Coco Chlorine N°17
I tilted my face to kiss him as his arms encircled me, but, after sniffing my hair, he kissed my forehead and, laughing, released me.
The sniffing didn’t bother me. The sniffing was normal.
“You went swimming this morning, didn’t you?” he asked, still laughing.
“You know I did.” I pulled off the headband that his greeting set off-kilter. I swam laps almost daily in the university’s outdoor pool. It was my first year in Tucson, and outdoor lap swimming almost atoned for the heat. Almost. Now though it was October, and I had seen a white-crowned sparrow. Back home, back East, we waited for robins to bring spring. In Tucson, I’d been told, the sparrow brings winter.
“Messed up your hairbelt. Sorry.” He reached out for it, but I waved away his hand.
“Band,” I corrected. “Hairband.” I finger combed my hair and replaced it. “Hello to you too by the way. How was it?”
He grimaced.
“You went to Lake Pleasant, not Lake Avernus.” I reminded him.
He had spent the three day weekend boating with his parents. Boating in Arizona – that too was a shock to this East Coast girl. He once told me that there were more boats per capita in Arizona than anywhere else in the US.
Once again, he enfolded me. Relaxing into him, I slipped my hand under his shirt. He slid off my hairband and whispered.
“You gave me a hard on at the hotel pool yesterday.”
This time it was I who pulled away and grimaced.
“You must mean your other girlfriend because I was partying here with Catullus all weekend.” I motioned to the sprawl of paper scribbled with crossed out Latin and English and books bookmarked with other books. All were dotted with styrofoam bits from the empty eegee’s cup I had poked with the straw. “It’s just me and the hendecasyllables. I’m working on poem 13 now.”
I snatched my hairband, again finger combed my hair, and began again to reposition the band.
He reached for me again. “No,” he said, “It was the chlorine. I smelled the chlorine and thought of you.”
Dropping my hairband, I leaned in. This time neither of us moved away.
Good story
Thank you!