Penprick

She had been working with us for months… well, more like years. A stop and go process, she’d work with us then leave. Show up for a week then leave again. Sometimes I think she liked Letha more than she liked me. Can’t say as I blame her, I was being difficult and I knew it. Still, she persisted and still I fought her. I think at some point it became a game of how pig-headed I could be before she threw her hands up and walked off.

“Alban, you really shouldn’t push her so. It’s hard enough for her to figure out where she wants this to go without you being difficult.”

“Letha, I don’t like where she wants this to go. She wants to keep it chaste, respectful but you don’t know what she writes for me when you’re not around.”

“Or what you insist she writes. Don’t act like I haven’t heard you two call each other names and swear at each other. Even the saltiest of sailors would blush to hear you two at peak.”

It was at this junction the author walked in.

“Aida! We were just-”

Aida held up a finger and glared at us.

“I know, I heard you from the kitchen. Now both of you sit.”

Clearly, she wasn’t in a mood for debating and I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t cooperate, I was going to meet a very nasty end the next time she picked up her pen.

A very heavy silence draped over us and the tension was terrible. Letha was shaking, whether from fear or anger, I couldn’t tell. Aida was sitting in her chair and her fingers suggested she was counting, trying to collect her nerves. I stayed standing but behind my chair, in case I needed to duck. If I’m being perfectly honest, she scared me sometimes. I saw what she did to the last creation that set her off but couldn’t rightly recall if she had them poisoned, murdered or sent them on a one way trip to elsewhere.

“Letha.”

Her voice startled us both. Normally, it was a warm, happy sound. This was lower, more controlled.

“Aida?”

“Are you good so far with how things are progressing with you and Alban?”

“I am, yes.”

“Are you good with the speed? Is it too fast? Too slow?”

“I am fine with it but sometimes I think it would be fun to move a little faster or to drag it out. Purely for science, of course.”

“Anything else I need to know about?”

“Nothing at this time.”

“Thank you, would you mind stepping out so Alban and I can talk, please?”

Letha nodded and left, closing the door quietly behind her. Aida waited until she heard the sound of a door before she turned to glare at the aforementioned gentleman.

“You stubborn son of a- “

“What have I done THIS time?”

“This time? This time?! You know exactly what you did! OR do we need to talk about the dinner party?”

“Look, the fool had it coming okay? He 100% deserved to be punched in the mouth and I’m not sorry for it.”

“But at the dinner table? You couldn’t take it outside for 5 minutes?”

“I made my point didn’t I?”

“Yes and embarrassed the life out of Letha in the process!”

Alban took his seat but just the edge.

“I apologized to her profusely for the next 7 days! I even paid the doctor’s bill for that clown, including medicine!”

Aida sighed in frustration and buried her face in her hands.

“What do you want me to do? You’re clearly miffed about something so out with it.”

Alban sat properly in the chair but he was still tense.

“Look Aida, I get it. You’re still trying to figure Letha and I out. You want to be careful to make sure our story doesn’t turn into complete adult story time but you don’t want it too far the other direction either. Completely fair but every time I have a chance to show Letha I care about her, you derail everything. Take the dinner party for example. Yes, I punched Benedict in the mouth but he insulted me and Letha. Bet you didn’t hear that, did you?”

“No, admittedly, I didn’t. I stepped away for 2 minutes and came back to you shaking your hand while Benedict was slumped on the floor holding his face, Letha was shaking and crying while Marie and Zephora cursed you both.”

“Exactly. You left Letha and I by ourselves out in the garden. I was this close to pulling her in for a hug her when everyone appeared. Benedict had the gall to suggest something had occurred and questioned my character so I hit him. Not my fault he went down like a rock. Heaven knows he’s got all the personality of one and that’s still insulting said rock.”

Aida sighed again. Marie and Zephora were out at the moment but would be spoken with after dinner. Benedict though was a whole other problem.

“I know we’ve had our discussions about this, far too many really, but I need you to hear me. There will come a time and place where you can be what you want. I need you to be patient with me until then.”

“How much longer?”

“I don’t know yet, that’s why this whole thing” Waving her hand in a circle, “has taken as long as it has. I know you want to, I know Letha does too. She is still coming to terms with it and I’m not going to force her. Neither are you.”

“I would nev- wait. What?”

“You heard me. Don’t push the issue.”

Alban sighed, “I won’t but can I make a request?”

“What?”

“Just a little bit?”

Aida pondered a plant on the coffee table between them.

“You can either hold her hand or you can play with her hair. Nothing else unless she asks you. Deal?”

“Deal. You have my word I’ll behave going forward. Mostly”

“At this point, I’ll take it. Thank you.”

Alban got up to leave but before he did, he came around the table and hugged Aida.

“Thank you. You’re far nicer to me than I deserve.”

“Maybe.”

Alban nodded and left to go do… whatever it is his type does in their down time. Aida sank into the couch cushions, rubbing her temples.

“If vexation was a person…”