Whorticulture: Part IV
Every time Samuel closed his eyes, he pictured the door slamming behind her. He could still hear its echo if he listened hard enough.
A stupid fight. The stupidest. The prospect of dinner with Lilith's parents had morphed into an utter tornado that ended in her packing an overnight bag and leaving the house for the nearest hotel. Samuel had considered going to a movie a few times since, but couldn't seem to get himself up off the couch.
You hurt the ones you love most,
his mother used to say. And he
was
hurt. Still, his dry eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Why was it he could never cry when he needed to? All he wanted to do was apologize. To feel her arms around him. He'd hug himself if the idea wasn't so childish.
"Don't be a wimp," he muttered. But he didn't have enough pride left to mean it.
Bang.
Samuel jumped to his feet. A great crash had come from the guest bedroom. He glanced out the window over his shoulder to see an early moon had appeared. Great, just what he needed in the wake of his misery--his fiancΓ©e's weird pet sex-plant destroying their furniture.
Samuel stalked across the living room and threw open the door.
"Oh!" said a surprised voice. "Fancy seeing you here."
Samuel backed up against the wall.
Eros tentacular
was nowhere in sight. However, standing in the middle of the room amid a pile of mulch and shards of pottery was the strangest...woman? He couldn't tell. The strangest
something
he had ever seen.
The creature stood almost six feet tall. It--she?--was naked. Her green, slimy skin pulsed and glistened in the low light. A mane of thick, roiling tentacles rolled down her body like braids, parting over her chest to reveal a pair of mammoth breasts. They hung to her navel, drawing the eye to wide hips, soft thighs...and between them, inviting folds of moistened flesh.
Samuel tore his gaze away and looked at her face. Whatever she was, she was startlingly pretty. Her violet eyes were lined with sweeping lashes, parted lips full and glistening.
Luscious.
It was the only word he could think to describe her. But that didn't answer his biggest question.
"You can
talk
?" he choked. The creature giggled.
"Only in this form, silly. I have a mouth now." As if it underscore her point, a long, dripping tongue emerged, uncoiling like a snake's to tease the air.
"How did you get out of your pot?" Samuel swallowed but his throat was still dry.
"I heard a man in distress and thought I could help. It's polite, see?"
"I--" He glanced out the window, half expecting Lilith to be on the other side, glowering. He had
not
asked her here, whatever she was. "Look--what's your name?"
"I don't have one."
"Whatever. I think you should leave."
He checked the window again, paranoid now. She followed his gaze, then with unexpected grace crossed the room and snapped the shade shut.