Page 74 of One Week
The thought doesn’t leave me as I ease myself into one of the modern curved chairs at the kitchen table. I’m with him right now. He’s all mine, if only for a week. When I say goodbye, he’ll no longer be mine. I know it will hurt so much. I try not to think about it.
Dinner is delicious. I’ve left my phone in Eli’s bedroom and haven’t looked at it all day. I don’t want any more messages from John. I know it might not quite be responsible but just for a few hours, I want this time with Eli. I don’t want to think about my other life. I know I’m being incredibly selfish, and it’s not in my nature to be so. I’ve always put others before me. But maybe it’s time to be a little selfish.
Following dinner, we play a quick game of Scrabble and I kick Eli’s behind, and we argue over whether ‘quartzy’ is a word. I say it is, and he says it isn’t. It wins me the game.
I’m perusing his DVD collection when I spot one of my favorite movies ever. “I can’t believe you have this movie.” I’m giddy. I smile at the sight of the dog on roller skates, and Uma Thurman tangled up in his leash. Oddly, Ben Chaplin doesn’t seem as dreamy as he used to be.
He’s finishing up in the kitchen — the sight of him with a dish towel is sexier than words can describe. I love a man in the kitchen. “Which one?” he asks.
“TheTruth about Cats and Dogs,” I tell him. “It’s one of my favorites. I love Janeane Garofalo.”
He smiles. “Oh that…” He smiles. “That was one of Clara’s. I guess she forgot that too.”
“Did you ever watch it?”
“Will you judge me if I say I did?”
I laugh. “I’ll judge you positively.”
“Well, in that case,” he says, inching closer to me. “I loved it.”
I pull him in to me and reach for a kiss.
“Really!” he says. “I actually did like it. Maybe it was the dog.”
“Yeah, that big lug’s pretty cute,” I say. “Kinda reminds me of Floyd.”
“You wanna watch it?” he asks. “I can make some popcorn.”
“I’d rather ice cream.” I tell him because I know he has some in his freezer — I peeked.
“What the lady desires, the lady gets,” he says. I’m excited. Never in a million years, could I ever imagine watching a romantic comedy and eating ice cream with John. He’s way too health conscious. Typically, we watch the latest Marvel movie, eat Kale chips, and drink foreign beer. I don’t even like beer that much.
We cuddle on the sofa, the three of us; Eli wrapped around me, and Floyd at my feet. I’m deliriously happy. I’m not myself. I’m not Gabriella Moore, wife and mother of two. I’ve tucked Gabriella Moore in a little box and closed the lid. She doesn’t exist. I’ll open the box again in a few days when I go back home. I don’t know who I am, but I feel alive. I don’t know how old I am, but I feel young. I’m not sure where I’m going, not sure what tomorrow will bring. I have no responsibilities, no reality. My life is a dream.
And I’m in love.
“They remind me of us,” I say to Eli. “They don’t meet for the longest time. They fall in love with each other’s minds first.”
He holds me tighter. “Well, it’s not quite the same, but I see what you mean.”
“She totally catfished him though.”
We’re at the scene where they’re chatting in the bathtub. “This scene is so sexy,” I say. “It’s my favorite scene.”
He laughs and I turn to him. He kisses me, sweetly and softly. “Remember when we chatted in the bath?”
“How can I forget?” I say, remembering that night. I was so aroused, I was all thumbs. I kept making typos and having to backtrack. I couldn’t tap on my phone fast enough.
“What were we chatting about again?”
“The pros and cons of baths versus showers,” he tells me with a laugh. “And then we had quite the extensive conversation about the joys of slow cookers and bread makers. Remember, you were trying to convince me to buy a bread maker?”
I laugh so loud, Floyd startles. “Oh my god, that conversation was so not sexy.”
“But I was picturing you naked in the bath the whole time,” he confesses.
“Me too, totally. And there was no bubble bath, if you know what I mean.”
