Money Trees

4 ✮ pillow talk

  "What about this one?" Mai asked, pointing at a small tattoo near Apollo's hip.

  She had already learned that the trail of stars on his chest was based on some view he saw in Cali, the compass on the side of his torso was about feeling misguided in life and the clouds on his biceps were about 'reaching for the sky'. She liked how none of his tattoos were too large. They were all precious and little, like pieces of a puzzle.

  Her fingers softly walked down his chest to the tattoo she had been pointing at, a coin at the upper border of his hip bone.

  A deep chuckle escaped from his swollen lips. "I wish I could say that one had a deep meaning. Like the role money plays in our lives. Or the influence of wealth. Or 'flip-a-coin', risk-taking behaviour. But honestly it was just a drunk tattoo I got in Thailand."

"I like it. I think it's my favourite one."

Apollo pointed at the smallest tattoo of his. A tiny silhouette of a ballerina on the inside of his wrist. "This is my favourite one."

"What's the story behind it?"

"That's a story for another day..."

  Mai nodded, accepting his answer. She had received the same response when she asked him about his family. It was fair. They barely knew each other. But she silently hoped he would be a part of her future so that she could find out more about him some day.

Her head fell back onto his bare chest before he kissed the top of her head. His arms tightened around her like he never wanted to let her go.

They had been entangled for the entire morning, both reluctant to get up. The weather had improved dramatically and they probably could have left the hotel and did some exploring in the few hours they had left in Paris. But it was very obvious that that wasn't going to happen. They were perfectly content in each other's embrace. Why explore Paris when they could explore each other?

  "What about you? Tell me more about Mai Cheng."

  Mai tilted her chin up to look at him. He had a lazy smile on his face that made her want to kiss him again and again and again.

So far she learnt that Apollo was from New York. He had tattoos. He studied economics but dropped out during his second year to pursue photography. Before that he went to St George's which was a sister school to Cheshire Prep. Along with Mai's alma mater, Notre Dame Prep, the three schools made up a trinity of the most exclusive high schools in Manhattan. He had been two years ahead of her, explaining why Mai had never seen him before. If she had, she most certainly wouldn't have let him go.

  "What do you want to know? I'm an open book."

  He shrugged. "College?"

  "I graduated from a fashion institute in Milan. Before that I went to dental school for about six weeks."

  He laughed. "Those are two very different courses."

  "I only started dentistry because my dad told me it was what I wanted. Obviously that wasn't true. I'm dyslexic so when we were given realms of two-thousand paged books with tiny fonts on the first day I knew I wouldn't last."

"I'm glad you're living your dream."

Mai scoffed. "This isn't my dream. I'm a mess."

  "Why do you think that?"

"I got fired from my last job for doing something really stupid and selfish."

"What did you do?"

Mai looked away from his face. She wanted to tell him the truth but she didn't want to see his facial expression when she did.