I nodded toward the double doors.
“More like Fred and Wilma,” she said.
“What was that?”
“Forgive me. ‘Airplane’ was on last night.”
“Surely, you must be joking,” I chortled.
“I’m not joking and stop calling me Shirley,” she laughed.
“Uh oh,” I said.
“I’m stopping.”
I waved my hand for Jesse and Taylor to come to our table. They stopped, whispered something to each other and decided to join us. Jules was as cool as a cucumber, probably because I had my hand at the back of her chair and I was cupping the nape of her neck. We lounged in our chairs as if we didn’t have a care in the world. Jules yawned. I promised myself that I’d let her know that it was a nice touch. Taylor and Jesse sat opposite us at the round table we occupied by ourselves.
“Jesse, don’t get comfortable. You won’t be staying long,” I said. He didn’t respond. “I’ve called you over here to let you know that we aren’t going to take what you’ve done lying down. I’m being cordial now because you’ve yet to do anything else. I’ve decided to look past your breaking into Jules’ room, although,” I leaned forward, slit my eyes and almost whispered, “you don’t deserve it.” I casually sat back once more, “I promise you this, next time you even breathe in our direction and it rubs me the wrong way, I won’t be as kind. Jules?” I asked, turning her direction.
She apathetically shook her head that she had nothing to add and turned her gaze back toward the windows. They took the hint, got up and sat at their own table. By this time, I noticed the deathly quiet that had presided over the lunch room.
“Time to go,” I whispered in Jules’ ear.
We both grabbed our bags and lazily tred toward the double doors. When they closed behind us Jules looked up at me as if to ask what I thought.
“I don’t think they’ll be an issue anymore,” I said.
“I really hope you’re right love,” was all she could reply.
A week had passed and there was no sign of Taylor or Jesse except their literal presence and we barely took notice of that. They didn’t talk to us, look at us, or, like I had warned, breathed in our direction.
“See Jules,” I said with confidence after school scraping the ice from my windshield, “nothing to worry about sweetheart.”
“I’ve almost forgotten about them. That’s a good sign. I don’t easily forget. You know that from experience,” she winked.
“I have something I could say, but I won’t,” I jested.
“Oh yeah? Well I have something in response to that so go right ahead,” she joked back, knowing my exact thoughts.
“Okay, consider it said.”
“I have,” and bounded from the car at lightning speed. She tackled me to the ground and we fell into the snow. I swung her around by her waist and pinned her to the white blanket underneath her. I kept my left hand at her waist and held her hip bone between my thumb and index finger.
It was cold, extremely, so I removed the glove from the other hand with my teeth and placed it on her warm neck. The torridity boiled in our veins and we were both comfortable again.
“I’ll never get used to that,” I said.
“Neither will I and I don’t want to for that matter.”
“I forgot what we were doing,” I said, genuinely confused as to why we were on the ground.
“Me too, this is nice nevertheless. I’ll take it.”
“I’m curious to know how long we could stay this way. I mean, does the charge actually keep us warm? Or is it an illusion?”
“Oh Elliott, you think like a scientist. I understand, it comes so naturally to you, but honestly? There is no way this, we, are an illusion,” she smiled, placing her hands over my heart on the word ‘we’.
“Good answer! Five points. That earned five points.”
“Five points? Come on, at least ten.”
“Okay, ten.”
She winked.
“What topic are you choosing for your paper due next week?” I asked, pretending I wasn’t dying inside that her hands were touching my chest.
“Hmm, I thought about it and since it’s an open topic, I chose to write on the history of the word fate and its definitions.”
“Oh Jules, that’s worth at least fifteen points. You’re raking them in today.”
“Thanks Elliott.”
“Are you planning on citing specific examples?” I asked.
Her smile pushed into her eyes and made her nose wrinkle.
“I think it would weaken the strength of the paper. Don’t you think?”
“How so?”
“Think about it, true life examples, when not thoroughly understood by any one, take away from the faith we all should put in fate. Fate is not tangible. It’s real, but not tangible and I don’t want to put any names to it. No, people need to experience fate as an idea at first and open their minds to it on their own. Then, it’s an inevitability.
“Like us, you and me? We’re too powerful an idea for anyone to fully comprehend. It has to be found on their own, through the help of their own fate.”
She smiled her answer. I just stared at her. It was easy. She was definitely easy to look at but most importantly, she was easy to love. I watched as Jules closed her eyes and breathed in the crisp, cool air.
She told me once that winter smelled like Christmas to her and that was one of her favorite things to breathe in. She did something to my heart when she said things like that. I liken it to the inflation of an air balloon. Slow, steady and blistering as it unfolds from its orderly frame and can barely stay contained within my body.
It began to snow on top of us and I followed flake after exceptional flake float onto her lustrous skin and slowly melt into tiny droplets of light watery kisses. The dissolved, silvery trickle would pool at her neck and slide back onto the powdery quilt underneath us. A shivering, tempered wave of warmth kept us more than comfortable. I couldn’t help but marvel at our gift. I had just begun to press my lips to Jules’ when we were sadly interrupted.