I hope you read it, I hope you like it, and I hope you think of me. Enjoy, little one!
"You noticed that I had
The Starry Night
above the fireplace, right? Of course, it's not an original or a high-class reproduction. Just a print that an old friend of mine gave me as a gift - it's my favorite work, and she knew that."
Alexander and Kate stepped off the elevator into the modestly lit hallway leading to the apartment. The scene was not one of unbridled passion and unstoppable lust; their passions sated for the moment. Instead, it was simply Alexander holding Kate's hand as he guided her down the hallway towards his home. The ride back had been fun. They laughed about their antics at the restaurant and simply allowed their lives to be the focus for the moment; they allowed themselves to be happy.
"I never got too much into the really famous artists. I always leaned more towards lesser known ones, not just famous painters. More Carl Andre than Van Gogh," she pronounced it in the American style. "Williams looks like he should be making comics, and it's just so interesting of a style - nothing I had seen before. You know, stuff like that."
Alexander nodded thoughtfully as he unlocked the door. "What about Thomas? Alma Thomas?" he asked, watching her eyes to see the reaction as the door opened.
"Expressionist art was never really my thing. Still good, of course. But kind of like a really good salad when you are hungry for a burger. You can recognize that it's good quality even if you pass on it."
Their conversation about art went on for a while. Kate meandered through his living room while Alexander sat comfortably with a tall glass of water. She gave her opinions, and listened thoughtfully to his while touching his things with delicate fingers. The entertainment unit that opened to his television set was played with, gently opening and closing again. She moved onto his Bluetooth speaker, his dining room table, and then to the windows, with a balcony leading right out into the Seattle skyline, glittering with the stars of buildings far away and the cars blasting through the city. The balcony was simple enough, concrete base, and a steel fence-like guard rail a bit higher than 5 feet with enough space to reach an arm between the gaps but little else. Alexander, with his height, could lean down and rest his hands on it as though he were on the cover of a novel.
As she rested her hand on some minimalist sculpture, she became aware the conversation had shifted. "It might not ever make a Presidential summer reading list, but I've always been a fan of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings." She giggled a bit at that. "What is it?" he asked, smirking as though he had said something embarrassing.
"When you're growing up, you expect adults to be one thing - more grown up. With that comes certain," she fumbled for a moment, rocking the small statue back and forth on its peg, always fidgeting. She didn't want to sound stupid in front of him. "With that comes certain expectation. Adults are supposed to listen to high-brow music, read interesting novels, and be interested in history. They don't play video games or read Harry Potter. Now that I'm an adult I'm realizing more that people," she hesitated again as Alexander nodded attentively, encouraging her to continue. "I realize that adults are just kids with more years, and people don't really drastically change from when they were young."
"Everybody does what everybody wants. And you just try to find a way to make life enjoyable. There's no big secret. A few years on you doesn't really give me much more authority on life than you have. It's all opinions and perspectives."
The conversation shifted again as the moon rose higher in the sky and the streets began to empty, Alexander showing off some of his philosophy, a bit of his wisdom, and making her laugh as he connected the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Hogwarts' Houses as a way to categorize personality traits. They talked easily, Kate realizing slowly that Alexander and she had more in common than just a vested interest in the Domination and submission that they had explored earlier. She blushed at the thought, pursing her lips and looking down and away for a moment to hide her thoughts. It had only been mere hours that she had spread her legs for him in a public restroom. She bit her lip and a small shiver passed through her. She pushed the thoughts away and focused again on Alexander.
They spoke easily, until Alexander began to unbutton his shirt while standing to return his glass to the kitchen. She looked at his hands working the fabric lose and exposing his bare chest. For the first time today, she felt like she needed to avert her eyes - a fact that Alexander noticed immediately.
"What is it?"
"I'm - I'm actually a bit," pausing again to restart, blushing softly and speaking just as softly. "I've had a lot of fun today. It's been different than I ever expected I would spend a day. But I liked it, a lot. I'm a bit tired now though...and a bit sore," she fidgeted again.
"I just like to sleep in something a bit less than fully dressed for dinner. Today has been great, but just because we want to hold onto one day doesn't mean we shouldn't sleep soon. I wasn't suggesting sex again." Alexander responded, crossing his arms over his chest, drawing the shirt back closed and looking her in the eye. "You have nothing to apologize for."
She looked up at him and grinned softly. "Thank you, Alex." He pursed his lips but quickly smiled. He would have to talk to her about his name eventually.
Alexander's apartment was furnished in a way to prevent the early morning sun from waking him rudely; he already was bad enough at sleeping. All the same, curtains can't black out all of the sunlight and in the early morning hours, the rising sun started to make the outline of the curtains glow and put just enough light out to stir him. He opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling. He might have been used to being sleep deprived but it sometimes was a cause for grumpy feelings all the same. Until he turned his head to face Kate. She was still snoring softly, her hair an absolute mess, and he smiled silently to himself, turning his body away from her and standing up slowly as to not disturb her. The blankets had shifted in a chaotic manner, betraying that neither of them was used to sleeping next to another person, and her breasts were exposed now to that dim morning glow. He felt calm, closer to her than he had felt with anyone in a long time. And he was happy about that.
He pulled himself from the bed and walked to the bathroom, his nudity feeling slightly awkward in the sober morning hours. He was never a great sleeper, now perhaps even less. HIs mornings were routine to him, shower, groom himself, dress, fresh air on the balcony, check his phone for horrible world news online, and any sort of updates about his personal or friends' lives, and then breakfast. The first three happened without any break from the routine but as he stepped through the door onto the balcony to use his e-cig (a habit that he was still sure was better than smoking, although he wanted to quit that too) he heard footsteps behind him. Releasing a cloud into the air, he turned to see Kate, wrapped again in a sheet tightly to protect her body from the not-quite-dawn step to the doorway of the balcony. Smiling, he reached his hand out to her. "Good morning, little one."
"Alex!" she said with a tone of incredulousness, "I'm naked!"
"Then we'd better super make sure that no cars drive by up here on the 17th floor." He chuckled sarcastically. He had no neighbors with a balcony facing out on this side of the building. And with that he leaned forward to grab her hand and pull her out. "Trust me," he said with a wide smile on his face, his mood improving now that she was here. He had worried that he would have to spend hours without her this morning.
She was still incredibly shy, making sure to pull her sheet at tight around her as she could. The sky was that dim grey of about 5AM on an autumn morning. It was Alexander's favorite time of day, when the city is quiet and individual cars can be heard far below. It was the time of day nobody made demands on him, nobody needed help, there were no crises to solve. It was just peaceful. And he moved Kate to join him in his early morning ritual, one of her hands tightly around her breast and the sheet, the other on the thick, brown handrail surrounding the balcony.
"I love this time of day. It's just so peaceful. There's really no other word to describe it," he told her, cluing her into his thoughts.
They stood there for some time, watching the few cars drive around, the few walking people far below, oblivious. Their bare feet were cool and damp from the dew of the concrete.
"I should still be asleep for about 3 more hours," Kate finally said, very quietly, not wanting to break the peace of Alexander blowing another thick cloud into the sky. He burst out laughing at this and smiled, wide again. The deep laugh broke the silence of the air as he looked at her.
"I never sleep well - never have been any good at it. Lots of things I am good at, not that though. I haven't used an alarm for nearly a decade. I get up at about 5AM without any sort of alarm going off. I always told my colleagues or friends or students that if I miss a morning appointment or class or whatever because I've slept to long - let me sleep, because chances are I'm dreadfully sick."
She scooted closer, smiling softly at his joyful voice. There really was no other way to describe this, except peaceful. She leaned closer, her head finding the crook of his arm and resting it there as his arm wrapped around her.
