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It takes me a few seconds to figure out someone is throwing something at my window. The nexttapcomes and I see a pebble fall on my windowsill.
Confused, I walk to my window and look outside. Standing in front of Jacqueline's Ford is Adeline, wearing a superman sweatshirt, her hands in the pockets of her baggy trousers.
Seeing her there, my heart takes a leap. It's like stepping away from the scorching sun and getting cool water sprayed on your stinging skin.
Then again, my pulse bursts into a gallop, palms turning moist as I pull open the window. I don't know what to expect from her. A mixture of bliss and uncertainty throb in my veins. Tingle the pit of my belly.
"Adeline?" My voice is barely a whisper.
She smiles. It touches my heart like a blast of warm light, melting my uncertainty.
"Can I come in?"
"Sure!" I quickly respond, bolting to my front door and opening it.
Her presence banishes the lonesome atmosphere in my apartment. I see it dissipating like a dark storm before the clear skies. It's the power of Adeline, her ability to bless me with her wonder without trying to.
"You came back?" I ask, closing the door quietly behind me.
Adeline faces me. I see a tear drop from one of her eyes, making a dot on her gray sweatshirt. It breaks my heart to see her cry again.
When I reach forward to hold her, Adeline raises a hand and says, "I don't know what to think. It's hard to believe you. But at the same time I can't go home. I got these clothes from a kind woman who saw me weeping in front of her store. I don't have the strength to face my brothers."
"I understand, Adeline, and I don't blame you for not believing me. I should never have told you the way I did. I thought you knew."
Adeline breaks down into tears. Her body trembles with no control. Guilt squeezes my lungs as I try to speak, a lump of regret settling in my heart.
This is my fault.
I cross the room to her, reaching to hold her in my arms. Adeline moves closer, her body quivering with every ragged breath she takes.
“I’m sorry,” the words come out of me, coated with the genuine guilt I feel.
“Can you just hold me?” Adeline whispers, pressing her teary face to my chest.
Her tears stain my shirt, salty water soaking into its fabric. They’re the physical manifestation of her pain—my pain. As she sheds them, I sense tears gathering in my eyes too, ready to spill for as long as the truth makes me guilty.
“I’m so sorry,” I repeat. “I thought you knew. I never planned to tell you this way.”
Adeline doesn’t say anything. Her sobs subside, coming in almost inaudible utters. She raises her head to look at me and up close, I see the pain filling her eyes.
“I’m sorry too, if that’s what my family did,” Adeline answers.
“You don’t have to say sorry.” I bring my face to her stained cheeks, kissing her tears softly. “You weren’t a part of it.”
“But they’re my family.”
“It’s their sin, not yours.”
Adeline is still looking at me. Her pain pulls me in, urging me to banish it. I lean in to brush my lips against hers, tasting her salty tears on them, her hot breath caressing my skin.
Raising her chin gently, I kiss her again, the action warming my insides and spreading through my body like waves. I hold my breath as I savor her mouth, touching the crook of her neck and sliding my other hand down the small of her back.
Adeline’s small frame presses into mine. I can feel her soft breasts pressing against my chest, her nipples like tiny pebbles hiding beneath her sweatshirt. Moved by the growing passion, I slip a hand underneath her sweatshirt and find her right breast, fondling it gently.
A moan escapes Adeline’s lips but I catch it with the kiss, swallowing her response. My other arm encircles her, holding her to my body as she starts shuddering. I thumb her nipple, stroking it, patting it.
Adeline takes her mouth away from mine to whisper one word. “Yes.”
