A Stooge's Teacher

Ch. 4 - Homemade Dessert

Chapter 4 – Homemade Dessert 

Once Colin had paid the bill, and they'd drunk their spirit to good food and good company, Colin led Rachel out to the parking lot where the car was waiting for them. This time the driver did not attempt to get out, and Colin opened Rachel's door. They enjoyed a comfortable silence on the way to her place smiling at each other whenever their eyes met – so basically every other minute. Upon arriving, Colin offered her his hand to get out. He let his driver know, very discretely Rachel noticed, that he would text the service when he wanted to be picked up. He hadn't let go of her hand when she was out of the car, so they walked towards the building holding hands. While they stood waiting for the elevator, the silence from the car continued but the air around them had gotten thicker and loaded with sexual tension. Colin unlaced his fingers from hers and brushed her knuckles with his thumb. She looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. His touch was warm and gentle but it also ignited something hot and aggressive deep inside her. When the elevator doors closed behind them, Colin stood in front of her. One hand now caressing her cheek, the other cradling her waste. Rachel exhaled quietly when she put her hand over his as if to check that it was really there. Her touch propelled him forward, and so his lips found hers. And when they did, it was nothing either of them had felt before. Colin pushed her back against the wall, which made her gasp in surprise. He took advantage of her open mouth and a sensual, aggressive battle of tongues ensued. Rachel felt the elevator come to a stop. She broke the kiss, smiled at Colin, and nodded towards the open doors. He took her hand but let her lead the way. She unlocked the door and pulled him inside. "Come on in and make yourself at home!" As she made to let go of his hand, he tugged and caught her at her waist, standing flush against him. "Are you sure?" He asked with a seductive grin on his lips. "Absolutely." She boldly replied. And when their lips met again this time, they started to explore each other's bodies, letting their hands wander freely. Rachel put her hands on his abdomen while his hands wandered up and down her sides, cupping her butt and smoothly stroking past her breasts. She reveled in his touch and with a short conscious thought realized how much she'd missed a man's touch. And how much she enjoyed this particular man's attention. Still, that short, conscious thought also brought her back to her rational senses. She cut off the battle of their tongues with a careful bite into his lower lip. She sucked in a deep breath when he moved to nuzzle her neck and even started peppering her shoulder with sweet kisses. "How about that dessert now?" He grinned. Colin knew that she was playing with words and innuendo. He also didn't want to go too fast. "I think I just got mine. But I'll still take some ice cream." Rachel turned and gestured for him to follow her. She opened a sliding-door to their left and led him into the kitchen. Rachel moved straight ahead to the end of the room where she pulled open a double-door fridge-freezer combo. Her appliances and cupboard fronts were all a powder mint-green, and the countertop, handles, and nobs were a simple white. A big island, grouping together a sink and stove, dominated the middle of the room. Off to one side, there was a small breakfast bar, seating two, facing the floor-to-ceiling window. For a second, an image of him and Rachel sitting here together having breakfast flashed through his mind's eye. Colin shook himself and offered his help. "No, I'm good for now. I just wanted to get the ice cream out of the freezer. I'll turn on the coffee machine now, and then I'll show you around." She moved past him, touching his shoulder and letting her hand slide the length of it as she walked towards her coffee station. Her touch warmed his insides, and he grabbed onto her hand before it broke contact. "Good thing I only need on hand to flip the switch." Rachel smiled, ushering him towards a doorway. "Through there into the dining room, sir." He walked ahead and found himself on the platform he'd seen at the start of the evening. The round dining table was glass and the plush chairs matched the color of the couch. On the wall to his left, he presumed the outside wall of the building, Rachel had created a gallery wall. An apparently disarrayed collage of different-sized photos showed people and places. "You can go closer if you like." Rachel pulled him past the table and in front of her "wall of fam", as she liked to call it. "Oh, no. I couldn't just "push-in" like that." "Well, let me show you then." Rachel smiled. He seemed to be somewhat stuck between curiosity and his high-society manners. Leaning onto one of the chairs she looked at the picture wall and pointed out one smaller photo in the center. "That's me and my brothers at Mike's wedding. And over there, it's us again, but at Miguel's wedding. That was only in spring last year." Colin noticed that her brothers had the same brown hair that sparkled with red when hit with sunlight. They did not, however, share the same eyes. Neither color nor shape compared to those of the sister's. The men had blueish eyes, as far as Colin could tell from the distance. "This is the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, obviously. – I love how it is hit by the sunlight in this photo, so it became the center piece of this wall. The people in the other bigger frame here are my mum and dad. It's my favorite of their wedding photos." Colin now took a step closer and examined the black and white print. It showed two young people, probably just out of college, holding hands, looking at each other, and walking into the distance. It was taken from their backs and focused on their hands. "It is a beautiful pose. The photographer apparently knew what they were doing." "Yeah. My grandpa did. My mum's dad. He had always been a passionate photographer, and when he retired, he made it his part-time job. My dad says, he never saw my grandpa without a camera." "That's so special, Rachel. I wager he appreciates that you hung his art on your wall." "Oh, I hope so. This way he's part of my life, too. But he's been gone for a long time. He and my grandma died shortly after I was born. They were quite old when they had my mum. I think my grandma was about 45 or something, and my grandpa about 50. So, when I was born, he was approaching 80 and she was in her late 70s." Colin noticed that she was sad. But a different kind of sad from when she talked about her mum. It sounded like she was sad not to have known them but still glad that they were part of her. "Come on. If we linger this long in every room, the ice cream will be soft enough to make milkshakes." She walked around the table and stepped off the platform into the open living room area. Apart from the sofa Colin had sat on a few hours ago, there was a swinging chair shaped like an egg, hooked to the ceiling, with a plush very cozy-looking rug beneath it. And while her kitchen color was understated, the colors she'd chosen in her main room were bolder: dark gray against softer tones and blue and green accents. Colin found that Rachel's décor reflected her personality: warm but with clear edges, bold but elegant, and only minimal visual clutter. Just as at the beginning of the evening, Colin noticed the TV and the shelves filled with DVDs as he walked through the large room. There were only some books, not as many as he'd thought there would be in a teacher's home. Rachel said something about the couch having been a nightmare to order and have delivered, and thus cherishing it more. Then she walked towards the sliding-door where she'd caught him before. "Still curious?" She teased and he stole a kiss, just because. On entering the next room, Colin's jaw dropped. Here, it seems, he found himself in Rachel's library. The books he had been missing in the living room filled shelves and shelves in this room. "This is my study hall. My brothers always teased me for having such a huge office, so at some point, I stopped calling it that." Colin moved inside the room and commented: "But study hall fits. This room reminds me of a small room at the Houghton Library at Harvard." Rachel's heart did some sort of backflip and she followed Colin with her eyes. "That's actually where I got my inspiration for this room. I love the smaller rooms in that building." Colin proceeded to the middle of the room. "Where did you get this table? It looks unique." "And so it is. My friend, Philip, built it for me. His hobby is woodworking, and when I couldn't find what I was looking for in any store, he offered to design and build something for me." The desk looked more like a dining room table but the stack of folders and papers to one side of it gave away what Rachel used it for. Its legs were sleek but solid, and they supported a long wood panel, which had received a natural finish. Four chairs stood around it, one occupied by Rachel's school bags. Colin looked around and saw a smaller desk built into one side of the book cases lining almost two walls. On the wall next to the doorway, Rachel had created a cozy reading nook with two big armchairs flanked by a beautiful stationary lamp and some plants. "What's your current read?" Colin asked scanning the bookshelves. "I just finished Option B by Sheryl Sandberg, and I will be launching my millionth re-read of the Harry Potter series in the next couple of days. My next non-fiction is Brené Brown's Braving the Wilderness." A smile crept across Colin's face at the mention of Harry Potter. How could she possibly become even more interesting and alluring than she had already made herself by not ordering a salad at dinner? "What's your current read?" Rachel asked while moving back into the living room. "I'm not much of a book reader. I must have my papers in the morning, and at night I might crack open a good fiscal or law-related non-fiction book. With fiction, I'm usually a movie-over-book kind of person. Harry Potter is the only exception to that. It's been a long-standing favorite since my teens." Oh. My. He had just turned from hot into irresistible, Rachel thought while desperately trying to hide her need for a fan. She proceeded into the entryway and turned left towards the hall. "There's a built-in closet that I had converted into a laundry. I hate having to go to the dry-cleaners, and there wasn't a laundry in here before." She pointed to a closet next to the kitchen door before moving along the hallway and indicating the powder room to his right. Then she opened a huge double door with glass panels. The hallway continued for a few steps before they stood in the master bedroom. Again, this room had Rachel written all over it. All in beige and with dark brown and blush accents. "To your right, there is a bathroom with separate tub and shower rooms as well as a walk-trough closet." Even though her insides tugged hard, Rachel felt somewhat uncomfortable. Her desire tried to outsmart her reason, so she needed to get him out of her bedroom. "Sure looks cozy. What's that artwork?" He pointed at a canvas displaying a nature scene: a row of mountains in the background, the ocean in front, and fields of green and beige beaches in between. "Oh. I painted that a couple of years ago." Colin looked impressed. "Wow. That's amazing. You're really talented. Is it still an active hobby?" "Thanks." Rachel wondered how often she'd blushed that evening. She had lost count at any rate. "I paint whenever inspiration hits me. And with my nephews." As Colin didn't say anything further, Rachel thought that he might have been uncomfortable, too. She closed the wing-doors and turned right. "What's that?" Colin asked a little confused as he examined the doorknob in Rachel's hand. The door it belonged to was seamlessly hidden within the wall, and he wouldn't have noticed it. "That's a gimmick I had to have." Rachel grinned with the excitement of a little school girl. She pulled the door open and Colin stepped ahead. "This is ingenious, Rach!" He turned around as Rachel closed the door. They were back in the study hall and the door they'd come through was only just visible as it was a seamless part of the wall of bookcases. "A hidden door was always a dream. And even though it doesn't lead to a secret room, I still think it's cool." "I'm with you on that." "Let's go and see if we can have ice cream or need to make milkshakes." Rachel walked to the kitchen and Colin excused himself to use the bathroom.

The ice cream had thawed quite a bit when she took off the lids and assembled sauces and toppings next to it on the counter. Colin leaned in the doorframe, watching Rachel cut up some strawberries. "Can I help?" She jerked up, not having sensed his presence. "If you like. – You can get your coffee. There are mugs in the cupboard above the machine." He grabbed two mugs and was about to press the button for "mugs" on the machine when he realized that the coffee strength was set too high. He had to stifle a laugh. Rory would love this. "Wow! How are you not zooming around like the Flash with this much caffeine in you?" Rachel smiled and replied while scooping ice cream into two bowls. "Oh that. That's not my setting. It's Nicole's. I don't like coffee. There's a button for warm milk, and the left compartment holds decaf beans if you're interested." Colin looked irritated. "You don't like coffee?" "Nope. But I had to get a machine when my friends and colleagues started demanding it." "Interesting. And why not get a simpler model?" Colin asked with an arched eyebrow, looking back and forth between his hostess and the professional coffee maker. "Well, I thought I might as well get a machine that does it all: tea, coffee, hot milk, and all the rest of it. This way it's not just for others but for my benefit, too. – Any specific wishes for your ice cream setup?" "No. Surprise me." They focused on their respective tasks and worked in silence, both wondering at the level of intimacy and familiarity. "Our deserts are done. What about those beverages?" Rachel announced a few minutes later. "Ready to go, too." She added some honey to her mug and gestured for him to grab one of the bowls from the counter. He did and followed her into the living room where she rid herself of her shoes and, rather unceremoniously, flopped down into the corner of her couch. "Make yourself comfortable." Colin was a little unsure of what to do but then decided to follow her invitation.

He sat down next to her and leaned back so that he was comfortable without having to take off his shoes. "Thanks for dessert." He said, taking an appreciative look at his bowl full of ice cream: She had topped it with strawberries, white chocolate flakes, and a splash of strawberry sauce. All the best parts of a spaghetti plate at an ice cream parlor. "It's my very own creation. With the standard spaghetti plate, there's so much sauce, and all that whipped cream is just not for me. So, I make a better version of it at home." "Exactly what I was thinking." Colin chuckled. "Though any authentic Italian ice cream would win every time." "Sure thing. I wouldn't dream to think I could surpass the original." "The first time I visited Italy, we went to Fiumicino. It's a beach town just outside of Rome. There, we ate at this small, beautiful café, and you wouldn't believe the dimensions of the tropical fruit cup I ordered. Ever since, I've been going back to Fiumicino when in Italy, just to eat at that café." Colin looked very sentimental when talking about this experience, and it itched her to ask him to expand. However, Rachel had a feeling that it had something to do with his family, so she didn't. Instead, she directed her question at his travels. "Sounds like you've been there a lot. How often have you been to Europe?" "For fun and on vacation, I'd say about 10 times. But I had to go for business, too." "Oh, wow. Which countries have you seen? Any favorites?" "I'd say, France and Italy will have to be my favorites if I have to choose. I haven't been to Scandinavia yet. So, I feel like I need to reserve my final judgment until I have all the facts." Rachel concurred. "Me neither. But I do hope to go soon." "Maybe we could go together." The broad smile on Colin's face convinced her that he was being sincere and not trying to make a fool of her. "I think I'd like that." She grinned back, and she took pleasure in the fact, that his reaction betrayed him as not having been expecting her answer. "Great." A comfortable silence settled again after this while they finished their ice cream, and stole secret – or not-so-secret – glances at the other.

The vibrations in his pocket roused Colin to pay attention to his phone for the first time since he'd picked up Rachel that evening. It was from Logan, asking if he would be coming by tomorrow afternoon. He didn't reply but he froze when he saw the time. "Did you realize it was this late?" He looked at Rachel, who was sipping on her hot milk absent-mindedly. "No. What time is it?" "It's almost midnight." Rachel perched up. "Really? Oh my! Time did fly tonight." Colin got up and held out a hand. Rachel took it, and the moment her fingers touched his bare skin she knew she didn't want to let go. "Are we still on for coffee tomorrow lunch?" He asked while walking to the door. "Yes, definitely." She answered. They stopped at the door, and both felt the heavy air around them again. "Good. I don't feel like leaving, but knowing I'll see you again in a little over twelve hours makes it easier." Rachel grinned, and of course, blushed. "I don't want you to leave either, but I believe I shouldn't have admitted that." He whispered: "Just like I shouldn't have." They had inched closer, and their foreheads were now resting against each other. Colin snaked his arms around her and pulled her body close.