Christmas Eve: Y2K
Simulated flakes flutter lightly in sixty-seven degrees of southern winter. Yards away an ice-truck continues to generate faux snow. Palm trees wrapped in white-spiral, icicle lights decorate the walkway. Luminously tall, primary colored candy canes-compliment the topiary, fashioned in the likeness of toy soldiers.
At the center of the lake stood the park's centerpiece highlight, a ceramic-crafted water fountain emitting red and green festive hues. The curvaceous amp theatre showcases the sounds of The Swan Brook Park Choir.
"I can appreciate the gesture but I have a hard time feeling Christmas. It's just not like home up north." Darius spoke. "See, I have to nearly freeze my face off before I can start feeling any of this."
"It's our first Christmas here. What's with all the grumbling? And, how did all this love for snow come about? Thought you hated it?"
"Other than maybe a quick stroll or the view outside a window, I have no use for it. My back twitches just thinking about all the shoveling I had to do over the years."
"See, all the more reason for you to appreciate all of this." She flexed her nostrils, sighing deeply. "No, it's not like Long Island at all. It wasn't like Long Island when I grew up going to Waikiki Beach for Christmas. And, just like here, we had to pretend it was winter wonderland too because it would just rain and rain for days. So, if I can get use to it, so can you." She kissed his hand while it held hers, interlaced.
"Maybe it's because we spent so much moving down here that we're broke. Not for nothing but it sucks being broke around this time. Could be why I'm struggling with feeling this."
"Stop it!" She poked Darius on the side. "Come, try!" She said in her island accent. "We have too many reasons to be grateful, no? This is a new beginning for us and I'm totally happy about our relationship. Where we're going...all that! "
"I know. Trust me, I feel honored just to have you in my life. Shit wouldn't be right without you. I want us to start making some babies, find that white picket home."
"Honey, I love you, but go easy- you just got a job. What's the name of that place again...Sorrento's Cruises?"
"Serenity, as in at ease, I start the job after New Year's day."
She studied Darius' looks for a moment. His abrupt commitment to silence and motion concerned her. "You just went quiet...what is it?"
"I'm off somewhere as usual just listening to the chorus."
"Are you being sarcastic?"
"No, I'm actually feeling this song. There's innocence to it all."
Darius stops mid-walkway. He brings her body closer to his, walks her backwards, flush against the back of a vibrating speaker. He sips in the awe and view of her hazel eyes peering back at his Polynesian angel, dreamingly.
Beneath her pillowed breasts, he sensed her breathing, heart-beating to his orchestral movements in the sea of strung up Christmas lights.
"You're warm." He acknowledges, stroking her hand.
Darius savors her toffee skin, while neon lit figurines blinked into his peripherals. "Maybe it's all that hot chocolate heating up your insides."
"So what did you ask Santa for Christmas?" She pushes her pelvis closer to him.
"Nothing, you've already gifted me. But, I'm sure I can think of ways to have you..."
"You know, you keep getting kinkier and kinkier the more we spend time together. Last year we ditched the condoms and started practicing unsafe sex, pulling out.
I'm almost afraid to think about what you have planned this year for our Christmas Eve anniversary." She looks at his face, playfully mocking him.
She moves her left arm around his waist but uses the other to minimize him from closing in towards her face. His kisses are met with some shyly resistance, since she dislikes all public signs of affection. Their eyes meet with unspoken clarity.
"I just want one thing for Christmas," he pulled her closer and grabbed a palm full of taut, firm ass. The scent of her Pheromones slowly arose.
"I want to have anal sex." He ripped the words from his chest.
"Great...!" she pushed him away. "We'll look for a long carrot and then use some of that chicken base to grease you up..."
"I'm serious! You know what I mean."
"You want me... back there." She motioned her head. "Alright," she spoke after a long pause. "...say I give it up to you what's next? Why does it have to be so raw? Am I not good enough?"
He pecks her on the forehead. "Sex and us, it's all wonderful. It's no doubt, otherworldly and bomb. We just need to look at expanding it a bit."
"After four years, I just got use to your fingers stretching it never mind thinking about your...we can't talk about this here. It just doesn't feel right. C'mon we're in front of the nativity scene." Her tone suggested sarcasm.
"Okay, I finally get what you're saying about Christmas. I guess I got locked in Scrooge for the moment. Ohhh, hold up! I can hear my favorite. Okay, we're feeling it now!" Darius boomed excitedly while a handful of passerby flashed strange smiles to his marked enthusiasm.
"I think they're going into Christmas Time is Here from the Charlie Brown special. You know the one they give..."
"Okay, it's yours!" She interrupts.
"What's mine? Go ahead, say it nasty and proud!"
"...my ass! Now let's get out of this park before the clouds speak and we turn into stone." She tugs on Darius' sleeve as they cross through respective turnstiles, hands still interlaced.
"We're taking this to Peaches!" He broke, while they scanned the jam-filled lots for his black sedan. They jumped in and then turned several blocks away, into a neighboring plaza, where Darius sought the dim-lit confines to park.
"Now your reasons for parking this far away are...?" She motioned her hands. She then questions his need to pick up a Charlie Brown Christmas CD late in the evening.
She accompanies him to the store but then questions his motives once again. "...because I want to make love to you." Darius broke, while the keys remained dangling from the ignition. "Your reasons for asking questions you have the answers to are...?" "We can't do this now!" She breaks. Darius moves his ebony sedan back into a parking space concealed beneath the spread of palm trees and darkness.
"Stop worrying!"
"What do you mean stop worrying? This isn't like five years ago. We're married we have a condo. Yes, a bed and a private place for us."
"I know," he crossed under her, guiding her body so that she could pass over him and into the driver's spot. Clumsily, her elbow struck the steering wheel and her forehead scraped the side of the overhead visor. "I have more room here in the passenger's.