The Good Life

Chapter 20

Marla woke up on his couch. She pushed tears from her eyes and kicked her legs from out from underneath her. “Owww.” she stretched while opening her eyes to see him standing at his kitchen which had been cleaned. Actually, his whole house was unpacked this time. When he realized that she was awake he came over to her with an Advil and a bottle of water.

“I called your mom. She said this is what you need after you have a seizure.”

“It is. Thank you.” He handed her the glass and medicine. He watched her intently as she finished the drink and popped the pill. “What happened? I don’t remember anything after you took the pen from me.”

“It scared me…” he explained with tears in his eyes. “It was the flashes, Marla…They were waiting for someone else and we happened to be there. Since we were there they tried to get a picture of us. We had such a great evening that we forgot about them. And then they were just there. And I didn’t have you. You were behind me. I told you to smile and for me to talk. It was a lot like when we walked in. But then, as they started asking a lot of questions and the flashes got closer your hand got really light. I couldn’t feel it. So I told them that I thought it was enough. I sat you down and you started talking about school and having to go back to school. It wasn’t anything we had talked about. I was scared. Your eyes weren’t there- like they were gone like last time. Then the car came. I got you home in like 10 minutes. And then you started seizing. You did hit your should on the table and I think you bit your tongue pretty hard. You were crying. I laid you on the ground like you told me to. I sat next to you the whole time. It wasn’t long. Maybe like 5 minutes. Marla….I won’t let that happen to you again. Ever.”

* *

“Bruno…can you hand me my medicine? It’s in the cell phone pocket of my purse.” she asked him. “I just want to make sure I don’t forget it.” He handed it to her and again watched her take it. “I’m going to call the doctor in the morning. I haven’t ever had a photosensitive reaction.”

“I think that’s a good idea.” He told her. She laid down her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

“Go to sleep, baby. “ He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her.

Marla cracked her eyes open and turned to him, “Bruno…I can’t stay, I don’t have any clothes.”

“Marla, do you really think I didn’t think of that? I packed clothes for you while you were getting dressed at your house. They’re in my room. Go to sleep, crazy lady.” he rubbed her shoulders and kissed her head gently. She closed her eyes again. “I love you, Marla Gonzales.”

“I love you, Peter Hernandez.” she whispered.

**

Somehow Marla ended up in his bed, in the same purple and white v neck shirt she had on the last time she was at his house. She was, however, wearing her own pajama bottoms. She wondered out loud how she ended up in his shirt but her bottoms. It was 6:23 in the morning. He wasn’t next to her like he was the last time she was at Bruno’s house. But, she did hear music in the kitchen indicative of someone being downstairs. She brushed her teeth with the pink tooth brush that remained in the house.

Bruno heard the water running and headed toward the bathroom to greet her. “Good morning, Sunshine!” he smiled.

“Good morning, Bruno.” she replied to the mirror. He was right behind her about to kiss her neck. She didn’t stop him, even though she did not feel confident in her appearance at that very moment. She turned around to face him, looking into his eyes, smiling.

“Thank you for taking care of me last night.” she did that thing to his ear that he couldn’t resist. He moved her chin toward her to kiss her the way he wanted to kiss her after dinner. It was a long, genuine passionate kiss. “Ohh, my.” she breathed. “Oh….what…what’s that smell?”

“Oh shit!” they both ran to the kitchen where they found burnt cinnamon rolls in the oven.

“Darn it.” he shrugged at the burnt cinnamon rolls on the counter as she poured herself orange juice.

“It’s the journey, Bru. You’ll get it.” she laughed at his attempt at making breakfast for them. She took the cinnamon rolls from the pan and started to clean them up for him.

“Wait! We have to take a picture of it!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just stay there, Marla. Pretend like you’re eating them.”

“I’m not eating these. You can smell the burn, Bruno.”

“Just do it, damnit.” he smiled. He snapped a picture and tweeted the picture with the caption “Smokin hot!” It got all 2 million followers wondering what exactly he was talking about. “Okay, now you can clean it up.”