Lips Like Coffee

cup: 45

PEN

Roughly, a year and a half later...

This didn't feel good at all. Norma wouldn't even look at me as she got dressed in complete silence. She pulled her T-shirt over her head, then stalked to the closet as she grabbed a leather jacket. When she swung it over her shoulders, she turned around and looked at me for the first time in forty minutes.

"Are we taking your car or mine," she asked, popping her hip out.

Standing from the bed, I went to the closet to get my own jacket. Even if this was the only thing she said, I was hoping she would ask me this.

"I was thinking we take the bike for a spin," I said, a smile on my face.

Norma stared at me, face devoid of emotion. Slipping her arms into her sleeves, picked up her messenger bag and left the room. I followed behind her, and she was already down the stairs. Taking the steps down two at a time, I snatched the keys from the hook and jogged out the back door. Bounding to the garage, I opened it and climbed onto the bike.

We had been fighting a lot these past two months, but I was hoping it would all be worth it after this ride. It was agonizing watching Norma lose her trust in me because I couldn't tell her my plans. Someone said, things need to fall apart before they come together, and it fell apart hard. The first squabble wasn't bad and was dismissed with a reasonable excuse. By the second week of excuses, she was fed up with me.

There was anger in her eyes when she looked at me. She had waited up for me to come home, and when I did, it exploded. I had never seen her so irate before, but all I did was add fuel to her fire. To change the subject, I would find small things to argue over, things that didn't matter at all. It was these little squabbles that led to her sleeping in another room for a week.

The next time she confronted me, the pain in her voice hurt me to the core. I wanted to cave and come out without, but I wanted this to be perfect. So much time was spent away from home, coming in at all hours of the night, that I couldn't give in. Even when she broke into tears, all I did was hold her until she fell asleep. She hated me right now, but this was going to change her mind.

As we rode through traffic, I felt her tighten her arms around my waist as she leaned forward over my shoulder.

"Where are we going, Narcissus? You know campus is the other way," she shouted over the noise of the bike.

"Just hold on, Puddin. We're taking the scenic route," I replied, smiling over my shoulder at her.

Revving the bike's engine, I gripped the throttle a little tighter and we accelerated onto an empty street. The road ran parallel to the river, and went on for about ten miles. As we got halfway down the road, I let our speed drop to a cruise and smiled as I spotted our first check point.

"Has that always been on this road?"

I smiled as I shook my head. "Nope."

"Pen, what..."

NORMA

My words trailed off as I stared at the iron moniker that had my name on it. It was suspended between two trees that over hung the road, and covered in flowers whose petals fell as we passed underneath. Reaching up, I caught a few of them in my hand and inspected the purple flutters as they came down. Narcissuses.

"What's going on," I asked, excited yet perplexed by the situation.

"You'll see," he replied, and I saw his smile in the side mirror.