Vamp

Copyright @ calibeachgirl All rights reserved, 2012

Thanks to my copy editor estragon...

Lorelei sat up the next morning, alone in the bed. It had been so long since she had slept, she had almost forgotten what it felt like to awaken. Jade had never come to bed and when Lorelei sensed her, she realized the beautiful woman had spent the night on the patio, now wet from the coastal fog. How it was possible she had been unaware what her lover had done, she did not know.

"Jade?" she reached out quietly, unsure how to continue. "Jade?" Lorelei put on a robe and slippers and walked to the patio. Jade was sitting, her knees up and together, wrapped by her arms, humming a nameless melancholy tune. "Darling, come in, it's damp out here."

Jade looked up, preoccupied with her own thoughts. It was the first time that Lorelei had ever called her anything but 'Jade'. She slowly left the Adirondack chair and accepting Lorelei's hand, walked back into the house. "I want..."

"What do you want, Jade? Tell me and I will get it for you." Still Jade hesitated. Lorelei had never seen her lover so heartbroken. She attempted to see what had distressed her so but was unable to do so. That in itself was troubling. There was something missing but she couldn't tell what. She determined to find out, no matter what the cost.

"I don't know. I'm going to rest now." With that, she left Lorelei and went into the bedroom and lay on the bed, one arm across her eyes, blocking out the rising sun shining through the windows.

Lorelei walked into the kitchen where Juanita was fixing breakfast. "I don't think that Jade will be eating this morning but please put together some fruit and cereal in case she changes her mind."

"Sí, Señora." The woman opened the refrigerator and looked in, moved a few things around and then gave a satisfied laugh.

Jade spent most of the morning in the bedroom staring at the dimly lit ceiling. Her mind, subconsciously working at her dilemma, ran through her encounter with the kidnapper and the boy. She wanted to speak to Lorelei about it, wondering if her lover had ever had the same needs... the same desires.

..........

Late that afternoon, Jade slowly walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator, looking for something, anything to eat.

"Señorita Jade, what can I get you?" asked Juanita, carefully following her into the room. "Would you like some eggs or...?"

"Just a little orange juice, please... maybe, some toast." Jade sat down and looked out the window at the Pacific, still clouded in fog. She had forgotten her sunglasses in the bedroom and considered going back for them.

"Sí, raisin toast with some butter..." Juanita put two slices into the toaster and poured out enough juice to fill the tall glass on the table. There was silence in the room except for the call of seabirds outside. The toaster popped up the bread, startling her. After two years with the two women, she could sense something was amiss.

"Would you like anything else?" The woman stood there, wiping her hands on her apron, worried for the woman she thought of as still a girl.

"No, thank you. I'm... good." Jade took the toast slices, spread the butter onto them, and watched it melt into the cinnamon swirls. As was her quirky habit, she took small bites and put down the toast after each one.

"I can fix you, maybe some eggs?" Juanita had her hand on the refrigerator door.

"No, thank you. I'm just not that hungry today." Jade put down the second slice and looked at it, not wanting to finish. They remained silent and still, exchanging a mutual sympathy that Jade found strangely strengthening. She took a drink and set down the glass. "I'll be gone, today. Please tell Lorelei." She pushed the chair back and walked to the hallway closet to get a coat against the sea-borne chill. "I'll be back in a while."

Jade thought about taking her car but decided to walk. She had enjoyed her long journeya to Fisherman's Wharf and decided to just walk. Jade shyly smiled and wiped her eyes. She found herself at the Italian grocery, still open after so many years. Jade went inside, eventually left sipping an espresso and continued to the open ocean side of the peninsula. She gathered her coat around her, braving the damp cold and wondering why they were still living in San Francisco rather than somewhere much warmer, like San Diego.

Thoughts of swaying palm trees and warm breezes filled her mind but did little to assuage a nagging ache that lurked just below the surface of her heart. Her problem, she soon realized, was not that there was a problem but that she didn't know what the problem was.

There still was astonishment in the newspapers about the miraculous discovery of the small boy near the waterfront. Astounding, she thought, that one so small would be able to survive in such a hostile environment without any apparent trauma, physical or mental. She felt a connection with the boy but could not fathom why or how.

Toward sundown, she started walking back to the house, determined to ask Lorelei why they were still living in San Francisco ,when it was so cold and damp. While moving the gallery would be problematic, it was not impossible. She pushed her hands deep into her pockets and hunched over.

Jade returned to the grocery and stopped for a sandwich from the deli inside, knowing that Juanita would probably be upset with her. The woman took great pride in her cooking skills.

Giovanni stood behind the deli counter, watching the strangely beautiful Asian girl before him. "Buona sera, signorina. How may I help you?" He set his knife down from the Romano.

She looked at him, at his dark hair, at his brooding eyes. They seemed to share sympathy and compassion and some of her pain was easing.

"Mi chiamo Giovanni".

"What?" she asked, not really listening to his words, instead studying his face, looking for something she desperately wanted.

"My name is Giovanni. What would you like to eat?" He looked at the cheeses and meats in the case, already seeking to please her, reaching for the best he had to offer.

"Your choice," she said. He was the first person she had really seen on her walk. Now she was speaking with a total stranger, she felt better as her mind reached out to him, shedding some of the burden she had been carrying alone.

He began to tell her of the different types of ham and cheese and she nodded, doing her best to be interested because she recognized that both of them needed to retreat from the intensity of their emerging emotions. Looking at the slim woman, he wondered what made her so fascinating; she was so different from the Italian girls he usually dated and he wondered why her hair was so white.

He picked up two crusty rolls, cut them, spread some oil and vinegar and then began to slice from the most expensive meats and cheeses he had, finally putting tomatoes and lettuce together with the rest. Looking at her eyes for he could do no other, he carefully wrapped the sandwiches in waxed paper and passed one to her. Walking from behind the counter, he pulled two Strawberry Crushes from the cooler. "Here, please," he said. "Eat this while I fix some manicotti. You'll like it." He took her by the hand and led her into the small kitchen in the back of the store next to the storage room.

His eyes meshed with hers, his strength in the lift of his chin, the directness of his gaze. She was amazed that she felt the way she did... for the first time in almost sixty years she was attracted to a man... not any man, this man.

"I'm terribly sorry," she said. He nodded as he felt the depth of her strange attraction in those few words spoken with such deep sincerity. "Things happen... things you want to say amuse you or make you sad or..."

His mind was filled with scenes of longing, not so much for love... no, that wasn't true, it was love, love for a child that did not exist, that couldn't exist. The desolation, he thought, the waste of a life... two lives. He looked away but she had already seen the betraying shine of tears in his eyes and she felt an outpouring of sympathy, if not for herself, for the child that never was. He was confused and not confused... so many years belying her youthful appearance.

After a long, long while she sighed and said gently, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"I'm sorry that you had to live that. I can't pretend to understand what has happened or your decision to come here tonight but..." He left the rest unspoken, knowing that she knew what he meant.

He cleared his throat. "I think we should eat." He locked the door and, returning, pulled out a chair for her. "Per favore, siede con me, sit with me." Not once did he wonder at her ability to understand his Italian, taking for granted she knew what he was saying.

"Amerei fare ciò, I'd like that," she said fervently. Hope filled her; he was touched by her situation and would surely help her, she thought.

Jade managed to eat half of the food he had set before her before she pushed away her plate still filled with manicotti and prosciutto and Romano. "I can't wait any longer. We have to... to talk. I can't rest 'til we do."

"I agree," he said, standing up and stretching out his hand. "I think my appetite for food is gone, too. Shall we walk along the beach?"

Tense and nervous, not for her safety but for what she wanted, what she needed, she went with him down to the shore. Because of the narrowness of the steps she had to follow behind and her eyes kept drifting to the broad sweep of his shoulders, the narrow hips, the warm strength of his hand as it clasped hers. She wanted to reach out and smooth her fingers over his back, to feel the softness of his hair, the scent of his skin. She was confused. Hurt by worry, doubt, fear, weakened by emotion and longing for a child... yet, what of Lorelei?

She reached out with her mind to his. He turned and smiled gently. "All right?" he asked softly.

"Mmmmmm."

"You need someone to hold you, to want you, to love you." His arm encircled her waist, holding her tightly and she felt she would fall apart if he didn't... yet, what of Lorelei?

All her upbringing told her to run away as fast as she could and return to the familiar safety of Lorelei's arms... all her instincts were telling her to fling herself into his arms and beg for his kisses.

Her emotions radiated out like ripples on the surface of an otherwise still pond. She found him deeply attractive. The moonlight made his skin gleam like gold to her disordered senses. She wondered what her life was going to be like.

They reached the beach and walked along the sand as she tried hard not to let the magic fly away like dust before a storm. The pleasure of being with someone who understood the terrible emptiness she had felt all these years, the deafening silence of a house with no children and the starkness of a life spent never knowing a child's perfect love.

"I understand what you are looking for," he said, "and why."

She saw his family, the children, the parents, the others. "Then... help me," she begged.

Still he hesitated. "I'm not sure I can. What will tomorrow bring... for us?"

"I don't know... my life has always been what is here and now." She wanted him to love her on his own, not with the gentle nudging that she and Lorelei had so deftly used for years.

"You need protection... from yourself." He was nervous, looking at her timeless face.

"I want you to make love to me." She was anxious, searching for what she wanted.

"Are you sure?" He never thought it would come to this, at least not so soon.

"You can't refuse me," she pleaded, her voice shaking. "Please!"

He was totally still. Every breath seemed frozen in his body. He only felt the beat of his heart leaping against her cheek where she'd pressed it to his chest in a final plea for love... and, she waited.

Absently, he stroked her hair. "Do you mean that?" he asked quietly.

"Yes... yes... yes." Her need overwhelmed her desire to have him come on his own and she reached out, encircling his mind, his soul, his heart.

"I can't resist you. I don't want to resist you." He held her tighter, ignoring the coolness of her skin.

Somehow they were both deep within each other's arms. She cried into his chest, her sobs wetting his shirt. "I'm grateful," she sobbed. "I put all my hopes for my loneliness in coming to you."

He stroked her back gently and waited for her tears to subside and then he smiled at her uplifted face and for the first time, kissed her.

To her surprise, she found herself kissing him back as if it were the most natural thing in the world, her arms around his neck, her fingers laced at the back of his head. The only sound was the waves rushing onto the beach and the moan from her heart.

"Penso che sono innamorato di tu." He kissed her, deep and probing, bringing warmth to her coolness, wondering where she had been all his life.

"After tonight, after all we've shared, I know I can trust you," she thought as he listened in his own heart. I know about your unhappiness and you know about mine. Devo andare... I must go..." She broke from his embrace and raced down the beach, leaving him alone in the dark.

..........

Jade entered the house with the morning sun, catching Juanita by chance as the woman was sorting the whites from the colors in the laundry room. "Buenos días, Señorita Jade." The strange habits of the two women no longer concerned her.

"Buenos días." Jade had an enigmatic smile on her face, which surprised Juanita. "May I have some breakfast, please?"

Juanita felt the change in Jade as soon as she spoke. The indifferent edge that had marked her voice for the last two years had gone, replaced by a more jubilant tone. "You are in a happy mood this morning."

"Oh, well... uh, thank you," she replied, suddenly realizing her emotions, radiating from her heart, were affecting the other woman. What would Lorelei say, she wondered. She thought of Giovanni and their walk along the shore. What to do?

A little after ten o'clock that morning, Lorelei entered the kitchen. No words were spoken; she knew what Jade had done. She touched her lover's arm softly and kissed her cheek. "Good morning, my love," she quietly said.

Juanita put down her cup of coffee and immediately started Lorelei's morning tea. How she had forgotten to do it, she wondered.

Lorelei stood behind Jade and with her hands on the other's shoulders, began to gently massage her. Jade responded, as usual, with a soft shrug, trying to push herself into the rubbing hands that much more.

A silent conversation ensued, one woman to the other. Lorelei saw everything that had happened and wasn't sure what to do, what to say. She could not forbid Jade to see him, she wasn't like that. If her love wasn't enough to keep Jade, then she was better off free to follow her own needs, but she knew that would be a lonely path to walk. Unless...

"You need someone to hold you," she said, touching her paramour.

..........

Jade and Lorelei walked down to the Italian store, looking for Giovanni.

"Belle ragazze, benvenuto al mio mercato". The good-looking Italian smiled at the two women before him, and if their identical white hair concerned him he gave no indication.

"Buona mattina, Giovanni. Questa è... questa è il mia migliore amica, Lorelei".

"Buona mattina, Signorina Lorelei. Lei è una molto bella donna."

"Grazia, Giovanni, lei è più cortese". Lorelei returned his smile and gave him a feeling of contentment. He turned and went to the pastry counter, returning quickly with a plate of chocolate chip canoli and rum cakes. "Mangia, piace". He crossed his arms, waiting for them to taste his offerings. "I made them myself," he said. "I hope you like them."

Jade stood there, all her feelings pushing her to fling her arms around him, to let him crush her to him, to beg for his kisses... anything.

"Questi sono magnifici". Lorelei took another bite of the rum cake and licked her lips. "You are a master. I've had..." She wistfully thought back to her time in Napoli before the Great War, before Mussolini, before the bad times.

Giovanni brought over another plate of cakes. "Signora dolce, questi sono per lei".

Lorelei could see why Jade was enamored with him. He was as sweet as his pastries and a very good-looking man.

"So, tell me," she said, "how did you meet my Jade?" A simple question for which he had no simple answer. How could he explain the whirlwind of passion that overwhelmed him the night before when he first saw the Chinese girl? In his heart, he thought of her as a young woman, a lovely girl, someone he now found himself madly in love with and for his life, he could not explain either how or why.

Lorelei saw in his mind a similar scene to what Jade had shared, a longing for love and family but from his point of view, more erotic than romantic and yet, romance was still something he wanted. There were visions of dark-haired beauties and family weddings and nights alone. She learned what she wanted and made a decision. She could do no less.

"Giovanni, I would like to invite you to dinner at our house tonight... say, about eight o'clock."

Between his need for Jade and the force of Lorelei's 'invitation', there was little he could do but acquiesce. "Grazia. Sarei felice di venire. Porterò il dessert".

Lorelei filled his subconscious with the need for spumoni and rum cakes and the two women returned to the house.

.........

Juanita showed no surprise when Lorelei said there would be three for dinner but was shocked just the same. In all the time she had been in the house, there had never been a dinner guest... or any guest, for that matter. She raised an eyebrow but then walked into the kitchen as quickly as she could, not wishing to antagonize her employer.

All day, Jade went about the house, almost humming in her soul, which she seemed to have found, once again. Was this how people felt in love, she wondered. She felt love for Lorelei but it was different... not better, just different. It sounded so trite, even as she thought it... how many people have said it wasn't better, just different. But... it was.

On the hour, he arrived, carrying a bouquet of flowers for Lorelei, a box of chocolates from Italy for Jade and a large box of sweetcakes and two quarts of spumoni. Juanita helped him with his packages, putting everything onto the kitchen table. As she opened the freezer for the spumoni, he took a rose from the bouquet and presented it to her, telling her how it paled in comparison to her smiling beauty. She giggled like a schoolgirl.

He sat on the long side of the table, flanked by each woman, Jade to his left, Lorelei to his right. The first course was stuffed peppers. Lorelei had purposely chosen an Italian theme for the dinner to make him feel at home. It was, she realized, a slight risk but chose to rely on Juanita's skill in the kitchen rather than make him think the meal was delicious.

Zuppa di zucchini was next. The green soup impressed him. Even his mother rarely made it and it was delicious. He could taste the chicken and having seen the kitchen, knew that Juanita had made it from scratch rather than using prepared stock from a can.

During dinner, he regaled them with stories of his fishermen uncles and their boats that sailed near the Farrallon Islands off the San Francisco coast. As much as he admired them, he had no desire to spend his life rocking along the Pacific, fighting for a catch in the shark-infested waters and the hard life exposed to the capricious ocean weather. One summer working with them was enough. Lorelei searched his mind, seeking for laziness but found none, just a desire to do better for himself. Although he had not been able to attend college, she found a sharp wit and a willingness to please the woman who would love him.