Love In a Maze

The Bitter Love-Song II

The Bitter Love-Song II

1993

He could feel her knee knock against the wood of the table as she stared at him, still unable to speak. She seemed terrified. Again, the unexpected threw him off. His finger once more traced over her palm, and finally, she began to relax. He had told her that was his line. The fractured creases of all her other lovers before finally coming to one fine point as it journeyed across the top of her hand... till the end. That was him, or at least he had wanted it to be. Briefly, she closed her fingers around his as they remembered together until her reality tore her away, and she withdrew. Athina's body always seemed to react to him first, mind following slightly after, finally making the decisions.

"What can it hurt? It's just words, A." He waited patiently for her brain to catch up to what her body had already decided.

"Just words?" But the words he left her with last time nearly broke her.

"Just words... unless..."

"No." That familiar phrase gulped from her throat forcefully. Though he noticed a slight shift as she fought back the yes of a nod. "You've got five minutes."

"Awww, you know it's never taken just five minutes." He would make another play. Baritone was dipping, trying to distract her, hoping she wouldn't be able to read the anxiousness that poured beneath his bravado.

"Fine... I'll give you six." She smirked, raising the stakes of his boldness with her own. "You remember the way?" Nonchalantly, she pointed to the stairs that lay tucked in the far corner of her bookshop. The bronze curve of the treads fading into the brick of the surrounding walls. They seemed almost transparent, overshadowed by the size of the store around it. Without another word, his chair scooted back, and he was gone. The brightness of his coat moved through the space like a ghost, slinking past customers determined to make it to her door before she could change her mind. Athina steadied herself as she wiped up the coffee that had been spilled. He was back. After four long years, he was back.

"Hey Thina, you okay, you know him or something?" The blonde waitress made her way over to the now empty table. She had worked for Athina for almost two years and had never once seen her shaken. Watching as she concentrated on the small pool of brown liquid that scattered across the surface, her boss seemed to be avoiding it, the rag barely catching the edges... she was stalling. Shook to the core, trying to compose herself and her thoughts.

"Just someone I didn't think I'd see again." Glancing at the stairs, she watched as he stilled his frame halfway up, realizing she wasn't following but refusing to come back down.

"Well, if he looks half as good as he smells, at least you get one more peek, right?"

Though his face dotted her record shop, it seemed to pale to the form that was just seated in front of her. "Yeah... maybe." Staring out the window, she searched for the greenery just beyond the asphalt and concrete jungle that surrounded them.

"You want me to call?" Taking the rag and coffee pot from Athina, it gave her no other excuse to stay.

"Yeah, gimme a call, will you." Untying the strings of her apron, she dried her hands against her denim pockets. Years before she would play out scenarios, rehearsing almost daily their lines, they had all been forgotten, lost to the veracity of time. Each one now refusing to bubble to the surface. She didn't know what to do, what to say. She never thought she would see him again; finding so much comfort in those lies.

Kid refused to look back, but the second he felt the gentle vibrations of her steps carrying up the case, he continued. Her feet always lay silent on the metal behind his boots as they journeyed up the flight together. He often thought she was following his lead but realized in that moment it was her pushing their movement forward. Both of them making it to the landing he couldn't find the resolve to look at her, like Orpheus he was afraid she would disappear if he turned. Suddenly, feeling her body shift, her arm snaked around his waist, getting lost within the cashmere layers of his coat. Pulling her body tighter against his, her fingers grazed through the opened buttons of his shirt. Giving a little gasp brought a smile to his lips... still her favorite.