{"id":34,"date":"2017-09-07T23:59:46","date_gmt":"2017-09-08T03:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/?p=34"},"modified":"2017-09-08T00:04:34","modified_gmt":"2017-09-08T04:04:34","slug":"a-long-while-since-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/?p=34","title":{"rendered":"A Long While Since Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally written February 20, 2006<\/em><\/p>\n

She could still feel his lips on hers when Celeste arrived at the restaurant for their lunch date the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmilie,\u201d her voice fell like a curtain.\u00a0 \u201cWhere are<\/em> you? I\u2019ve been waving at you since the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHere,\u201d Emilie said, and rearranged the cutlery and water glass to prove it. Celeste sat down, and said something polite to the waiter who smiled as if he\u2019d never received such kindness, and asked if she and her friend would like a drink, to start.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo light cranberry martinis, right Emilie?\u201d Celeste was always in charge of these things, and Emilie waved her hand to say sure.\u00a0 She wondered briefly what Celeste would have said if she\u2019d ordered a beer instead.<\/p>\n

Celeste talked about work.\u00a0 The boss was giving her more responsibilities including a documentary to produce, and it would take weeks to do it right, but she was so excited. It was a foot in the door.\u00a0 The door to what, Emilie wondered.\u00a0 Celeste was always talking like this, and then at their next lunch date, the boss would be, suddenly, inexplicably demanding and Celeste would be telling Emilie about her appointment with the counsellor to see if she couldn\u2019t get a sick note and time off work.<\/p>\n

Emilie thought about Daniel.\u00a0 How he\u2019d been waiting for her in bed when she came out of the hot tub, how she\u2019d thought it was quite early to go to bed, it being just seven, and how he was half-lying in bed, reading, with his glasses on, and she said, oh I guess we\u2019re going to bed.<\/p>\n

As she\u2019d crawled in beside him, she\u2019d felt his legs come closer to hers.\u00a0 She always had a thing about feet, not a good thing. She didn\u2019t like to feel other people toenails against her skin.\u00a0 But when Daniel\u2019s toenails braised her shin, she knew what he had in mind, and immediately her heart skipped twelve beats, only to resume at such intensity that she was sure Daniel could hear it or feel it.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d lain down, not having a book to read and besides, it seeming highly inappropriate, now, to think of reading, after Daniel had removed his glasses and laid his book on the night table.<\/p>\n

There really was only an instant before his arm was over her, and she turned to him, opening her lips to his.\u00a0 Most of the rest, she thought now, was funny, because it seemed as if she would worry about something right, and instantaneously, Daniel would be the one to do it, wrong, which put them on a level playing field, in a way.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I have to go to Brazil next week,\u201d Celeste was saying, \u201cand I want you to come too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil.\u00a0 The documentary.\u00a0 I have to go there, of course, because I have to interview the evangelists and people, and the Catholics too, and I just can\u2019t do that from here. I need to go there to find them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emilie nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes you do need to go there,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know about going with you.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got so much happening just now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cO God, I haven\u2019t even asked you about your trip!\u00a0 How was your trip?\u201d (Celeste making up in vocal intonation for her self-centredness.)<\/p>\n

Emilie wondered where she should start, but before she could start, Celeste, again:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about him? What was he like?\u00a0 What was his name again?\u00a0 Stephen?\u00a0 No!\u201d (This all on her own steam!)\u00a0 \u201cDaniel.\u201d\u00a0 And a look of self-worth for having remembered this important fact.\u00a0 \u201cWhat about Daniel?\u00a0 Did you two, like, get along?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, we got along.\u201d\u00a0 But by this point Emilie could hardly contain the feelings that had welled up behind her face and in her throat.\u00a0 \u201cWe really got along, Cel.\u00a0 Really<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh,\u201d she jested.\u00a0 \u201cSo you\u2019re getting married now.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you dare, Emilie Louise Keats. Don\u2019t you dare.\u201d She was only half joking.\u00a0 Emilie and Celeste had a running joke-that-wasn\u2019t-really-a-joke that relations with men would be reserved for holidays and business trips.\u00a0 Nothing permanent, nothing lasting.<\/p>\n

It was then that Emilie realized Celeste was glad Emilie\u2019s trip was over. Celeste hadn\u2019t really wanted to hear about Daniel, or about the amazing two weeks they\u2019d spent together.\u00a0 She specially hadn\u2019t wanted to hear about the love they\u2019d consummated on the final night and not before, like children who save the maraschino cherry til last because it\u2019s the best part of the fruit salad and it leaves a sweeter taste in your mouth than a slice of grapefruit or a mushy banana.\u00a0 Emilie started to feel a little fence going up around her trip not unlike the kind of barrier that city planners put around a special monument to keep intruders from stepping on it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDaniel is amazing,\u201d Emilie simply said.\u00a0 \u201cI would like you to meet him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, fine, but not until after we get back from Brazil. Come on, Emilie.\u201d Celeste pleaded. \u201cYou can work from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The thought of going further away from Daniel, when she\u2019d already flown across the country form him this morning, was next to unbearable.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can.\u00a0 What do you mean you can\u2019t?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have Jasper to worry about. I\u2019ve just left her for two weeks.\u00a0 Cats need company.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich I gave her lots of while you were gone, by the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know you did. Thank you. I just can\u2019t go away again right now. My passport\u2019s not up-to-date, and I really have things to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celeste gave up the fight.\u00a0 She took a long sip of her martini, made figure eights with the swizzle stick, and took another sip.\u00a0 Then she looked up at Celeste.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou fell in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no need to answer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally written February 20, 2006 She could still feel his lips on hers when Celeste arrived at the restaurant for their lunch date the next day. \u201cEmilie,\u201d her voice fell like a curtain.\u00a0 \u201cWhere are you? I\u2019ve been waving at you since the door.\u201d \u201cHere,\u201d Emilie said, and rearranged the cutlery and water glass to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[39,40],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-creative-writing","tag-creative-writing","tag-jeanne-pengelly"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jeannepengelly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}