A Simple Life: Chapter 28 (Patreon)

I stand at the door wiping my clammy hands against my pants as I wait for Winona to arrive.  Beside me my roommate Brayden checks his breath and combs his hair with his fingers.  After just a minute there comes a knock at the door and in an instant I open it.

“Oh!”  Winona startles at the too sudden opening.

I stand there in the open doorway with my jaw hanging open.  She…is…GORGEOUS!

Her already stunning face is brightened and accentuated with that same tasteful touch of makeup that she had done me up with the night before.  Her big hazel eyes dazzled framed within the hazy darker colors around them.  Her striking bone structure was highlighted even more with blush.  And her lips sparkled a dusky pink.  Her long, sleek black hair hung down her back and on her head she wore a flat-topped black felt bolero hat.  The black of the bolero, worn so that it was higher at the front than the back, gave a background for her glimmering jade earrings to sparkle.  Around the base of the hat was a band of beautifully intricate native beadwork of white with designs of red, black and green.  That same beadwork adorned the suede jacket she wore, coming over the shoulders and down the chest in two inch wide strips.  The jacket she wore open to reveal a frilly low cut teal top that stopped just short of cleavage and let just a peek of her midriff to show.  The open collar brought attention to her elegant neck, around which she wore a familiar gold chain and feather pendant.  Across her body was a slender strap for the small leather purse at her hip.  A long sandy tan skirt hung to her ankles and while it shouldn’t have worked with the rest somehow it did, the tan matching wonderfully with the light suede of the jacket.  Peaking out from the hem were the tapered tips of brown leather boots.

She looked so COOL!  It was a style completely her own yet not unique just for the sake of it.  It was fashionable yet not trendy, bad ass yet feminine.  It showed a pride of culture with a modern flair.  A smaller woman could not have pulled it off but Winona with her statuesque figure made it look spectacular.  Suddenly my simple vest, shirt, and trousers attire seemed positively bland by comparison.  Not that she seemed to mind.  As her eyes were panning up and down my figure she briefly nibbles her bottom lip with overt attraction.

“Hi.”  She says, a touch of nerves coming through in her soft yet tense tone.  “You look good.”

“Uh…th-thank you.  Y-You look…amazing.”

We gaze into each other’s eyes…and suddenly I am floating on air.

“Winona?”  Brayden’s voice shatters the moment.  “Oh my God.  It is you.”

“Oh no.  I thought that was your shit box parked down there.”  Winona replies.  “How ya doing Brayden?”

“Y-You know each other?”  I look back and forth between them.

“Uh, yeah.  Unfortunately.”  Brayden says.  “She was my mechanic.  Couple years ago.”

“I did one job for you.”

“Which you and your Dad fucked me on.”

“Replacing a head gasket isn’t cheap.  I told you that.”

“It cost me more than the car did!”

“It was literally what we quoted, dumb ass.”  She replies then looks at me.  “He thought he could bargain us down after the work was done.”  Then with a smirk she adds.  “The President himself couldn’t talk my Dad out of a dollar owed.”

“THIS is your date Avery?”

“Uh…”

“Damn right.”  She states boldly.  Just then her right hand, which had been hidden behind her back until now, comes around to thrust a huge bouquet of flowers into my arms.

“Oh!”  I look down to see a dozen big and bright sunflowers looking back up at me.  Intermixed with the massive yellow blooms were a sprinkling of small delicate blue daisies. The whole lot was wrapped around the sides in shiny, crinkly green paper.  I stand there a moment staring at this most unexpected gift.  Nobody had EVER given me flowers before!

“It…reminded me of you.  With the blue and yellow and…pretty…um…”  As quickly as they appeared they disappear again as Winona snatches them back from me.  “Stupid idea.”  She shakes her head.  “I’ll get rid of them.”

“No!”  I exclaim, reaching out for them.  “No, I…I love them.”  She passes them back and I take them to cradle in my arms.  “I love them.  They’re beautiful.”  I look up at her with a smile and say from the bottom of my heart.  “Thank you.”

She smiles back and I swear I see the color in her cheeks darken just a little.

“She’s bringing you flowers now.”  Chuckles Brayden.  “I think I know who wears the pants with you two.”

“You really know how to ruin a moment, huh?”  Winona says to him.  “Asshole.”

“Bitch.”

“Dick.”

“Cunt.”

“B-B-Be nice to her B-B-Brayden.”

“Don’t worry Sprout.”  Winona says.  “I can handle myself.”

“Sprout!?”  Brayden laughs.  “Oh my God dude.”

Trying my best to block my roommate out I touch the tender yellow petals with my fingertips.  It was so, so, so very pretty.  What a wonderful present.

“Let me get a vase for these.”  I say.  “Please come in.”

“Thank you.”  Winona steps in with a brazen grin to my roomie.  He rolls his eyes and returns to his dent in the sofa.

I lead Winona through the small kitchen to the dining area where I lay the bouquet on the table then return to the kitchen to start looking for something to put them in.  Winona looks around and peeks out the window.  “Nice view.”

“Yeah.”  I say.  “Not as nice as yours though.”

“Catch the game tonight Winona?”  Interjects Brayden who was already starting up his game system.

“Game?”

“Ducks were playing.”

“Oregon?  Lame.”  She scoffs.  “I’m a Huskers gal myself.”

“Nebraska!?  You ain’t from around here, are ya?”

“Don’t watch much college actually.  Seahawks are my team.”

“Go hawks.”

“Go hawks.”

Here I was trying starting my most anticipated date of all time and Brayden is there being rude, talking sports and making himself a general nuisance.  Good wingman my butt.

“This is all I could find.”  I say as I start filling a water pitcher from the tap.  “I’ll get a vase for them though.”  I return to the table and carefully unwrap the bouquet and place it in the pitcher at the center of the table.  I space out and arrange the flowers just so.  “There we go.”

Winona is smiling.  “I’m glad you like them.”

“Should we g-get going?”

“Don’t you want to show me around first?”

“Not much to see.”  Brayden says.  “Hey Winona, you play Warzone?”

“Nope.” She says, still watching me preen my flowers.  “Shooters are boring.”

“Pfft.  Who doesn’t like shooters?”

I look up. “I don’t!”

“Well you’re both weird.”

Winona and I laugh.  “Come on.”  I say.  “This is the living room.”  I open the curtains.  “Balcony.  Sometimes I grow herbs out here but I didn’t this year.”

“That’s nice.”

“You should grow weed.”

Both Winona and I ignore Brayden’s quip as we walk across his sight line, much to his annoyance.  “Hallway.  Washroom.  That’s Brayden’s room and that one’s mine.”

“Oh?”  Stepping forward Winona pushes the door to my room open to peer inside.  I reach past her to turn on the light.  “Oh!”  Her eyes wide she pans across my walls taking in all the myriad landscapes and wildlife.  “Woooah!  Did you take all of these?”

“Yeah.”  I say.  “Well, most of them.”

She walks in with me right behind.  Only now do I see the cool braid that went down the center of her back, framed by the rest of her cascade of obsidian hair.

“If you two are banging leave the door open.”  Calls Brayden.

“Brayden!”  I exclaim.  “I am so sorry Wi…”

“Maybe we will.”  Winona was already calling back.  “You might learn a thing or two.”

“Pfff.  Yeah right!”

“I’m sorry about him.”  I say in low voice.

“No worries dude.”  She says unfazed, still admiring my work.  “Avery.  These are really good!”

“Thank you.”  I blush.  “Hey.  W-W-Wanna see a bluebird?  I got the shot that day we met.”

“Yeah! Totally.”  As I sit at my computer and call up the folder she continues to look around.  “Hello?  What’s this?  Ohhhh no!”

“What is it?”  I look up.

Winona had taken up the framed picture I kept on my dresser and held it in both hands.  That one wasn’t taken by me but my Mom, back when I was just five and still had my bright ‘buttercup’ hair.  It showed me on Grandpa’s lap with a fishing rod beside us on the aft deck of his boat.  Though I could not see the picture I knew it by heart.  Grandpa, still with some blond in his hair, had a huge, proud smile as I sat squinting against the sun mid-giggle while pointing out at something on the water.  There was something, some X factor I could not quite put my finger on, caught in that instant that showed our familial resemblance better than any other photo of us taken before or since.

“Is that you!?”  She laughs.  “What a cutie!!!”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

“So cute!”  She says.  “And whose this handsome fella with you?  I’ve seen him around.”

“That’s my…”  My throat catches and I quickly clear it.  “That’s my Grandpa.”

“He looks fun.”

“He’s um…he’s…um…he’s…”  I swallow the sob that threatened to escape and turn away so she could not see my dewy eyes.  “He’s the best.”  Collecting myself I focus on finding the pick of the series of shots I took that day.  “Here’s that bluebird.”

She sets down the frame and hurries to lean over my shoulder.  She smelled nice.  And very familiar.  The lovely scent brought back warm memories of my brief time as Althea.

“Oh wow.”  She looks at the little avian perched so perfectly on the spruce branch, the town and ocean spreading out into the distance in the background.  “That is gorgeous.”

“Yeah.  I was lucky.  He sat really nice for me.”

“How do you know it’s a he?”

“Color.”  I say.  “The females are more gray.  Generally male birds are always the smaller and prettier ones.”

“You don’t say.”  Her hand brushes the back of my neck sending a shiver down my back.  It is gone again in an instant.  She stands and continues to look around.  “You are really good Sprout.  I mean really great.”

“Thank you.”  I say bashfully.

“I should, um…I should get you to shoot me sometime.”

“You?”

“I mean, I dunno.  Might be fun.  I’ve never had real photographer do me, ya know?”

“I-I-I don’t really do portraits.”

“Oh okay.  No biggie.”

“I-I-I mean I-I totally could though!  I know how.”  I say, a bit too eagerly perhaps.  “I w-would love to…shoot you…Winona.”

“That makes two of us Avie.”  Brayden’s unwelcome quip cuts in from the living room.  “I’ll help bury the body.”

“Brayden!”

“Come try it couch jockey.”  Winona calls.  “I’d be damned if I let an NPC like you get one over on me.”

“NPC!?”  I cover my mouth and begin to giggle.

“Yeah, yeah.  Big mouth, all talk.”  He says.  “If you were a man I’d kick your ass.”

“If you were a man I might give a shit.”

“PBBBT!” I am busting a gut.  “He he he he!”

“Whatever.”  My roomie grumbles.

“I think I like him.”  She winks at me with a playful grin.  “Wanna get outta here?”

“Yes please!”

She offers me her arm which I take in a flash.  Walking together we head for the door and out on our first date.

Chapter 29