Since our move to this apartment, my small drinks stash that Mrs. Lurch packed for me, is kept with Keith’s hard liquor bottles in his minibar.
I find an unopened bottle of Bollinger.
I pour the sparkling wine in two glasses and bring them to the coffee table.
When I’m trying to find the perfect position on the couch, where I look seductive but also not like a slut, Snowy pokes her head out of Keith’s bedroom. Her big eyes stare at me, filled with the cat’s famous curiosity. She jumps on the table and sniffs the glasses.
“No, Snowy! Bad girl!”
I find some of her toys from under the dining table and grab them along with her feeding bowls. She follows me into my room. I scratch her head lightly and she purrs as always.
“Now you stay here and be a good girl. Mommy is on a mission tonight.”
I guess I’m ready to become a cat mom, if only her dad was willing to share custody.
I give her some final rubs before leaving the room.
I’m just shutting my bedroom door so that she doesn’t make an appearance mid-show, when the front door closes.
Crap! I don’t get any time to make a seductive sexy pose, instead I’m standing like a deer in headlights when Keith saunters into the living room. It’s a good thing I dimmed the lights before silly Snowy threw my plan into disarray.
His gaze jumps from me to the table and then back to me.
The way he rapidly blinks in nervousness gives me some of that lost power back. Everything is not over yet.
“I…thought you were asleep.” He rakes a hand through his hair, his feet stuck at the landing.
“Sorry to disappoint you.” I swagger to the couch, full of fake courage. “I poured us some drinks.”
I pick up a glass and bring it closer to my lips. I look at him and for a moment I feel like one of those high-end prostitutes trying to eye my next customer. The tightness in my belly loosens a bit at that thought.
“What are you doing?” Keith finally speaks.
“Offering you a drink. It’s a Bollinger 1999 vintage.”
I have no knowledge about alcohol, and that’s mostly because I’ve never had a bad drink. My mom’s wine collection at Hawthorne Estate is heaven for a wine connoisseur. Before leaving Cherrywood, Mrs. Lurch gave me a list of the best wines. When I looked at it this evening, Bollinger 1999 was at the top. Luckily, it was also available in my meager stock.
“I didn’t know you were an oenophile.” He takes a few hesitant steps inside.
Oeno-what? Whatever that is, it doesn’t sound very good. But I don’t let it spoil my mood.
“There are many things you don’t know about me.”
But he doesn’t take the bait. “What’s going on, Clem?”
This time he puts his hand on his waist, standing tall. A posture I know quite well. His rough-and-tough dad posture. He’s trying to intimidate me.
“You can relax, Keith. You don’t need to go all angry dad over me. I’m not a teenager. I’m an adult and that’s what I’m trying to tell you.”
“You are fifteen years younger than me. You might be an adult, but whatever you’re trying to do here is still not right.” He clenches his jaw and his lips press together.
I can see his shoulder muscles corded in tension. I know he’s about to reprimand me, and already planning to send me back to my room after an argument.
Not a chance tonight.
I saunter closer to him, a nervous flicker in his eyes as I don’t respond the way he’d hoped.
“It doesn’t feel wrong to me.” I stand in front of him and place my hand lightly over his savagely thumping chest. Looking into his wide, wild eyes, I place a kiss over his hammering heart.