Lolita has lovers in almost every country of the world. Acquiring them is a fetish of hers that developed- initially at least- quite unintentionally, and rather spontaneously, and has somehow come to resemble a trend that she finds no immediate desire to escape.
Now Lolita is sitting on a couch opposite a man in a hostel in Tehran. He is watching her eat watermelon that is wet and heavy like a swollen clit. The juice is leaking down her chin and she is spitting out the seeds but they are landing on her top, already carelessly stained with wine, or on her bottom lip. He is watching her curl those lips into a half smile to the side of her mouth, which is a bleached pink, and how somehow this makes her cheeks glow. He watches her undress him with her eyes, lazily exotic in a way that is impossibly beautiful.
Lolita is terribly attracted to the man sitting opposite her. He is nearly twice her age and they are both excruciatingly aware of this. He is unbearably good looking and is making her feel slightly light headed and dizzy, and so she just keeps talking and eating and occasionally stops to drown him in languid, sleepy smiles.
* * *
They end up in a teahouse, where he is counting the number of sugar cubes she is using to drink her chai. She is up to six, and hasn't seemed to notice.
You've got nice feet.
She has taken off her socks and shoes that were both dripping from the snow, and her toes are cold and almost purple. He reaches out to touch them.
She looks at him and turns up the corner of her mouth. This is the first time he has touched her and she feels her breathing splutter. She sucks hard on her sugar cube and feels her teeth rotting.
Thanks.
I love the colour you've got on your toes
...
She laughs because this sounds corny. Her fingernails are black, and her toenails aqua, and he points to a dirty colour underneath.
What's that?
There were bits of red from before and I couldn't be bothered to scratch them off so I just painted over them.
The waiter is bringing them more chai, despite having not finished the first lot, and they have managed to attract an audience of hyperactive boys who are giggling over them as if they are the best thing since sliced bread, and teaching them to blow smoke rings from the
qualyan
in wonderful bemusement.
They are asking him how old he is.
Thirty seven.
Siyo haft. And you?
Biste. Twenty.
Twenty!
The boys turn from Lolita to him in awe, as if he is some kind of god.
Twenty?!
Yeah she's cute isn't she?
He grins cheekily and winks, puts his arm around her shoulder and pulls her close affectionately.
The boys seem to resurrect themselves.
She is beautiful when she smiles, isn't she?
This is one of the boys.
He looks at her and his voice softens and lowers a million octaves.
She is
.
Wink.
His contrived charm drowns her with the sensation that she is sinking through ice. She puts her hand on his thigh under the tablecloth. He pretends not to notice. He his holding her foot, still. He watches her, all cold toes and languid smiles, and just wants to hold her.
* * *
Somehow they have ended up spending the entire day together, mainly because they are so magnetised by each other that both of them forget to leave. But this is ok; this is nothing to be concerned about. Now they are driving around the city in no particular direction with their possie of boys giving instructions to the driver. There are eight people in the cab. They are sitting next to each other in amusing disfigurement. She can't breathe, not because of the lack of space but because of the unbearably erotic sensation of being pressed against him.
He grabs her leg and somehow lifts it over his so he can hold her by the thigh like leg of meat, and juice her gently under her coat. She puts her head on his shoulder innocently, and revels in being coveted.
* * *
By now it is nighttime, and somehow they have acquired a motorbike along the way. So he is hooning alongside her on the bike, and she reaches out of the taxi to grab his hand. They drive in and out of traffic, somehow they don't have an accident, and their fingers are twisted around each other and she is blowing him kisses and grinning from the window. It is close to zero degrees and their eyes are both leaking from the wind. The ridiculous music in the taxi and the revving of the bike and the aphrodisiac of the night and the high that he gives her are so deafening that she cannot lose the sensation of being suspended over speed bumps.
When they stop, randomly, in the middle of the road, she jumps out and onto the back of the bike behind him. He holds her thighs behind him and she puts her chin on his shoulder so that their cheeks are touching. This is so uncannily intimate and their cheeks are so cold that they are getting hot flushes from the sensation. For a moment she can hardly hear a thing around her except his breathing, which is heavy, and hot. She feels like a kitten as she latches on and buries herself into him. She kisses his ears, discreetly, behind her hijab, which keeps flying off but she no longer cares if she gets arrested. Her heart stopped minutes ago. Since then her blood has been running on electricity.
When they stagger off the bike she is feeling kaleidoscopic. He is watching her shoelaces trawl in the dirt and her wiping her hands on her pants. This is so unceremonious it is attractive. She is retying her clothes and scarves with safety pins and as she does this she holds them in her mouth. She pins the leftovers to the bottom of her pants, where she has dodgily sewn three rows of embroidered ribbon to the hem. Momentarily he is preoccupied with this, and watches in bemused speculation. She is oblivious to his gaze, and, because of this, he cannot help being turned on.
Then she is looking at him quizzically, and smiling.
I love that beanie,
is all she says.
* * *
By now they are giddy and giggling like a couple of school kids. They are back at the dodgy hostel and she is handing over rials for the room. He puts her money away.
It's alright, I've got it....
And then
I've got more money than you