Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Five

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage." ~Lao Tzu

Harvey noticed when his woman started searching to find a better mood. First, with her headphones on, she started car dancing—moving her arms and hips, sensually, to "Simply the best." Both oldies junkies, he knew the song was one of her favorites. She was singing with Tina Turner, messing with his mind by doing a sexy version of "the bird." 

Later, when they stopped at a roadside diner for coffee, before going in, Zarah slipped her top down, baring one shoulder, and she made him pose with her for a "selfie." She was digging in, trying not to allow the turn of events to take down her spirit. Only once they were on the road again, he sensed she was losing the battle. Struggling to get comfortable in her seat, she frowned with several beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was one of the coolest days in May he could remember, in Mississippi, but she was sweating. He understood her angst. This wasn't the afternoon they'd planned on having, and she was fighting hard ... trying, with little success, to be happy. 

He'd already found a way to feel better. He was highway testing his newest toy, and doing that had brought him to a better place. With a newly upholstered red leather interior, his new car was a very cool ride, even though driving it wasn't giving him the satisfaction he thought it would. Maybe it was because his rebuilt 1964 Corvette Stingray convertible was forty-one years older than his fiancée, and the disappointment they were sharing was a lot harder for her. 

When she took off her headphones, he broke the silence that had settled in between them. "I'll turn this car around," he said, "if you really don't want to do this. Just say the word."

She smiled with the frown still on her face. "I know you would," she said. "But don't. I'm okay. I chewed three of those nasty little pink tablets you got for me at the drugstore. I'll be fine in a little while."

"Hey, I offered to make soup and salad for lunch today but you insisted on accepting my stupid challenge."

"I wanted to beat you at cooking your own burger ... and I wanted a burger. No. I needed a delicious burger, and I'm glad I made it."

He glanced at her. "But my recipe is rich, darling. Even for me. You knew that going in."

"You challenged me, remember? I had to show you who's the boss in our kitchen. I had to make your burger better than you ever have or ever will. I did it, it was delicious, and I have no regrets."

"But you have a stomach ache. I warned you last night on the phone. Choose another topping, I said. Mine is too rich for your stomach. You should have listened."

She glanced up at him and the gold flecks in the iris of her gray eyes twinkled as she smiled. "No. I didn't listen ... but I still listen to you more than you listen to me."

"You didn't listen the one time you should have, and now your stomach is hurting. You're in pain, because you didn't listen."

She rubbed her belly, snuggled closer to him, and then closed her eyes. "I don't know if the food is to blame. I mean ... we ate the same burger and you're not sick."

He kissed her forehead. "I have a cast iron stomach ... and you don't. If you're not better soon, I'm calling Tyler. I'll have him fly up in the chopper to get us in the morning. Someone from our security team can drive the car home, and we'll get you to your doctor. If you're okay? We'll fly back up Monday morning to take Grandma Betty to Memphis."

"You'd go to all that trouble over a little tummy ache?"

She grinned up at him with question marks in her eyes. He knew what was behind her grin and the punctuation. "In a heartbeat," he said. "Anything for the woman I love." He leaned over and  kissed her cheek, then she met him for quick kiss on the lips.