Surreal Ecstasy (13 page)

"Stand up, ya doof. I have to
introduce you to someone," she told him.

He did as he was told and stood up,
noticing me for the first time since he'd arrived. My god, he was even more beautiful
then I'd remembered. My memories of watching him at work were nothing compared
to the beauty and perfection of seeing him in the flesh.

He looked mouth-watering in loose
fitting jeans and a red t-shirt, the sleeves just the right length to make his
toned biceps visible, my eyes hungrily absorbing every inch of his visible,
light brown skin. His hair was short on the sides and a little bit long in
front, but his luminous brown eyes were
very
visible. Briefly, I
wondered if he recognized me from work.

I tore my gaze away from his and
pretended to be much more interested in the TV, even though my heart was
pounding hard and every thought was filled with how delicious he looked.

"Morgue? Do you mind coming
over here for a sec?"

I looked back over to them,
pretending to be shocked to see a man standing there. "Sure," I
replied, trying to sound nonchalant, though I noticed my voice was an octave
higher than usual.

Aware that my face felt hot and
that I was most likely blushing, I tried to walk in a cool, devil-may-care
manner over to them, but I tripped over my own shoes that I'd tossed to the
side earlier and had forgotten about. I quickly looked from my feet to Ree's
face, and he bit his lip like Dess often did, but this time, I think it was to keep
himself from chuckling.

First impressions. Shit.

"Morgue, this is my little
brother, unfortunately."

He elbowed her gently, and in a
fraction of a second she grabbed it while elbowing
him
with her other
arm. Years of practice, I'd bet.

He tore away from her, pushing her
away gently and taking a step toward me. "Ree Rios," he announced,
closing the gap between us by extending his right arm. "We've met before,
haven't we? You work with Dess, right?"

I could die happy. He recognized
me. I tried to act nonchalant as I shook his hand politely, trying desperately
to ignore how warm and smooth his hand was. A vision had suddenly entered my
mind, one in which Ree had his warm, smooth hands running up my naked thigh…

I shook my head a little to
obliterate that thought and smiled at him. "Uh, yeah. I used to work with
her, but I don't think we've actually met. My name is Morgan Constantina. Not
Morgue," I added quickly.

"That makes sense. Dess never
calls anybody by the name they'd been given at birth." He stepped forward
a little as our hands disconnected. A fresh, crisp scent lingered in the air—not
cologne or even after-shave, just a clean soap smell.

That was drop-dead sexy. Certain
parts of my body began feeling tingly, reminding me that my 'amorous' feelings
from almost a week ago still lingered and threatened to take over my entire
brain.

"Rios, I have a few bones to
pick with you," Dess said while making her brother's point. She closed her
front door and pushed him gently toward the couch. We all sat, me back on the
far-right corner of the couch where I had been sitting, Ree next to me, and
Dess on the ottoman. I had guessed by then that it was her favorite seat in the
house.

Ree put his feet up on the ottoman,
inches from Dess' butt, earning him a frown from his sister. "Ask away,"
he said carelessly. "And stop calling me Rios. Your name is Rios too, you
know."

"But your
first
name is
Ree, which is the beginning of Ree-
ohs
," Dess protested in a whiny
voice. "I have given you the gift of a new nickname. You have been
baptized, my son."

Ree rolled his eyes.

"Dude, I didn't know you were
coming," Dess continued. "Why didn't you call me? I could have picked
you up."

"I forgot," Ree replied
carelessly. "And it was so much more fun to take a chance on getting in a
serial killer's cab."

Dess
tsked
at him then
turned to face me. "He just flew in from L.A., where the rest of my family
is. I knew he was coming sometime this week, just not today."

"Oh, wow. L.A. I've never been
there before," I remarked politely. "It must be pretty warm there
now, huh?"

Ree looked sideways at me and
decorated his handsome face with a lopsided grin, giving me a look that made my
heart pound and my stomach flutter. "You could say that." He
continued to look at me in silence while I simply stared back. Everything about
him was beautiful, from the thin slits of his eyes to his lips that were full,
yet somehow thin enough to be masculine. They looked so soft. If I leaned in to
kiss him, my mouth would feel the softness of his lips, and the warmth of his
smile would be so, so close to me.

My cheeks still felt warm. I had to
look away and save myself the embarrassment of having a personal 'moment' right
then and there.

"Which brings me to my next
item of bitching," Dess went on. "Why aren't you wearing a jacket,
nutass? Aren't you cold? Don't you know it's usually about 45 degrees in
September here in Lynnwood?"

He looked at her as if momentarily
stunned. Then he shook his head and said, "I didn't bring one because I
decided it'd be much more fun to have you interrogate me."

 "You need a jacket, and
Morgue's going to take you shopping."

What the hell?

I opened my mouth, wanting to
protest or say something, but somehow, I remained silent.

Ree really didn't seem taken by
surprise. "You're not coming with us?"

Dess put a hand to her forehead and
coughed pathetically. "I haven't been feeling well. I would love to go,
but I don't think I should be outside right now."

What the hell?!

She hadn't been sick. She had been
outside all day, and seemed to enjoy the weather, even though it was overcast.
She'd especially taken pleasure in it since she didn't have to be at work. I
wouldn't have been surprised if she had actually said the word
cough
while
coughing.

No Academy Award for Dess today.

I would have laughed if I wasn't so
annoyed. Dess insisted Ree and I go together while she took a hot bath and put
her sickly self to sleep, shutting down her beloved Café World and Facebook all
the while. She even made a show of taking her car keys out and explaining to me
which was her house key and which was the key to her car—as if I couldn't have
figured out that the big key with the word
Kia
on it was for her car and
that the only other key left was the one for her house. She then instructed me
to take him to downtown Seattle to see the very first Starbucks, as well as
Pike's Marketplace, where there were a ton of stores and we'd be sure to score
Ree a great jacket.

She practically pushed us out her
front door without wanting to hear a word of protest from me, coughing more for
Ree's benefit and shoving the keys and some money in my hands. I hadn't even
been able to muster out a goodbye before the front door had shut in our faces.

All that chaos in less than twenty
minutes.

Granted, she did lend me clothes to
wear home, was the only person to visit me at the hospital, and felt close
enough to me to loan me her car, even though I'd barely been an acquaintance
just a week ago. Not to mention the fact that she'd given me five
hundred-dollar bills (probably her entire paycheck).

Of course, she might have been
feeling guilty over the pressure she'd put on me to help her. She
had
acted a little nutso in the hospital.
And
she had made a strange first
impression on poor Dr. Hearse, who was probably spending some 'alone' time in
the bathroom as we speak, fantasizing about her naked.

I already felt bored just at the
thought of having to see Dr. Hearse once a week. I was an official whacko now,
with my own shrink and everything.

Recalling and pondering all this
while I started the Kia, I sighed, brought myself back to reality, and looked
over at Ree, who was quietly looking out the window. You could cut the
uneasiness with a knife. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, I reasoned in my head.
At least I'd be able to stare at him all day.

And I did always love going to Pike's.
I loved Seattle in general, actually. One day I would love to move there,
hopefully as close to Safeco Field as possible, but I've never had the money
for it. I've pretty much lived in Lynnwood all my life, and I was comfortable
there.

I headed off, realizing it had been
a while since I'd been behind the wheel. I loved driving, especially in this
beautiful, crisp weather. I hopped on the 5-South, sighing and trying to think
of a harmless topic of conversation. After about ten minutes of silence, I
finally thought of something to say. "By the way, just so you know, these
aren't my clothes, they're Dess'."

He chuckled. "I know," he
said, easily changing back into a conversational mood. "I bought her that
t-shirt for our birthday."

I chuckled automatically in
response, and then stopped short. "
Our
birthday?"

I dared to look over at him quickly
and saw that he was nodding. "Yeah. We're twins."

It was like being struck by
lightning. A light bulb went off in my head, my brain making very-overdue
connections in my head—their alike skin color and last names, and their
too-familiar mannerisms with each other. All I could think of was a silent,
burning question of how in the world I could have possibly missed these clues.
I cleared my throat, eager to move on from my embarrassing obliviousness. "But
she said you were her
little
brother," I protested, as if I could
change their status by argument alone.

"Well, yeah. She's two minutes
older than me."

I burst out laughing for a reason I
was not aware of. I was just tickled somehow. Maybe because Dess was silly and
technical for calling Ree her little brother over an age difference of just two
minutes. Maybe because this twin thing was a huge relief to my lonely heart.
All I knew was, I really needed this laugh, and it wasn't long before Ree
joined me, his laugh loud and genuine.

That broke the tension a little
bit, and the rest of the way to downtown Seattle was actually pretty nice. Ree
seemed to be impressed by the scarcity of traffic. I was almost going to give
him a questioning look, because there quite a lot of drivers on the freeway
today, but then I remembered that he was from Los Angeles, and from what I
understood, almost anything would have been a step up from that, so I simply agreed
and modestly said that although we definitely had our share of traffic, it
rarely got much worse than how it was today.

We reached our destination, and I
was lucky enough to find parking a block away from the original Starbucks,
probably because everyone was at work and it usually didn't get busy around
here until about 4:00 or so.

"Here we are," I said as
we approached the Starbucks on foot. The line was long, as always, and I stood
back to let him get in line to get coffee. I usually sucked down caramel
macchiatos like water, but I haven't had coffee in about a week, and I didn't
want to mess with my caffeine cycle on a day as strange as today had been.

After a moment of looking at each
other, Ree said, "No, thanks. I don't really drink coffee."

"Tea, maybe? They have some
good ones here."

"Once in a blue moon, but no,
not really."

"Oh. Dess is losing her mind.
It was her suggestion."

"You have to
have
a
mind before you can lose it," he said, smiling.

That's when my world changed.

I saw something that I had never
seen before:  Ree's dimples. When he smiled—really smiled—he had the universe's
most adorable dimples in his cheeks, completing the package of his face, making
him look even more sexy and appealing. His entire face lit up with that smile,
and I swear I could almost see the sun shining down on him through the building's
walls, illuminating him on a makeshift stage for all the world to admire.

Regarding him now, it was
impossible to believe that he was anything but perfect, that he was anything but
gracious, polite, delicious, and sensitive. I hoped my mouth didn't drop open
and that I didn't stare at him like some numbnut. I really don't remember. All
I know is that at some point in time, I recalled his joke and smiled back,
laughing politely. "All right, then. Let's get over to Pike's. Are you
hungry? I'm famished. I haven't eaten very much today."

"Yeah, I could eat," he
replied, falling in stride beside me. We walked for a few minutes toward Pike's.

I showed him the little area inside
the marketplace where people threw fish, one booth that sold pasta made out of
chocolate, another that sold handmade magnets and handbags, and so forth. The
list of things to look at and buy seemed endless. I led the way to Lowell's,
one of my favorite restaurants there. We fell in line immediately, the smell of
clam chowder sifting through the air and making us ravenous.

As we got closer, I spied him
reaching for his wallet. I put his arm down, envious of my fingertips for
getting to feel a tiny patch of his smooth, beautiful skin. "Your sister
gave me quite a bit of money for our…forced trip. I got this."

"Why, thank you very much.
That's very kind of you. But you absolutely must let me return the favor,"
he replied.

I did a double-take and regarded
him fondly, loving the sound of his sincere voice, especially when aimed at me.

When it was our turn, he insisted I
order first, which I did without hesitation, practically tasting the
cheeseburger and fries. I wanted the clam chowder, but with the nervousness I
felt, that probably wasn't a good idea. When it was his turn, he smiled
confidently and told the cashier, "Good afternoon. How are you doing
today?"