ARRvol34 master reduced - Flipbook - Page 64
“Let me see,” he said through the curtain.
“When we get to the beach.”
He was signing the receipt when she came out, back in her denim
with the suit underneath. She leaned in and kissed his neck, sliding
her hand into the back pocket of his jeans, and leaving her panties
there.
They walked down to the beach and spread out a blanket. They
felt disguised behind sunglasses, like no one could see them pressing up against one other’s warm skin and sneaking fingers underneath spandex. Her nostrils flared as she breathed in his smell - like
citrus and onions and bread - like his smell could feed her. The
beach began to clear out as the sun bled into the water, but they
stayed there, squeezing handfuls of the cooling sand and grabbing
more back up again when the grains found their way out. He looked
over at her and he thought this was worth the spells in between.
“Stay here with me,” he asked. It had the gravity of a proposal. She
said yes, and had never felt more certain that she could and would.
It was already dark at the cabin when they unpacked. They sat
in the hot tub on the patio with the lights off and could see white
stars pricking through the black sky above the trees. She made the
distraction last until they went to bed. She listened to his breathing
change its rhythm to that of sleep. Inside her chest was a buzzing a slow hissing burn. She imagined someone had stripped her open
on a coronal plane, and had set with tweezers, a sizzling seltzer
tablet to dissolve in her esophagus.
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She woke so frequently during the night that her dreams stuck
with her and it was hard to keep track of what had actually taken
place. The recurring figure of authority came back this time to suggest she “go someplace where you won’t get into any trouble.” She
