Lady of Sparta

The thoughts of Aristides’s lips on mine still floated through my head. It had been a couple of days since it happened, and we hadn’t talked about it. It wasn’t like I brought it up. I didn’t know what to say, and he seemed just the same. There was a moment yesterday that he was going to say something, but he quickly stopped after saying my name.

A knock on the door snapped me out of my thoughts. I pulled myself to my feet and saw Germaine, standing on the other side of the door. “Hello,” I greeted her.

“Good morning, Gemma. I’m just dropping by to see how you are doing,” Germaine said. Her red hair was straight this time. I remembered that her hair was curly the first time I saw her. It seemed to make her face appear to be longer than it really was.

“I’m fine. Embry came by the other day, but he didn’t have any news,” I replied, letting her walk into the house.

“I hate when he does that. He seems to think that the people stuck in the wrong time zone want to know that they haven’t come up with anything,” she mentioned. It was more to herself than to me. Her face filled with something for a second. Something came to her, but she shook off the thought. “Anyways, I’m assuming you hate being stuck inside.”

I didn’t know what possessed me, but I told her about the time where I sat outside in the night. I didn’t tell her about the kiss. Something told me that I shouldn’t tell her. Well, I didn’t want her to know about it. It was something that happened between Aristides and me, not her. It was something that I wanted to keep to myself.

“Only Aristides saw you, right?” she asked. I nodded, and she continued, “Well, I guess it helps your sanity to see the scenery, and it’s the safest thing for you.”

Germaine sat on the crate trying to think of something. It appeared to be like that she didn’t want to leave just yet, and I didn’t feel like throwing her out. Her green eyes fixated on her hands. She was trying to find something to say.

“Germaine, do you not want to go home?” I asked, getting her attention.

“Not really. Gaston is hiding something from me,” she said, opening up.

“I thought Gaston was the one who was supposed to help me get back to my time zone.” I looked at her confused. I didn’t know who this Gaston was, and I was just hoping that I wasn’t getting into something that I shouldn’t.

“He is, but he is also my boyfriend. He is usually telling me everything. It’s just something seems to be up with him, and it’s making me worry,” she admitted.

I didn’t know what to say at first, but I eventually just told her that things might get better. I wasn’t good with relationship advice. I just seemed like a failure at times especially with some of my relationships. Trevor was one of the most recent ones, and I was still pissed about how he didn’t care about my interests. He only cared that he had someone on his arm who would agree with everything he did. I could only hope that he wasn’t waiting for me to come back to Florida, so he could continue to pester me.

“That’s what I’m hoping. I just want to know what it is that he is hiding from me,” she replied. “Anyways, I do hope that things are getting better.”

The day passed quickly. Germaine didn’t leave. She didn’t talk about Gaston. In fact, she wanted to know how I was adjusting to this time era. I told her as much as I could without telling her things that she shouldn’t know. I didn’t want to tell her about Aristides’s wife. I felt like it wasn’t her business for her to know.

Aristides walked into the room. He looked at me with and then noticed Germaine. “What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to see how she was doing. She doesn’t need to be completely cut from socializing,” Germaine answered with a smile.

Aristides nodded and went to his room. It was clear that he didn’t want to spend time with her. I couldn’t tell why, and I wasn’t sure if I should go check on him. Germaine sighed, calling my attention back to her.

“Well, I guess I’m going to go,” she told me, standing up. “I stayed too long anyways.”

When she left, Aristides didn’t come out of his room. I was tempted to knock on the door, but I figured that I shouldn’t worry about it. He probably wanted time alone. It was best for him to let him think things through himself. The thoughts of what happened were starting to circle in my head again. A part of me wanted to talk about it. I just wanted to know what he was thinking about it. I just wanted to know what he felt about me, and I guessed that could have been a bad thing.