Elly In Bloom (19 page)

Elly felt her pulse quicken.
The hotel. Were they sharing a room? Did that mean something?
Isaac sped up the car.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled the car into the drive of the Blue Baron Inn. Pale brown and grey, the reformed Tudor had a large white deck that overlooked the river, which was shrouded in a humid mist. Isaac went to the front to check in, and Elly heaved their suitcases out of the car. Pulling them behind her, she jogged to keep up with him.
Please say two rooms,
she thought
, please say two separate rooms…

The young pert receptionist was beaming at Isaac. “Just you then?”

“No,” he said, “I’m here with…umm…my neighbor. Elly.”

Elly walked forward, dragging the bags. The receptionist widened her eyes, looking from Isaac to Elly.

“Oh, sure. Okay, I see… So, your room is up the stairs to the right. The back door opens up to the deck, and you will find a bottle of wine waiting for you. Should you need…anything...” her eyes smoldered at Isaac, “Please let me know.”

Elly reached out and snatched the key out of the girl’s hand. “Please bring up our bags,” she snapped and led Isaac upstairs. They opened the door to their room.

“Shall I carry you?” Isaac asked. Elly raised an eyebrow at him and walked inside.

The oval shaped room was painted a pale orange and accented with dark browns and red. It had a cozy lodge feeling, plus a hideous flower arrangement on the coffee table, a kitschy disaster of red carnations and baby’s breath. Elly scooped it up and deposited it into the trash can. She walked out and stopped dead. In the middle of the room was a bed. One giant sexy-time bed, surrounded by hanging billowy white fabric and covered with a rich sage duvet. This was a bed that said “Sex!” and not so much “Cuddle-time.”

Elly gulped.

Isaac strolled in and collapsed on the bed. “Man” he moaned, “That drive up here was long.”

Elly sat down at the desk. “Well, it was certainly feels long when you’re…” Elly stopped short. The blindfold!
Oh my gosh – why did he have a blindfold
??
Was he into that kind of thing?

Elly felt like she was going to faint. “I need some air.”

She headed for the deck. The warm air felt good on her face, and she managed to calm herself momentarily with the breeze on her skin. Isaac handed her a glass of wine and wrapped himself around her.

“I’m so glad that we’re alone for once. No neighbors. No shop. No Cadbury. Just us.”

Elly was mildly annoyed at Cadbury’s inclusion, but was jerked away from her thought by Isaac’s hand creeping up her belly.
I bet that feels like a bag of flour
, she thought, before turning quickly around.

“Do you want to go look at the downtown? I saw a bunch of antique shops when we drove in, and I would love to find something for Kim’s baby. Then we could eat dinner overlooking the vineyards.”

Isaac frowned. “Are you feeling up to that? You didn’t seem like things were going that well” – he gestured to her stomach – “at the winery. I was thinking we could order room service and stay in, but we can go shopping.”

He made it sound akin to torture.
Anything to distract you
, she thought.

“I’ll change,” chirped Elly, and headed back into the room.

“Can I come?” Isaac joked.

“Um, no.” Elly shut the door behind her.
How am I going to do this?
she thought.
Maybe I can keep him distracted. Kiss him until he’s satisfied. Mention jazz. Hit him over the head with a pan. Ask him about indie flicks.
Or…I could get him drunk. And he’ll pass out early. YES! That was it,
that was the plan
. Elly opened her suitcase. What in here said “Nun” or “You’re not getting action tonight?” She pulled out her khakis and black cardigan. Perfect. She also grabbed her fuchsia tank top. Layers would be key here. More buttons, more fabric. She tromped out of the bathroom. Isaac eyed her up and down.

“You look great – love that sweater.” He winked at her. “Are you ready?”

Ready to get you drunk
, she thought.

CHAPTER

THIRTEEN

As it turned out, Elly was the one to get wasted. Two hours and five cups of sake later, Elly stabbed her last piece of dim sum.

“I feel like I’m in a dream with you. No seriously. I mean,” she bit off a hefty mouthful, “you are, like, SO gorgeous, and I’m kind of a chubby. I mean, I have a pretty face, but you could be a model. Seriously. A SUPER model. I can’t believe how gorgeous you are. Sometimes I watch you walk home out my window. And I have a little song that I sing, it’s called ‘I’m dating Isaac…’” Elly motioned with her sake cup. She began to sing.

Isaac cut her off. “I can just imagine” he said laughing.

She stuffed a dumpling into her mouth. “Oh my gosh, I love dim sum...” she moaned.

Isaac kissed her palm. “You’re hilarious when you are drunk. And hot.”

Elly giggled, feeling shy. “Am I really that drunk?”

“Well, you did tell the waiter that sesame beef was like heaven made of meat.”

“I did?”

“You did. Also, I think your shoe is under those people’s table.”

Elly leaned over. Yup. One brown loafer lay underneath the next table over. The patrons eyed her warily. Their little boy whispered, “Mama,” and nuzzled into his mother.

“Whatever,” Elly announced to them as she turned back to Isaac. His lips curled up in a lupine smile.

Elly lifted her cup. “TO SAKE!!” she yelled. Then she stage-whispered, “I can’t believe this little cup of liquid packs so much PUNCH! I’ve never had it before!”

Isaac motioned for the check. “I think it’s time to get you back to the inn.”

“Ooohhhh…the inn. It’s so pretty. Like you. And you have a nice voice. I like when you sing. And talk. I like watching your lips when you talk.”

“Okay drunky. Can I have your credit card?”

“Sure thing” Elly sang. She handed it over and licked the inside of her sake cup.

“You better get your shoe,” Isaac said, laughing at her and tossing back his drink. Elly stumbled over to the family’s table and grabbed her brown shoe, much to their horror. Isaac signed the check with a dramatic flourish and they headed out of the restaurant, his hand on her behind.

Twenty minutes had passed– the time it had taken them to find the car and get Elly buckled in– and the headlights of Isaac’s black Honda roared up the Hermann vineyards. He stroked her face with one hand.

“Elly. You’re incredible. You are so intelligent, running your own business and helping your friends, and you know who you are.” He paused. “I’d like to show you tonight how much I know you.”

Elly couldn’t understand anything he was saying. She was concentrating on the swirling lights flying by outside her window and wondering how God ever made the sky so big.

Back in the inn bathroom, Elly pulled on her reindeer pajama pants and white tank top. All she could think about was how much she wanted to crawl into the wide bed and fall asleep. The world was still a bit tipsyturvy, and the allure of 400-count sheets was calling her seductively. She rinsed her face off in the sink and headed out to the bedroom, which, to her surprise, had been turned into a bordello.

Oh, crap
.

Isaac stood by the bed, his pale chest muscles reflecting the light of dozens of lit candles above the room. The red carnations that Elly had previously moved to the trash had been de-stemmed and were sitting on the bed in the shape of a heart. The air pulsed with an uncomfortable pretense of passion and music filled the shimmering room. A familiar band sang in the background: “
The man is holding me underwater and the trees are burning. I submerge myself in her flesh
…”

Seriously? Isaac wanted to make out to his own band?

A candle flickered in his right hand and he gestured for her to lie down on the bed. Elly held up her finger with an embarrassed smile and ducked back into the bathroom. She grabbed her phone out of her suitcase and dialed frantically.

A very sleepy and annoyed Kim answered the phone. “Uh…hello?”

Elly whispered quietly. “Hi, it’s me, Elly. I’m sorry I woke you. Tell Sean I said hello. Hey, how is my dog?”

“Elly?? It’s 11 pm, what do you want? Are you…are you
drunk
?”

“Yes. I’m great, thanks for asking. So, I had a bunch of these little drinks that turned out to make me a lot drunk. I’m still a little tipsy and I’m in the bathroom and Isaac is out there in a room that he somehow turned into the Moulin Rouge and I don’t know what to do. He keeps putting the moves on! He grabbed my butt in the restaurant...is that NORMAL? I mean, we never talked about that. Don’t people have like a ‘Hey, let’s touch the butt’ talk? Oh Kim, he is so hot…”

Kim sighed. “Elly. You told me that you weren’t ready for anything physical. Don’t do something you will regret. I know how you are when you drink. You tend to make rash decisions.”

“You are right, you are right.” Elly bit her fingernail. “He’s all OVER me. And you should see the room. Candles, carnations…”

“Did you just say carnations?”

“I know, so tacky right?” Elly hissed. “But he has his shirt off and I can’t think; my brain is a little spiny. Oh, and hey, I got lost in a wine cellar today – isn’t that funny?”

Elly could hear Kim whispering to Sean. “Hey! Don’t whisper to him about me. WHAT DO I DO?”

“Elly. You are a strong, independent and intoxicated woman. Stand your ground and only do what you are comfortable with, which I know, at this point is not very much. You are the leader in this dance. Say it with me, ‘I am the leader in this dance.’”

Elly repeated after her. “I am the leader in this dance.”

“You got it. I’m going to bed now. Keep your clothes on, hussy.”

“Will do. I owe you Kim!”

“Yes, yes you do.” Kim hung up the phone.

Elly took a deep breath and looked in the mirror. “I am the leader in this dance,” she said to herself, and stepped outside the bathroom.

The room still looked like a scene from an NC-17 movie, only now more candles were lit. There was a path of them from the bed to the bathroom door, flicking their golden light against the walls. Elly smelled heavy cologne. Isaac prowled slowly towards her, wearing only light linen pants.
Where does a person even GET those?
Elly thought. Her heart hammered in her chest.

“Er, hello”, she said quickly, in the second before he reached her. Isaac grabbed her roughly and kissed her neck. Elly gasped. Suddenly, her heart was a consuming fire. Passion spread from her toes, up through her belly. It twisted around his hands, which softly stroked the small of her back.
To hell with it - who cares
, thought Elly,
he is so delicious
. She pressed her lips roughly against his.

“Take me now,” was on the tip of her tongue when he tried to pick her up without warning. Quickly, he swept his arms under her legs and lifted. Nothing happened. Elly heard a small grunt, a hefty breath and then her legs came up off the floor about two inches. The next thing she knew, they were sprawling across the hardwood floor. Elly rolled a couple of times and ended butt-up, her head inches from the base of the bed.

“Owwww!” she shrieked, grabbing her skinned knees, “you LAUNCHED me!”

Isaac was a couple of feet behind her, laid out on his stomach. “I’m so... sorry” he panted. “You were heavier than I thought.”

Luckily, he didn’t get a chance to finish that sentence, as his linen pajama bottoms suddenly caught fire from one of the candles on the floor. Isaac elicited a high pitched shriek as flames licked up the bottom of his pants. Elly felt adrenaline surge through her, erasing any lingering intoxication. She grabbed the sheet off the bed, which sent red carnation heads showering down around them, and threw it around Isaac’s leg. The small flames on the side of his shin extinguished immediately. She threw a nearby glass of water on him, putting out the rest. There was a moment of awkward silence as he lay back on the floor with a thump.

“Well, that was interesting,” he muttered.

“Are you okay??” asked Elly frantically. “Do I need to call an ambulance? Are you hurt?” She ran her hand over his calf.