to bed last evening. Yikes! Luckily it was her best one; the red balconet bra and lace bikini.
Maybe the flood of chemicals reactions that she suspected the alcohol taken yesterday unleashed on her body was too much for her virgin brain. Double Yikes! Rose hoped that she did not give herself some brain damage. She could not possible blame this one on fate.
And while she was having these mature reflections still lying there in bed the phone rang. It was a funny, vintage-like ringtone that stirred up some nostalgia in her soul. Or maybe was her already sensitized and convalescent brain that was responsible for the emotions. Initially she thought to leave it to Alex to pick it up than she checked her bedside clock and she realized that it was pretty late. Maybe Alex was already gone, she rationalized and then the phone stopped.
‘Brrrrrrrring, brrrrrrring…. ’ Rose repeated mechanically. Her voice sounded stronger again and she began to hope that she could trust her beautiful legs again today.
‘Trying to wake me up? ’ she heard Alex’s voice coming from the other side of her large King size bed. ‘And please no more YIKES, ’ he added grinning. ‘With so many pillows in a bed people can’t see each other, ’ he said while throwing around a dozen of small pillows.
Rose could now finally see him in all his glory; almost naked, wonderfully defined abs and pecs without exaggeration, had only a small black brief covering an essential part of his body. He was smiling at her. Rose’s response was to run to the bathroom and before closing the door behind her, she could hear him say softly:
‘You can run but you can’t hide’.
Rose was not sure about the meaning of that but looking at herself in the bathroom mirror she had to acknowledge that she was running to stop herself from reaching for his body. Rose was physically attracted to him but her soul craved for love and she was not sure yet if she could get that from him. Yikes or Fate? After a nice shower she regained her confidence, dusted off her sexual desires and with a clear head she returned to her room with a large bathroom towel wrapped around her body and a fresh makeup.
Her bedroom was empty by then. Alex was gone. Rose was able to safely proceed to choose her attire for the day. Not that she had many choices. She was far from home and she usually travelled light, with minimal luggage. Rose was searching through her available wardrobe deciding what would be more appropriate to wear that day when she realized that she could not see the clothes that she wore the day before. They must be on the floor, she thought and made a mental note to pick them up later and send them for cleaning then she settled for a floral summer dress that was practical but same time elegant. It was cotton, sleeveless and floaty and Rose was planning to wear low heals with it.
Once dressed up she turned to make the bed and gather yesterday’s clothes from where she assumed someone dropped them last evening. Nothing to find and the bed was already made. More to her astonishment the clothes were laid down nicely on the bed and looked clean. When she looked closer they also smelled clean and they had a clear tag from the cleaner. Rose had to admit that she was impressed again. The pillows were all on the bed. As she was staring at the bed, Alex came in.
‘Counting the pillows? I did not take any and as a matter of fact I brought you this one from my room, ’ he said coming to her side and handing her the pillow. Rose was still facing the bed. He was now dressed up and was holding a small rectangular pillow with a motto on it. It said ‘sex works better than chocolate’. Rose had a laugh and took the pillow from him.
‘For what? ’ she asked.
‘For anything. You see you are laughing now and a minute ago you looked scared to death, ’ he said looking at her. ‘No, no, no, don’t say anything. Just thinking about it helps, believe me, ’ he added.
‘I thought that you don’t like decorative pillows, ’ Rose said and he grinned again removing the pillow from her hands and throwing it on the bed than taking her by the shoulders and guiding her towards the living room. Two coffees were waiting for them on the table. As she was sitting in her chair Alex started to talk.
‘Now you have 13 pillows on your bed and I have only two but they are enough for me. If you don’t feel comfortable about the number I can take one away. The one that says something about eating cupcakes perhaps? ’ he said barely keeping a straight face.
‘Are you saying that I don’t need more encouragement to eat? Are you suggesting that I’m fat? ’ Rose pretended to be offended. He thought for a moment looking at her than replied with a wink. ‘I’m not sure; let me see your tummy. People start to put fat initially around their waist, ’ he said with a smirk measuring her up and down.
‘Fat chance. I’m sure you did that last night when you undressed me, ’ Rose said laughing a bit uncomfortable.
‘Well, you passed my expectations, if you want to know. And I hope that you did not feel too uncomfortable with that bra left on. I was very much tempted to remove it however I was worried that you would be angry with me if I did that. What should I do next time? ’ he said with a big grin. Rose decided on finishing on the subject of pillows and let the last evening incident drop for now.
‘You counted the pillows? ’ she said provocatively.
‘Jogging my memory. By the way, only two of them are useful, therapeutic pillows, the others are just decorative, ’ Alex said seriously now. ‘However they are more useful than the safe in our room if you need to hide something, ’ he advised.
‘Huh, you know a lot about pillows for a man, ’ Rose said sternly.
‘I can give you a pillow tutorial if you have time. Comes with the territory when you spend a lot of time in tents and looking at artifacts, ’ Alex replied on a tone that was half jocular. ‘And I’m keen to learn more about bedding and pillow talk, ’ he added smiling with his face but eyes serious and questioning. At that suggestion Rose found herself blushing. Was this man teasing her? She hasn’t noticed that before.
Rose looked at her coffee cup hoping for an idea to pop into her head and clear her thoughts. She still felt sluggish and suspected it was the effect of the alcohol drank yesterday. Definitely no more wine tasting for her. And she heard him saying 'Let's eat’ and with that he left the table for a minute to return with a large breakfast trolley that she hadn’t noticed before. It seemed to have everything on it.
Alex ate a lot of protein in the form of eggs and sausages and supplemented that with avocado and tomatoes. Rose noticed that there were three different juices available but he had only water. She had a bit of everything and then she sank into a funny looking but very comfortable lounge chair.
‘Thank you. An excellent choice of food, ’ Rose said. ‘I’m trying to support my leptin hormone, ’ she explained.
‘Ah, the old battle leptin vs. ghrelin. Satisfaction versus hunger, ’ he said.
‘The waist to hip ratio, ’ Rose sighted.
‘Not missing home food Rose? ’ He asked from the other chair.
‘Drob de miel, ’ she admitted. ‘My grandma makes an excellent one. ’
‘Sarmale and mamaliga, ’ Alex confessed.
‘I am an expert in mamaliga, ’ Rose boasted. ‘I’ll make you some after we return to Brisvegas, ’ she promised.
‘Do you usually keep your promises? ’ Alex prodded her.
‘Always, ’ Rose said reassuringly. ‘Aren’t you late for the conference? ’ she asked looking at him sitting in a relaxing position as someone who had a lot of time on his hands and checking her watch. It was 10:00 am. Alex immediately left the chair but returned with a folder that he opened on the table. A glossy leaflet spilled out.
‘That’s the one I wanted to show you Rose, ’ he said to her pointing to the glossy print. ‘I hope to convince you to join me for this presentation. I’m interested in the new method they use to photograph the artifacts and they paired the presentation with a show of eye catching, rare findings. I guess their intention was to capture public interest, ’ he said with a shrug.
‘Well, they surely have my att
ention now. The leaflet was convincing for me, ’ Rose said after she had her eyes on the single page for less than two minutes. Alex opened his mouth to say something then closed it and tightened his lips in an effort to remain silent. His pupils were dilated and a smile was forming wrinkles around his eyes. He looked to Rose like a very pleased man.
….
A few hours later, they were approaching another exhibition stand through a mass of people of all ages. So many children Rose thought with some annoyance. The families seemed to have lost control over them and the noise was making everyone a bit uncomfortable. A tall, lanky guy with an obvious humorous tendency was using his newly bought large headset of computer headphones to protect his ears from the raising noise. Rose gave him a thumbs up and he smiled broadly and nodded back.
‘I saw that and I am jealous, ’ Rose heard Alex whispering into her ears while his hands were clutching at her waist. He was holding her like this since a few minutes earlier when he saved her from using an enormous and expensive looking stand, under the scrutiny of two security men, as a stopper in her way down to the ground after being pushed by some unruly kids.
Rose was about to reply when they arrived at stand number eight. It was empty and Rose was disappointed. There were only ten stands and with this one not available that was reduced to nine. As she