Dandelion Lover

A mess of a girl was sitting in front of me, wet to the bones, crouching in a corner with a cigarette at her lips, greedily breathing it in and breathing out a faint smokey release. Her eyes were red and slightly swollen, not sure if from the choking smoke enveloping her or from repeatedly wiping at the tears spilling at the corners. Her hair was plastered to her neck, contrasting with the white bluish skin tone. I could tell she was feeling cold from the faint trembling of her hands.

At first, I thought she was just an illusion, but as I moved closer, she became real. She looked up at me at first with indifference, until her eyes widened in understanding.

"Are you suicidal?" I angrily asked although I had a feeling she was not aware of me or anything outside her own thoughts...

"Gray? What are you doing here?" She asked as her eyes widened even more, when her lips formed the question. She reached a hand to my bandaged fist to validate my presence.

"We need to talk." She blurted and then hesitated when I said nothing more. The white t-shirt which was probably loose before it became stuck to her small body showing off just enough to make one tempted. As much as I admired the view, I knew it wasn't that warm out with the storm raging, it was actually quite chilly, and a lengthy discussion will cause us both to catch a cold.

Seeing that she kept on hesitating, I took the lead.

"I understand, but we need to get to another place, a dry one. It's cold and we're both soaked." I tried to rationalize and nudged her towards my car.

I always felt like I was the one who had to take the initiative, and somehow that made me feel like the bad guy. Can't totally say that I wasn't though. Not once had I lost my senses when we were together, although I am a man with responsibilities towards my personal life and my company, I ignored them and simply took what I craved for. At least I had enough control to stop before we got too far.

"Where are we going?" She asked as I opened the door to my car for her.

"Well, we can go to your place, or to mine."

"My place is kinda... Just not the best choice..." She continued looking up at the figure moving in the window to what was probably her place. "Your place is probably not a good idea either, I don't want to bother anyone."

I knew she was talking about Melanie.

"Don't worry, there's no one to bother," I replied and started the car. "Seatbelt!" I ordered while she stared at me incredulously.

Twenty minutes later I was pulling up to the house and firmly holding her arm guiding her, I lead her towards the now empty house.

"I really don't think this is okay." She tried to struggle out of my grip but I wouldn't have it.

I opened the door to the light hallway and nudged her in. She just stood in the hallway, looking around with a scared expression, like waiting for something, or someone to just pop out at her.

"Like I said, there's no one to bother because no one is here." I reaffirmed my earlier statement.

"Where's, umm..."

"Melanie? My wife?" I asked trying to observe her reaction. She had her head down but I could see her lower lip being picked at nervously, causing it to redden.

"She…" I was not sure what I should say. She left me, I left her, we split up with both our consent. I was not clear on the status of I and Melanie's relationship yet. We were still husband and wife in the eyes of the law, but we were not living together for a couple of days now, although it seemed more for some reason.

"Is it because of me?" She asked, her lower lip now slightly bleeding and the rims of her eyes were turning pinkish along with the tip of her nose. She was trying not to cry but she did a poor job of holding it in.

"No." Came the automatic response but we both knew it that it was not completely true. "Before anything else let's get changed out of these clothes. You can take a shower in the bath over there, I'll bring you something to change into." I showed her to the bathroom on the first floor.

"That's fine, I don't need one, I can just dry my hair and change clothes."

"As you want. The hairdryer is in the bathroom, along with clean towels. I'll change as well and make some hot coffee for us."

"I'd rather have some tea if that's not too much."

"Sure."

I got her some baggy clothes of mine and soon I myself changed out of my humid clothes and started preparing the water for her tea and my cup of coffee.

"Gray?"

"Yeah?"

"The hair dryer is not here."

"Oh, I might not have one then..." I answered as it dawned on me, Melanie probably took it when she packed.

"It's fine..." She absentmindedly answered and came out with her hair wrapped up in a turban like I've rarely seen on Melanie since her hair was shorter.

I should stop comparing them already, I told myself.

"Here's your tea." I gave her a fresh cup of chamomile tea, the only one I still had. I had long noticed that I needed to go shopping for small things like this, but I did not feel compelled to, nor did I have anyone reminding me to do it so it casually slipped my mind.

"Thanks." She mumbled and stared at the cup holding it in her hands.

An awkward silence followed after our brief exchange. I could not help myself but stare at the clothes that were obviously too large for her, draping over her body.

"Do you want me to turn on the heating system?" I tried to break the silence but all I received from her was a curt shake of the head.

"So, you said we should talk..." I finally breached the subject we were both trying to avoid. The way she slightly jumped up told me she was dreading this as much as I was, or maybe even more.

"I got this message today." She finally raised her head and showed me the message on her smartphone. I could see the picture and I could remember exactly how everything happened, but for some reason, I was not mad. I knew the attraction we had was noticed by people around us, even Melanie who did not work with us had an inkling that something was going on.

"I see, and?"

"What do you mean and?" She grabbed the phone from my hands and placed it with a loud bang on the kitchen counter. "Sorry, I dropped it." She mumbled while nervously tapping her fingers on the counter.

"The fact that we were seen is not surprising, the door wasn't even locked, and everyone has a key to the office so they can work late if needed. The fact that we were seen is nothing more than something that was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Yeah but Anne knows, and she will tell, this is her declaration of war."

"So what? Who will listen to an ex-employee who betrayed the company she worked for, by conspiring with Rob."

"How about your wife, my grandmother if she ever gets to her, your friends, anyone willing to listen to a juicy piece of gossip."

"Let them listen then. I will not be intimidated by these little games she plays, and you shouldn't be either. What are you really afraid of?" I asked growing impatient.

"You as well as I know that what we did… was something not accepted by society and something that should not have happened."

"Indeed, we should not have done anything that would be misconstructed, that could harm others around us, nevertheless, did we have a choice? Could we really have avoided all this if we ignored everything?

Did you really want to...?"