7 Days

The Aftermath

I opened my eyes to find myself rocking gently. I quickly hurried to my feet to notice someone had put me on the swinging chair on my front porch! Little meanies! Whoever committed this act of indecency shall pay with cold meats! I was going to say life but really, what would I do with a life? I would much prefer meat.

The sun was high up in the sky so I knew I must have been sleeping for a while. I looked down and noticed that my dress was still in perfectly good shape. This was good because it meant I hadn’t done anything weird on my date like start eating away my clothes while waiting for my food. That would have been really funny but I probably would have gotten in trouble. And Cohen would have seen my cloudy underwear.

I willed my mind to go over the things that happened last night, and remember at what point I drifted off. As I thought, I scratched my chin and felt around my body for any signs that someone had planted drugs on me or something, but there was nothing. Then everything that happened on my date last night hit me.

*~Flashback~*

I sagged deeper into the firm leather seats of Cohen’s fancy shmancy car, fiddling absent-mindedly with the stereo. Cohen had laughed at me (as per usual) when I told him that I was crying about leprechauns. He had said that I didn’t need the earrings to look pretty. He is a good man. Apart from the teasing.

Cohen took a swift right and parked the car near the front of a large building that I’d never been to before. When I got out of the car, I was hit by a sudden gust of ice cold wind. It tickled my skin for a bit, making me really uncomfortable in my thin dress.

So throwing all caution to the wind, I threw both my arms around Cohen’s waist and hid my face in his side while we walked. Apart from being slightly confused at first, he didn’t pull away from my hug. We walked through the automatic double doors and I didn’t loosen my grasp, especially when I saw the walls lined with rows and rows of ice-skating shoes.

I’m not going to go into flash-flashback mode but let’s just say that when I was a little girl I had multiple accidents while ice-skating, many of which resulted in about 10 to 15 stitches in my back. I did certainly not want to relive any of those moments. Cohen looked down at me as some emotion crossed his features and he lightly pushed me away. I stared at him in dismay. I felt something running down my chin and I almost screamed in frustration. Drooling was going to have to stop before I ripped out them little glands under my tongue that produced saliva.

“Here, wear this so you don’t freeze in there.” Cohen thrust his jacket at my face and I was glad he didn’t stop hugging me just because I was drooling. Or maybe he did. I don’t know. But he wrapped his arms around me again once I had his coat on and led me over to the woman’s shoes. I scanned over them nervously, picking out a size 6.

Then I got dragged over to the men’s section where he got a size 11. He has very big feet, I thought to myself. We then went up to the cash register and payed. I ordered some nachos. Then we walked over to the benches that sit just on the outside of the ice.

We spent about 5 minutes putting our shoes on and another 5 getting into the skating rink because the shoes were so darned hard to walk in. I put one foot onto the ice at a time, letting myself adjust to the new slipperiness. After taking a deep breath, I put the other foot in. And tripped.

My head ricocheted off the ice and I felt my tooth cut through my bottom lip. I was instantly lifted back to my feet. “Oh, god. Are you okay?” Cohen asked, shooting a hand up to touch the broken skin there. I slapped his hand away.

“I’m fine! It’s just a cut. Sorry for staining your fancy shmancy clothes.”

He looked relieved as he let me go, watching me carefully so I didn’t fall this time. After wobbling for a moment, I steadied myself, and started edging toward to wall so that I could hold onto it until I got used to being on the ice.