Chasing the Moon

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

For her second date with Chuck, Diana had her self-control back. She still ended up sleeping with him. Once the genie was out of the bottle, she couldn’t think of a reason to go backward.

They lay in his bed. The previous night it’d been a water bed. Or something like a water bed. The liquid within hadn’t moved like water. There was a rhythm that reminded her more of something breathing. She decided not to overthink it, though, and just to pretend it was a water bed.

Tonight the bed had changed, as he had mentioned his furniture had a tendency to do, into an asymmetrical oval cored in yellow fuzz.

She’d been picking up a weird vibe from Chuck all night. She assumed at first that she’d been imagining it, but it remained. He was awkward, on edge. Something was bothering him. At first she didn’t assume it had anything to do with her. They’d only been on one date at this point, and he must have had other things going on in his life. So she played it cool, and just enjoyed being in his arms. Cuddling was one of the few things that reminded her of what it was like to be human.

“I’ve had a great time,” he said.

She laughed. “I should hope so.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that.” Chuck hugged her tighter. “You’re great. You really are.”

Diana let the statement sit there for a minute.

“Are you breaking up with me?”

“What? No.” He repeated himself, more emphatically. “What? No! No!”

She moved away from him.

“Are you sure? Because I’ve done this before. Seems awfully familiar. You get one last screw in and then you drop the hammer.”

Chuck put his hand on her cheek and looked into her eyes. “I’m not breaking up with you.”

“It’s no big deal,” she said. “We’ve only been on a couple of dates. Not like it’s serious yet. I’m not sure an official breakup is even necessary.”

He pulled her closer, gave her a kiss. She moved closer to his naked warmth.

“I’m just saying it’s okay if you’ve decided you’re sick of me.”

“Stop it.”

“We’re both adults.”

“Just stop.”

They made out, accompanied by some heavy petting. He rested his hands on her butt, and she debated whether to wait for him to signal the start of something more serious or if she should just go for it herself.

“Drop the hammer?” He chuckled.

“Don’t laugh.” She playfully tousled his hair. “It’s happened to me. Twice.”

“Twice, huh?”

Diana mumbled. “Okay, once. The second time I did it.”

“You dropped the hammer?”

“Yes, I dropped it.” She said, “I was a bad girl, and took advantage of someone for one last sexual escapade even though I knew I was going to dump him at the end of the night.”

“I had no idea you were such a bad person.”

“Oh, I have a dark past.” She got up, threw on a robe, took a detour into the kitchen. She found a slice of carrot cake in the fridge, which she started eating.

Chuck, in sweatpants, stood in the archway.

“Sorry.” She sheared off a small portion with her fork and took a bite, being very careful not to eat the silverware. “Mind if I eat this?”

“All yours. Still having appetite problems?”

“Comes and goes, but it’s mostly under control.” She held out her fork to him. “Want some?”

“No thanks. I’m good.”

He sat across the table and watched her eat. She wasn’t uncomfortable with that, but it did keep her from really enjoying herself. When she was finished she picked off a few stray crumbs but resisted the urge to lick the plate for any cake residue invisible to the naked eye.

“I don’t know how you do it,” he said.

“Do what?”

“Live with it. With them. Those things that share your apartment.”

“It’s not so bad. At least they let me out whenever I want. Not like your little monster.” She regretted saying it almost immediately. “I’m sorry. That sounded kind of mean, didn’t it?”

“No. It’s true. I can’t control the damn thing. You manage three, and I can’t even figure out how to live with one.”

“Maybe yours is harder to control than mine are.”

“No, it’s not that. You come and go whenever you like to my place. It doesn’t bother you at all.”

“Maybe it’s because I don’t let him bother me,” she replied. “You have to be firm. You have to remember that he’s probably not any happier with the situation than you are. Empathy goes a long way.”

“You want me to empathize with that beast?”

“Couldn’t hurt.” She took his hand from across the table. “Having met a few of these…”

She hesitated to use the word monster to describe them. They were monstrous in appearance. They didn’t view the world as humans did. Yet monster seemed too harsh, too black-andwhite.

“They’re just trying to get by. In a perfect universe they’d be in their reality, and we’d be in ours, and everyone would be happy. But that’s not the way it works.”

“Well, why doesn’t it?”

She laughed. He didn’t.

“Don’t ask me,” she said. “But you just deal with it. Isn’t that what you told me on our first date?”

Chuck pulled his hand away from hers.

“How can you be so calm about it? Doesn’t it drive you nuts?” The edge was back in his voice. “Every day it’s out there, on the other side of that door. Just waiting. I used to wonder why it didn’t just kill me. After a while I wished it would. Anything to get out of here.”

She rose, put her arms around him. “Take it easy. It’ll be okay.”

“You really don’t get it, do you? We’re trapped here.” He laughed. A soft, bitter sound that unsettled her. “You should go.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Just get dressed and go. Please.”

He went into the bathroom and she heard the lock click. There was no arguing with that.

Diana put on her clothes and went back to her place.

“You’re home early,” said Vom. “Trouble in paradise?”

“Give it a rest, Vom.”

She slammed her bedroom door shut.