Green Beans and Reminiscent Things

I sat myself next to Temperance on the large, brown couch, took the matching pillow from the other end, and hugged it to my body, setting my chin on top. Temperance had her legs folded Indian-style and the family’s petite, tailless cat sat in her lap, purring his head off. She’d grabbed a red cardigan and slipped it over her shoulders and draped a quilt over her legs.

"I think I'll go to bed." Mark stood up from his seat and shuffled out of the room after kissing Temperance goodnight.

We stayed watching the movie until the oven beeped, bringing Temp’s attention back to the kitchen. She stood up, forcing the cat to jump into my hands, and left the room. I got up and followed her, bringing the cat with me and setting him on the table. I sat myself down in front of him, scratching his scarred ears. He playfully rolled over onto his back and pawed at my fingers, but jumped off the table and out of the room when Tempe set two small plates of food and forks on the table.

As we messily ate our casserole, I snuck a glance in Tempe’s direction – she was wearing the same necklace I gave her two years ago. She caught my eye and smiled, setting down her fork on her empty plate. She tucked some hair behind her ear and nodded towards my plate. “Are you going to eat?”

I looked down at my portion; I had eaten maybe half of what I was given. “No, I’m just not really hungry.” I laughed when she raised an eyebrow at me in doubt. “Yeah…” I stood up, grabbed my plate and her empty dish (under protest), brought them to the sink, and started the dishes. Once she realized what I was doing, Tempe closed her mouth, muttered a petty insult in annoyance, and diffidently scratched the back of her neck. I waved her over as the water was running and gave her a smile.

“You don’t have to do the dishes, you know,” she muttered.

“I know. You can help me, though.” I turned off the faucet and sunk our dishes and other dirty glasses and utensils in the soapy side of the sink. I scrubbed the stuck crumbs and jell-like liquids while Temperance dried each clean dish or eating utensil with a holey rag.

In a few minutes, I passed the last plate to her and drained the sinks. By that time, my sleeves were pushed up to my elbows and my hands were soft. I quickly washed my hands, tossing the rag over my shoulder. Once Temp washed up, she looked around for the rag, but couldn’t locate it to my amusement. I tapped her on the shoulder and handed it to her after letting her mumble and step a few paces cluelessly. She smiled, her cheeks tinting red, and accepted the towel.

When she reached out to hand me back the rag, I tossed it over my shoulder. I messed with my hair once more, keeping it from my eyes and my hands busy. Before I could say anything to excuse my nervousness, I was handed a small, square box.

“What… Tempe?” I looked up from the box in her open hand to her crooked smile.

“I was going to give it to you last year, but…” She licked her lips and let a concentrated expression take the focus from her eyes. “It’s not much,” she explained, looking up into my own eyes, “but it’s something I think you’ll like.”

I gently lifted it from the palm of her hand and looked back down to her biting her lip and nervously glancing to the soapy sink on the side. I placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled. “Hey,” I whispered. She looked up and released the grip of her teeth as I licked my lips and gave her a crooked, nervous smile. I slowly opened the generic wooden jewelry box and broke out into an even wider grin when I set my eyes on its contents.

I took two fingers and lifted the bean and yarn home-made bracelet. There were a few yellow, blue, and brown beads (my favorite colors), and in the center was a larger bead with a tiny, simplistic, hand-painted caricature of a shrimp smiling and winking. I let out a subtle laugh and looked back at Temperance. She kept her eyes on me while shrugging and lifting up her palms to the ceiling.

“Ta-da?” she dragged out, phrasing it as a question.

“You made this?” I looked back to the bracelet and then to her.

“Here - let me help you put it on,” she offered, reaching out and taking the bracelet from my finger tips. I nodded my agreement and stuck out my bare wrist, having a small smile practically permanently etched on my lips. She delicately double-knotted it, then gently placed both of her hands around my open palm, slowly brushing her finger tips over mine.

I gently grasped her hands in mine, forming a huge, two-person fist, and brought it to my chest. Her fingers were cold from the drying water on her skin and softened even more from their usual delicateness. I slowly rubbed along her fingers with my thumb to buy time to think. For maybe a minute we stayed there with our eyes on our hands while I randomly started to hum “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.

“Here, I h-have something for, uh, you,” I said, moving my gaze from her eyes to my fingers reaching in my pocket for the mistletoe. I tightly clenched it in a fist and opened my mouth to speak, keeping my gaze down, but Tempe stopped me with a hand on my chest.

“Jeeze, John. No need to be nervous. Nothing could be as silly as the bracelet.”

I took in a deep breath of air and muttered, “You have no idea.” I looked up and caught Temperance’s eye. “Promise you won’t laugh?” I whispered.

She quickly gave a once-over of my facial expressions and barely let out a “Yeah.”

I took one of her hands in mine and set the mistletoe leaves on her palm. “Close your eyes. Don’t look,” I muttered, swiftly jerking my head to the side to brush away my bangs. I closed her hand with both of mine into a loose fist and kept my fingers over hers.

“Remember the song ‘Daisy’, and how I swore it wasn’t about you?” She nodded and I continued. “Well, it… It was.” I let out a deep sigh and muttered an embarrassed curse under my breath. “You blossomed into something that I did not expect,”I sang in a low voice. “And if it takes all night, I swear I’ll wait for you forever.”

“Just like a boy tangled in vines…” she recalled, smiling just the slightest.

I continued my hushed and subdued singing, my thumb still rubbing half circles into her skin. “And now we’re here, we’re so confused, and I wish that there was some way that I could tell you.”

I stepped closer, keeping one of my hands touching hers under the leaves. My heart was pounding and the adrenaline rushing through my veins didn’t really help either. I took a hand and tucked a loose strand from her ponytail back behind her ear, but kept my palm resting against her prominent cheek. I let my finger tips brush over her face and my thumb smooth over her eyebrow. I took a final step towards her so our bodies were almost touching, leaned down, and gave her a lingering kiss on her forehead.

I leaned down further to whisper in her ear, my knuckles and fingertips caressing along her jaw. “I love you Temperance. More than you know. And I… I p-promise I’ll wait if you don’t feel -”

Tempe momentarily stopped me, placing a hand on mine fumbling against her cheek and turning to lightly kiss it.

“-if you don’t feel the same.”

I straightened myself up and timidly licked my lips. “You can, uh… open your eyes now.” I took my hand off of hers grasping the mistletoe as she gradually unfurled her fingers. She kept her gaze down while I softly spoke once more.

“I found the mistletoe, Temp.”