I stood in the open-plan kitchen, holding on to the big marble island in the middle of it. From here, I had a view into the lounge where Zac was sitting on the sofa watching TV, as well as a view to the door of the guest bathroom, where Jake was. He was standing outside, leaning against the wall in this way that made him look like a male model.
“Remember to wash your hands,” I heard him say.
A voice came back immediately. “Yeeees!”
“Just reminding you,” he replied, and then walked toward the kitchen as if he was on a damn catwalk.
My body stiffened in response to his approaching presence. And the closer he got, the more it felt like my muscles were now made of cement. Everything froze, except for my heart, which was racing. And the closer he got, the more worried I became that he would actually hear my beating heart.
“So?” He reached the marble countertop and placed his hands on it.
It felt like a desert wind had blown in from nowhere and filled my mouth with dry crunchy sand. I tried to talk . . .
“Soooooo,” I returned in a voice that sounded strange and high-pitched. Why was the presence of a hot man making me talk like this?
He grinned. Small, cute, lopsided. And then there was silence. He seemed to be waiting for something, and that was when I remembered.
“Oh! The house. See it, you want?” I cringed at my Yoda-like delivery. I’ve always envied those people who are naturally cool. Coolness seems to ooze out of their pores and float around them like a giant, shiny aura. Everything seems to come easily to them; they joke and laugh and exist in the world with a kind of comfortable ease that I’ve never had. For the most part my life feels like I’m lugging around a giant cactus. It prickles, it hurts, and very often, it itches. And right now, I was desperately trying not to scratch my head, where a nervous, psychosomatic itch had formed.
“I mean unless you don’t want to show me aro—”
“No!” I cut him off, way too enthusiastically. I quickly tried to adjust, stating less eagerly this time, “Noooo, it’s cool. I mean, sure, whatever.”
We heard the toilet flush, and both turned as Lisa walked out, wiping her wet hands on her shirt as she went. I glanced at Jake as he gave a small, pride-filled smile. I got that. Pride for the small things that others take for granted because for them, it’s a given. Nothing is ever a given with kids like Zac and Lisa. In fact, you could say that the only given is that nothing ever is.
Jake and I watched as Lisa sat down next to Zac on the sofa. He was busy lining all the TV remotes up next to him in a perfect, straight line. Small to big. “You think they’ll be okay there for a while?” I asked.
“It’s not like we’re going far.” He raised a brow to me in query, and I nodded.
“Hey, guys, why don’t you watch Teen Titans?” I called out to Lisa and Zac, who were sitting side by side on the couch now.
“I LOOVVE Teen Titans!” Lisa jumped up enthusiastically and knocked one of the remotes off the couch. Zac glared at her.
“They are supposed to be in a line!” he scolded. I lurched forward, ready to step in and diffuse the situation, when Lisa picked the remote up and carefully put it back. I exhaled relief when Zac looked at it and nodded, as if acknowledging that all was now right in his world again.
“Right, let the tour begin, I guess.” I walked up the stairs that led to the second level. Why anyone needed a house built on three levels was really beyond me. Why anyone needed three lounges, two dining rooms, and six bedrooms was also beyond my grasp.
“Most of our furniture hasn’t arrived from Joburg yet, so you could say we’re embracing minimalism,” I said, staring into the hollow space in front of us.
“Wow! This is insane.” Jake walked up to the floor-to-ceiling glass window and looked out over the ocean. The sun was finally starting to sink lower in the sky, and it was casting an orangey, pink light over everything. “Going to be honest. I didn’t really want to see the house. I just wanted to see this view. It’s awesome.”
“It’s okay, I guess.”
“Okay? You guess?” He turned. “What could be better than this?”
“Truthfully, I’m more of a city kinda girl.”
He looked at me curiously for a while. “Give yourself a few months. The sea has a way of getting into you.”
I seriously doubted that. My dislike of water was deeply ingrained in me, had been for years, and if I closed my eyes and thought about it, I was instantly transported back to that moment that I was forced to hate it.
We started walking again, up the other staircase that led to the bedrooms. We did a brief walk-through of the rooms; I left mine out since it still looked like a bomb had gone off in a clothing store. We’d gotten into this slow, step-by-step rhythm of walking together through the house until . . .
“What the hell!” Jake’s shrill shout made me jump, and I swung around as he scurried onto a chair.
“What?” His panic had set mine off.
“There!” He pointed at the floor, ashen faced.
I looked down and . . . “Oh, that.”
“Yes, that?” His eyes were glued to the spot by my feet where a snake was slithering past.
I bent down and picked it up; it coiled around my fingers like it always did.
“Oh my God. What are you doing, Lori? Put it down!”
“Don’t worry, it’s Zac’s pet. She’s a brown house snake, she must have escaped again.” I pulled the snake up to my face and stared at it. “Isn’t that right, Miss Hiss.” It stuck its tongue out at me belligerently.
I looked up at Jake; he was still perched on the chair with eyes that looked like they were about to launch out of his head, and I couldn’t help it . . . I burst out laughing. His white cheeks flushed red as he jumped off the chair, struck a pose, and then ran his hand through his hair.
“Yeah, I meant to do that.” His attempt at a cool recovery made me laugh even more.
“Wanna hold her?” I held my hand out, and he fumbled backward again.
“No. Not really.”
“Don’t like snakes?”
“Uh . . . no!”
I shook my head at him. “You know, you scream like a girl when you’re scared.”
“Don’t tell anyone. My reputation would be ruined,” he joked.
“Who would I tell?” I walked into Zac’s room and put Miss Hiss back into her terrarium.
“This is seriously a pet?” Jake leaned in and peered into her tank.
“It’s better than the tarantula,” I confessed.
He scrunched his face up, but I could see he was smiling. “You live in a weird house.”
“I wonder what Julio would say?” I said, and he chuckled. These perfect, somewhat mesmerizing strands of hair tumbled into his face, and he looked hotter right now than he’d ever looked before, especially with that warm orange light streaming through the big window, casting all kinds of golden highlights across his face. He looked like a work of art created by one of the old masters. He should be framed and hung on some great museum wall for all to see, and to be honest, it perturbed me that I was thinking about him like this.
“I—I’m going to check on Zac and Lisa, I’ll be quick. If you go up the other staircase, it leads to a roof terrace,” I shouted over my shoulder as I rushed down the stairs. I glanced over the railing to the TV room below, where Lisa and Zac were sitting happily. I watched them for a while, a tiny lump forming in my throat. It was rare to see Zac so chilled, and it made my heart feel like it was going to burst.
When I was satisfied that all was well, I started back up the stairs, and that’s when it hit me. It hit me all at once and my intestines twisted themselves up like a lasso.
“Crap!” I started running. There was something up there that I didn’t want him to see. Didn’t want anyone to see.
I raced up the stairs and burst onto the roof terrace, immediately scanning it for Jake. But he wasn’t there. “No, no, no!” He could only be in one place now—the one place I didn’t want him to be. I raced across the rooftop and threw the door to the hot tub room open. Only, it was too late.
My heart sank. It fell into my feet, crawled out of my toes, and pooled on the floor below me and then, I wanted to die of embarrassment.
I wished I could rewind. Go back in time and stop him from coming up here.