Suspended - Part IX

“Suspended” is a fictional story about a New York family — husband, wife and college-aged son — who’ve become disconnected from one another and lost their sense of purpose until a beautiful young woman who claims she’s a hands-on-healer enters their lives and shakes everything up.

THIS IS PART 9 of a FIFTEEN-PART STORY

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15

 

Image: Andrea Piacquadio

It had been years since Rich had gone to the movies with anyone outside his family. In the darkened theatre, he was hyper-aware of Fee beside him, the heat coming off her thigh. They'd bought a bucket of popcorn and their hands kept colliding as they reached in. He wanted to lick the butter off her fingers. He thought she was beautiful. He loved the dark honey smell of her, the hoop of silver in each of her ears, the spareness of her unmade-up face, the super leanness of her arms and legs, the fact that she didn't wear a bra and he could see her nipples through her shirt. His feelings frightened him. He couldn't concentrate on the movie, the damn subtitles, because he was so worried about what would happen afterward. What might happen. The room in which Fee was staying adjoined his. They would share a bathroom. Would she expect him to kiss her? To slip into her bed after the lights were out and the TV was off and the apartment was still? He had been married for twenty-five years and never once had he strayed or even been tempted to stray, but this woman, this thin, taut, natural beauty made him feel as tongue-tied and foolish as an adolescent. 

After the movie, he suggested they go for a drink, but Fee wanted to visit his shop. They strolled over to Columbus. He took her to the back of his store, to his workroom and showed her the new line of frames he was designing.

"Glasses should be something people want to wear, like jewelry, bracelets for the eyes."

"What a beautiful thought," breathed Fee.

He could have kissed her then, but he didn't though every nerve in his body told him to step forward and take hold of her. He didn't kiss her later, either, in the awkward moment before going to bed. He heard her brush her teeth, heard the toilet flush, and when he went into the bathroom there was a candle going and the air was sweet. "Have everything you need?" he asked a few moments later, peering into her room. She'd left the door open. She was sitting on her bed in a white cotton gown, rubbing some kind of oil into her skin and the air in there smelled sweet, too. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you," she said, gazing at him with that look of being able to see right through to his bones. He gazed back at her, the blood roaring in his ears. "Fee," he said, husky-voiced, but just then, just at that crucial moment that required every single nerve in his body to connect smoothly with every other nerve, the phone rang.


Cover Image: Anastasia Shuraeva