but it's easy to be average in New York City, especially at dance. I should have stuck with ball. I'd probably have had more luck trying out for the WNBA."

"Uncle Jack came by and pulled out one of your photo albums. The pictures of you in motion look anything but average, there's one of you dancing in a flowing dress, I had to look at it twice there's so much movement it looks like you merged with an iris."

"Harry took that picture. I was in New York for what seemed mere minutes and took one look and decided I'd missed my window for serious dancing, you have to get started really early in that world if that's your end goal and my ego honestly couldn't take it.

As a favor for a friend I had a brief summer stint at the UN as an interim translator for an ambassador. I kept picking up on laws being broken, circumvented and or entirely disregarded as I was translating. I can't go into detail obviously, but afterwards he asked if I were a lawyer and when I said no, he said well maybe you should be. I'd audited an international law course because I was dating a guy going to law school and in the process of helping him study I guess I picked up a lot. At the time a bunch of people were going to law school as a backup plan, so I figured why not.

Once I got into it, I actually came to like and respect it. Irrefutable fact-based logic is very comforting. It's all rote memorization and application which I've always been good at, so it was an eerily good fit."

"I saw baby pictures of you guys. You were a mighty pretty baby Lulu-butt."

Hanging her head she groans and frowns.

"You have been talking with Uncle Jack. He's the only one that calls me that. When you said it the other day I thought it was some sort of freakish coincidence and ignored it. But I honestly don't think we're going to have a problem with nicknames. Are we, Junie?"

I immediately reach out to pinch her but she's far enough away to successfully evade me, poking her tongue out impishly.

"You have to go to sleep and when you do . . ."

"Surely you have better things to do when we lay down than pinch me." She winks at me. I can only shake my head at her one-track mind.

"So, You and Harry? I saw pictures of you two as well."

"I was hoping to skip this conversation."

"I don't think so."

She sighs. "We were pretty intense once upon a time and he's worrisome as hell but I just love him to death. Don't look like that! I love him the same as Lenny & Lili. We tried briefly junior, senior year of high-school and lasted a few months into freshmen-year college. He wanted to try again a few months ago if you remember but I just couldn't do it. Feels incestuous and god forbid it goes wrong. Arlene and Uncle Jack are family. I couldn't do that to them. Better to piss him off a little now than to hurt all of us down the road."

"So you two have slept together?"

"Oh for fucks sake, seriously? Don't ask questions you don't want answers to."

"I want to know."

"You don't."

"I see."

"Don't be a cliché Dax. Of course we fooled around. Who didn't fool around in high-school?" She laughs fondly.

"You fooled around?"

"Have you noticed how I don't grill you about your past? You don't want to hear this."

She's looking at me in exasperation.

"MY past is not in our face in the here and now, is it?"

She shakes her head and looks at me.

"We fooled around. Yes, he's seen me naked and vice versa."

"I see."

"Dax, if my answers bother you then perhaps you should cease asking questions."

"Not another word."

"You asked."

Not sure how I feel about this new information, though I've no choice but to accept it. I did ask.

"He's looking for exactly what his parents have, which is not bad, but it's not for me. I love Uncle Jack & Aunt Arlene dearly but they are seriously old school. Theirs is a typical marriage of the wife putting dinner on the table all while bearing and rearing children and keeping house in addition to working outside the home herself, the whole clichéd, twisted bit.

Uncle Jack worked very hard and they have a lovely home and seem to have a great marriage don't get me wrong, but I like living in this world too much to just consign myself cooking, cleaning and child rearing. It's a perfect imprisonment especially for women really because they end up doing most of it alone. The tether of a child, chains tougher than titanium forged steel.

I love my dad and Uncle Jack but they were pretty old school and left the women to deal with the children and the house while they played and it wasn't fair. My poor mom had 3 of us and there were almost four! I can't imagine it. There were plenty of days when her many frustrations just boiled over and scalded us. But there were an equal number of very happy days, whereas she'd play with us to such an extent that we'd forget she was mom.