Talk To Me: The Dance Thriller, Part 1

You Can Hide Your Hurt

Los Angeles, California
Wednesday, April 3, 1997
(10:00 pm)
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She tasted like strawberries and tequila and home.

Lindsey was in heaven, reclining in the drivers seat of his Mercedes and feeling the weight of Stevie against him as she straddled his lap and they kissed each other hungrily. He'd already sunk his fingers into her hair, and he grabbed fistfuls of golden silk between his fingers as she cupped his face in her tiny, delicate hands, their mouths exploring territory that seemed at once forbidden and familiar. They were pressed together as closely as possible as they devoured each other, and it was in between soft pecks on the lips to recover their breath that Lindsey dared himself to say what was on his mind.

"Let me take you home, angel," he almost panted, his lips moving towards her neck. "Let me take you home and into bed and into my arms...My God, Stevie...I've missed you so fucking much..." His hand was slowly creeping up the sheer black nylon leg at his side and up beneath her dress. He felt like a kid on prom night.

"Lindsey..." Stevie's voice was a hoarse, breathless whisper as she felt him begin to mark her neck with hot kisses. "Baby, we can't just..." She clamored to fight the intense, almost visceral desire she felt so she could voice the very real protests in her head. He is seeing someone else...she's twenty-seven...you are about to turn forty-nine and you can't compete with twenty-seven...and you can't rush in bodies first heads later like you always do...Stevie, stop this...

A sudden, high-pitched cry escaped her as Lindsey, overcome with his need to possess her, to feel her as close as he could, thrust himself up against her from below and hit exactly the spot that was already throbbing for him. His hands were cupping her breasts and she recognized this familiar dance, the rush to the finish line they always managed to run first, only to fall apart completely the next day when calmer heads prevailed and they were left with every reason they weren't together anymore in the first place.

"Stephanie...oh God..." He was lost in her, thrusting up at her again through uncomfortable clothes and sinking his teeth into her neck, and it was when she felt the sudden hot tears of relief being this close to him spring to her eyes and his tongue began to trace its way along her neck to her ear that she finally found the strength to put on the brakes.

"Lindsey..." Her hands went to his shoulders to gently push him away. "We have to stop...seriously." She managed to extricate herself from his embrace and flop down into the passengers seat, panting an flushed and wiping away makeup and tears.

"What's..." Lindsey looked at her in confusion, trying to catch his breath. "I don't understand...angel...I thought you..." Stevie had been giving as good as she'd gotten, attacking him with kisses and crawling up into his lap.

"I did...I do..." She struggled to make sense of her own thoughts before she shared them, shifting in her seat to face him. "Look, it's not that I don't want to...this has nothing to do with you or with love...but..."

"Oh yes it does," Lindsey said, his breathing almost back to normal as he tucked her hair behind her ear. "Look, Stevie...I'm not going to pressure you into this but honestly...it's been two years, angel...two years since that weekend and I can't think about anything else...even when I'm trying to make it work with someone else! I mean...I just...I love you. Right here, right now, in this moment, and I've never stopped." He took her hand in his. "Stevie...do you know that I love you now? Not then, but right now here in this car?"

"Yes I do." She could see the love in his eyes, shining like a blue ocean right into eyes  through the darkness of the parking lot. "I love you too, Lindsey...my God, I love you so much...and I want you...but we do this, Linds. We race into bed and then feelings are hurt and everybody gets mad and people go back to other people and..."

"Stevie..." He was breathing harder again as he asked, "Is there somebody else?" It had been two years since he'd watched her sleeping upstairs in the rented house in which "Twisted" - and a lot of love - had been made. Stevie never stayed single for long.

"No." Her eyes dropped to her lap. "But this girl you're seeing...what's her name, Kristen? I see this becoming another Carol Ann, you know...sure, I'm saner and not on drugs and my best friend isn't dying like last time, but..." She knew he remembered the last time they'd rushed right into bed with promises of starting over for real...and how he'd stood frowning with Carol Ann by his side not two weeks later as she married Robin's widower in an effort to raise her brand new baby boy. She knew they'd never really recovered from that - he'd screamed as much at her in Christine's driveway the day their fight over his quitting the band just before the Tango In The Night tour had turned physical.

"Stevie, look at me." He squeezed her hand and then brought it to his lips to kiss her fingertips. She looked at him. "This is different, angel. We're different. There's no shouting or making each other jealous or weird silence or anything like that. You tell me what you need from me, and you've got it."

"I need for you to stop seeing Kristen if you plan on seeing me."

"Done." He could see her entire body unclenching with his response. "What else?"

"And I need to you take me home so we can talk," she said. "We have a lot of ground to cover."

"Lead the way, angel," he said, and he leaned in to kiss her once softly before turning towards the steering wheel and awaiting directions to her temporary home.

This time, they were doing it right.

This time, they were doing it to last forever.

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