Chapter 16 Nora
Chapter 16 NORA
W ith the lights out, and the tornado warning still in effect, Nora and Aiden would be stuck in the basement on her tiny couch for who knows how long. She could feel his warmth, her knee touching his thigh as she sat cross-legged, feet tucked under her. Her breathing sped up—either from fear of the tornado or from their closeness, she couldn’t tell.
“‘I prefer it in the darkness. The night is already too short,’” Aiden mumbled.
“What?” She decided her breathlessness was definitely from their closeness.
“ The Phantom of the Opera . Oh, come on, Nora. Don’t make that face.”
“You can’t possibly know which face I’m making,” she shot back. “It’s too dark.”
“Then tell me you’re not rolling your lovely eyes.”
Of course she was rolling her eyes.
They had barely known each other a day, and already he knew how she’d likely react to certain situations.
“And your lips are pursed,” Aiden continued.
Nora unpursed her lips. “They’re not.”
“Let me see.” Aiden flattened a hand on her face, then groped around her mouth. “I’m sure they were. Stop smiling, you little liar.”
Nora laughed loudly. “Stop. I can bite, you know?”
Suddenly his touch was no more. “I’m not afraid.”
The wind howled louder and louder, a malevolent roar, making the walls upstairs rattle. Nora’s heart slammed against her ribcage. Were they going to die? She didn’t want Aiden to feel her distress, so she tried to calm herself.
“I guess now would be a good time to light those candles, wouldn’t it? Either for praying or for some cozy light,” Aiden said. “Or just so I can see the faces I know you’re making and prove my point.”
“Yes, of course.” Nora moved to stand, but Aiden touched her thigh to make her stop. Her abdomen contracted instinctively. Her heart pounded faster.
“Please, I’ll do it. I’m perfectly capable of lighting a few candles.” Judging by the noise, he was searching for the matches.
She smiled, but it was so dark he wouldn’t see it. Maybe he would hear it in her voice. “You sure?”
He lit a match, and the yellow light illuminated his face as he turned to her and whispered, “‘People understate my power.’”
Did he just try to quote Star Wars ? The look on his face, resembling Anakin’s expression left no doubt. One thing, however, lingered in the corner of Nora’s mind.
Was she falling in love with him? A man she didn’t even know existed until a few hours earlier? No, of course not. What an absurd notion.
“And... Bob’s your uncle,” Aiden said as the flames from the candles started dancing.
“Bob?”
“Don’t we all have an uncle named Bob?” Aiden laughed at his own joke, or whatever that was. “It’s just an expression.”
It was cute to watch him try to make her laugh, even if he was the worst joker in the galaxy. “Anyway, congratulations! Look how much you’ve improved, lighting fires and all.”
“Oh, my dear, aren’t you hilarious?” She enjoyed him calling her “my dear” more than she wanted to admit. “While you continue mocking me, I’m going to ask question twenty-one.”
“No way! It’s my turn to ask!” Nora tried to pull the magazine from his hand. He held it still and they mock-fought for a moment, both laughing hard.
Thunder boomed; despite the basement’s walls muffling the sound, the vibration resonated within Nora’s chest.
At last, Aiden let go of his end. “I’ll let your friend Dipa know you fought for her magazine. I’m sure she’ll be delighted.”
“She will!” Nora laughed and tilted the magazine towards the candlelight to read it. “So, question twenty-one: ‘what roles do love and affection play in your life?’”
Aiden leaned back on the couch and simpered. “See, these are the questions they should be asking from the start! Love is... sine qua non . You don’t have to love everything, everyone, but you just have to love , you know?”
“I think a pretty cool band once said that’s all you need.”
“And it’s true, isn’t it?” Aiden said. “My life is mostly centered around the people and things I love. Love plays a central role in my existence. That sounds so corny, but it’s true. As for affection... for me, it goes hand in hand with love. I am very affectionate to those I love. A friend once told me I should keep my paws to myself. That’s when I noticed not everyone is comfortable with physical touching. It’s so natural to me, but for other people’s sake I try my best not to impose my affection on anyone.”
Nora’s breath hitched as images crossed her mind. Him touching her hand and smiling. Him caressing her arm. His hands cupping her face. His fingers running through her hair, warm against her scalp... Nora’s mind danced between memories and the work of her imagination. Was he conveying affection all this time and she hadn’t picked up on it? The idea gave her a very pleasing chill.
“What about you?” Aiden asked.
“I, uh...” Nora tried to buy herself some time as she organized her thoughts. “I’m going to be completely honest: I don’t think I have a good relationship with love and affection.”
Aiden frowned, in tandem with a horrifying crack outside.
“I don’t trust men,” she continued. “My father was married when he met my mom. They had an affair. She got pregnant, he divorced his wife, and married my mom. They stayed together for some time, only for him to leave her for someone he was having another affair with. And I saw everything up close—the fights; how devastated Mom was when she discovered he was cheating; how he didn’t even seem to feel guilty for doing that to her. To us.” Nora clenched the blanket in her fists, trying not to relive those moments. “Dad married this other woman too, had two daughters with her, and for a while he only called me on my birthday, if that much. And I guess I should be grateful for that, because so many kids don’t even know their fathers. But I learned that men lie, and cheat, and leave. That’s something my mother used to say, and it rubbed off on me.”
The memory was vivid in Nora’s mind. Her father had just left for good, taking exactly half of the house furniture with him. Her mother, who had quit her rising career at his request, found herself applying for whatever job was available. “Men lie, and cheat, and leave, Nora,” her mom had said, her face stern. “Don’t ever let one have a say in what you do, because he won’t stay long enough to watch the consequences.”
Aiden touched her arm, but quickly retrieved his hand. “I’m sorry you’ve been through that.”
Nora smiled, appreciating his sympathy. His brief touch gave her the assurance she needed to tell the rest of the story. “I don’t want to be left again, so I never give my full trust. I never learned how to. I had my first boyfriend when I spent a sabbatical in Brazil. He was kind of getting famous as a model—I even had a notebook featuring him on the cover.” She laughed at her own teen foolishness. “Then he got a part in a teen soap-opera of the time, and that’s when everything went downhill.” Nora recalled how, even though it was a small part, Felipe’s behavior changed after that. He started demanding to be treated as a VIP wherever they went, refusing to wait in restaurant lines or pay tickets to enter clubs. Then, after he was featured in a popular teenage magazine, girls started recognizing him in the streets. And he flirted with them right in front of Nora, unabashed, going so far as to introduce Nora as a friend. The humiliating memories made her shiver. “I met him through my cousin Karol, who eventually warned me he had changed so much that even his closest friends didn’t recognize him anymore. But I thought I could fix him, get him back to the sweet boy he was before fame corrupted him. God, I was so na?ve.”
“You’re not to blame,” Aiden said.
“I jumped in head-first—you know how first love is. You see nothing else,” she said and sighed. “I spent one full year thinking Felipe was the love of my life, putting up with all his shit and his increasingly big ego. One full year, and the whole time he was cheating on me with multiple girls.”
And then, once she confronted him, Felipe said she was imagining things, remembering things wrong, and overreacting, in what later Nora discovered was gaslighting. Thinking about it now made Nora want to scream. A gust of wind screamed in her stead.
“It took me a long time to be comfortable enough to get into a relationship again, and that was with Jay. He was the very first man who didn’t disappoint me, and I’ll always be grateful for him. He helped me believe in love again, but, as you can see, I still have trust issues. I’m not sure that was the point of the question, but since we’re opening our hearts, there you have another piece of mine.”
It typically took Nora a long time to trust new people. With Aiden, though, some kind of switch had flipped in her brain, and despite knowing him for just a few hours, there she was, pouring her heart out to him. Was it because they might never see each other again after tonight? She found it as thrilling as it was disconcerting.
Aiden grabbed her hand. “Thank you for sharing that with me. Again, I’m so sorry you’ve been through so much.”
She looked into his reassuring, green doe eyes. Aiden didn’t seem like someone who would ever break her trust. His touch made her heart bounce in her chest, and Nora stood up brusquely.
He blanched. “I’m sorry. I told you, I can’t keep my bloody paws—”
It took Nora a moment to realize Aiden was apologizing for taking her hand, and she laughed out loud. “God, Aiden! I’m just going into this corner. No need to miss me, okay?”
“That ship has long sailed, my darling. But by all means, go ahead, while I quietly wallow in the misery of your absence.”
Using her phone’s flashlight to guide the way—and undecided whether to laugh or cringe at his cheesiness—she headed to the cabinet where she kept a few bottles of wine. To her friends, she playfully called it her “little wine cellar.”
“After my last answer, and since we haven’t got to half of the bottle upstairs, I think we deserve this,” she said and showed him a bottle, this one with a screw top instead of a cork.
“Is this part of your emergency box?” Aiden asked.
“Obviously! One cannot survive a storm like this without wine,” Nora said. “And who wants to keep track of a wine opener?”
Aiden smiled and pulled the blanket aside for her. “Get back in, or you’ll catch a cold.”
It was so nice, this intimacy that had developed between the two of them. She climbed back on the couch and Aiden covered her with the blanket, and she again felt safe and snug. She asked him to get disposable cups from the emergency box.
“Plastic cups for wine, Nora? This is blasphemy.”
“If it displeases you so much, we could always drink directly from the bottle. Although...”
I have no idea where your lips have been, Nora wanted to say. Just that they haven’t been where I want them to.
Shit. Shit. Shit. That was the kind of thought she should be avoiding, not nurturing.
“Although . . . ?” Aiden asked.
“No. Nothing. Pass the disposable cups, please.”
He retrieved the cups, then poured wine for the two of them. Instead of rain, and tornados, and coincidences, they decided to toast to “darkness, and candlelight, and Sumerians.”
As it should, the storm joined their toast; another burst of thunder right on cue.
She shouldn’t take the almost-tornado so lightly. Nora could lose her house, everything she owned, too. Still, with each passing minute, she felt even safer on this worn-out loveseat next to Aiden.
Aiden started on the next question. “Twenty-two: ‘Alternate sharing something you consider a positive characteristic of your partner. Share a total of five items.’”
“You are... very polite, sir,” she said, mimicking his accent.
Aiden smiled. “Caring, you are.”
Nora choked on her wine. “Master Yoda, really? That’s your second Star Wars quote. I think I’m in love.”
A dimple appeared on Aiden’s cheek. “Are you?”
“With Star Wars ? Definitely. But you were saying...”
“Yes, you are caring. Few would bring a complete stranger inside to bandage his hand.”
“I’m fucking reckless, am I not?” Nora lightly berated herself.
“I didn’t say that, so please don’t count it as one of my five answers. I wouldn’t advise you to let a stranger into your house, but I’m grateful you did it for me,” Aiden replied. “You’re independent. Something I value dearly. Kudos to you, Nora; not everyone is brave enough to be independent.”
“Thank you, but it was my turn.” Before Aiden could start apologizing, she continued. “You have such nice answers, and I... I don’t know.”
“Just say whatever comes to mind,” he advised her.
“Okay. You have this accent that makes everything you say sound posh. I admire that.”
“You have a good taste for decoration. You should have seen this house back in the day! Your touch makes it so much better.”
“You are... smart. I guess. As far as I can tell from tonight.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that one,” Aiden said, and Nora laughed. “You also have good taste in wine. I’m not a snob, but there are wines and then there are wines . And there are concoctions that people call wine but make you regret having taste buds.”
Nora grinned at him. “Your jokes are awful, but the way you tell them—like you’re talking to yourself, not me—makes me wanna laugh at pretty much everything you say. So, in a very particular way... you’re funny. And I don’t think you even do it on purpose.”
“I most definitely don’t,” Aiden said. “In fact, my friends agree with you about my jokes not being funny, even though they also laugh now and then. What else? You’re unique. I mean it in a good way. You have fresh perspectives on most things we discussed today. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone quite like you.”
Wow . “Thank you.”
There was something about Aiden. Something that made Nora feel good about herself, that made her feel like she could be herself, no matter what. He had already said he appreciated her honesty. She was proud of being honest—though she knew that sometimes her candor could seem a little too harsh. But if her friends still loved her after she was brutally honest, couldn’t she hope that Aiden might, too?
Nora brought the plastic cup close to her lips and bit the rim, unsure about sharing what was on her mind. But if he admired her frankness...
“You’re... hot,” she mumbled and took a long swig of her wine, her face hidden until she reached the last sip. How would he react to her bold comment?
Aiden raised his eyebrows, splotches of red climbing up his neck and quickly covering his entire face. “I... uh... well, thank you... very much.” He opened his mouth once or twice as if trying to respond but gave up and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
Feigning nonchalance, Nora smiled. “Next question!” Aiden hadn’t reacted as she thought he would—instead of looking into her eyes, he now stared at a candle. It had taken quite some time for him to loosen up, and now he seemed to be retreating again. He shifted in his seat and handed her the magazine to read a question. “Twenty-three: ‘How close and warm is your family? Do you feel your childhood was happier than most other people’s?’”
The surrounding air felt heavier now, weighed down by Aiden’s discomfort. What an epic fail . Congrats, Nora .
He took a deep breath, still staring at the flames. “As I told you, my family is very close, very warm. I was blessed beyond deserving. So, yes, as a result, I think my childhood was very happy. I can’t judge other people’s happiness, though.”
Nora sensed there was more to that story than he let on. She opted for a funny approach to it, so maybe Aiden would again open his heart. “So you belong to a margarine ad family, huh?”
Aiden made a funny face. “No, none of us ever took part in any commercials. I certainly didn’t. What gave you that idea?”
“What? No, that’s not what I meant. Have you noticed how happy and oh-so-perfect families look on margarine ads? That’s what I meant.”
“You have some unique notions; I’ll give you that.”
“That’s the thing when you live between cultures,” Nora said. She never felt like she completely fit into the Brazilian, the German, or the American backgrounds that made her who she was. “But tell me about your not-margarine-ad-family.”
“Of course we’re not perfect. And of course we’ve had some terrible moments. My father and my brother spent almost two years not speaking to each other.” Aiden frowned and hesitated, as if pondering if he should continue. “Long story short, my father lost it when my brother, Sean, told us he was gay. They had a nasty argument, and Sean left. It was evening; he was clearly distressed, so my mother took the car and went after him. She was upset, we all were. She shouldn’t have been driving like that... The accident was so serious Mum spent a month in a coma. Dad and Sean blamed each other for it; that’s why they stopped speaking.”
Nora raised her eyebrows. What should she say? “That is fuc—I mean... What happened then?”
The silence between them amplified the onslaught that slammed the roof, the walls, the windows. The storm seemed to want to take part in every single moment of their conversation.
Aiden looked away for a moment but soon returned his eyes to hers. “She’s all right now. It was hard in the first few months after she woke up, but Mum used her difficulties as fuel. She endured the rehabilitation, and, because of it, had to change her whole life. At least she found a whole new set of friends and activities, and I think she ended up enjoying life more. Maybe just out of spite, you know?”
“That’s very inspiring. And how about your brother?” Nora asked with a sympathetic smile.
“I can’t say Dad is thrilled, although he has come to terms with my brother’s sexuality. It helps a lot that Sean’s boyfriend—whose name is also Sean—is a biochemist, just like Dad. There’s no stopping those two when they start talking about their stuff. How about you?”
He had seemingly forgotten any discomfort from earlier. Maybe Aiden just wasn’t used to getting point-blank compliments. It was rather endearing.
“How close and warm is my family... If you mean my parents, fire and ice, for sure,” Nora said. “My mom’s as warm as Rio de Janeiro in the summer, while my dad is as cold as a foot left out of the blanket in winter when the heating is broken and your windows aren’t properly sealed. To hug him is to hug a statue. I honestly don’t know how the two of them ever had a relationship.” Aiden nodded with sympathy in his eyes. “About whether my childhood was happier than other kids’... I agree with you, I can’t judge other people’s happiness. How can this magazine expect someone to answer that so easily?”
“I suppose they want to know your opinion on the matter. Well, I know I want to.” Aiden’s eyes shone greener in candlelight, and Nora enjoyed the way he looked at her.
“All things considered, I was a happy kid, yes. Reminiscing about my childhood—the good memories, at least—is like entering a bubble that is warm, comfortable, and full of everything that’s good in the universe, even if the world is falling to pieces outside this bubble. Like this, right now.”
“Is this place filled with everything that’s good in the universe, Nora?”
She wasn’t sure if she was reading his meaning correctly, and after her latest fiasco, she wasn’t willing to take risks. “Sure. There’s wine and snacks, isn’t there?”
Aiden beamed and raised his plastic cup in a toast. “Of course. Everything that’s good in the universe.”