Lunch

[Lazaro Vega]

Lunch

The way she tore into her food he knew, yes he did: the crack of teeth through the skin of the fruit, the nom-nom-nom ravenous mastication of the pulp, the juice wetting each side of her mouth and dripping with delicious abandon on to the table alongside her plate – oh yes, this was the one. She was a danger to all men.

“We will call,” he said, placing the napkin down as he stood up. Then swallowing a last sip, he walked away, stealing a glance as she opened her mouth wide, tongue out, for another bite.

They were waiting in the car. “Yes. She’s the one,” he said before folding into the back seat and closing the door. Anyone on the sidewalk could hear, and someone did.

The second car pulled up as the town car pulled away. This is bad, he thought to himself. They were watching. What was she doing? What had she done? The impressed sensation of her thighs across his still kept him warm despite the vicious chill of the wind. He wanted to get out of it, go around the corner of the building, but they weren’t to be trusted. Thoughts of screw drivers, hammers and kitchen knives circled under his wool cap, but the fear in his imagination froze him standing, dreading. He was no hero. But he could talk.

Then it happened. The street convulsed like a blanket, tossing cars into the air like a game played by cheer leaders; the building across the alley split open and fell with horrible weight, desks and files and chairs spilling out amid broken walls and hissing, rending pipes. A light pole crashed violently between the restaurant and their car, sending missiles of chunky glass in every direction, breaking windows in the cars parked on the street. Theirs! He didn’t know he acted, couldn’t remember how he got to her – she was terrified, then surprised by him. The back of the building fell away, and they ran out of it.

Later, as they sat in the dark city at each end of her table, empty but for candles and questions, her appetite much suppressed, he looked at her, and he knew: this was safe. With her, he was safe.

Edited May 12, 2012 by Lazaro Vega