Wednesday, July 4, 2018

NOA AND ANTONIO

My heart is inside my body.

"Wherever we are, that's where my heart is."


[Mahlena wrote this short story. Share with a friend. 🙆🏾]



“He went home with a stomach ache.”

“Was it something he ate?”

“You tell me. He went to lunch with you today, Morrow.”

“We had deep dish pizza. My stomach’s okay, but Antonio did go heavy on the crushed pepper flakes.”

“Those always send me to the loo.”



Friday, April 17 2015


In the crowded conference room, Noa sipped her club soda as she observed Sasha and Morrow trade speculations on the source of Antonio’s ailment. “Too bad he couldn’t stay for the rest of the party.”

“He’s probably the only person here I’m not saying farewell to,” Sasha replied. “He could throw me a Welcome Home celebration after we return to Lake Elmo.”

“Has it really been three months already?” Morrow mused, pinching the eyeglass pad indentations on his nose. “What a short assignment Mia sent you on.”

“I’ll be back before you know it,” Sasha assured. “She likes to keep tabs on the other Homestead communities, especially these underground ones. And you two have to come visit us this year. You can travel within the network, right? Just not the outside?”

“No communication with the outside either,” Noa said.

Morrow put his arm around Noa. “We’ve been keeping a low profile since the evacuation. And going stir crazy.”

“Cooped up under the sea,” Noa concurred. “Summer vacation in the Northern Territory would be an aboveground change.”

“Yes?” Sasha turned from Noa to Morrow. “Yes?”

“Let’s do it!” Morrow kept his left arm around Noa and high fived Sasha with his free hand.

Noa took a final sip of her beverage. “You two can work out the details.” She placed her clear plastic cup on the buffet table under the Bon Voyage banner. “As usual, I have overhydrated. Keep the fun going. I’ll be right back.”


**********


While the sounds of the corporate gathering echoed down the hall, Noa pressed the elevator button to travel from the boisterous first floor of the office building to the silent second.

Around an opaque corner, Noa spotted a yellow caution cone and a laden cleaning cart stationed in front of the door to a family restroom. A cloaked figure lurked in the shadows.

Noa stepped around the cone to slide the cart to the side. She opened the door. “Get over here.”

The figure entered the room. Noa followed and locked the door behind them.

Inside, an EXIT sign near the ceiling lit the room with a lime green glow.

“Wash your hands,” Noa commanded.

Once the task was completed, Noa edged closer to here obedient companion. “Pull them down.” Noa waited for her instructions to be followed, but her satisfaction was hard to come by. “You have to pull up the skirt first… Too high, that’s my shirt.”

“I can’t see with this mood lighting.” He flipped on the switch for the buzzing fluorescent lights.

“How romantic.” Noa put down the toilet seat lid to rest her bottom. She checked her watch. “We have five more minutes until our spouses start worrying about the status of my bladder.”

“Five minutes with you is not enough.”

Noa lifted the hem of her skirt above her knees. “Then stop diddling around, and start diddling.”

“And then what?” Antonio whined. “You go back to the party, I slink home with my fake indigestion, and I see you never?”

“If never is in a couple months. Morrow is downstairs planning a family excursion to the Outback with Sasha for the next long holiday.”

“So I’ll see you, but I won’t be able to touch you.”

Noa reached out her arms to pull him closer.

Antonio straddled her lap, placing his hands on Noa’s shoulders to brace himself. He nudged the tip of his nose against her cheek.

“Touch me now, Antonio.”

The reinforcements at the base of the bowl strained with the weight of two people.

“We have,” Noa checked her watch, “four minutes.”

Antonio dropped his forehead with a groan of agitation. “By some miracle, I found you again, and now I can’t be with you?”

“Would it have been easier if my post-evacuation whereabouts had remained a mystery?”

“This is tearing me apart. I wish we could go away together, just the two of us, like we did before.”

Noa held Antonio’s back, coaxing the anxiety out of him. “That option is even more appealing and less attainable than when we pulled it off last year. What other solutions do you have?”

He dragged his terrified eyes to meet hers. “I want to tell Sasha about us.”

Noa peeled his hands off her body. “What would that solve?”

“I hate lying to her. Sasha and I used to talk about everything, including what made us happy or sad. You make me happy. In a perfect world, we could all be happy together, separately.”

“Like we’re your sister wives?” Noa arose from the toilet, knocking Antonio to the linoleum floor in a pile. “I thought we both agreed: I don’t want to leave Morrow, and you didn’t want to leave Sasha.”

Antonio gathered himself to a standing position. “I love Sasha. I’m married to Sasha. But I love—”

“No.” With a firm hand, Noa pushed him against the wall. “There are too many reasons to not do this.”

“I can only think of one, but if Sasha does end my life, or more likely, hire a hit man to eliminate me, I’d deserve it.”

“Because you’re the only person who has something to lose? If you blow the whistle on us, Morrow would be destroyed. Betrayed by his friend and his wife? The twins are too young to understand, but—”

Antonio removed her hand and interlaced their fingers. “I don’t want to hurt you or them. I won’t say a word.”

“What does that mean for you and me?”

“I’m not going anywhere. Okay, technically, I am leaving Naboombu tomorrow. But nothing will change between us.”

An alarm sounded from Noa’s wrist. “Time’s up.”

Antonio held on to the doorknob. “Do you want to go first, or should I?”

Noa lifted the lid once more. “I actually did drink too much club soda, so…”

Antonio opened the door. “See you this summer.”

“I lied.”

Antonio glanced back. “About what?”

“Last spring. Before I left you in the hotel room. When I told you I don’t love you.”

Noa watched Antonio look both ways before he left the room.

He set the cart in its previous location. “I know.”


**********


“You didn’t miss much.” Morrow handed Noa a sleeping toddler.

She placed the child in the crib on the right side of the king size bed. “I’m glad I returned in time for karaoke.”

Morrow placed a similarly sized toddler in the other crib on the left side. “Does Apple look bigger to you?”

“She’s always been larger than Lodge, but he is catching up.” Noa set a bottle on each of the mini mattresses. “Do you think they grew in the two hours that we were away from our apartment?”

“It’s possible.”

With the twins nestled all snug in their cribs, Noa and Morrow collapsed onto their own bed, still clothed in workplace festive attire.

“The week after the fourth of July,” Morrow said, arms behind his head. “You, me, kids, koalas. How does that sound?”

Noa started at the ceiling. “Kangaroos, too?”

“Just as long as we’re together.” Morrow kicked his fabric loafers onto the bamboo floor. “By then, it will have been a full year.”

“Only four more to go.”

“I have to admit, when we decided to leave Reubenville before the evacuation, trusting Kimber to find a secure location for us, mercenaries hurling projectiles at our car as you drove us through the tunnels to the secret train, not even knowing where it would take us, I was frightened. Even though our new apartment looked exactly the same as the one we left behind, even though I pretended I was fine, I wasn’t.”

“Neither was I.”

“But I knew I was home.” Morrow rolled over to cradle the right side of Noa’s body. “Wherever we are, that’s where my heart is.”

Noa nodded, eyes up, boots still on.

“Whew!” Morrow sat up, his rainbow-striped socked feet wiggling. “Enough pontificating for tonight.” He walked to a chest of drawers to retrieve a pair of typewriter-patterned boxers. “Do you want to shower first, or should I?”

In one swift motion, Noa stood up to face Morrow. 

He handed her a nightgown. “Is that a yes?”

“I’m having an affair with Antonio.”



FIN


[Who are you cheating with?
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