Zoe Thanatos (11 page)

He stepped in closer and put his
hands on her shoulders as if to comfort her. “It’s okay, Zoe.” His hands moved
up and down her arms leaving trails of water on her skin. In an attempt to not
look up at him her eyes moved to his chest and saw that he was also topless
with droplets of water falling down his toned chest. She looked instead to the
redecorated backyard and hoped to god he would stop sensing her discomfort.

“Thank you for helping with everything.
It would have taken me a week on my own”

“You’re welcome,” he smiled. “How
exactly do you plan to plant all those flowers if you’re afraid of spiders?” he
asked. She knew he was just teasing her but felt her cheeks blush anyway.

“I just assumed they would wait and
hide in their little spider dens until I was finished,” she joked.

“A likely story,” he replied
softly. His hands moved from her arms to her neck, his thumbs gently tilting
her head back so that she was no longer looking at the ground but at him.

His hands felt intimate on her skin
as if they had been welcome there before. Embarrassment forgotten, she knew
that she wanted him to kiss her and at once wondered why he hadn’t yet. Maybe
there was a reason why?

“Is there someone besides the Queen
and King waiting for you to come home?”

For a moment he seemed confused by
the question, as though it were the last thing he was expecting. “What do you
mean?” he asked. His eyes were heavy and potent, searching hers for a meaning
behind the question.

“Someone you love or who loves
you?” She wondered if ‘girlfriend’ or ‘wife’ would translate.

His eyes dropped from hers and she
felt a sting of disappointment. Did she even have a right to ask? Sure there
were moments of closeness in their brief time together and there was no
mistaking that he liked her in some capacity, otherwise he wouldn’t be with
her. However, there was always the possibility he was simply a nice guy and
that she had mistaken that quality for something more personal.

 “Why do you ask?”

Because I’m dying to know why
you haven’t kissed me yet
, His thumbs moved softly along the sides of her
face, tracing along each side of her jaw. It tingled and warmed at the same
time, resonating through every nerve ending down to her neck and shoulders.

His eyes grew dark, all the charm
and ease draining from his face. “Zoe this is very
complicated
,” he
said, settling on that particular word. “I’ve never been involved with someone
who wasn’t from Terra. I don’t know how it would work.”

Zoe felt her face fall as the
disappointment grew inside her. She knew he was being rational, practical even,
but knowing that did nothing to quell the irrational part of her brain that
just wanted to remain in the excited state his presence gave her. “I know,” she
responded finally.

She looked up and saw him was
gazing at her intently. His hands were still on her neck and face, holding her
close to him. He moved infinitesimally closer to her and her heart felt like it
skipped a beat.

“I don’t know what will happen if I
kiss you,” he whispered. He drew himself so close she could smell chlorine in
the droplets of water on his skin. The thin yellow fabric of her swimsuit was
all that separated her from intimately feeling his skin on hers. She was more
than willing to find out.

The doorbell rang.

Evan expelled a breath so loudly it
sounded like an expletive. He took a step back and she could no longer feel him
against her. “That’s not what I meant,” he cursed to himself.

Disappointment, excitement, and irrational
anger; she had never been through so many feelings in so little time. “I’ll be
right back,” she excused herself. Reluctantly she turned away from him and
headed back into the house towards the front door, each step an angry reminder
of what she had just missed out on.

She swung the door open with
unintended force and her anger immediately subsided when she saw it was Eva on
the other side.

“Hi. Hope I’m not interrupting
anything,” she remarked, quickly scanning Zoe’s face.

Zoe shook her head and tried her
best to manage her surprise. “Not at all. Come in. We were just hanging out by
the pool.” She opened the door widely and tried to regain her composure as Eva
entered the house and walked past her. She shut the door and pointed towards
the French doors leading out the backyard.

“Evan’s out there. I’ll order some
dinner and join you two in a few minutes.” She checked the time display on a
digital clock in the living room and saw that the hours had gone by without
notice. Darkness would soon descend on them to close another day.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to put
you out,” Eva protested ever so politely.

“Of course not! I order out all the
time.” She headed towards the kitchen counter where she kept a neat stack of
take-out menus. In her peripheral vision she watched Eva enter the backyard and
greet her brother, who had since put his shirt back on.

She picked through a folder of
menus while discreetly keeping an eye on Evan and Eva. They seemed to be having
some kind of tense conversation and she wondered what it was about. She
continued to watch them as she dialed the restaurant and placed a delivery
order. Zoe wondered what their relationship was like back home. Evan admitted
he hadn’t seen his sister for a while so maybe there was very little
relationship at all. Eva was there to bring her brother back home with her, and
despite his protestations Zoe suspected that Evan would go with her whether he
wanted to or not.

The delivery confirmed, Zoe hung up
the phone and set it down on the counter next to the other menus. What would it
mean for her if he left? Evan divulged that he was away more often than he was
at home, so did that mean he would inevitably come back? How would that even
work? He’d just pop in and out of universes as freely as he wanted, vacillating
between Terra and Earth? Even with her limited scope of knowledge about the
multiverse it sounded complicated, and like one hell of a long-distance
relationship.

An hour later they were congregated
around Zoe’s new outdoor dining table, enjoying a feast of chicken, beans,
rice, tortillas, and all manner of vegetables and side dishes. It was enough
food for three times as many people. A bottle of wine sat uncorked on the
table, Zoe and Eva each with a glass.

“Zoe you have such a lovely home,”
Eva mused. “I  just love Spanish and Mediterranean style architecture!”

“Thank you,” Zoe smiled.

“Have you travelled to either
place?” Eva inquired.

Zoe felt her cheeks flush as the
memory of her visits to Italy and Greece came to mind. “Um, very briefly.” She
looked up to find Evan smiling discreetly from across the table.

Eva’s nose crinkled. “How long is
briefly? A week?”

“More like five or ten minutes,”
she admitted before taking a long sip of wine.

Eva’s eyes shifted from Zoe to Evan
and recognition dawned. “No. That’s not possible.”

“What?” Evan asked, his eyes fixed
pointedly on his sister.

“I mean it’s literally not
possible. It’s been tried before and each time the person from Earth either
couldn’t do it or ended up with nasty radiation burns. Zoe looks perfectly
fine.”

Zoe looked from Eva to Evan, trying
to find an answer in either one of their faces. Brother and sister looked
strangely at each other Zoe wondered if they could read each other’s minds.

“Were the effects immediate in each
case?” he asked.

Eva nodded. “Yes. That’s why we
don’t do it. Are you sure nothing happened to you, Zoe? No strange side effects
like rashes or burns? Nothing out of the ordinary?”

Zoe could think of nothing. “No,
I’m fine.” 

“She did pass out,” Evan remarked
to himself. “The first time I thought it was just the circumstances of the
situation. The second time was in Greece after we had already transported to a
few places. I just thought she was exhausted.” His eyes looked to Zoe
contemplatively.

“Hmm,” Eva mumbled. “Strange. I never
heard of anyone just passing out. At least not anyone from Earth. I knew a girl
from Terra who passed out when she first came here, but that was different.”

Zoe had no difficulty remembering
everything she felt as Evan took her around the world, and none of it was bad.
She felt better than she had in a long time. Maybe it didn’t affect everyone?
Perhaps she was lucky.

The conversation quieted down as
each of them finished eating and drinking and soon the sky grew dark. Bright
pocks of golden light illuminated the pergola around them creating what Zoe hoped
was a romantic setting. She wished it was just her and Evan sitting there;
completely at ease and basking in the afterglow of what she devised would have
been a kiss to end all kisses.

She felt of the corners of her
mouth perking up into a small smile. Her eyes moved from the golden lights of
the chandelier to Evan, whose own green eyes were staring heartily back at her.
She wondered if he, too, was considering their missed opportunity. There was no
mistaking the fact that had Eva not rang the doorbell Zoe would have been
locked in his embrace feeling his mouth against hers.

“I really am sorry, you two,” Eva’s
voice broke Zoe’s concentration. She looked at her and frowned, seeing what she
understood to be an apologetic smile on Eva’s pretty face. “Clearly something
has been happening between you and I’m afraid I’m just the bearer of bad news.”
Eva looked to Zoe first, and then her brother.

“What are you saying, Evadine?”
Evan asked.

Eva sighed, looking as if she would
take no pleasure in the words she was about to deliver. “I tried to put this
off for as long as possible but I’m afraid there’s no more time. Evan, the
Stratons are demanding you come home immediately. I tried to get more time for
you but you know how impatient they can be. Something is going on and neither Owyn
nor Kyra will tell me what it is.” She looked pleadingly at her brother.

Evan’s eyes looked away, his face
setting an unhappy resolution. After a long moment he nodded, looking again to
his sister to pass on some silent confirmation. Zoe watched their exchange,
anger and disappointment returning to her chest. She decided that she loathed
the Queen and King of Terra, hated them for their incessant meddling and for
using Eva to bring Evan back home. She knew it was irrational, but she didn’t
care.

Eva picked up the napkin that was lying
in her lap and put it on her empty plate. She looked to Zoe and attempted a
smile. “Thank you for dinner. I enjoyed meeting you and sincerely hope I will
see you again soon,” she affirmed. There was something about the way she said
it that made Zoe believe she was telling the truth but it did little to subdue
her own feelings of resentment.

Eva stood from the table and looked
down at her brother. “I’ll be waiting for you at the gate.” She touched her
hand affectionately to Zoe’s shoulder as she left the table, showing herself out
the front door.

Finally it was just the two of them
again, but it was not nearly the way Zoe wanted it to be. The light from the
chandelier no longer seemed romantic and the atmosphere between them had
declined. She didn’t like it. She wasn’t ready for their time to come to an end
and yet there was seemingly nothing she could do about it. How could she have
expected any differently?

“Thank you, Evan, for all of your
help,” she asserted. She picked up each of their discarded plates and turned
for the kitchen, feeling Evan’s eyes on her as she left the table. By the time
she placed the dishes in the sink he appeared behind her carrying their glasses
and the bottle of wine. He placed each carefully on the granite countertop and
stood there in silence. Apparently he had no idea what to say either.

Zoe shrugged at him and gave a
smile she knew was insincere, but she could hardly produce a real one. As short
as their time together had been they had experienced so much. She’d woken up a
different person, an opportunity she would not have had if he hadn’t been on
that island to catch her. It was her responsibility to live that day better
than the one before, and it would be her responsibility every day hence forth. But
she couldn’t deny that he was at least partially responsible for the
opportunity for a fresh start by virtue of saving her life.

“I should have kissed you.” His
words were like a bucket of cold water in her face, bringing her out of the
minefield of her thoughts. He smiled and shrugged as though it were the way of
things, but deep down she could see his own brand of resentment for the
situation. In that moment she realized she wasn’t alone in her thoughts, nor
had she been at any point earlier in the day. He felt the same way. Just
knowing it wasn’t one-sided calmed her and eased the anger.

“Then kiss me when you come back.
Or, I’ll kiss you first,” she replied. This time her smile, though weak, was
real.          

“Until next time. Goodbye, Zoe.”

“Goodbye, Evander.”

Her eyes stayed fixed on where he
had been standing but watched in her peripheral vision as he turned and walked
away, the front door closing shut soon thereafter. He was gone. He hadn’t
brought a car with him and she imagined he disappeared into the night as
quickly as he first appeared in her life. Once more her house was quiet and
empty, back to how it always had been after a brief interlude of happiness and
a bit of life. 

Zoe boxed up the remaining food,
tossed the trash, washed the dishes in the sink and turned off the kitchen
lights. She made her way back outside and sat on one of the new lounges,
leaning back against the cushioned surface as her eyes drifted up towards the
sky and the stars. It was a clear night, the moon full and bright amongst the
stars. She tried to imagine that Evan belonged to one of them, that Terra was a
real place like Earth that existed somewhere far, far away.