37. Maggie
37
maggie
I don’t know what to do with myself, so I make a plate of melon, berries, and sardines for my mongoose.
He stands there staring at me as if we’re in a kitchen together all the time. I shift my weight and his smile never wanes as I look up at him again.
“This is freaky, right?” I ask.
“Oh, very much so. And I don’t want a snack. Especially that one.” He shakes his head at the plate.
“It’s not for you,” I grin and look across the little tiled kitchen. “I want to come over there and pinch you just to see you’re real. This can’t be happening.”
I leap on the counter and crawl to him. He groans at the sight, and that was my intent. Then I get up on my knees, and he keeps his arms crossed over his chest.
I kiss those sweet, full lips and he moans. I tell him, “It’s you. You taste the same but sexier.”
“Back off, Meerkat. Not sure I can handle this taking it slow if you’re going to crawl to me with your luscious breasts swinging like that. I can see down your dress, and I want to bury myself in your tits.”
I laugh and slide off the island. “Come on. Let’s see where the next hour takes us.” I grab the platter. He follows me with his hands in those cute short pockets. “Okay, buddy,” I call up the stairs.
“Who are you calling buddy?” He smacks my ass lightly on the stairs.
“My mongoose.”
He halts me on the landing and turns me to him. “What the hell is going on?” There’s scratching in the walls, and I say, “Be right there,” as we get to the landing.
“Mags, what’s in the front bedroom and why is there a screen door loosely leaning against the entrance? And is that a beekeeper’s hood?”
“Apiary attendant, and yes.” His eyes get wide, and I don’t have time to explain all this.
“Are there bees in there?” Then he jumps as the scratches get more intense in the wall. “What the fuck is in the walls? Bees in the walls?”
“Stay here. I’ll explain. Mongoose, keep your fur on, it’s coming.” I turn back to Colt, and he looks spooked. “Trust me.”
“No,” he says forcefully. I laugh and put the beekeeper hood on and go behind the screen door and then open the bedroom.
“Everyone calm down. We have company.”
Colt yells, “Who the fuck are you talking to?” And then he screams. “Are those fucking bats?”
I put the dinner bowl down and shove the other one into the crack in the wall and exit. I do all the steps in reverse, making sure nothing is on me. Then I seal off the door.
I put my hands up. “I can explain.”
“You can not. You absolutely can not fucking explain why you have a bat cave unless you are in fact, Batman. And what the hell is in the wall?”
I try to drag him into the bedroom, but he shakes me off. He pulls me downstairs and out the front door. Then looks up at the front bedroom window and sees a lot of activity.
“Look. They were all here first. And the owner won’t answer my calls. I’m kind of on my own here, and I didn’t know what to do. The caretaker can’t handle the stairs.”
“What?”
“His son, who I think is like 80, helps when he can but is getting a hip replacement, I think. That’s what Google translator said. His mom, who is the housekeeper, well, kind of. I thought her name was Affamata, but apparently that means hungry. Now I’m afraid to ask her real one. I help her with the dusting and the scrubbing because she groans too much bending over, and I can’t possibly ask a woman that old to clean for me.”
“What is even fucking happening? Do you hear yourself? You pay them?” Colt walks in tight circles. “Mags, you’re telling me that you’re taking care of this huge run-down villa and that rabies-infested brood by yourself?”
“I can handle it.”
“Stop handling things or accepting everything or fixing everything.” He puts his hands on my shoulders.
“Hey, Pot.” He kisses me deeply.
“I deserve that. But seriously, you can’t stay here. For health reasons, not to mention safety.”
“I was only one person, so I only needed the one bedroom. I think it’s a mongoose in the wall. It doesn’t attack me when I sleep, and it keeps the mice and snakes at bay. The bats keep the bugs and bees off the lemons. We have our own symbiotic relationship.” His face is unmoved by my explanation. And then he’s full-body laughing and bending over at me. “Hey! I can have a pet.”
“Vermin. You’re raising rabies-riddled things, and you gave them part of your home.” He grabs me and holds me close while he calms down. “And snacks. You made them an animal charcuterie plate. Please tell me you didn’t name the bats?”
“Not individually.” He busts out laughing again. I stare at him. “Is it really that funny?” And suddenly I see it from an outsider’s point of view, and I laugh.
“Why is your heart so sweet? You have to get rid of the bats. It’s dangerous and kind of gross.”
“Where will they go?”
He gestures all around him and raises his voice but not in anger, “Mags. Outside! A cave, a tree, wherever normal, not pampered bats go.”
He spins around until his face lands on me again. “Can I keep the mongoose?” He bursts out laughing again. “I’m serious. It won’t hurt me.”
“Because they’re known for being cuddly?”
I pop a hip, and he picks me up and places me in a chair in my front lawn. He simply holds my hands and looks up at the sky. I do the same, and we live in this moment that might be forever. Or it might be right now, but it wraps around us like that fantastic cream blanket at Mak’s house she stole from mine.
He breaks our silence. “Hey Mags, where are the screens or the glass in your windows?”
“There are screens?”
“The windowsills are designed for them. See the runners around the edge.” He laughs again, then drags me to follow him around the side of the house and then to the back. He stops and places me in front of him.
Stacked against the back of the house are what I thought were for lemon or olive harvesting. They’re tall, framed screens larger than normal screens but the windows are super tall and now I see what’s happening. I spin in his arms.
“What?!” He can’t breathe as he stares at them, doubling over again. I fall to the ground, laughing hard as well. I’m standing in front of the solution. I didn’t ask, but I also didn’t know what or who to ask.
“So, you fed them instead of asking for shades, windows or screens. What does that caretaker call you?”
“Balordo Bella” And he guffaws.
He falls to the ground next to me and pulls me into his lap. He kisses the hell out of me. “Balordo Bella?” He moves the hair out of my face. “My beautiful fool. It means beautiful fool. You do have Google, right?”
I snuggle into him and stare at the screens.
“And I’ve made more mess, but I was figuring it out on my own.”
“Nothing that can’t be fixed,” he says while stroking my hair away from my face and I melt at his touch. This is the last place I thought I’d be a year ago. “And you’re not alone.” Life is magical sometimes.
“Come on.” He pushes me up, before getting up and starts walking. He turns around to me and I toss my arms around his neck and jump up and he catches me. Then lifts me by my ass to hitch around his waist. I wrap myself completely around him.
“How are you better than I imagined?”
“Hi!” We’re face to face and I can’t stop smiling.
“Hi, Mags.”
“You’re here,” I gasp.
“I am. And you can’t sleep here until we get the bats under control.”
I raise an eyebrow and narrow one eye at him. “Where do you propose I sleep? Hmm. And I’m suddenly not tired.” I kiss him and feel him grow hard underneath me.
The moon is lively tonight and peeking through the crack in the curtains, and I watch this beautiful man remove his shirt and pants and admire the body he’s built. I’m sitting in my bra and thong, and he’s gazing at my face. Our eyes never leaving each other as if we’re worried the other isn’t real. He crawls to me, and I lose the thin hold I have on my emotions and a tear slides down my cheek.
“Meerkat, what is it?” He settles over me, and I wrap my arms around him. He holds me as I cry. “My Maggie,” he whispers and holds me tighter.
My voice bubbles up finally. “I’ve ruined tonight.”
He leans over me and stares into my eyes. His hand gently wipes the tears. “Don’t you think we’ve already had enough ruined? A few tears aren’t going to ruin anything. But I do need to know if you’re okay.”
“That’s just it.” My tears continue to stream. “It’s like I’ve held back all this emotion forever. These are tears from the parking garage or holding your hand in Paris. They’re from all the nights I pushed your memory down deep in my soul, so I didn’t think it was perfect. That each breath I take was laced with some kind of emotion for you. The pain, the joy, and all of it.”
He sits up and pulls me to him and I cuddle in the way I did the first night in room 666.
He kisses the top of my head and I curl into his chest. “Maggie, this is our time. Finally. We’ve been chasing this moment for far too long for us to discount it. I won’t rush anything with you, because we don’t have to.”
“And you’ll keep holding me?”
“Until you tell me to stop.” He says.
“I won’t.”
He grabs his shirt from the floor and puts it over my body. “Maggie. We have all the time.” He kisses my forehead and I yawn. I don’t mean to, but it’s been quite a day. He stands, scooping me with him and places me in the hotel bed under the covers. I look at his stunning body and he slides in next to me. I wiggle backward into him.
“Mags, do not wiggle your ass on my currently under control dick, or this restrained, tender moment won’t hold.”
I flip over and kiss him sweetly. Then I trace his lips, jaw and his giant smile. I put my head on his chest.
“You do know I have to fuck you very soon,” he says, while stroking my hair.
“Now, or can we wait a minute?”
“I’ll wait forever for you. I thought we established that.” I lightly slap his broad and hard chest and sigh.
“I’m sorry I broke up with you.” He laughs but I mean it.
“I’m sorry I broke up with you.”
“Good.”
He kisses the back of my head. “Goodnight, Meerkat.”
“Un jour.” I whisper as I drift off.