(no subject)
Mar. 14th, 2001 07:32 pmI placed the case on the bartop and slid it through the narrow path between spills of gin and vodka, vermouth and olive juice. "Well, there you go," I said. I regretted the triteness of the words the instant I spoke them.
She opened her laptop and slipped a card into the side. A tap of a key ejected a small tray from the card. She opened the catch on the case with a painted nail and removed a vial. A single drop of the clear liquid fell onto the tray and the screen filled with a graph of bars and lines. She didn't wait for the complete results - a mere glance at the initial figures, then she slid the tray into the card and closed the laptop with a click. She smiled at me, satisfied, yet professionally distant.
Her nonchalance was too casual. I didn't expect her to fall all over me, but our biz had loosened us, familiarized us. We had started professional and cautious, yet our correspondence gradually morphed to casual interest. Innocent jokes turned risqué by levels as we carefully felt for each other's boundaries. An aura had buffered both of us throughout our flirting; we never became too personal...too intimate. We stayed behind the line. We had reasons.
Her eyes were so dark they were nearly black; the shadowy corner of the hotel bar made it hard for me to detect where pupil blended into iris. I signaled the bartender for another round, and as I turned back her smile was gone and I caught the change in her eyes. She placed her room card in my palm without a word, closing my fingers over it with her own. Her hands were warm and soft and positively electric; when she pulled them back I felt her fingernails drag lightly over my skin.
"I'm bonded," I said simply. I ran a thumb over my ring, a conscious gesture that I don't think she saw. I didn't point out the ring she wore herself.
"Happily?"
I shrugged.
"Will it last?"
I shrugged again. "Does it matter?"
Her too-dark eyes never blinked. They searched for something within me that I wasn't too sure was there, or if it were, that I even wanted found.
"Look," I said. "What we said before we met...."
"I'm not stupid," she said, waving me off. The bartender dropped our drinks in front of us with a splash and she gave me a break from those eyes. She raised her drink and drank nearly a third.
She ran a fingernail across the top of the case of vials, then pulled her hand back and held it with the other. "You're cute in a goofy kind of way," she said, "but you're nowhere near irresistible, you know."
"Have you ever?" I asked.
She shook her head, still looking at her hands. "I don't cheat. You?"
"No." It was a point of pride, fidelity. Perhaps meaning more to me as a concept.... There are those who don't eat meat. Some don't drink caffeine. Healthy, or just a roll of the dice?
I saw her room door in my mind, imagining the CLICK the lock would make as it opened. I wondered at what point I...we…had crossed the line, for I felt we were already somewhere in a philosophical gray area beyond harmless fun. Perhaps we crossed it the moment we agreed to make this transaction in person, face to face in a city even the locals considered exotic. I was beyond where I wanted to be, yet I can't say that I didn't plan it on some level. Were there lines beyond the line?
She leaned into me and kissed me softly. It was spontaneous and unplanned, the first kiss I've had since...
It wasn't long, it wasn't short, but it burned into my mind. The soft, warm texture of her lips, her eyelash tickling the top of my cheek, her hand pressed against the side of my face and mine caught in her hairline above the back of her neck. I felt her breasts pressing against my arm.
"Trust me," she said, her brown eyes filling my vision, entirely blocking the view of the surly bartender and the grungy bar.
She was gone. I still held the card key in my palm. I ran my thumb down the smooth magnetic strip and over the sharp plastic edge. I placed the key next to my drink on the bar.
For the next half hour, I drank my drink, sipping slowly, feeling my lips burn, the heat on my tongue, the warmth filling my chest and abdomen.
My eyes never left the key.
She opened her laptop and slipped a card into the side. A tap of a key ejected a small tray from the card. She opened the catch on the case with a painted nail and removed a vial. A single drop of the clear liquid fell onto the tray and the screen filled with a graph of bars and lines. She didn't wait for the complete results - a mere glance at the initial figures, then she slid the tray into the card and closed the laptop with a click. She smiled at me, satisfied, yet professionally distant.
Her nonchalance was too casual. I didn't expect her to fall all over me, but our biz had loosened us, familiarized us. We had started professional and cautious, yet our correspondence gradually morphed to casual interest. Innocent jokes turned risqué by levels as we carefully felt for each other's boundaries. An aura had buffered both of us throughout our flirting; we never became too personal...too intimate. We stayed behind the line. We had reasons.
Her eyes were so dark they were nearly black; the shadowy corner of the hotel bar made it hard for me to detect where pupil blended into iris. I signaled the bartender for another round, and as I turned back her smile was gone and I caught the change in her eyes. She placed her room card in my palm without a word, closing my fingers over it with her own. Her hands were warm and soft and positively electric; when she pulled them back I felt her fingernails drag lightly over my skin.
"I'm bonded," I said simply. I ran a thumb over my ring, a conscious gesture that I don't think she saw. I didn't point out the ring she wore herself.
"Happily?"
I shrugged.
"Will it last?"
I shrugged again. "Does it matter?"
Her too-dark eyes never blinked. They searched for something within me that I wasn't too sure was there, or if it were, that I even wanted found.
"Look," I said. "What we said before we met...."
"I'm not stupid," she said, waving me off. The bartender dropped our drinks in front of us with a splash and she gave me a break from those eyes. She raised her drink and drank nearly a third.
She ran a fingernail across the top of the case of vials, then pulled her hand back and held it with the other. "You're cute in a goofy kind of way," she said, "but you're nowhere near irresistible, you know."
"Have you ever?" I asked.
She shook her head, still looking at her hands. "I don't cheat. You?"
"No." It was a point of pride, fidelity. Perhaps meaning more to me as a concept.... There are those who don't eat meat. Some don't drink caffeine. Healthy, or just a roll of the dice?
I saw her room door in my mind, imagining the CLICK the lock would make as it opened. I wondered at what point I...we…had crossed the line, for I felt we were already somewhere in a philosophical gray area beyond harmless fun. Perhaps we crossed it the moment we agreed to make this transaction in person, face to face in a city even the locals considered exotic. I was beyond where I wanted to be, yet I can't say that I didn't plan it on some level. Were there lines beyond the line?
She leaned into me and kissed me softly. It was spontaneous and unplanned, the first kiss I've had since...
It wasn't long, it wasn't short, but it burned into my mind. The soft, warm texture of her lips, her eyelash tickling the top of my cheek, her hand pressed against the side of my face and mine caught in her hairline above the back of her neck. I felt her breasts pressing against my arm.
"Trust me," she said, her brown eyes filling my vision, entirely blocking the view of the surly bartender and the grungy bar.
She was gone. I still held the card key in my palm. I ran my thumb down the smooth magnetic strip and over the sharp plastic edge. I placed the key next to my drink on the bar.
For the next half hour, I drank my drink, sipping slowly, feeling my lips burn, the heat on my tongue, the warmth filling my chest and abdomen.
My eyes never left the key.