“Hey look!” Allison pointed to a large stand near the front of the zoo where dozens of stuffed animals hung from racks and lined shelves.
Elena laughed. “I never would have pegged you for the type to sleep with a stuffed animal, dear.”
Allison nudged her with her elbow as she leaned atop the handles of Lucas’s stroller and pushed it along, Elena walking leisurely at her side. “Ha ha. I meant for Lucas.”
“You have been in my son’s room.” Elena glanced at Allison with a pointed sigh. “I’m sure you are aware of the already excessive number of stuffed animals he owns. They are impossible to miss after all.”
That was true. A large shelf lined the corner of Lucas’s bedroom and was covered in books and stuffed animals of all kinds, mostly dinosaurs. Allison thought it was cute but yeah, a little excessive. Still, she wanted to get the kid something.
“Well why do you keep buying him stuffed animals?” she asked, poking Elena’s side.
“I haven’t bought him a single stuffed animal since before he was two. There is no need. My mother buys every one she comes across.”
“Aw. That’s kind of sweet that the kid’s grandma wants to spoil him.”
“It’s not sweet, dear, it’s detrimental to discipline.” Elena chuckled. “Lucas has both my parents wrapped around his little finger, and they don’t even deny it. If I refuse him something, my mother is always there to swoop in and buy it for him anyway. It’s maddening.”
“Your mom sounds like a trip.” Allison shook her head, remembering her short encounter with Nora Vega. “Scratch that,” she said. “I know your mom is a trip. Within about five seconds of meeting me, she was basically asking you if you were mad that we didn’t sleep together.”
Elena groaned at the memory. “My mother has no filter.” She then amended herself. “No, actually, she does have a filter. She simply chooses not to exercise it where my personal pride is concerned.”
“Yeah.” Allison cracked up. “I swear I thought your face was gonna explode. It was bright red.”
Elena poked Allison’s side. “Yours was not much better.”
“Yours was worse.”
“How can you possibly know that? You couldn’t even see your own face. I assure you, Allison. It was red.”
“Yeah, but yours was redder,” Allison teased.
“It was not.”
“Was so.”
“It was not.”
“It totally was.”
“This is childish,” Elena snapped, though the edge of her words was softened by the growing smile on her lips. She tilted her head back, poking her nose into the air as if she was much too classy to participate in such childish banter. Allison laughed, though, when she heard Elena murmur, “Yours was redder.”
“Ha!” Allison croaked. “No way. Had to be yours, because it was your family doing the teasing.”
Elena glared at Allison. “Fine.” She released an overly dramatic sigh. “You have a point.” She inched a little closer to Allison, seeming to enjoy the way their shoulders brushed together as they walked. A contented sigh escaped her.
“My mother does quite like to see me squirm. I suppose it’s merely a maternal thing, though. I’m sure I will tease Lucas once he is old enough to date. It’s a rite of passage for mothers. Don’t you think?”
Allison shrugged, her laughter crumbling in her throat. For only a moment, her eyes grew distant, but then she snapped back to the present and said, “I wouldn’t know.”
Elena’s gaze shot to Allison. “Allison, I …”
“No, don’t,” Allison said, turning toward Elena. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I said that. I didn’t mean to make things uncomfortable.”
Elena looked at her, and Allison was surprised to find that it was not pity she saw reflected back at her, but something akin to admiration. It made her feel stronger somehow, better. She was so used to avoiding topics or making comments that in any way related back to her upbringing, or, rather, the lack thereof, because she hated the way people always reacted—sympathetic, pitying. She had even had a few people pretend they had not heard her and just change the subject. She hated the look people got in their eyes, like she was some kind of stray puppy that hadn’t eaten in weeks. It made her feel weak. It made her itch in all the worst ways until she just wanted to peel her fucking skin off.
Elena was different. She did not look at Allison with pity in her eyes, even when caught off guard by a comment. She appeared startled, sure, and maybe a little unnerved, but not pitying. Instead, she looked at Allison like she was some kind of hero, and, well, Allison didn’t quite know how to respond to that. Still, she couldn’t deny that it was an incredible difference, one that made her feel like so much more than the lost, lonely girl she had always been.
Elena took a tentative step closer to Allison and placed a hand on her bicep. “Don’t apologize, Allison. You never have to apologize for who you are or where you come from, not to me and certainly never for speaking your mind.”
Allison let out a heavy breath. “You’re like crazy perfect, you know that?”
A smile bloomed across Elena’s supple lips. “Crazy or perfect, which is it?”
Allison laughed, her hands inching out from her body and toward Elena’s as if they were magnets, constantly straining to touch. She wrapped her arms around Elena’s waist and pulled her a little closer. “A crazy amount of perfect.”
They breathed in the heat of the building tension between them. It was electric, sparking higher and brighter with every passing second, and Allison asked, “Is this okay?”
Elena watched the way Allison’s mouth moved as she spoke, her tongue unconsciously peeking out to moisten her bottom lip. “Is what okay?”
“That I’m, you know, holding you like this? I mean, I kind of just grabbed you.”
“Allison, we nearly slept together only a few nights ago.”
Allison cleared her throat. “Right, yeah. You’re totally right.”
“You are welcome to touch me, dear,” Elena whispered, reaching up to trace a finger along Allison’s bottom lip. “But thank you for being respectful. You are quite the gentlewoman.”
“Yeah, that sounds weird. But ‘lady’ doesn’t really seem very fitting either. There should be a better word.”
“There should,” Elena agreed. They seemed to regain their senses some in that moment, both taking a deep breath and stepping slightly away from one another. Space allowed more air, and air allowed oxygen to actually reach their brains, which was a good thing, because it seemed like the closer they were to one another, the more likely they were to simply short-circuit and implode. Or they would end up making out in the middle of the zoo, scarring children and animals left and right. Allison seriously considered it anyway.
“So.” She cleared her throat to get the dirty thoughts out of her voice. They never left her brain though, not for a second. “Which stuffed animal are we getting for the little guy?”
Elena groaned. “Must we?”
“Alas,” Allison said dramatically, nodding, “we must.”
A snort escaped Elena with her small burst of laughter, an entirely undignified sound that Allison wanted to squeal over, but, instead, she just smiled and kept her cool. “Note to self,” she said, “talk fancy more often. It results in snorts.”
Elena smacked her arm. “I did not snort.”
“Elena! You so did. Now you’re just blatantly lying.”
“It isn’t a lie if it never happened. I do not recall a snort, therefore it never happened.”
“Oh, is this you getting all existential on me now?” Allison asked. She pinched her face and pressed a hand to her chin. In a nasally voice, she asked, “If one snorts and then lies about it, does the snort really exist?”
Elena burst into loud laughter as Allison slung an arm around her and kissed her cheek. Even when things were awkward, a comfort always existed between them, as if they had been laughing together for years, or as if they would.
When the laughter quieted, Allison pointed toward the stroller in front of her. “Why don’t we just ask Lucas which one he wants?”
“Oh, dear, Lucas is fast asleep,” Elena told her.
“How do you—” Allison bent around and peered down into the stroller. Sure enough, Lucas was out like a light, like a broken light. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, chin pressed hard to his chest and his head lolled over to one side. A large stream of drool fed a growing spot on his polo. “Wow, he is like really sleeping. How’d you know?”
“We have been walking for nearly thirty minutes now and haven’t heard a peep from him,” Elena said. “I’m sure the excitement of the day has merely worn him out.”
“Yeah, there’s a river running from his mouth.”
“I suppose our conversation wasn’t entertaining enough to keep him awake.” Elena smirked at Allison. “Although, you certainly seemed to find it titillating considering you didn’t notice his silence.”
Allison leaned in and lowered her voice. “You totally only said that word so you could say ‘tit’ on our first date, didn’t you?”
Elena gaped as Allison doubled over in laughter. Allison wrapped an arm around her and joked, “Geez, Elena. First date, and you’re already bringing up tits. Your gay is showing.”
Allison only laughed harder when Elena hilariously glanced down at herself without thinking. They then both erupted, poking at one another and forgetting entirely where they were and what they were doing. They jumped apart, startled, when a throat cleared loudly behind them.
They turned to see the teenager running the merchandise booth staring pointedly at them. “You guys have been standing there for like ten minutes.”
“So?” Allison shrugged.
“So, you’re kinda blocking the stand.”
It was obvious the kid hated his job, or maybe his life, Allison didn’t know; all she knew for sure was that he had a bad attitude. Not really the best person to be working in a place teeming with children.
“Are you gonna buy something or what? ‘Cause if not, then you should move already.”
Just as Allison was about to retaliate, she felt Elena’s hand slip around her wrist and squeeze. “Don’t bother, dear,” she said. “Let me handle this.”
Elena stepped over to the counter of the stand. Allison was a little intimidated just watching the way Elena moved, her spine straightening, her body somehow growing taller, larger, more imposing. How she could just turn it on like that, just go from laughing and adorable to the larger-than-life head bitch in charge in a snap, was completely beyond Allison. It also completely turned her on.
Elena narrowed her eyes at the nametag on the teen’s shirt. “Hello, Seth. It appears you aren’t having the best of days.”
“Lady, come on,” Seth said. “I don’t need any kind of weird reverse psychology or lecture or whatever. I’m just trying to do my job and you’re blocking the stand.”
“Mm.” Elena glared at him. “I would inquire as to who taught you your manners, Seth, but it appears you have none. Quite a shame when one works in the service industry. You see, in a job such as this one, you need to be able to maintain a polite demeanor and attitude with any and all potential and paying customers.”
Seth let out a dramatic sigh as he rolled his eyes at Elena and tapped his fingers against the counter. “Like I said, I don’t need a lecture.”
“Because,” Elena bowled right over the boy’s words, “you never know with whom you might be speaking.”
That got the kid’s attention. His eyes narrowed as he looked her over. His gaze then flicked over to Allison and back to Elena. Allison could see Elena had him then; that tiny flicker of panic in his gaze was all she needed to work with.
“Ah yes.” She was perfectly composed and poised, her hands clasped neatly in front of her. “Now I have your attention.”
“Should I know you?” he asked her.
“Oh no, dear.” Elena never dropped that strangely cold smile that painted her luscious lips. “You wouldn’t know me; however, you should have thought to be a bit kinder before speaking to my girlfriend and me in such a rude manner.”
Allison perked up at the mention of ‘girlfriend’, her stomach flipping and her heart kick-starting into a drumming rhythm. Did Elena mean that? Surely not. It was only their first date, after all. She probably just said that because it was convenient. She couldn’t decide, though, if she was happy or disappointed about that.
“You see,” Elena told Seth, “some of us have quite a bit of power. In fact, some of us might even own this very zoo you are working in.”
Seth’s eyes practically bugged out of his skull, and Allison even had to turn her head to hide her own reaction. She could hear Seth stammering out an apology, obviously afraid he would lose his job.
A few minutes later, Allison felt a tap on her arm and turned to see Elena holding a green stuffed monkey with long lanky limbs. She wore a satisfied smirk. “Shall we, dear? I believe it may be time to get Lucas home.”
“Uh, y-yeah, yeah. Of course.” As they moved away from the merchandise stand and toward the zoo’s main entrance, Allison asked, “Do you seriously own this freakin’ zoo?”
Elena chuckled. “Of course not,” she said, nudging Allison with her elbow, “but Seth didn’t know that.”
