I don’t know how long I have
been standing outside. It’s one of those nights in October where your breath is
visible for the first time in eight months. Despite having an adequate coat, I
can’t stand it. Fall is too cold. To be fair, there’s never
a time when I enjoy being outside.
I tap on the glass door a few
times. I look at Kelly intently. She’s on the couch watching TV, pretending to
be oblivious.
Kelly and I had a bad falling
out. We used to be close. Real close. But somewhere along the line, things
became sour. It has been hard, but we have adjusted and settled our differences.
In the back of mind, though, I always wish for things to return to normal.
Eventually, she comes and opens
the door. I waste no time and make my way with back to the kitchen. We’re
making chicken tonight. I can smell the juices. It's one of the many aromas
that makes me salivate uncontrollably. Makes me really lick my chops. I’m
basically dragging my tongue along the linoleum.
“Let's see how the chicken's
doing," Jim says as he cracks the oven door slightly. "Eh, it needs
another 5 minutes or so.”
I don’t argue. I can wait. I
step out of his way as he goes back to his bedroom. I'm still trying to pick my
tongue off the floor.
I wander aimlessly around the
kitchen, biding my time. The floor never tasted so good. Mm, linoleum.
I take a drink of water. It
should hold me over for a while.
I make my way over to
Kelly. Our eyes meet briefly, but she quickly goes back to staring at the tube. I
sit down by her anyway, hoping to get some reaction out of her. Anything. Minutes pass. I give her a long look that begs comfort. Begs her to show compassion. She puts her
arm around me, feeling my hair. I'm satisfied. I feel a warmth with her that I haven’t felt in ages.
I give a big sigh of relief. It
reverberates through my whole being, longing to feel her skin against mine
again. Perhaps tonight we’ll go back to the way it used to be. The way we once
were.
Jim comes back, prompting me to meander
back over to the kitchen. He takes the sizzling delicacy out of the oven. It’s
perfection. It’s crispy, golden skin shimmers in the luminescence. My tongue drops
to the floor again.
Long after dinner, Kelly and I
exchange a glance again on the couch. We’re watching her favorite show. But this
time, she looks at me for a long while. Her eyes shimmer from the TV’s blue,
radiating light. She turns off the TV. My heart begins to pound in my chest.
I follow her in the hallway, towards the bedroom.
A room that I haven’t slept in for a few days. There's a coldness between the sheets, you might say. Most would consider our relationship done at this point. A
fruitless endeavor. But there's always that flicker of hope -- that something might still be there. I err on the side of caution as we enter the room. I cannot open myself up for more heartache, more disappointment.
My doubts are all but whisked away when she closes the door. She takes me by the chest and brings me to the bed.
She strokes my soft hair and gently caresses my body. Shivers run up and down my spine.
My legs gyrate and squirm. She slips off her pants and shirt,
pulling the bed sheets over us. She turns off the bedside lamp and we feel other’s
naked flesh. She strokes me as we fall asleep in each other’s arms.
We awake in the late morning.
Kelly leads me out of the bedroom, eyes squinting, still half asleep. We go to the back door
where Jim is raking the leaves. Kelly opens the door.
“Oh, good morning, Kelly,”
Jim says. “Sleep with Riley last night?”
“Yeah. God he snores so loud,” she says as she shoos me outside with her foot.
I happily urinate on the lawn.
