Behind the Silk Curtain

"But you seemed like you had a good relationship with your family," I replied, finishing what I was eating.

"Looks can bee deceiving," Thomas sighed. "But you've made a good point."

"About looks?"

"No, about my family not being as bad as yours," he said with a slight smile.

"Shuttup you," I said playfully, nudging me across the food.

He caught my wrist and drew me in. We hovered close to each other, his lips twitching with his eyes hovering across my face. He shifted his hand so that our fingers were tip to tip -- except his were much larger then mine, obviously. I didn't want to move my eyes off his every changing ones to glance at our intwining fingers.

"Who would've thought that I would end up in England's most famous park with someone like you," I said softly.

"What do you mean 'someone like me?'"

"I just never would've thought I would ended up with someone as crazy, flamboyant--" I started.

"Flamboyant?" he said, pulling away from me and raising those eyebrows of his. "You know I ain't gay."

"And that's not what I meant," I replied, moving over the food that we had taken to the park with us and hoisted myself around his hips. "I meant vivacious." And with every word, I leaned down and kissed him lightly upon the lips. As I did so, he fell back against the grass of the park. "Exuberant." Kiss. "Confident." Kiss. "Lively." Kiss. "Animated."

By the time I had said animated, I was working confidently at him. His hands were tied around my neck, literally, with his lower half of his body unable to move due to the pressure that I was continually placing upon his hips. My eyes flickered open as I worked at him, my lips moving across his jawline and my hands digging deeper and deeper into his skin.

When my eyes did flicker open, I saw that he was watching my every move without hesitant. I was a little freaked out by how he was watching me so I took his hands and slipped it from around my neck and over his eyes, covering him from what I was doing.

The moment I did, though, I was yanked up from the ground and pulled Thomas with me. We knocked heads as I came to a slamming halt against another body that was disturbingly fat. We groaned as we came in contact with each other and I dropped down a few centimetres so that I was a little shorter then he was.

He closed his eyes tightly, his lips forming a thin line, before he dared opened them again. When he did, I saw his pupils dilate as he tried to pull back in fear and take me with him when he did so but the person behind me gripped on tightly

"The moment I move, lift your arms from my neck," I whispered to Thomas. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"What about you?" he whispered back. "Aren't you going to get hurt?"

"Just trust me," I whispered back, eying him to make my point and he nodded ever so slightly to accept it.

In a swift movement, I ducked and he lifted his hands over my head and stumbled backwards onto the ground. For a tall guy, he really had no centre of balance. I brought my hands together and turned around, about to strike whoever was behind me but they managed to avoid my attack.

I did manage to catch a glimpse of the man who stood behind me, though, in those quick moments, and saw that it was my former landlord. He took a few steps back and raised an eyebrow, saying, "You still haven't paid rent."

I launched myself at his face, only reaching his chest in the slight movements that he made in the weight that he carried. Pulling away, he caught my arm and used my momentum to cast me off. I grunted, saying, "I don't live in your building anymore, I thought that was clear."

He shook his head as I struggled against him with my free hand in which he only gripped around my neck and my hands instantly went to his fingers, gripping onto them tightly and attempted to remove them from my neck.

"I don't owe you anything," I spat as I kicked out at him and landing attacks against his rippling stomach.

"You owe me everything," he said, pulling me close and smelling his alcoholic breath washing over me. I could barely cringe in disgust.

"Sir, drop the woman," I heard a strange voice from beside me.

I could hardly move my head to see who it was but out of the corner of my eye, I could see that it was a police officer that was patrolling the park. She had a hand on her gun, ready to pull it out in case the situation got out of control. Her other hand was held out in front of her, attempting to calm my landlord into letting me go -- like that was going to happen anytime soon.

I made a choking sound as I felt his grip around my throat get tighter as the seconds passed. From behind me, Thomas slowly stood to his feet and looked to the police officer who eyed him off from doing anything stupid.

With the remaining energy that I had, I kicked him in the balls. He barely moved but I felt his grip loosen a little as I repeatedly kicked him there while pressing my fingernails into his skin. I could see him scowling as his grip loosened and he finally dropped me to the ground.

The moment my feet hit the sweet grass of Hyde park, I jumped up at him and roundhouse kicked him, which knocked him to the ground. I was about to hit him again when I was pulled back by Thomas, saying, "That's enough, that's enough." I pulled myself from him roughly and fell back beside him. "Where did you learn that stuff, anyway?"

"Advanced stage fighting," I puffed heavily. "Topped the class."

"That's who you are," he said. "I took the intermediate class and there was this one girl, despite her size, used to always kick my butt."

"Ha ha, very funny giraffe," I mocked laughed as the police officer rushed over to my landlord and checked his pulse to make sure that he was still alive. "Like you didn't know who I was."

The police officer looked up to me, concerned. I hovered closer to Thomas, as if he was going to protect me from something I could surely handle for myself, but he was a comfort I surely wasn't going to give up any time soon. I was growing to like him, more then I hoped I would.

"Mind if I ask you a few questions?" the police officer said, standing from the landlord and moving to apposition so that she could keep an eye on him while also interrogating me.

"Is he okay?" I asked, Thomas giving me a surprised look. I took notice. "What? I feel bad for what I did, despite what his done for me."

"More forgiving then I thought…" Thomas muttered underneath his breath.

"What do you mean?" the police woman asked, taking out a notepad and pen from her pocket, ready to take notes. "Do you know this guy?"

"Yeah, why else do you think he did what he did?" I said, turning to her and grasping Thomas' hand behind my back as I did so.

"Could've been some random creep spying on a beautiful girl," she reasoned.

"That's the last thing I am," I returned quickly.

She cocked her head to the side, casting her eyes down to her notepad and writing something down…something that I couldn't read. I hopped up on my tippy toes, trying to read her writing, even though it was upside down. She pulled her notepad to her chest when she saw what I was trying to do. She gave me a harsh look.

"What's your relationship with the guy?" she said as I looked about us, taking notice of all the people that were starting to stare. Some pointed, stopping their walks with their friends or dogs. "Miss?"

"Umm," I said, drawing myself away from the stares of the others. "He was my landlord. I moved out a few days ago and didn't seem to like the fact that I did."

"I was there when it happened," Thomas said, moving forward so that I could feel him pressing firmly against my back. "He tried to make a move on her. She was lucky that I was there."

"How long has he been…harassing you, Miss?" said the police officer taking down a few more notes.

"Since I moved in about three or so years ago," I said, glancing up to Thomas. "I'm glad I moved out."

"So you're living with this young man, now?" she asked. "Dating?"

"Not yet," I said. "Early stages."

A dipped his head down to my ear, whispering, "To me we are, love."

I smiled softly to myself as the officer said, "Just your names and number. I'll be in contact with you soon."

"What are you going to do with the landlord?" I asked, my eyes casting down to the man that was into more then harassing me.

"I'll call another officer in," she said. "Help me get him back to the station. File a report. Then I'll let you know what happens from there."

"Okay," I said softly as Thomas lead me from the park and picking up a few of our things for the fridge as we left for the apartment.

I took out my phone from my pocket and checked the time, realising that I had work in an hour. It was going to be hard to break myself away from this curly headed dangly thing that I was becoming so attached to. We could hardly stay two inches from each other as we made our way back through the streets of London to our place.

That sounded weird. Our place. It sounded like we were an old married couple that had been together for years when the reality was, we had known each other for a few days. Really, though, I felt like he knew every part of me and opened my heart that had been closed off ever since my mother had gone from my world.

I sat on one of the stools behind the bench and watch Thomas move silently about the kitchen, hardly making a noise. I could hear the slight shuffle of his feet as the slid across the tiles. We didn't have much left after the park incident but it was enough to keep him busy for a few minutes and time for me to watch him move peacefully about the kitchen.

I noticed the slight upward lick of his lips on the left side of his face but the slight burrowing of eyebrows with a straight crease appearing in between them. His long pianists fingers danced about on the kitchen counter as he pushed through the bags contents he was sorting around the kitchen.

I must have been staring at him for a long time because before I knew it, he was hovering behind me and those long fingers danced about my back mischievously. I spun around in the chair so that I was facing him and parted my legs to wrap him in between them. He hoisted me easily up onto the bench and rested his hands upon my waisted as he stared thoughtfully into my eyes.

"Why were you watching me just then?" he asked as I reached up to his features and ran a finger over his clean cut but soft jawline, his exuberant profile, and playing with the soft curls that bounced about his forehead.

"Because you're so graceful," I said. "More graceful then what I could be."

"Yeah, that's because you aced advanced stage fighting."

"Junior black belt, actually," I said, seeing him gaze upon me with astonishment.

"You were a black belt?"

"Junior black belt," I said. "It's one underneath a black belt. Dad kicked me out of the house before I could take the exam to become a black belt."

"You took taekwondo?" he said, his hands going to feel the disappearing muscle in my arms and the half muscled stomach of mine that had lost its firmness. "No wonder your so bulky."

"I took some judo lessons as well but I felt taekwondo was more of my calling," I said, feeling him start to work at my stomach with his thumbs as they began to get lower and lower. My breath started to catch in my throat. "I took it for self defence and to keep healthy." Thomas' thumbs got to close to my pelves, uncomfortably close. I pushed him off before he could get any further and slipped off the counter. "I've got work in a few minutes and at this rate, I'm going to be late."

"You're no fun," Thomas whined as he tried to catch me as I began to disappear into my room.

"So I've been told many times," I said, going to the door to my room and looking back to him.

"Are you at the club tonight?" he asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"I believe you still owe me a dance."