VIP: Vibes of Celebration Anthology

WINNER: Deep Limits by @MaryFahey

Great Aunt Angelina swore her favourite habit attracted horny men like flies.

St Valentine's Day had coincided with Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent and forty days of abstinence.

So her Mother Superior uniform was ideal for tonight's masquerade party. I hung her pearl rosary around my neck and pulled on my over the knee boots.

*

I slunk out of the ballroom before my teaching colleagues from St John the Baptist's noticed me.

The tickets had stipulated formal dress. Not fancy dress.

I rushed towards the discreet exit in the leisure centre. A door flung open and my veil blew over my face. Muscular arms embraced me.

I regained my balance and gazed into doe like eyes. 'Jesus Christ!'

'No. Zayn.' Tall, with good teeth and hair. His veil was white and he wore matching flowing robes. A Thobe perhaps.

I tried to remember what I'd made my pupils learn about Islam from the diversity curriculum, but couldn't. Not with how he was making me feel.

From how his breathing and body were reacting, he was on fire too.

*

'I'm very late.' Zayn abruptly broke away and with a sexy bow, backed away.

His brush off sounded guilty and reluctant. I rubbed his soft sleeve. 'Wait. You've misinterpreted the dress code too. They advertised it as fancy so it was logical....'

'Miss, er Sister...... ?' He stared at the rosary that dangled between my cleavage.

'Angelina. I'm named after my Great Aunt.'

'Of course. I rushed here from the mosque.' He slowly averted his gaze to a dimly lit notice board. 'Today is the last day to join the swimming lessons.'

So he wasn't in costume! Zayn was for real. To dampen down my explosive awareness, I asked. 'Why are you learning to swim?'

'When I was fleeing, I couldn't .... My swimming is too bad.' Tears ran down his face.

He was a hot, sexy mess! My heart and hormones went out to him. I beckoned him into a seating alcove, hitched up my skirt and repeated my Great Aunt's mantra. 'Confess to mother.'

With his eyes latched onto the top of my thigh high boots, he did.

The war destroyed Al-Zabadani in Syria. With friends and family, Zayn made it to Lebanon and aimed for Greece via a treacherous crossing through the Mediterranean. Their small boat capsized and many were still missing.

Days later, a Medicine Sans Frontier crew found him among the flotsam. Then the Red Cross intervened.

Drunken shouting outside suggested the ball was over. We'd been talking for hours.

Zayn gently wiped my forehead with his fingertip. 'You've a smudge, Sister.'

'Ashes handed out in school by our parish priest.'

He removed his hand and bolted off our sofa. 'I'm late. I will apply for my class.....'

'Wait. I'll learn too.' At reception we enrolled for six bi weekly classes of elementary swimming. Then we joined the breakfast buffet together.

*

Later, I packed my Great Aunt's seduction kit in acid-free tissue paper and returned it to my heirloom closet. Zayn mightn't have twigged I wasn't a nun.