Rise of the Dunamy (9 page)

16

L
ocating their seats quickly, Lucian strategically placed himself with his back against the window, which allowed Sofia to rest her back against his chest. Although it wasn’t the ideal position due to the immovable plastic hump that was supposed to prohibit anything more than standard, face-front, non-contact seating, it was made slightly more bearable by Lucian’s narrow build. Sofia believed that she might be causing him some level of discomfort, but each time she asked him he would simply kiss her on the top of her head and squeeze her tightly. They rode that way the entire ride home as they watched the free entertainment that the train ride offered.

The first few stops allowed enough time for the pair to look on in disbelief as two gentlemen, who had clearly spent the past few hours saturating themselves with alcohol, carry on an entire conversation that could only be deciphered by the two of them. Had they been speaking a foreign language it would have been easier to tune them out, but because they were speaking their own personal version of English it was impossible to turn away. Lucian and Sofia giggled and whispered softly to one another as they would attempt to decipher a sentence for the other. Mostly they were just creating their own little story in place of the one the men were telling. The men might have kept them entertained the entire way home had Lucian not scared them off when, in an effort to determine the word that one of the men had been stammering and stumbling over for over a minute, got the word correct and let slip an excited “Got it!” The exclamation was enough to draw the attention of the men, who seemed to realize what had been going on and they decided to make their exit despite Lucian’s pleas for them to stay and his promises to stay out of their business. The only other people on the train was another, younger couple that Lucian quickly directed his attention towards.

“What the hell was all that about, you think?” The young couple looked a little startled that Lucian had asked for their take on the situation. Nonetheless, the young man quickly chimed in with his opinion.

“Dude was pissed. “ He said with a laugh. “You saw him ‘bout slap ol’ boy in the head? If he was seein’ straight he might of took him out.”

“Was that a swing? I thought he was tryin’ to catch his balance….. That or he was trying to smack him on the back? I honestly had no idea. I thought they were crackin’ jokes, man.” Lucian laughed at how differently they had seen things.

“You stupid.” The young man replied, joining in Lucian’s laughter.

Sofia simply smiled and remained quiet as Lucian made fast friends with the man at the other end of the train. The pair chatted the remainder of the trip about the men, the evening they had just spent with their respective dates, and at one point Lucian even had him talking about his hopes for his and his girlfriend’s future. It was only that they had recently started talking about marriage and hoped to have a date set by fall, but it was more information than Sofia had ever seen divulged to a complete stranger on an empty train before. It was truly an amazing thing, to watch Lucian’s personality take hold of another person. It occurred to Sofia how unbelievable it was that she could be witness to the horrific events that she was exposed to in her life and that at the same time such simple and pleasant occurrences could be happening in the same city. As her thoughts began to drift into the slideshow of heinous crime scenes she had encountered in past weeks, Lucian’s comments from earlier about “being a good date” came to her. As the words echoed in her head, she forced herself to forget about work and return her concentration to the conversation so she could be present in the moment with Lucian. Focusing back in on the conversation, it seemed as though Lucian and the man had been lifelong friends. Sofia watched Lucian’s infectious spirit took over the young couple as they were now both engaged in the conversation with him. As the train pulled in to the station at Sofia and Lucian’s stop, Lucian exchanged pleasantries all the way to the door until they closed behind them.

“You amaze me with how you interact with complete strangers.” Sofia divulged as they made their way from the station.

“How so?”

“It’s just a foreign idea to me. To think that someone would join me in conversation when they don’t have to; that just seems strange to me.”

“I guess I get that. I guess it’s just kind of the state of things these days. People don’t want to engage other people. Probably more like they don’t want to be bothered. I don’t know. I just like to try and have a good time.”

“Maybe. I just don’t have the nerve to strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger is all. Plus, I don’t really have any desire to talk to other people.”

“Says the woman that makes her living knocking on doors and asking perfect strangers question after question.”

“That’s work. That’s not the same. That badge makes it pretty easy because you know most people are going to respond.”

“I guess. But have you considered that it might just be your way of breaking out of your shell a little?”

As Sofia pondered the answer to his question she suddenly started to become very aware of the situation that she was about to be in. In her wildest fantasies, she had not anticipated the evening going as well as it had. She had thought about what she would do once things progressed to this point and had come up with two scenarios. If the date had gone poorly, she was going to use the case as an excuse to get out of having to invite him up. Lucian was aware of her schedule and knew that she was off the following day. Knowing this, she had decided that she would say that she was going to put in some overtime and following up with some of the victim’s acquaintances if she needed a way out of the evening. If the date went well, she was planning on asking Lucian if he wanted to come up and then see where things progressed. What she had not considered was what she would do if the date had exceeded all of her expectations. There was little doubt in her mind where she wanted for the date to go at this point, but she suddenly became very nervous about the prospect of a physical encounter with Lucian.

Sofia had a very limited amount of experience when it came to such things and it was clear to her that Lucian was exactly the opposite. The front of her building was now visible, and hundreds of awful scenarios began running through her head. In none of these scenarios was she unexpectedly amazing in bed and none of them ended with the two of them dating beyond that night.

As they entered her building and headed towards the elevator, Sofia realized that while she had been obsessing over the situation, Lucian had continued the conversation and was now looking at her as if he expected an answer. Flustered, Sofia smiled and nodded. “Yeah,” she said uncomfortably, hoping she had answered to his satisfaction.

“Oh,” Lucian replied with a surprised look. “Well what is it?”

“Wha….uh..” she babbled, as she pressed the button for her floor. “I’m sorry. I zoned out for a second. What were you saying?”

“I was just asking if something was wrong. You looked like you were gonna be sick.” Not wanting to let him know how close he had been to being right, Sofia replied “Oh, no. I’m okay. Something just kind of caught my attention.”

“Ah, no! Was it the case?” Lucian asked in a defeated tone. Not wanting Lucian to know the case had slipped into her thoughts a time or two, Sofia decided to fudge the truth a bit. Sofia looked at him somewhat shocked. “You know what? I really haven’t thought about that all night.” Even with such a tense situation growing closer with every ding of the elevator bell, Sofia smiled gratefully at Lucian. “Thank you for that.”

17

T
he elevator finally eased to a halt and the doors opened onto Sofia’s hallway. After her brief moment of satisfaction as she realized Lucian had successfully kept her thoughts off the case for a while, Sofia’s mind quickly resumed its panicked state as she stared hollowly down the hallway as if she was unsure where she was. Lucian looked down at her as he reached out to keep the door from shutting. Seeing that she was once again zoning out as she looked towards her apartment, Lucian understood that their impending arrival at their destination may have been the cause for her change in behavior. Sofia jumped as Lucian took her hand in his and eased her out of the elevator.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed. “I’m not sure what’s wrong with me all of a sudden.”

“I think I do,” Lucian replied with a smile. “Don’t sweat it.”

Caressing her shoulder gently as the reached her door, Lucian looked deep into Sofia’s eyes as he spoke.

“I couldn’t have imagined a better night, Sofia. Thank you for making it so perfect.” Lucian stroked her hair softly with his fingertips, leaving the bulk of the strands resting behind her ear. Sofia simply stared back at him, lost in his beautiful hazel eyes. Placing his hand behind her head, Lucian pulled her towards him. Sofia melted as he their lips met. This kiss was far more passionate than the one they had shared to begin their evening. Sofia could feel the blood flowing through her, warming her entire body as it surged to every extremity. Her mind cleared and she was able to stop thinking about what would happen next, and just live in that moment with Lucian. She couldn’t remember a more exciting moment in her life. Nothing she had experienced had ever gone so absolutely perfect, and yet been so effortless. From the moment she had seen him in the hallway every single second had been exactly what it needed to be for the next to happen. As their lips parted, Sofia stood silently for a moment as she gathered her thoughts. Turning to her door, Sofia began searching her purse for her keys to lead Lucian inside. Locating her keys she reached towards the door but stopped short as she felt a tug at her arm. Sofia turned around slowly to see why he had kept her from opening the door.

“Listen, Sofia.” He began softly, “I’ve been in this situation before and I’ve always made the same decision. My decision to move too fast too soon has never led me in the direction that I want to go with you. I want to follow you into that room more than you can imagine. I just know it will be better for us if I don’t. If I want for things to end differently with you, and I do, then I have to do something different. So I want to tell you goodnight now and end our evening on the best possible note.”

Sofia was stunned. She wasn’t sure whether it was Lucian seemingly rejecting her or that he seemed to be saying that he was more interested in having a relationship with her than he had been with anyone before that was causing her to be so stunned; but she was indeed stunned. Lucian spoke quietly to her, saying “Don’t take this as rejection, please; that’s not what I’m doin’. It’s actually the exact opposite. This is me trying to let you know how serious I am. But I absolutely cannot go inside with you tonight if I want for that to happen.” Lucian leaned in and gave Sofia one final kiss. As he backed away he whispered, “You have no idea how bad I want to go in there with you….I’ll call you in the morning.”

Lucian turned abruptly and headed back down the hallway. Reaching the elevator, he leaned his forehead against the cold metal doors as he smacked the down arrow. As he waited for the elevator to arrive, Lucian peeked back over his shoulder to see that Sofia was still standing in front of her door watching him.

“Please….go…..inside,” he urged loudly in a halted, half-joking manner.

Sofia turned her attention back to her door and quickly unlocked it; taking one last look at Lucian before she entered.

“You’re not making this easy!” Lucian cried out as the elevator bell sounded and the doors slid open. Smiling brightly as he entered the elevator he winked at her. “Goodnight, beautiful.”

“Night,” Sofia replied softly, ducking into her apartment slowly, intentionally teasing him. She now found it much easier to toy with him as the pressures of a sexual encounter had been taken off the table. She wasn’t sure how she would react if he actually made a move to get off the elevator.

As she closed the door behind her, she leaned back against it for a moment as she replayed everything that had just been said. When Lucian was talking to her, she was so preoccupied with what was happening that she was unable to comprehend what he was saying. She had heard everything that he had said, but hadn’t processed the meaning until just then. As the words came to her, the smile that had been tattooed across her face the entire evening until her concerns about the evening’s end had arisen, now found its way back. Her heart began to pound inside her chest and she let out a shrill squeal before she could stop herself. She reached up and covered her face with her hands in order to muffle herself so that the neighbors wouldn’t hear because there was no hope that she was going to stop. Sofia tried using several breathing techniques to calm herself down, and was finally able to quell her excitement somewhat. Diving onto her couch and planting her face into the cushion, she began giggling uncontrollably. She spent the next few hours rerunning the night over and over in her head and repeating her favorite parts out loud to herself before finally dozing off in the early hours of the morning.

18

T
he little amount of sleep that Sofia actually got that night was filled with images of the evening she had spent with Lucian. She had finally fallen asleep as the sun had begun to creep around the edges of her tightly shut blinds at 6:30 the next morning, but it was little more than a cat nap because her phone began to vibrate on her nightstand. She groggily rolled over to see who would dare bother her so early on her day off. Her lack of sleep was no match for her excitement as she saw Lucian’s name on the text message. Lucian had texted simply, “You sleepin?”

There were no signs of fatigue as she eagerly replied, giddy with excitement. “Nah, just layin around.” There was no need to inflate his ego by letting him know that she had spent the hours since he left pining for him. The seconds crept past as she waited for his response. She could hardly contain herself as she awaited his next text message.

“How is this better than a phone call?” she wondered aloud as she sat impatiently, strangling her phone as if his message were waiting to be squeezed from its insides. She knew that she hadn’t even given him enough time to receive the message, much less read it and reply, but she didn’t care. There was no room for logic here. She nearly fell off her bed when the phone finally buzzed into action.

“Wanna do somethin’?” he asked.

She hastily typed away, “I will do anything you want for as long as you want!” As she read the message back to her self, she realized how desperately love sick and corny it sounded. Deleting the message letter by letter, she harnessed her excitement and reworked her thoughts. “Sure. What u got in mind?” It was then that she realized how superior texting was to talking in this situation.

“Nothin major. Eat and hang out. You still in?”

“Sounds good. Where r we meeting?”

“Up to you. Thought you could meet my roommate. Near my place if that’s cool.” Sofia had heard Lucian talk about his roommate on several occasions. From what she had gathered they were very close, so this was as close to meeting his family as she was going to get until she had the opportunity to meet his brother. This was huge! Sofia knew that Lucian lived near an area known as Atlantic Station, which was a very exciting part of town filled with assorted shops, eateries, and bars.

“Sure. Somewhere in A Station?”

“Good deal. Let me know when you leave. Be careful :)”

Sofia leapt from her bed and made a mad dash for the shower. She was overjoyed that Lucian had called her so soon; she had been concerned that his ego would get the best of him and he would make her play the waiting game. She dreaded the thought of having to wait, that had been the only negative feeling she had felt in the past eighteen or so hours that had passed since he had asked her to dinner.

Not wanting to waste time drying and fixing her hair, Sofia frantically jammed her dark locks into a shower cap as she cranked up the water. After feverishly brushing her teeth, she jumped into the cold shower, bathing herself so quickly that she barely noticed that the ancient pipes in her apartment hadn’t yet allowed the water to warm up. Sofia was determined to spend absolutely every second that she possibly could with Lucian. She slowed down long enough to shave her legs without causing herself to bleed out on the shower floor before exiting, realizing that some things just could not be rushed. After successfully applying her makeup in record time, Sofia dashed out the door and down the hallway to the elevator.