“I can’t compare my experience to what this has been like for you . . . and would never try. But you have to know that it hasn’t been easy for me either. When I found you that way, on the floor . . . my God.” He sighed. “I thought I was going to have a heart attack.” He winced at the thought. He stroked her unscathed hand in his.
His eyes traveled up her arm, taking in her naked shoulders and the graceful curves of her exposed neck. The springs of the couch squeaked as she shifted away from him uncomfortably.
“What is it?” he asked.
She stared hard at a warp in the wood on her living room floor. “Don’t look at me like that,” she whispered back, “not when I’m like this.”
He frowned. “Lumi, if you think I want you any less than I did before,” he responded softly, “you are quite wrong.”
She looked glumly at the floor, and he had an idea. He reached across the space that separated them and smoothed his fingers around the edges of the bandages on her face.
“You do know you can’t leave these on forever, right?”
“I—I’m not ready,” she said.
Julien zeroed in on the bandages, scrutinizing them. “The edges are lifting up. If you let these burns get some air and let me put some aloe on them, it could help them start drying out more.”
She gazed into his eyes and he could see the fear there, openly exposed. It made him want to wrap his arms around her, but instead, he lifted his fingers to loosen the edges of the bandage that covered her right cheek.
“You’re beautiful, you will always be beautiful to me, Lu,” he whispered, hoping to keep her distracted as he peeled them off as fast and gently as he could. He saw her cringe as she felt the hundreds of tiny gauze threads lifting off her skin, and for the first time in two weeks, the spring breeze, which filtered through her living room window, tickled her cheek.
He examined the angry red splotches and swirls. They spread from her temple to the corner of her mouth on the right side of her face. The edges of her lips on the same side were hardened and encrusted with dried blood. He quickly grabbed a knife from the kitchen, cut a leaf, and squeezed out some gel to apply with the greatest delicacy to her face. She held still as he finished dabbing on the gel.
“See, that wasn’t terrible, ma poulette,” he said.
“Poulette . . . as in hen?”
“Yep.”
“I’m not your hen, Julien.”
“Sure are.”
“People don’t poison their hens.”
He sighed. “We need to talk about that.”
Lumi’s gazed flitted back to the floor. “I’ve already talked way more than I planned to today.”
He pursed his lips. “Fair enough,” he answered, and he saw the look of surprise on her face when she saw he wasn’t going to argue. She stood up then.
“I’m just going to go put some clothes on,” she announced, pacing toward the back hallway.
“On my account?” he asked, eyebrows raised in mock surprise.
She narrowed her eyes at him, although he could see the left corner of her mouth curving into a smile. “I’ll be right back,” she answered, and she was off.
Without her in front of him to capture his attention, he looked down and noticed that his knuckles were bleeding from his earlier endeavors. Sure enough, when Lumi returned, dressed in a sleeveless blue cotton dress, she brought ice, more cotton, and some alcohol. She offered them to him without a word.
“I don’t have to go back to the kitchen tonight. What do you want to do?” he asked softly.
Lumi sighed. “I’m really tired. I was going to take a nap.”
“I’ll take a nap with you.”
She studied him, leaning her head to one side. “I’m serious, you know. Just sleeping.”
He flattened one hand and raised the other one as if he were swearing on a Bible. “You have my word.”
Before she could add anything else, he had taken off his shoes, arranged them neatly on the floor, and stretched out, encompassing the full length of the couch. He opened his arms to her, an infectious grin playing on his face.
She sat down on the edge of the couch, testing the waters. She inched down vertebra by vertebra, until she was lying parallel to him. He slid his arms under her and pulled her close, her back pressed along the length of his body.
“Are you sure you’re going to be able to sleep like this?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ll be running a reel of the senior nuns from grade school in my head until I lose consciousness,” he said. He felt her torso muscles contract to suppress a giggle.
He dared to plant a soft kiss on her neck, wanting to do more but remembering his promise to her. The warmth of her body pressed against him had a calming effect, and contrary to what he thought, he soon slipped into a restful sleep, the first one he had had for weeks.
34
Lumi
When Lumi’s eyes opened three hours later, night had blackened the apartment. The first sight she saw in front of her were Julien’s fingers interlaced with hers, blood crusted on his knuckles. She felt a pang of remorse as she stirred against Julien’s chest. He responded by nuzzling her neck and sliding his hand to hug the curve of her hip.
“What time is it, love?” he asked in a woolly voice.
“It must be about eight o’clock,” she answered, yawning. “We slept for a while.”
They lay in silence for a stretch.
“Do you want to go for a walk?” Julien asked.
Between the hospital and her home stay, she had been indoors for two weeks.
She bit the unscathed side of her lip. “It’s probably a good idea to get out before I start getting cabin fever. Will people look at me like a freak, though, if I put my bandages on?”
“You forget what city we’re in. There’s a man on my block who goes for a nightly stroll in his Wonder Woman costume. Usually around the time I’m getting home. Nobody looks at him twice. Very nice man, in fact,” he mused aloud.
Lumi laughed, and then she stopped in her tracks. “Oh, my God, I don’t even know where you live,” she said, clapping her hand to her mouth lightly.
Julien shrugged. “Columbus Circle” was his blunt response.
“Not too bad, Mr. Dax,” she teased.
“It’s not a big deal. Bought that because it was close to the kitchen more than anything.”
She leaned her head back into his chest and allowed herself to enjoy the warmth that emanated from that little cavern between his neck and shoulder.
“Do you want to come see it?” he asked.
Her head snapped up. “Now?”
“Sure, now is as good as any other time, as long as you feel like it,” he said.
She laughed. “Um . . . okay. Why not. Let me just put my bandages back on.”
He sat upright, fully awake. “Or you could just let your face get some air.”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly but decided not to look for the bandages. Instead, she grabbed her jacket and pulled on some combat boots, and off they went down the stairs and out of the building.
They walked the two blocks to the A train station and hopped on the downtown train that would take them directly to Columbus Circle. As they passed the throngs of people and took seats on the train, nobody seemed to give her a second look. It occurred to her that they were all too preoccupied with their own hardships to be concerned with hers.