Black Temptation

Chapter 37

There's a sunlit glaze over the track. Hansel holds the door open for me as I walk into the sky box. The white linen conches and bright blue walls give a cheerful ambiance, of which does nothing for the sour taste in my mouth about this. Gretel is already in the sky box, with a chair awaiting me. It's like Harry said. I'm "That Girl" and as much as I try to avoid it, it is who I am now or who they think I am. The knee length white sundress with a fitted waisted (so my voluminously bottom could be appreciated as requested), large, floppy white hat, white pumps, and blue diamond earrings seemed to catch everybody's attention. I walk to my seat and sit down with grace, folding my legs and flicking one half of my hair over my shoulder, keeping one half of my eyes covered. And as soon as I'm comfortable with all the stares and side conversations, a breath tickles my ear.

"Ms. Harper, Mr. Styles would like to see you now." One of those Arnold Schwarzenegger wanna be's said. I grab the arms of the chair uplift and say,

"It was nice being the white elephant in the room, semi literally. We'll see each other again. Tootles!"

And I walk out of the room, no I strut out of that room. Harry is waiting for me in the A/C hallway, eyes bright, smile glistening, hair amusingly unruly with flowers in one hand, helmet in the other.

"Awe, all for me?" I say, taking them out of his hand.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

Flowers to me, don't smell any different them plastic bags but these kind smelled of some perfume I've been dying to get. I look inside the bunch and see,

"You got me the Black Orchid perfume?!"

He smiles. I hug him almost to the point of strangling him.

"How did you know I wanted this?"

"A guy's intuition."

"How did you know I love Orchid's?"

He stares at the flowers for a while.

"I actually didn't. Ms. Tote did." I stare confused as he puts his helmet down. "She called me and wanted me to tell you that she was ok and that she found them and she was happy with how they reacted. She also wanted to say sorry for not checking in. Sending a letter is really expensive in Washington. And she wanted me to tell you that she said I love you."

It's been months, almost 7 months since that has happened and my worry is my sweater. But she's ok. So why doesn't that give me any piece of mind? I wrap my arms around Harry. He picks me up as I kiss him, we both smiling into the kiss because of a joke I made before about his occasional hippopotamus breathing when he kisses. And then he sets me down.

"Maybe when we have a daughter, We could name her Orchid."

I laugh. "Harry, I'm 20."

"And I'm 21. That doesn't mean we can't talk about it."

"We can talk about this when I have an all white wedding dress hanging in my closet."

He smiles and kisses me, slightly directing his attention to Hansel and Gretel guarding the door some 50 feet away and the listening crowd on the other side of the door.

"In due time, beautiful. I promise. But one more thing. You are wearing all white to a raceway?"

"Yeah....it's posh."

"No. Not really. I don't think so."

"Yeah. I know it is. Sorry you're wrong." My face is cold and stale, but he knows I'm joking.

"...Ok sweetie."

"And anyways, if you lose,"

The hall loses its flavor and the air thickens. Hansel and Gretel look stunned to hear the words. The mere thought of him losing, even being one second slower than his previous times would cause the entire thing to blow up in smoke and with millions running on him, nobody, and I mean, nobody, expected him to lose. I turn my body slightly parallel to the offended faces and continue.