Chapter Twenty-six

It took another two weeks for Valen to schedule a free evening to spend with Pia. Once she’d been given the go-ahead on a date, she began scouring her imagination for ways to make his time off both fun and memorable. Pia had now seen firsthand how busy Valen was and how the normal pleasures most people took for granted were forgotten treats for the man who would be senator.

She decided on a private book club meeting and sent him another handmade invitation, inviting him to join her at her apartment for a reading of Rose Water. It had been on the WMS book list and she’d been wanting to read it for months, as it was touted for intelligently exploring the intrinsic nature of love and sex and the many demons around the subject.

At eight o’clock on Sunday evening, Valen arrived with a bottle of Sancerre for him and a bottle of sparkling apple cider for her. He kissed Pia lightly upon arrival and walked into her home, tantalized by the yummy aroma swirling around the room.

“Something smells awfully good in here,” he commented.

“Glad you think so. Since the novel is set in Brazil I’ve ordered several popular dishes.”

“Ordered? Are you telling me you can’t cook?” Valen teased.

“Oh, I can cook, Mr. Bellamy,” she said, letting the sexual innuendo linger. “Now, as I was saying, I have ordered chicken and shrimp empadinhas, sweet plantains, and black beans and rice. They are warming at the moment, so may I get you a cocktail? I can open the wine or I can mix you a mojito.”

“Well, when in Brazil…”

“Come in the kitchen and keep me company while I get things ready.”

The two sat in the kitchen like old friends, talking, laughing, and catching up on their lives. There was a real comfort between them that both Valen and Pia appreciated. This being pals thing was working out well for both of them.

“It was sad, to hear this girl talk about losing her father and the family not having the money for a proper funeral,” Valen told her. “I wanted to give her the money right then, but if I wrote a check for every story I hear like that I’d be broke.”

“I lost my dad when I was eighteen,” Pia said, surprising herself. “It was so sudden that I think it made everything even worse.”

“I’m sorry. How did he die?”

“Freak accident. I was coming home from college for a long holiday weekend and he insisted on cutting fresh roses for my room. He got stung by a bee. He’d never been stung before so we didn’t know he was allergic. My mom was at the store, so by the time she found him it was too late.”

“I’m sorry,” Valen repeated.

“Me too. I was his stereotypical apple. Daddy died trying to do something to please me. But instead of being grateful, I was angry at him for a long time for leaving me and my mom.”

“That’s not uncommon,” Valen said, placing a comforting hand over hers.

“Guess not. But it still doesn’t seem right.

“How did we get on this gruesome subject? I think the food is ready,” Pia declared jumping up to get out the plates and silverware.

The two filled up their dishes and brought them out into the living room. They sat on the couch to eat while continuing to laugh and talk. The conversation between them flowed smoothly. They talked of Valen’s devotion to the NBA, and he admitted that his favorite team was the Miami Heat and not the New York Knicks. He forced her to pinky swear not to tell, insisting that such an admission would surely derail his campaign.

“So any deep, dark secrets you’d like to divulge?” Valen asked with a grin.

“I have two tattoos,” Pia responded, made uncomfortable by his question and feeling pressed to admit to something. “I’d show them to you, but I believe it’s time to get our meeting started,” she announced, jumping up to get the book and changing the subject.

“Something to look forward to,” Valen quipped under his breath as he cleared the dishes. He returned and stretched out on the couch, laying his head in Pia’s lap. There was no discussion as their bodies seemed to naturally assume the intimate position.

They took turns reading to each other, both clearly moved by the subject matter and the personal method of consumption. After ninety minutes they stopped, their reading voices exhausted, their interest in the story piqued.

“We must do this again. I have to know how the story progresses,” Valen said. “But my schedule is so forbidding.”

“Why don’t we make a phone date at least once a week. We’ll take turns reading for thirty minutes,” Pia suggested.

“I’d love that. You’d really do that for me?”

“Well, yes, but I’m being selfish. I enjoyed this myself.”

He reached down and covered her lips with his in response. Valen’s kiss was sweet and endearing, and Pia’s was warm and receptive. The two sat on the sofa, making out like high school sophomores and stimulating the desire between them to combustible levels.

“I should go,” he said his voice gruff from sexual arousal.

“Okay,” she agreed, knowing if she didn’t stop now, she wouldn’t.

“But there is something I need to say first. I’ll admit that I was initially apprehensive about calling you after receiving the photograph, but I’m so happy I didn’t listen to those negative thoughts. These past couple of dates have been magic for me, and I can only hope you feel the same,” he told her, punctuating his statement with a soft fingertip caress of her lips.

Pia chose not to respond, only to listen. The fact was, she didn’t know if she could speak as fighting back the tears was commanding much of her attention. Damn those hormones.

Valen, slightly taken aback by her silence, pressed on.

“Your invitation to the Empire State Building contained the quote ‘There must be something between us, even if it is an ocean.’ I take that to mean that you also feel the incredible pull between us. It’s chemical and spiritual. It’s nothing but it’s everything. It feels like a fantasy, but it exists in my heart with an astounding reality.

“So I am asking you to confirm what I think I already know. There is something happening between us that shouldn’t be denied. I don’t want to ignore it. I’m not sure I can. Can you?” he asked, searching for confirmation in her face.

“Please, Pia, you have to say something, because I am beginning to feel like I am giving a campaign speech here,” Valen quipped, hoping to cover the growing dread that was seeping into his heart.

Pia’s face remained expressionless, but her passionate brown eyes revealed all. Slowly the tears slid down her cheeks, hanging momentarily before falling to her lap.

It was an agonizing rain that broke his heart. It was clear his interpretation of her actions and words had been way off. Had he read wrong the passion and desire in her kiss? Apparently the intuitive insight he prided himself on had been all wrong, and wrong at a time when the one thing he wanted most in the world was for it to be right.

Damn it, Pia thought, cursing her overactive hormones. Valen had totally misread the reason she’d used that particular quote from the movie. She’d meant it to be quippy, thinking he’d read it as a shared interest in the Indian Ocean or even as the ocean of political differences between them. But in Pia’s mind, it wasn’t politics but the current realities about her life and her ideas on relationships that separated them.

At fifteen weeks, this baby she was carrying might have measured only four and a half inches from crown to rump, but it was as big as an ocean when it came to crossing the barriers that divided them. And more than that, Pia was in this simply for the romance. She enjoyed the reawakening of her sexy, sensual side that had taken place in San Francisco and she didn’t want to give that up again, but she was not interested in falling in love. Friendship was all she was willing to give Valen. Frankly, it was all she knew how to give him. Pia couldn’t afford to allow herself to get in any deeper than the flirting and kissing she was currently enjoying with him.

“I can’t make any promises to you. Your life, my life…it just wouldn’t be fair.” she said as he gently wiped the tears from her face.

“Understandable. My lifestyle and schedule are a lot to take on, even for the most patient of women,” Valen responded, feeling slightly more encouraged than he’d been just a few moments ago. At least Pia wasn’t giving him a flat-out no.

“Let me suggest we just take this thing slow and see what happens. In fact, the reality is, we have no other choice. My schedule leading up to the election will be grueling. So we’ll talk on the phone, send e-mails, and finish reading our book. Slowly we’ll figure this thing out, okay?” Valen said, drawing her back into his arms.

Pia went willingly into his arms but didn’t have the heart to tell him that since the day they’d met everything had already been sorted out between them.