The next few days were a bit weird. I decided that in the interest of everyone involved, I would only tell Jana about my encounter with Thom. Meredith didn’t need to know, and neither did Felix. This kind of office gossip would only hurt everyone. Besides, I didn’t want to get chewed out by Selene for “office romance”.
Thom had managed to keep up our agreement to act as if nothing had happened. Meredith was still just so pleased we both came, and I was correct in the fact that she still had no idea that Thom had feelings for her. When I got the chance to talk to him in private, I would ask him how he was doing.
Meanwhile, staging that little joke on Felix had given me an idea about trying to get a job in the Mayor’s office. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Even though my dad’s recovery had been going well, he was still not thrilled that I was working as a Tart. I wasn’t willing to take some boring job in a cube farm, and I’d been trying to find a compromise that would work. I’d been considering if a job in politics wouldn’t be the perfect fit. I tended to get a bit antsy if I couldn’t be active at work, and a campaign would definitely keep me on the go. Michael could likely put in a good word for me, and I could intern at the start. Politics seemed a lot like what I was doing now.
I finally heard from Michael the night before my birthday, while in Vesuvio. I had just had a hilarious encounter with a guy who had approached me to ask if I had any bacon, and had continued to go on in ecstatic rapture about the benefits and joys of pork. It turned out he was a comedian, and wanted to try out his bacon topic on me. I told him it was very funny, and wished him good luck, when my phone gave its vibrating buzz. It was a text! Finally! Michael wanted to know if we could meet up later that night. I wrote him back right away, letting him know I was done around 2:45 am, and we agreed to meet at my house again.
His message was especially good timing, as it would be a great birthday present.
Feeling cheerful, I ran into Rehka, who had shaved her head, and was looking amazing from the result. She was with her boyfriend; it looked like things were serious. She seemed happy, and I was glad for her. She sent her regards back to everyone, and while I didn’t think we missed her as much as she thought we might (I never heard her mentioned again after she left), I told her I would extend her Hello’s all around.
As I approached Fuse bar, the door guy Jim started giving me a neck massage, and I melted under his big, broad hands.
“Girl, you are holding too much tension!” He gave me a piercing look and a little shake.
I had since learned that the door guys and bouncers were a treasure trove of good friendship and loyalty. They appreciated my respect, and in return, were always looking out for me, or going out of their way to make things easier, like this massage. I knew quite a bit about their lives; who was married, who was doing this as side work, who was happy, who wasn’t. One of them was going to nursing school, and using his big burly self to pay the whole way through. Sometimes I got little gifts from them, but we were all just platonically friendly. It was a bit like having about 10-15 big brothers. From what I heard, most girls didn’t interact with them as much as I did. But I found it too hard to follow the moods of most of the women in the office, and the men made it easy to just shoot the breeze.
My night wrapped up quickly, and I joked with Felix on the way back to the office about what he was going to get me for my birthday, and he sassed me back that he was getting me my own personal chauffeur (my ignoring him hadn’t lasted very long). When we got back to the office, there was a sweet little bit of decorating, and they sang me Happy Birthday. Meredith and Selene had presents for me, and we all had some shots together. I was pleasantly distracted and tipsy by the time I got home, and attempted to clean up a little before Michael arrived. I was determined that despite my foggy state, I wanted to pitch my case to him, see what he could do for me.
But when Michael arrived, he was even more urgent than the last time. We had a few more drinks, and the ability to talk fled completely as we started passionately making out. Sometimes the urge to get lost in sex overcomes the need to intelligently and maturely make a life change, I reasoned silently. Plus, he might not go for my plan if I stopped him right now anyway, so I went with it. The animalistic, burning taste of his sweat inflamed me, and I felt like I was folding over and over again, turning away from the past, bolting ahead. He was a dragon, I was a tiger, and I bit him, snarling, while he kissed me tenderly along my hipbones. Despite my slow, clumsy movements, he made me feel like the sexiest creature on earth, his eyes running parched over my whole body, following with his hands, almost in awe.
We were at it for hours, napping softly, reaching through the dreamscape, climbing the dance, playing mirror games, closing and opening the door to mountain peaks of crying-out beauty. He reached inside me and obliterated distraction, reaching further down; we were there, in the tunnel of that great expanse. We drifted away back into sleep, curled under the light of dark shell.
¤ ¤ ¤
When I woke late that Sunday morning, I could feel right away that Michael had gone. I was a bit frustrated with myself for not taking my chance to talk to him when I had it, but at least I wasn’t hungover like before, and I had plenty of good memories from the night before to keep me distracted all day. While I had no plans on my actual birthday, dinner at Dad’s was a tradition. Jana was coming down from Chico with her boyfriend, Alex. As I checked my email for birthday messages, and only had a message from a local radio station, and a coupon for a Denny’s offer, my phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Happy Birthday, Miss Daisy. Get dressed, I have a surprise for you.”
“Felix! What do you mean?” I asked, surprised. Pleasantly, but still.
“Get dressed!” he said, mischievous.
“How do you know I’m not dressed?” I asked, suspiciously.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He laughed a deep belly laugh, saying, “You mean you aren’t as lazy as I think you are?”
I was silent as I glanced down at my underwear, tank top, and flip-flops. In the pause, he chuckled again. “Just what I thought! I’ll be downstairs in 20.” He hung up.
“Wait!” I said, uselessly. He hadn’t even said where we were going, or what I was supposed to wear. Sigh. Typical. On second thought, I decided to be happy he went to such trouble. Intrigued and bouncy, I breezed through a quick shower and threw on a summer dress over leggings. Grabbing a cardigan and a coat (this was the Bay area, summer had no meaning to the fog), I headed downstairs 25 minutes later to find Felix tapping his foot at the curb.
“Mi’lady! We will be late for the ball! Did you bring your glass slippers? Into the coach!” He theatrically opened the door, ushering me inside. I burst out giggling, climbing in.
Once we were both in, we turned to each other.
“Where are we going?”
“Are you ready?” he asked.
He grinned. “WE. Are Going. On a. PICNIC!” he announced with a flourish.
I clapped my hands happily. “So, I don’t have to make lunch?”
“Nope! It’s all taken care of.”
We zipped through the streets, chatting about nothing in particular on our way into downtown. When Felix made the turn to head up the hill to Coit Tower, I figured out where we were going.
“Oh! I’ve been meaning to come up here,” I said, lost in gazing up at the big tower.
“Best view of the city, you know.” He pulled into a spot, and we unloaded the supplies. Felix really packed a great picnic, even bringing napkins and something for us to sit on. We sat on the low, wide concrete wall, the perfect height for gazing out across the bay and around the outlying neighborhoods.
As I was taking in the view, Felix laid out our lunch in short order -- lemon chicken sandwiches, pears and cheese, warm, chocolate cookies for dessert, and a spiced wine. Everything looked absolutely amazing and I dug in with delight.
I filled Felix in about Michael, and while he didn’t look happy about it, he couldn’t say anything, this ‘friend’ of mine.
I filled him in on Dad’s plans for me to work a secure, boring desk job, like he did. I explained how I couldn’t imagine that life for me, and how it had been stressing him out, and sending his blood pressure up, which led me to tell Dad about meeting the Mayor, and when he got so excited, that was how I had the idea… “See! It’s perfect! If Michael can just get me a foot in the door at the Mayor’s office, I’ll be golden. My dad will feel like I’m finally working something legitimate, and I will get more excitement than at some corporate soul-sucking place. Then he won’t be so worried, and his health won’t get worse,” I finished, laying it all out.
Felix looked dumbfounded for a moment, and I tensed. Waiting for some crack remark about how stupid it was.
“So this Michael guy, you aren’t just obsessed with him?” Felix asked.
“Well, don’t get me wrong. He’s pretty impressive in his own right.” Felix wrinkled his nose at me. “But no. He keeps blowing me off. He’s a good distraction right now…” I trailed off, uncomfortable.
“I gotta hand it to you, Pale. You sure do surprise me.” Felix stood up abruptly and walked a little ways away. I was a bit startled, but stayed seated. I hoped he wasn’t going to give me crap about this. We were having such a nice day. I started to put away the supplies, when I heard him turn back and ask, “So, do you even WANT to go into politics? Does it even interest you?”
I shrugged. “I guess. It’s all about sex, getting the numbers, and looking the part, right? How is it very different from what I do now? At least I wouldn’t have someone tell me they wanted to ‘mount me’.” I shook my head, disgusted.
Felix roared with laughter, bending over double, holding his stomach. Apparently I had forgotten to tell him about that from a week ago. I thought I was going to punch that drunken guy, but it just wasn’t worth it at the time. Of course, it was worth the joy on Felix’s face now. Positively priceless.
“I think it’s a crazy and stupid idea, and it’s bound to hurt you, but I’m done giving you crap, Pale. It’s your call. You have more in you than I thought, truly.” He shook his head, laughing in disbelief.
“What do you mean? And why do you think it’s stupid?” I asked, defensive.
“Now, now, I don’t mean it like that. Although I can see why you’d go there, after all the crow I’ve given you. I didn’t say YOU were stupid. I mean I think it’s stupid for you to do something without knowing what you are getting into. The politics, I mean. No, I thought you were like one of those girls from Vegas I saw everywhere, working their way to the top, doing anything they could to get attention. And you aren’t like that at all. You are willing to drop all the attention, at the drop of a hat, for your Dad. To do something you will probably end up hating. And WHOO Nelly, I bet you will hate it!” He spent a minute laughing again.
“Well, thanks for your support,” I said, sarcastically.
“You are very welcome. Because you have it,” he said, sincerely.
The drive back to my house was fairly quiet. When we got in the car, I did thank him for the lovely picnic, and he nodded back at me.
When we pulled up to my house, though, Felix put out his hand to stop me before I climbed out.
“Do you want to get a drink sometime? Go out? Just as friends. Thing is, I like talking with you,” he said, softly.
I was so floored by this, I just said, “Sure. That would be great.”
I headed inside to get ready for my birthday dinner, picking out a dress. My heart had flown up into the corner of my chest, and fluttered there madly. I had to cover my mouth; she was beating so fast.
Happy birthday to me!
¤ ¤ ¤
My birthday dinner was small and understated, but in a really soothing way. Jana and Alex had a good drive down, and it was wonderful to see them together. They seemed to have really found a good rhythm in living together, and were now so integrated, you would never know they had had trouble at the beginning of the move. Some couples were like that; they just fell into an organic pattern that looked easy. I know it wasn’t easy, but because it looked that way, it made me wistful for a deeper relationship of my own.
I wondered sometimes how different my life would be if I truly had someone to talk about the future with, to merge our lives together. Two independent forces in Life, navigating family, friends, career, plans for children. Arguing about where to go, but certain that you were doing it together. It had been so many months of chasing Felix, and though I still thought he was a hell of a guy, I was starting to be content to rest in our friendship together, dealing with being a buddy, not a potential sex kitten.
Dad and I made the meal together, since he could be a bit hopeless in the kitchen. He did cook pretty well, but had a tendency to make the food too bland, so he needed a little prodding to add the salt and spices.
They all embarrassed me by singing Happy Birthday at dinner, and we talked easily about life in Chico and Modesto, with only a few bad puns between the men to ruin the food.
Jana and I sat aside for a bit after dinner, and I insisted she fill me in on the changes going on with her. She’d been such a great listener over the last several months; I didn’t feel like I’d been giving her much space to vent. We had a happy catch-up session, and she was pleased to hear that Felix wanted to spend time with me, outside of work.
Dad seemed to be doing so much better. There were no further symptoms after his stroke, and the doctor had assured me that the medication was working perfectly.
Back in the city, I tried to reach Michael over the course of the next week, energized by my birthday high, while Felix and I set time on Thursday to go out and grab a beer.