A Dating Story - Pt. 20

“Are there those among us destined to be sad?”

The morning opened with Aitana grinding coffee beans in one section of the kitchen while eggs, sausages, and bread held court in another. She oversaw it all. There was an element of organized chaos to it that she was aligned with. Sasha cut fruit and ran a pot of hot chocolate. Christina worked three cellphones and a laptop while taking enormous bites out of her buttered cheese roll. There were last minute foibles that needed to be cleaned. Chrissy was handling those frayed threads.

In a nook of space in Aitana’s apartment that divided the kitchen from the living room, was a lone antique wooden chair. Intricate gothic carvings adorned the legs and arm rests. The back support told a tale of its own. There was an angel, a sword, a gargoyle, or brute of some winged sort, a religious clergyman, and a wicked eye. The piece looked as if it should be housed inside glass in a museum. Maybe it was stolen from one.

Aitana fell in love the minute she saw it at a sad house clearing sale, bought it for literal pennies and drove home like the wheelman in the heist movie with a low-budget that becomes the indie darling before the sequel goes into production with the newly anointed action-genre director attached. Who then sidelines the main cast in the first part for his marquee-name actor friends – and the picture has no soul or connection to the film that built the world to begin with. Then...part three goes into production with the exact team that birthed the first and it becomes a hit. Again.

It was a piece that spoke to the traits that comprise Aitana. She spent the money to restore the stained blotches of wood and two of the legs that were too short which made the chair clearly uneven. She brought it back to life and had the finish restored to its original almond tint. Sasha sat in it and felt somewhat close to a monarch. Should she try to get comfortable or use it to finish her fruit bowl and sausage? Well, she gave it the effort that Sasha usually does.

The secret was the chair was superb as a conversation topic. It was not actually a featured addition to the home décor. It wasn’t the couch, or a throw pillow, or the floor. The chair wasn’t comfortable. At all.

“It doesn’t like you, Sash. Among us all you’re the one with all that padding in the back. If you can’t sit still in it… Well, there’s a reason I don’t,” Aitana said chuckling at Sasha’s misfortune while sipping her expresso.

“Why is it here then?” Sasha fired off.

“I like that people think it’s for leisure,” Aitana replied.

“Oh yeah, that’s right. It makes sense. It’s only inside your apartment. It’s only A CHAIR,” Sasha responded.

Christina’s business personality cracked. She cough-sneezed-almost-choked with laughter while ending a call with the media liaison sending two crews to shadow Mae at the book fair. She adoringly gazed at her wife’s disgust while Sasha removed herself from the seating apparatus.

Mae appeared from the bedroom. The three ladies didn’t know how to receive her. She didn’t leave the bedroom since entering the apartment the night prior without explaining her whereabouts. Aitana shared a bed with her and it was as if she slept next to a log. Mae was dead weight, stiff, and unmovable.

However, Mae was dressed. The others? Not even close.

Fourty-seven minutes later…

On the ride Mae sat in silence. She gently rubbed her wrist tattoo. Obviously her focus was anywhere but in that car with her friends. Aitana put her palm on Mae’s knee. Mae turned to her on-again-off-again girlfriend and pinched her nose before lowering her window and staring out to the quickly-clearing powder blue skies. Across from them Christina and Sasha played a cutesy little game of footsie. Experiencing the lull they were in wasn’t the end of the world but with their differing approaches to the future of their business every slight or misread physical cue was grounds for an unnecessary battle.

Without leading into it Mae said to no one in particular; it could’ve slipped from her lips as her mind ventured to another dimension: “Are there those among us destined to be sad?”

Six eyes stared back. The silence was a passenger alongside them.

The driver parked.

Fair time!

Mae morphed into another person once she left the vehicle. A makeup and hair team met the foursome at the curb. Mae pivoted towards Chrissy, “What is all this?” The makeup crew stopped in their tracks. Firmly, Chrissy said to them, “No.”

Aitana put up her hand, “I could use a little blush and some powder on my forehead and chin.” Mae turned her head with a mocking smirk at her longtime romantic paramour. They entered the event center in a straight line.

Over the three hours of the fair, Mae stopped for every picture request. Photobombed all her former campers whenever she timed her dash correctly and was positively glowing. It wasn’t facetious. It was another side of her that she easily could tap into.