Red Sky: Chapter 2
“You were supposed to be a one-night stand,” Aya said.
It was a month after our first night together and we were lying on top of a hill in the city park. An acting troupe performed to an audience below. The crowd was sparse. We had no inhibitions because we were in the first stages of love. There are few limits to the public displays of two people who are in the first stages of love.
“I've never had a one-night stand before so I wanted to try it.” She looked away from me.
“Before the wedding?” I asked.
“It’s not something I would normally do. I didn’t expect this to happen though.” She looked back to me, her head above mine. I stared into her eyes.
“I’ve known Grier since we were teenagers. I wanted to see...” Her voice trailed off, stopping her thought. Her eyes unfocused and she looked away again.
The mention of his name put me on edge. I didn’t care about him. I didn’t want to hear about him. I wanted it to only be the two of us when we were together. Even if it was pretend, I wanted to live in that pretend world.
Aya rolled off me and let out a deep breath. The acting troupe continued to perform. There was laughter. We had brought champagne and strawberries to the park with us. The strawberries were synthetic, of course, since we were poor students.
“Have you ever had a real strawberry?” asked Aya.
“Yes.”
“Do they taste different?”
“Yes.”
Aya picked up one of the synthetic strawberries and examined it.
“They had some at my sister’s wedding. I didn’t try any. We never get any at home. My mom says they’re too expensive. ‘Why pay all that money when you can get the same thing for less,’ she says. But I wonder, is it the same thing, it’s not really, is it?”
She took a bite of the strawberry and gave the rest to me.
“We never had a lot of money,” I said. “When my father would get some, he would spend it right away. He would buy real fruit, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, the best wine he could find, we would take vacations we couldn’t afford. I don’t think he ever saved a dollar in his life. I suppose I’m the same.”
“Is that what happened to your business?”
“I had other aims besides making money. That was my mistake.”
“Some things are more important than money,” she said as she rolled back on top of me.
I drifted away at the mention of my past failure. I always seem to put myself in impossible situations. Starting a business that wasn’t concerned with making money, falling in love with a girl who had a fiancé. I gave myself unsolvable puzzles.
Aya looked down on me with big brown eyes. Was she an unsolvable puzzle?
“I’m cold,” she said and put her hand underneath my shirt. I could feel her fingers against my chest. I wrapped the blanket around us and put my hand against her soft warm skin.
Aya and I were in our own world with no thoughts of the past or plans for the future. We were alone together, buried in the soft grass looking up at the leaves in the trees as they blew back and forth, the bright sun kissing their edges giving highlights to the dark green, the cool breeze on our faces contrasting with the warmth of our bodies as we drifted. These sensations are strong in my memory. I can recall them when I close my eyes no matter where I am or what I'm doing. If I close my eyes right now, they come back to me without any effort. The greens, the warmth, the soothing sound.
Then I hear scattered applause and the sound of Aya ‘s voice. “It’s time to wake up.”