Page 6 of Stolen Moments

Melia looked up and arched an eyebrow. “He’ll live.” Her anger prevented her from telling him the truth. He wouldn’t really care anyway. She sighed and sat down at the table. She buried her face in her hands and brushed the hair back and out of her face. She looked up and looked around at the few stacked boxes that constituted all of her worldly belongings.

“You really didn’t have to come. I told you it wasn’t much.” Another move. Another unwritten chapter in an uncertain and volatile life. Always bouncing from one place to the next, never settling for long anywhere. There was alwayssomethingthat conspired against her. It had happened so often; she was beginning to question whether the only common denominator in it all — herself — might be the root cause of all of it. She let another sigh escape her tightly clamped lips.

“Do you ever feel like…your life, the journey, is one big boat lost in a sea of darkness? And all you’re doing is floating around with no guiding light, no clear destination and no way to get off the boat?”

He sat down across from her and glared at her.

“Yes. Every day,” he said, the frown on his face slowly fading away. “The hardest thing about having a sick wife — other than the sick wife part — is the waiting.” Luka rubbed his forehead and his eyes. He looked down at his hands in his lap. “You’re constantly waiting for her to die, because there’s nothing else to be done. And you can never get off this ride, not even after the death — because she’s my guiding light. Without her, I have no idea where I’m supposed to go.”

The silence hung thick between them for a moment.

“That’s my sob story. What’s yours?”

“Me? I don’t have one.” Melia shifted in her seat.

“Oh no? So what’s up with the sea afloat in darkness bit? Just waxing poetic?”

“I’m more than just a pretty face.” She batted her eyelashes at him and smiled wistfully. “Sob story? Ha! Where do I begin?” Melia shook her head hard. She got up and reached into the cupboard. Putting a cup of water in front of him, she steeled herself. “No sob story. What’s a sob story without happiness?” Luka looked at her quizzically and opened his mouth but Melia waved her hand to silence the conversation. “Well, aren’t we just the most cheerful of folks?” She laughed weakly. “I have that effect on people, I’m afraid. All the smiles disappear around me.”

“Well, with an attitude like yours, I’m not shocked.” A warm smile momentarily banished his perpetual frown

She scoffed playfully. “I’m not that bad once you get to know me. Some people would even say that I’m quite charming.” Luka rolled his eyes. “What? You doubt it? Iamcharming. Swatting the fellas away like flies.” She stood up and smiled brightly.

“You hide behind your sharp humor,” said Luka softly.

Melia froze.

He shook his head. “Don’t—don’t mind me. No judgment here. I hide too. When things get really hard and I feel the most lost, the most adrift…there’s this memory I have, from my childhood. When I was a kid, my parents took me to a fair. There were rides, a carousel, and loads of people. I got lost, separated from my family. I was so afraid. My mother told me I was missing for only half an hour but it seemed like an eternity,” Luka said, pausing for a moment.

“Andthatmakes you feel better?” Melia frowned. “I mean, whatever floats your boat, man.”

Luka shook his head impatiently. “No, let me finish. Do you always jump to conclusions?”

“Only when people talk soslowly.” Melia rolled her eyes. “But I’m listening, go on.”

“Well, I sat behind a rock and prayed out into the world. I thought I would never be found, that I’d be lost there forever. I even cursed all of the moments I’d had fun, and wished I had never gone to the stupid fair.” Luka smiled. “But then my mother found me.”

Melia looked expectantly at Luka, but he didn’t say anything more. “And you said that because…because it shows that even in the darkness, in the moments where you feel lost, it shouldn’t cloud the wonderful things, shouldn’t make you regret or resent them because the light will always find you?”

Luka scoffed at her. “No.” He got up and poured the water he hadn’t drank down the drain. He put the cup in the drying rack.

“Well, then what was the point?”

. “Never get lost anywhere your mommy can’t find you.”

Melia balled up the kitchen towel in her hand and threw it at him. “Ha. Ha. Very funny. Aren’t you so inspirational and helpful?”

“I try.”

“Tryharder.” Melia grabbed a box from the corner of the kitchen.

* * *

Luka watched as she bent at the waist and wondered if she did it for his benefit. She balanced the box on her hip and surveyed the room, looking to see if anything had been left behind. The box sat perfectly against her petite but well-formed waist, and he wondered what it would be like to have her, to dominate her. He imagined her, her arms bound over her head, a blindfolded covering her eyes, her body yielding to his touch, growing pliant and wet—her body yielding to him, trusting that he would be able to pleasure her; he wondered what it would feel like to have her complete submission. He felt himself grow hard for her and he reached for one of the boxes to hold in front of him, hoping she hadn’t noticed.

* * *

Melia thought she saw the already sizeable bulge in Luka’s pants straining against his dark denim pants and her breath caught in her chest. The space between her legs grew warm, so she thought of a snarky comment to make but something stayed her tongue and instead she walked stiffly out of the apartment, hugging one of the boxes of her belongings tightly to her chest. The words had escaped her, later she would think of something to say and hate herself for not being quick enough to think of it in the moment.

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