The Sleeping Serpent

Chapter 5

5

It had only been two days since Nico had landed in Buenos Aires, yet he consumed Luna's thoughts. Unable to wait any longer, she messaged him. His quick response provided only the smallest consolation.

Luna,
She is not good and won't eat. I just fought with her because of it. Everyone loves the gifts...thank you.

Inseparable from her phone, she anxiously awaited word from him. Finally, when an e-mail arrived, the weight lifted from her chest.

Luna,
Today a man in a room near my mom died from a heart attack. It was very sad. Life is so weird sometimes. One minute you are here, and the next you are not.

She remembered telling Nico that he would help her and she would help him, and now realized how prescient her comment had been.

Waking before dawn, she felt the distance between them. Reaching to get her phone off the nightstand, she saw the message from Nico.

Hi Luna
I feel useless. All I do is go back and forth from the hospital. My head is back in L.A. Is it wrong for me to want to leave? There is nothing I can do to make her better. I want to leave...

Luna knew he'd regret leaving without closure, so suggested he stay and make the most of their time together. Taking a book off her shelf, she copied a poem by Jetsun Milarepa, Tibet's great yogi and poet:

In horror of death, I took to the mountains—
Again and again I meditated on the uncertainty of the hour of death,
Capturing the fortress of the deathless unending nature of mind.
Now all fear of death is over and done.

Obsessively clutching her phone and looking at it, she waited.

Hi Luna,
The poem is very beautiful and very deep... I think it's just a matter of time now. Besos, I miss you...

The next day, she received the message his mom had passed away. As sad as Luna was, she was glad the worst was over. This time when she wrote, it was to his family, and she signed it from herself and Tyler. But she really wished she could hold Nico.

During his stay to handle his mom's estate, he sent pictures from the house, and later, photos of himself at the beach. Hoping she didn't sound audacious, she wrote back admiring his beautiful muscular legs. She studied the photos for perspective on who he was and where he came from. When she opened a photo of him standing with a spear in one hand and an octopus in the other, it took her breath away. His lean, toned body had attained a healthy glow, his hair had grown longer, and he was wearing the Om pendant she had given him.

° ° °

"Olivia!" Manny's shout pulled her back from her reverie. "What's wrong with you? Pay attention; that table has been waiting!"

Olivia had read Nico's e-mail so many times, she'd memorized it. Having read it yet again, she shoved the phone into her pocket and headed over to the annoyed customers. With each e-mail, Nico flirted more, saying he longed to see her again and was unable to get her out of his mind.

Soon the e-mails became sexually explicit, and Olivia was careful to keep her phone with her. After serving her tables, she darted to the ladies' room and locked the stall door. Pulling her panties down, she sat on the toilet and reread one of the e-mails, following his instructions carefully. As she inserted a finger into her vagina to locate the small mound he said was inside, she realized he didn't suspect her virginity. Curling her finger upward, she felt around until she found the mysterious mound and began pressing slowly, as he described. Quickly, Olivia found herself wet, and the juices from her pussy ran down her finger. She reached her free hand into her bra and fondled the nipple of her right breast, twirling it between her thumb and index finger.