Kiss Me Tenderly

“So, tell me about yourself, Jack. What do you like to do for fun? What’s your job like? What are your favorite movies? Do you currently have a boyfriend, girlfriend, or significant other? Tell me your secrets, Jackery.”
I laughed and set the two mugs of warm peppermint tea on the table, one for me and one for Alex. He accepted his mug with a smile of thanks, wrapping slender fingers around the cup and handle before looking at me expectantly.
“I thought I wasn’t supposed to be interrogated until I had to meet the parents,” I teased, taking a sip of the tea to combat the coldness that had nipped my nose on the quick run indoors earlier.
The smell of dino nuggets baking in the microwave oven wafted out of the kitchen and the sounds of children shrieking with laughter at the antics of Doug the dog wafted in.
Alex pouted, a slight jut of his lip out.
I sighed theatrically, as if I were supposing that talking wouldn’t kill me.
“I like to read and write and play guitar and games with my two beautiful little daughters, Sassacaia Marie and Elliot Mora Barakat. I’m an editor at a publishing company and it’s very nice, a steady nine to five job. I like any movies that my kids watch really, bonus points if it’s a Tim Burton. And no, I am currently single. What about you?”
The steam from the tea curled around the rim of the mug, condensing on my fingers.
Alex took a steady drink from his mug, his eyes locked into mine the entire time, almost as if he were trying to decide if he could trust me.
“Well, I like to take care of Owen and play guitar and sing. I used to be in a band with a few friends in high school a while back but then... Things happened and I had to drop out. You already know that the daycare center is crazy busy all the time, kids running around, hitting each other. It’s perfect and utter chaos but I love it, wouldn’t trade it for the world. Plus, everyday is like bring your kid to work day. I will watch anything on tv, don’t care what it is really. And I am single -recently, in fact- as well. But I might have my eye on a cute guy..” Alex trailed off, wiggling his ridiculously thick eyebrows at me.
I rolled my eyes.
“Whatever,” I huffed, completely dodging the question. “You just want extra dino nuggets for dinner.”
“Oh how did you know, Jacky?” Alex batted his eyelashes up at me. Jacky. Only Ven had called me that. The thought made me still, seize up like a statue. I could still see her, just the way she was in that dream?joke?hallucination? before I woke up in the hospital. Happy, healthy, laughing.
The world started swimming around me.
No. No, I have to live, for Ven. I tried inhaling and exhaling slowly but my lungs still felt like they had turned to stone. My fingers dug into the pale wood of the tabletop, raspy breaths rattling in my throat.
What’s wrong with me?
I hated these... Attacks I always got whenever someone even sort of mentioned Ven. They sucked.
Far off in the distance, I heard Alex calling my name, concern evident. I felt something on my hand that was curling and uncurling on the table top.
I felt dizzy, the room wobbling on it’s axis. Fingers were placed under my chin, forcing me to look up. Alex’s face looked hazy, like a veil of thick smoke had descended over my eyesight.
“Jack, breathe.” Alex’s voice sounded distorted, rounded and warped, like I was in a fishtank and he was Darla. “Focus on me, Jack. Sassy and Missy. Think of them, they’ll bring you back.”
They’ll be your guide home...
I took a deep, shuddering breath, and a few shallow ones, to keep my heart from beating right out of my chest. I gulped air down and straightened in my seat.
We sat in silence for a few moments, I taking in short breaths in little sips, Alex watching me with concern lit caramel eyes.
“You alright?” Alex was holding my hand, rubbing his thumb over my knuckles.
“That’s what my wife said to me.”
Alex looked taken back. “Huh?”
“My wife. I used to have a wife but she passed away from cancer,” I blurted out. “When I was in the hospital, I sort of died and saw her and when I asked her how to get back, she told me Missy and Sassy were my guide home.” I was rambling at this point, words just spilling out of my mouth without direction or thought.
Alex stared at me.
I blinked back at him.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, sadness overtaking his eyes.
I laughed shakily. “It’s okay. I miss her, you know? She told me that true love never dies but that I would start to love again, that they, whoever it was, would come to love me.” I ran a shaky hand through my black locks. “She said it’d take me a while, but I’d know.”
Alex’s face fell minutely but before I could get a good look at it, the expression had vanished. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something, a tiny parting of the lips but he settled for closing his mouth again and squeezing my hand.
“It’ll get better. I swear,” Alex said softly, tugging on my hand and before I knew it, he had pulled me around the edge of the table and had enveloped me in a hug.
His arms wrapped around my neck completely, anchoring me to his warm body. My own arms made their tentative way around his body, awkward because of the height difference, what with me standing and him sitting but leaning up into the hug. We stood like that for a few moments, me breathing in the scent of his cologne that suffused my nose, he just holding onto me tight.
It was strange, feeling the heat of his skin seeping through the hoodie he was wearing, the beat of his heart up against mine. But it was a nice strange. It felt... Nice.
When we finally pulled apart, he let his hand linger on my back, rubbing it lightly. I smiled at him, the corners of my lips twitching upwards.
“Thanks for that Alex, I neede-”
I was interrupted by the sound of what seemed like a small herd of stampeding dachshunds and three little voices chanting “Dino nuggets! Dino nuggets!” punctuated by the occasional giggles and squeals of excitement.
A mob of (three) excited five year olds crowded through the doorway, slightly out of breath, having seemingly raced each other down the hall to the the first to the kitchen.
I rolled my eyes at Alex, laughing, the former feeling of comfort disintegrating into one of amusement and happiness.
“Time to feed the ravenous little wolves.”