CHAPTER 4: IN WHICH THERE IS MUCH DENIAL
Mya was out in her garden, pottering about with her plants and letting their energy infuse her with life and joy again. It had been a difficult two days. She’d heard that Charlotte was awake now, and even making short trips out of bed, but she had not yet gone to pay her a visit. She knew she must do it soon, or else Charlotte would wonder why she hadn’t when practically everyone else in the town had. Mya also supposedly owed her a debt of gratitude for being including in Charlotte’s inner circle and from a purely medical point of view, she must want to see how well her elixir worked...Right?
Wrong.
Charlotte would know by now that passion was needed to make the spell work, and she knew that Mya was a virgin because she’d asked her who she’d been with sexually and Mya had (foolishly in hindsight) told her the truth. So she would probably be curious as to where the passion came from, and knowing her nature, wouldn’t rest until she’d pried every last detail out of Mya’s reluctant bosom. Considering that she was still in two minds whether ‘The Incident’ (as she called it in her mind) had actually occurred or whether it was a particularly realistic hallucination, complete with side effects such as aching muscles, unidentified discharges and a guilty conscience, she was just not ready to discuss it with anyone. Particularly not the culprit’s girlfriend.
Speaking of the culprit, he seemed to be walking toward her right this minute. Perhaps the hallucination continued or else she was losing her mind. She hoped that that was it, though she knew that losing your mind is not as easy as people make it out to be. ‘Hi.’ The hallucination said, ‘can we talk?’She considered just ignoring it and hoping it would go away, but when she looked at what she could see of him, which was simply a black silhouette because he was standing in the sun, he looked pretty solid so she decided to treat him like it...he was real. She stood up and wiped her hands on her skirt, then turned and headed for the porch. He followed behind her, close enough that she could feel the warmth of his body, yet far enough away so he didn’t step on her heels.
She sat down on the porch swing and he stopped a few feet away, leaning on the porch frame.“Is your grandmother here?” he asked.
“No.” She said, and then wished she hadn’t said anything. Why was he asking her that?
“I need to speak to you in private” he said, like he’d read her mind. If he had, that increased the likelihood that he was a hallucination because real-life, Mundane, Egotistical Leo was definitely no mind reader. And what would Real-Life, Mundane, Egotistical Leo have to speak to her about anyway. The chances of this being a hallucination were climbing by the minute! But why was she hallucinating about him of all people?
“So speak” she said boldly, now that she was fairly certain he wasn’t real. Leo sighed deeply. This is a bit awkward, he thought.“Can we maybe go inside?” he asked her, “Have a drink? It’s rather hot.”Okay, the hallucination wanted a drink; she could play along. She stood up and led the way into the house, crossed over to the fridge and poured some cabbage juice into two glasses. She’d just juiced it this morning so it was fresh. She handed him his glass, which he took with no problems, considering he wasn’t real, and sat down on the sofa. It was an old sofa with mismatched pillows, but extremely comfortable for all that. He sat down next to her and took a sip of juice...then promptly spat it out.“What the hell is this?” he asked with a frown.
“Cabbage juice”, she replied coldly, “you did say you wanted a drink?”He opened his mouth to retort then remembered that he was supposed to be softening her up so she would do what he wanted. So he forced himself to smile painfully and take a sip. Urgh! It tasted like snail slime or something equally revolting.
Mya watched him forced down the juice while trying to look like he didn’t want to spit it out all over her threadbare Aubusson rug; and came to the conclusion that it really was a hallucination. The real Leo would never bother to pretend politeness with her, unless there was something in it for him.
That thought stopped her in her tracks. What did he want? She put down her glass of cabbage juice and waited.“Do you plan on telling Charlotte what happened here the other day?” he asked abruptly.
‘Aha’, she thought, ‘here we go’.
“Well, she’s likely to ask me, and keep asking me, until I tell her.” She replied. There was a silence that she hesitated to call loaded. He stared into his cabbage juice like it contained the answers to all of life’s questions. She wished he would say something. This situation was getting way beyond uncomfortable.“So. What you’re saying is you’re planning on telling Charlotte that you fucked her boyfriend?” he demanded in a voice that wanted to be threatening but was struggling not to be. Why did she get the feeling she was being set up for something here?
“No, I’m not planning on telling her that we may have...engaged in some sexual activity” she said quickly and a tad breathlessly“, but you know as well as I do, how persistent she can be when she wants something.”
“I do know.” He replied, “What I don’t know is what your intentions are right now. You know that however you choose to play this, you come out covered in shit right?”She folded her arms, eyeballed him and then demanded, “Leo. What. The hell. Do You. Want?!”“Now that,” he replied, “is the right question.”
Leo walked quickly to his car, and got in driving off like he was pursued by demons. He did not look back.“Shit” he whispered to himself, “shitshitshit. WhathaveIdonenow?? Shit!”
‘Okay’, he thought, ‘Plan. I need a plan’. Breathe. Breathe. Calm down, all is not lost. The little lecture made him feel a little better, as well as the deep breaths and he thought back to the scene he’d left.“You will say nothing about what happened between us, okay?” he had told her with the approximation of a smile, “We’ll just forget it ever happened”.
“Right” she’d replied with an ironic smile that was more in her eyes than her mouth, “Nothing happened. Are you leaving now?” she asked, standing up. He stared at her, not sure whether she was serious or not. She stared right back at him, her eyes, and demeanour betraying nothing. Her hands hung loose at her side, and she stood up straight just staring at him with that irony in the back of her eyes like he was nothing but an amusing bit of entertainment that had run its course. Kind of like the way he looked at girls when he was through with them. ‘Can’t have that’ he remembered himself thinking, though why he should care, he couldn’t quite say. The next thing he knew, he had covered the two steps of distance that separated them, and his lips were on hers. She froze with surprise and he took advantage of it to insert his tongue in her mouth. He was kissing her in earnest and it was a while before he realised she was struggling in his arms.
‘Trying to get away!’ he thought in surprise, and held her tighter; kissed her harder. She was trying to free her lips, say something to him, but he was done talking. For some reason, he was most mightily aroused! He picked her up and carried her to her shabby sofa, laying her down on it all the while kissing her. He lay down over her and increased the pressure on her mouth. He could feel her weakening, opening her mouth wider; in spite of herself. His hand brushed her breast, and felt her nipple harden. He wanted; needed, to see her naked. Now! He tore at the buttons on her faded print dress and her body was exposed to the waist. Only then did he lift his mouth from hers, to fasten it on her left breast. His hand worked one breast while his mouth worked the other; and she was making noises that sounded like mewling and he could feel her breathing hard. He didn’t know what emotion she was feeling, and couldn’t spare the brain cells to wonder. All the blood had left his head anyway; oxygen to his brain was in short supply. Apart from a buzzing that was making him dizzy, not much in the way of thinking was going on up there; let alone conjecture as to what Mya might be feeling. She was merely the Object of his Desire; a desire he needed to satisfy forthwith or die in the attempt. He tore desperately at his flies freeing his massively engorged penis and in one motion; he had pushed her skirts out of the way, spread her legs, and inserted himself in her without the bother of removing her underwear. She made a noise halfway between a scream and a moan and he wanted to follow her example but he was too busy pounding her into the sofa. His breath came like the bellows and sweat was pouring down his face. The room was silent except for the wetly slapping sound of flesh on flesh. In addition to Leo’s harsh breathing and Mya’s occasional moaning. As he felt his climax approaching like a murderous beast bearing down on him with intent, he came to a slight awareness that he wasn’t alone in this and whispered, “Oh God, I’m coming” in her ear, moments before his seed shot out of him like a bullet from a gun and he felt something like an explosion in his mind – a nuclear bomb had gone off and destroyed every nerve and synapse in its path; leaving him nerveless and weak. He collapsed on the sofa then fell to the floor, breathing hard and trying to pull the scattered bits of himself together. After a moment, she sat up on the sofa, looking down at him as she pulled her clothes together. Then standing up, she stepped over him and headed for the hallway and possibly the bath. She did not say a word to him or acknowledge his presence in any way. He heard her feet climb the stairs, and a door close.
He zipped his flies and straightened his clothes. Then he stood up and lit out of there like a bat out of hell.