Destined (22 page)

“My father sends this appetizer to
you,” she said, giving us each a small white plate. “We call it the
Caterpillar. It is eel, rice and avocado. Very good!”

It looked like a caterpillar, too,
covered with fuzzy hair made from toasted shredded coconut, with two slim
carrot sticks for antennae. We thanked her and gave our orders, then shared the
dish. It was delicious, mild and not fishy at all. The two men were adept at
using their chopsticks to pick up chunks of food and dip it into the little
bowls of sauce. I usually drop more on the table than I can get into my mouth,
so I opted for a fork.

Mei and her family showered us with
treats throughout our meal, ending with a warm banana dessert that was the
perfect sweet finale. They were all very kind, and obviously thrilled to
entertain someone who spoke their language. Tony and Henry had a marvelous
time, remembering their travels together and the unusual dinners they had
shared. I enjoyed watching them and listening, but held back somewhat,
distracted by a slight headache.

As the three of us walked back up the
sidewalk towards the shop, Tony repeated some of what Mei’s parents had been
saying to him.

“Mr. Sun learned to cook in Peking,
making the famous Peking Duck. That is the only place in the world where it is
made. You know how it’s done? The ducks hang from hooks over a large cauldron
of hot broth and secret herbs, which is scooped up and poured into the body
cavity of the ducks, over and over again, for hours, to cook them from the
inside out.”

“That seems like a lot of trouble,” I
remarked.

Tony looked at me with shocked
disapproval.

“But it tastes like nothing else, “ he
said firmly. “It is the most tender, delicious duck in the world!”

“Oh I see!”

“A lot of trouble is worth it
sometimes, Emily.”

“I suppose so.”

“Take now, for example.” He looked at
me pointedly, and grinned.

“Oh? You’re suggesting that I am a lot
of trouble?”

“Yes, but you’re worth it, aren’t you?”

“Ha! And wouldn’t you like to find
out!”

“Yes, please,” he said simply. “That
is my plan.”

“Oh? You have a plan, do you?” I
asked, not sure whether to be annoyed, or flattered.

We had reached our destination, and
Mr. Paradis began to climb up the stairs to the front door. He stopped and
turned around to interrupt with a wave of his hand.

“Does the plan include delivering
Emily safely home tonight, Tony, or should I call her a cab?” He peered down at
us from the top step, a twinkle in his eye.

“Want to try out the Prius?” Tony dug
the keys out of his pants pocket and dangled them in front of me invitingly. I
reached out quickly and plucked them from his hand.

I thanked Mr. Paradis for the dinner,
which had been magnificent and entertaining. Henry observed happily that we had
received more food for free than what we had purchased. We all agreed that
Mei’s family was charming and her father was an inspired chef. With a fond “Farewell!”
and a wave, Mr. Paradis went inside the front door and closed it with a snap of
the latch.

Tony and I turned and followed the
footpath that ran along the north side of the building, heading for the alley
in back where he was still parked next to the porch. It was dark and quiet. The
motion-activated light on the back porch turned on when we came out into the
back yard.

“Hey, why don’t you drive this time,
OK?” I said, handing him back the keys.

“What’s up, Em?” He looked at me,
alert and concerned.

“I’m a little tired, that’s all.”

“Of course you are. Emily,” he said, “Come
here.”

He stopped walking and turned around
to put his arms around me, enveloping me in a long, warm hug. With my face
gently pressed against his bare throat as we stood together, I fit perfectly
under his chin. I slipped my hands inside his leather jacket and wrapped my
arms around his firm body. I noticed he was giving off the same delicious,
spicy scent that had made me swoon on our first date. Inhaling deeply, I closed
my eyes and let all the air out again in a big sigh. It was bliss.

“It’s not easy to save the world and
fight evil all day long, is it?” he said, rubbing my back with one hand while
continuing to hug me with the other arm. I moaned a little, first inadvertently
then in an exaggerated, joking way. It was a great hug. He made me feel safe
and grounded. We disengaged naturally in a few minutes, comfortable with each
other.

“OK, hop in,” he said, unlocking the
passenger door for me. I obediently sat. The Prius was beautiful too, I noticed
grudgingly. Very luxurious and comfortable. I vowed to try to appreciate it,
for the sake of our planet.

Tony drove to my apartment building
while I daydreamed about ways to make Lexi change her attitude towards me. They
all seemed to involve kidnapping, explosives or weapons of some kind. I
realized I was still holding in a lot of anger.

“What would you do?” I asked Tony.

 
“About Lexi?” He looked over at me.

I nodded.

“I would probably go to see her. Try
to talk my way out of it. See what it was she seemed to want, and try to give
it to her.”

“That’s very direct.”

“Yes,” he said, pulling up to park in
front of my building. “But then, I took a seminar in negotiation. I didn’t make
it up! I’m not that smart.”

“Oh really! I would have said you are
quite smart.”

“Perhaps ‘diabolically clever,’ some
would say.” He raised one eyebrow and grinned.

“Some who?”

“Some of my friends, who appreciate my
finer qualities.”

“I‘m beginning to appreciate your
finer qualities too, you know?”

“You are? Emily! I was hoping you
would realize what a wonderful person I am!”

We both laughed.

“I know what you need,” Tony said,
leaning closer.

“You do?”

“Yes,” he said quietly, and kissed me
on the lips. My mouth tingled and a hot electric charge shot through me like a
bolt of lightning, all the way down to my toes.

“What makes you think so?” I said,
kissing him back. His lips were soft, warm, and he tasted like ginger. My
logical mind started to melt into a golden mist.

Tony kissed me again, and again,
putting his arms around me and pulling me toward him. The scent of his leather
jacket and his delicious natural chemistry wafted over me. It was completely
intoxicating, and with every breath I spun a little more out of control.

Those piercing, dark eyes were very
close now, looking intensely into mine. I felt like the earth had suddenly
opened beneath me, and I was falling into a deep chasm. Drawn by his mind,
mesmerized, I closed my eyes and opened my mouth, letting the kiss go deeper.
Dizzying waves of sensation raced through me and fireworks glittered inside my
eyelids. All the hard edges began to dissolve, and the soft vulnerable me
inside the shell was exposed, pink and trembling. I’m sure my face was bright
red as I pulled back and gazed at him adoringly.

His voice changed and got a little husky,
like he needed to swallow.

“I know what a woman needs at a time
like this, Emily, I was not born yesterday,” he said.

My hypersensitive self-protective
instinct immediately kicked in again. Tony seemed sincere and caring, but he
was very, very smooth. He was even admitting his expertise with women, right up
front, almost like a warning or a challenge. But he was so incredibly sexy, it
really didn’t matter.

I lowered my eyes with a coy smile.

“OK, tell me…what do I need?”

I waited breathlessly for him to tell
me, or show me. Or hopefully, both.

“Hot water,” he said, kissing me once
more, gently, in the middle of the forehead. “Very hot water. Rosemary and sea
salt. A candle. Maybe several?”

 
“A bath? I must admit, it sounds good.” I pictured myself naked
in the tub, in the flickering candlelight, perhaps not alone? I wondered if he
was imagining the same thing.

“You need to soak in very hot water
and let your thoughts drift. You absorb the ions from the agitated water
molecules. It’s good for the body and the spirit. The famous holistic doctor
Andrew Weil says so.”

“Does he?”

“Yes. I read it in his newsletter,”
Tony said, and that seemed to settle it.

He followed me inside and actually
started to run the bath for me, pausing to speak to Tree, who rubbed up against
his leg. I kind of wanted to do the same thing.

“So, now are you going to put me into
the tub?” I asked hopefully, as he came over and wrapped his arms around me
again. He had not taken off his jacket, a bad sign.

He held me close and looked at me with
an odd, kind of
overflowing
expression, his face flushed as he looked into my eyes.

“No, Emily, not tonight,” he said
slowly. “But I am very much looking forward to it when the time comes!”
 
He kissed me tenderly, and departed. I
was sorry to see him go, but suddenly felt too exhausted to worry about it.

I locked the door behind him and
walked toward the big claw-footed bathtub, dropping my clothes on the floor as
I went. I was so tired, I couldn’t even stop to pick them up. I pinned my hair
up on top of my head and stepped into the steaming, fragrant water. Tony had
thrown in some sea salt and fresh herbs from my kitchen windowsill, rosemary
and lavender. There was just one lamp lit in the main room, and two candles
flickered on the shelf at the foot of the tub. I folded up a hand towel and
used it for a pillow as I lay down, relaxing and letting my eyes go out of
focus as the steam glowed in the fluttering, strobe light of the wavering
candle flames. My eyes fell shut and I still saw a muted flashing through my
semi-transparent eyelids.

I lay under the steaming water with my
hands crossed over my chest like a mummy. The tub is deep and long, so most of
me was submerged in liquid heat. I crossed my left leg over the right at the
knee, loosening the kinks in my lower back with a stretch. An enormous yawn
suddenly overtook me, and as I let it out, I sank down slowly, slowly,
centimeter by centimeter, lower, looser and more relaxed, until every muscle in
my body that would obey a request was limp.

But my mind wouldn’t stop racing.
Pictures flashed across the movie screen inside my eyelids. Lexi, furious.
Tony, smiling. Siri, in her water goddess colors. The crescent moon claw marks
on my arms. Lexi’s gallery, where she reigned happily as the Queen and welcomed
customers with pride, as though she had painted the works of art herself. She
really seemed to feel that way. When we all worked together and sold several
pieces to a big client, she was proud as a parent. We were a team, then. She
had actually seemed to
like
me, on those occasions.

I focused on the memory of Lexi being
friendly to me, when she was excited and happy. Sometimes she could be kind of
fun. I remembered one day after we sold two very large paintings when she had
pulled out a bottle of champagne from the fridge and we closed the gallery
early, getting a little smashed while we talked about silly things from our
college days. I saw her face again, laughing at me. She had hiccupped and
inadvertently snorted some champagne up her nose. For some reason it was
utterly hysterical. I started to giggle again in the tub, remembering.

I opened my eyes and stared up at the
ceiling, turning on a trickle of hot water with my big toe to re-warm the bath.
I realized I had started to feel a little better and the headache was gone. I
also realized that I had somehow managed to stop thinking about Lexi’s negative
side, and was concentrating on the fun times. Siri was right, it was much more
pleasant! I took in a deep breath and let my head slip all the way under the
water, a little stream of bubbles slowly slipping out of my nose. I opened my
eyes under the water and watched the bubbles rising up to the surface.

What if I could let all the bad
feelings float away from me just as easily? I pushed against the anger with my
mind, finding where it dwelled inside me, somewhere near my solar plexus. It
felt like a balled fist, a cramped knot of muscle. I touched it with my hand.
It was literally a sore spot. I pushed it with my fingers, and pushed it with
my mind, massaging the knot in my imagination and starting to break it up into
smaller and smaller pieces. I saw them as little shards of broken glass, sharp
and glittering, dangerous.

I came up to the surface of the water
to take in another deep breath, and then I submerged again. I deliberately
pictured the little jagged pieces of anger each enclosed in a smooth bubble of
air, then one by one slowly let them escape from between my lips. I let all of
the air out of my lungs, one bubble at a time. Then I rose back to the surface
and shook the water out of my eyes, my heavy wet hair coming out of the pins
and streaming down my back. I inhaled a full breath of moist herb-scented,
healing air. I put my hand to my midsection and realized that the painful knot
was gone! A slightly tender spot remained, but not like before. My shoulders
were not so tense, either.