New Life New Me: Urban Romance (4 page)

Cynthia paused for a while before she started answering.

“
What is your point?”
She asked.

"
The boys here, do you really think that they are going to tell you to go for it when it comes to your man at home? Will they tell the other woman to get the blouse or will they point out to every disadvantage of the blouse so that it is not taken."
Mr. Baltimore said with a smile
.

"Look,"
he continued, "
you can never trust a lion not to eat or at least want to eat the lamb. He will always see it as his food and will do whatever it is to stop anyone else from having it even if he himself has had lunch on the day. He will still stop anyone if it is possible. The boys here are no different."

Cynthia continued listening to the old man diligently.

"To me this man seems nice. He came to help you when he did not even know you. When you showed him that you need a little space to deal with your own issues, he allowed you the space. He chased you down the road because he was still interested and he did not want to go to your place. You are afraid from all the past experiences that you have had.”

“I am a man too and I will give you the down low on the man side. We too are afraid. Your dear friend may have stayed away for a few days because he could have been afraid of the rejection like it had happened to him a few days before
when you first got to town. I think that you were right to go to his place the next evening but your mind and the rubbish that the guys here filled into your head made you proud. As you can see, I am old. There are many things in life that I did not do because of pride. Those moments are now a source of shame for me. Do not let your pride make you feel shame when you are my age. I think you should talk to him again and I think that you should get back to work
”.

Cynthia continued with work as she had been instructed to by her boss. She took a few glances outside her window and she could see the truckers still standing at their spot. It was not a very busy day. She stood in the middle of her window and stared out. YOU DEVILS! She said softly.

She was very clear in her mind with what she was going to do when she got home. She was going to write a small note and leave it under James’s door before he returned. In that way, she would not have to face him but still the apology would be made. If he accepted the apology, he would come over to her place. If he did not, he would get the thing and throw it in his trash can. At least in that way, she would not have to wonder when she was sixty.

U
pon arriving at home, she dashed for the next block and went up to his door on the tenth floor. She pushed the yellow piece of paper and dashed for the lift as fast as she could. Just when she was about to get to the lift, she could hear that the door was opening and a voice called out to her. James was in his apartment alright. He called out to her again and that was when she turned around. He invited her in but she was reluctant. He started reading the note right in front of her and she was swallowed with shame. He started to beg her to get inside. The words that were spoken to her by the elderly Mr Baltimore started ringing in her head. She could either take the pain of the shame then or live with it and wonder what could have been long after she hits sixty. So she got in.

For a moment, both man and woman stood there in silence and it was becoming awkward. So they both wanted to break the silence and started to speak. Another awkward moment came when they were speaking the same words at the same time.

“
Look, I just don’t know what to say”
. They each said.

"
You go first."

"No you go first
!"

The tug of war about who should go first went on for a while until she decided to be quiet. James took a deep breath before starting to spill his guts out.

“
I am sorry”
. He said. She just stood there and did not make a sound.

“
I am sorry for everything”
.

"
No! None of it was your fault”,
she replied
. “It was all me. I came here to say that I am sorr
y”.

They both sat down on the kitchen floor as they exchanged apologies. They made a pact that they were going to start over. They were going to assume that the hands of time were turned back and it was the first day again and they were meeting for the first time.

In the spirit of turning back the hands of time, she was going to return to her place to wait for him. He would come over with popcorn and movies like he had done on the very first day. The only difference was that this time she would not turn him back but they were both going to spend a quiet evening at home.

When she got to her place she quickly hit the shower. She wanted to freshen up and get ready for the first day of the rest of her life. She did not want even a bad scent to ruin the moment for them. She put on a dress that she had not worn in over a year. It seemed like the evening would be good and it had not even started yet.

When James arrived, there was no doubt in her mind that he too had made preparations for the evening the same way that she had done. He had had a change of clothes and he smelt good. He brought some sci-fi movies but that was ok with her.

They sat on the lounge floor and chatted the evening away like the good friends they were. The movie choice was perfect for them both. Cynthia was not the sort of girl to watch chick flicks and in fact they tended to irritate her in that they oversold the idea of love and marriage. She was long past that. At least that is what she told James. He just laughed it out with her as they discussed each movie after the other. They were now standing on her balcony and looking at the ocean below. Each with a glass of wine in hand, they swore that it would be the only one they had for the evening.

The sound of the crushing waves made for the perfect background music as man and woman leant closer and closer to each other. The soft evening breeze swept on Cynthia’s face and lifted her curls up with them. The sister blushed as James lifted some locks from her face and pulled them back in a soft and somewhat slow motion back to her head. As he lifted his arms to stroke her hair, he looked even more like the figure that she had spied on when he had a shower the other day. Cynthia imagined the washing body with foam contouring his body. She could clearly imagine herself to be standing there behind him and scrubbing his back. They would make a perfect match and they both knew it. With eyes closed,

Cynthia started to stroke his well-toned biceps and triceps. The brother was so close; she could hear every single heartbeat as clearly as a coin dropping onto the library floor. He could smell the wine from her lips. His and hers were so close they could easily touch. He however slipped his head to the side and decided to kiss her on the side of the neck instead. She responded by kissing him at the base of his neck. The hair on the back of her neck was now standing straight. She had not felt like that with anyone for a long time. The brother was beautiful any girl was justified in wanting him. Any girl could be with him in her eyes and in her mind. It was the very thought of every woman wanting him which made Cynthia ask the inevitable question that created a little distance between the two bodies that were almost glued on each other.

“Do you have a woman
?” she asked.

James stopped kissing her for a while and did not talk.

“
I asked if you are seeing anyone else besides me”,
she continued to probe.

The silence that came after that was a sure mood killer.

“
I am just a guy like any other he answered. I have had women in the past but now I want a new beginning. I was engaged and to be married this time last year. It did not work out and I moved here to escape from it all. I was hoping that you too wanted to have the same for yourself”.

She kept quiet for a while and he leant forward to kiss her on the forehead
.

“I think it is getting cold out here and we should probably get back inside
”. She said.

They went back inside and sat on the lounge. With the volume on the television turned down, they each started to relate what had happened in their past relationships. Although they were both still technically engaged, none of them were interested to mend things with their previous lovers. They made an agreement that they would contact their past lovers to end things with them formally. They were not going to listen to anyone, no matter how much they begged.

They continued to chat while sitting on the couch. Cynthia was sitting on his lap with her feet hanging down the side of the couch. They had a small fleece blanket covering them both as they continued to chat. Every once a in while James would offer a small kiss on the forehead. She was feeling comfortable and in love. It was the first time that someone had shown her so much respect and she knew in her heart that she wanted to keep him.

From the discussion they had, she was convinced that he would stay and not leave her. What remained to be seen was whether he was going to keep his word by not engaging other women while he was still with her.

They had spent the evening chatting and laughing and did not bother to look at the time. The five o’clock steam ship had docked and that was when they were aware of the time. Cynthia walked her new man to the door. They kissed and hugged and said goodbye about a hundred times before they actually parted.

On the foyer, there were some people already leaving for work. If stares would kill, James would be struck dead by the stares of the very people who had seen him in a verbal showdown at Cynthia’s apartment just the other day. Now he was not only back, he had actually spent the night there and that was a cause for concern.

Cynthia knew that there was no time to sleep a while and decided to freshen up and have some breakfast instead. She knew that she would have a tough time at work holding a straight head because she had not slept. She was however comforted by the thought that at least she would have a good report to bring to her boss about the man whom had caused her much suffering yet he was sure to show her a really good time.

She used the remainder of the time to iron out her beautiful blue dress and put on some matching quarter heeled shoes. She walked out the door and down the passage. The security guards looked at her but did not really recognise who she was. She walked into the Chinese shop near her workplace and got herself a bold red lipstick. Without a mirror, she greased her lips with her new balm. She then went into her office and sat down.

The day went along so fast each hour felt like a minute. She did not even realise when it was tea time or lunch and did not even bother to go out. It was when one of the boys had gone to invite her for afternoon drinks that they realised that their new friend had changed.

Shock! Dismay or even disgust was the reaction that some guys had to the news that Cynthia had changed her image and that she had refused to come along with them for drinks. It was as clear as day, she had strayed from the advice that they had given her about the man that had abandoned her. Now not only was she back together with him, she was changing for him. They were not the only ones to notice the change. Mr Baltimore did not even have to ask her how things were going with her man after the chat they had had regarding him abandoning her. She was in a dress! She had made a statement to reaffirm her femininity.

A man brings out femininity in a woman. A woman in love is bound to project that image whether or not she does so purposely or it happens automatically. Mr Baltimore did not know which one it was but he was keen to find out. Before he left the office to go home, he decided to have some afternoon tea with his “goddaughter” and have a little chat.

Cynthia was blushing as she related to her boss what had happened. From the moment she tried to sneak to his place to leave and apology letter to the moment when they hashed things out and the wine on the balcony. It was not very easy for her to hide that she was in love. Mr Baltimore made a joke that nobody could live on love and fresh air alone and that she has to take breaks from work to have something to eat.

Cynthia was feeling happy. She finally had found someone to spend the evenings with and that gave her a good feeling. Even though she had only known him for a short time, she was still happy with the progress she was making in her love life. She had moved from the non-believer in love to a totally smitten kitten and everybody could see it. She was glad that the boss had given her some good piece of advice and that she was smart to take it.

She had a broad smile on her face as she waved goodbye to her boss and went towards the gate. She noticed that the boys were all at the gate but did not pay much attention at all. At the end of the day, every one is allowed to go home and the way home passes through the gate, she though. Little did she know that the guys standing at the gate was no coincidence! They were sitting and waiting for her there since she had declined the invitation for drinks.

At the gate, she met up with a jury resembling of that one of the show survivor. She was bombarded with questions. In fact it was not just question but an interrogation. What started out as a sarcastic remark on her dress code had spiralled into a frenzy of feministic remarks! She could not believe that these were the same people who had sat down with her to break bread. She was happy with her new found love but they were not. The criticism she got from the truckers was worse than the scolding she got from her mother when she had gone to play in the rain while she was still a little girl. She just did not understand their anger toward her.

She then remembered the chat about the lion and the lamb that she and Mr Baltimore had had the day before. She threw it to their faces that they were angry because they could not have her. After a long verbal exchange she was tired and frustrated. She let slip something that she was sure she would regret for the rest of her life at Baltimore freight. She said that she was not available to ugly and unwashed truckers and that she had a clean man at home whom she had to hurry to.

"
Say what? Say what?"
The brothers said as she dashed for the main road and started to walk towards her place.

She was sorry that she said it but she did not turn her head back. She continued to walk along and some of the guys pursued. Although she was a few blocks away from her place she decided to take a cab to get there just to avoid them. In that way they were going to have the weekend to cool off and she would only have to deal with them in the new week.

When she got home, a group of tenants were already waiting for her at her door. She sensed from their line of questioning that they felt like she owed them an explanation for being with the man that she was seen fighting with the other day. She was just too exhausted for another round of interrogation.

She slipped into her apartment without as much as even saying a word to them. All that she could think of was that she finally had someone to take to the end of year staff party. The truckers would get the chance then to interrogate him as well as weigh themselves against his looks. Whether or not the truckers loved him, they would have to accept that he was the man in her life and she intended to keep it that way. She knew that her boss would be more accepting of her new find because James was a really decent guy. At least she still had someone on her side that she could talk to regarding matters of the heart.

She could not wait for her man to come home. She could not wait for another chance to get close to him. The thought of him caressing her kinky hair and the scent of his cologne made her feel like she was in ecstasy.

Sure enough the lights in James’s apartment went on. She hurried to her lounge room window to have a look out across at him in his lounge. He was already standing there with a banquet of red roses and a bottle of wine. She just could not stop smiling and waved for him to come over. With lightning speed he was already at her door. The two of them stopped at the doorway and kissed passionately. They could not be bothered by the stares of Cynthia’s nosy neighbours. It was a moment they were both waiting for a long time but it kept eluding them. They were then on the kitchen floor and kissing. The world seemed to stop and everything else did not matter. All the negative talk and frowns were going to have to wait. It was going to be a night to remember for both of them.