Page 8 of Spark

Clicking the name, she was taken to the profile. There was nothing. The account was new, and she was the only one it was following. Clicking the profile picture, she took a sharp breath. It was a yellow Mustang, but not just any Mustang. It was a cropped photo of the one Aurelio had sent her.

“Ah, stupid,” Mia whispered. “Valen. Speed Valen….” She felt her smile grow as she laughed.Clever.She took a screenshot of the comment, tapped over to their messages, and sent the photo.

Mia:Wishing to see my face? I might be able to accommodate….

Tapping the camera app, she snapped a selfie. It felt weird to look at a photo of herself. She had avoided pictures of her face for so long it was odd to see it. She didn't even know how Aurelio had found her social media; all she ever posted was landscape photos or pictures of her work from school. Tony had tried to get her to take pictures with him, but she had a firm photo rule: none of her face. He never pried. Maybe it was because he knew she was running, or maybe it was because hewas also running. But unlike Tony, Mia was never forth coming with her story. Even now, thinking about the truth and her past made her chest tighten.

Her heart quickened as she closed her eyes, pushing away thoughts of the past and trying to propel them into the future. A future that may include a man who wanted to see who he was talking to. A man who had sent her a photo without her having to ask for it. Clicking send, Mia turned the screen off and tossed the device aside. It was time to focus on her errands.

She still had to go to the grocery store and work on her dissertation. Plus, there was the prospect of a phone date with Aurelio hanging in the air. Although neither had fully committed or set a time, she was anxious at the thought of hearing his voice.

Twisting the key in the ignition, the car started slowly as the engine struggled. Maybe if things with Aurelio worked out, he could give her a hand by fixing up the old girl. It had been ages since she had gotten under the hood herself. Mia frowned; she was already making plans to use her relationship with Aurelio. Her frown deepened when she realized she had referred to it as a “relationship.” It was too early to classify it as anything more than an exploration. She was happy to call tonight's phone call a date, but anything more left her feeling too vulnerable. Nevertheless, she was open to exploring.

Oh, and Mia knew exactly what she wanted to explore. The image of him, hose in hand with suds covering his abs, made her mind race. Indulging her desires, she grabbed her phone again to look at the photo; his smile warmed her insides.

The water trailed across his tattooed skin. Only portions of the inked art were visible in the side shot. Zooming in, she couldn't make out what the image was, but he had quite a bit of ink. Her finger grazed the screen, once more wishing she could touch him. Licking her lips, she closed her eyes and picturedhim reaching out to pull her close. His rough hands would trace along her neck as he pulled her in for a kiss.

Mia's eyes shot open as she tried to cool her heated face with the A/C blasting. She leaned in close to the fans and breathed in deeply. For the second time, the simple thought of a very hunky, handsome man kissing her had her practically salivating.

“Girl, calm the fuck down!” She waited for a beat; eyes trained on the phone in her lap. She waited for it to beep, blink, or move to let her know Aurelio responded. Seconds grew to minutes, and her skin cooled off. By the time she was fully calm, cool, and collected, she still had not received anything. Not wanting to think too far into it, she pushed the phone away again. He said he was busy. He told her later they could talk.

Eyes wide, she carefully pulled out onto the street and made her way to the store. The parking lot was mostly empty; Sundays were quiet in her small neighborhood. She made quick work of her compact list. Before paying, she checked her bank balance. The adage of “broke college kid” had found its way to her. There was enough for the groceries, but she would be broke till Thursday when her paycheck came in. Her tips would barely suffice to buy gas and coffee for the week.

Chapter Four

The rain had not stopped while Mia had been out running her errands. In fact, it had only gotten worse as she approached her apartment building. Making a quick, strategic decision, she pulled into a space by the entrance. Technically, there was no parking at the building. The three available spaces were reserved for Terry, the landlord, Tony, the cafe owner, and Terry's son, Ralph who came and went on occasion. But after a string of muggings had happened around the area, Janet had fought for Mia to be able to use Terry's son's spot when he wasn't around. The reasoning was that she was the only other female tenant and came home late most nights. The other residents didn't really care; only one other person had a car anyway. Terry agreed and never gave her a hard time, but Mia didn't like the special treatment. She tried hard to stay out of the spotlight. Besides, Janet hadn't really done it to be nice. The older woman wanted backup for the campaign to install doors on the stairs, which is what she explicitly told Mia after the meeting had adjourned.Bad luck for Janet.

Now was one of the few times she didn't mind using the space. Rain pelted the poor old girl as Mia threw it into park and ducked out, rushing to get her laundry and stash it in the enclosed stairway leading to the lofts. She ran back outside to slam the trunk closed and lock the car. Despite her best efforts, Mia ended up soaked.

The building wasn't new. It had once been a newspaper company over forty years prior. Terry had owned it since his father passed away, which he boasted about when she moved in years ago. He had told her all about the failing paper, his father's attempts to save the company, and then the transition into the lofts it was now. The man had only been a teen when the paper went out, but he liked to brag about helping flip the building. Things had been updated, but the brick walls and metal staircase were all original. The cafe had only been open for three years. It was just a bakery before Tony bought the space and took over. The old owner hated it when the residents would come into his shop; he went so far as to build a wall to keep them from the bottom floor. Tony embraced the people living above him, giving them discounts on their morning cups of joe and putting in a door for them to use. Granted, it also allowed him to add the bathroom he needed to have sit-down service, but the residents didn't mind. Well, except Janet. It was one of the reasons she gave for wanting doors between the floors. Non-residents could get into the lofts, but that happened rarely. There were signs posted but the occasional looky-loo wandered up. All the doors locked, and no one tried to break into any of the apartments. Besides, the cafe closed at five most of the time. Tony did host special nights where he invited authors to have meet and greets or open mic nights for poetry readings, but those happened once or twice a month.

The outside door required a key, which was part of the reason Mia was soaked as she climbed the last set of stairs. Rain hit the windows, echoing around the small space. Besides the soothing rain, silence permeated the hallway; even Janet's apartment was quiet. Mia went through the motions of unlocking her door and setting the laundry basket down. Breathing in the familiar air of her loft, she undid her now ruined bun to let her hair fall around her shoulders. Fat dropletshit her carpet, and her skin was freezing; her clothes stuck to her as she moved around the loft.

Stripping out of the wet clothes, Mia went to the bathroom and opted for another shower. The water was hot to the touch as soon as she turned it on; it felt much better than the cold shower she had taken hours before. She eagerly stepped in, allowing the billowing steam to hit her face as she closed the door behind her. The water cascaded around Mia's shoulders. Eyes closed, she went through the motions of washing her hair and soaping up her body. While her hands unconsciously followed the steps of cleaning off the rain and smell of the city, her mind wandered back to the night before.

Not for the first time, she sat in the tub for hours with a beer in one hand and her phone in the other. She stalked her brothers on Facebook, Instagram, hell, even LinkedIn, but she didn't reply to a single text from them. When she did, the responses were always vague and far between. It was better that they didn't know too much. But after about the fourthbeer, she had been close to answering her youngest brother's message.

He looked so happy in an Instagram post; his smile was wide, displaying his white teeth, as he laughed with a young woman. It had only been a month since Mia last reached out, and there were at least two more months before she could again. Her heart ached, as it did constantly when she thought about waiting to speak to them for so long. They looked so happy, but it was more than that. It looked easy. The photos she swiped through: Mel blowing out birthday candles surrounded by people. Mikey, wearing skeleton face paint, standing on a firetruck in what looked like a Halloween parade. Matty with the same woman from the most recent post, singing karaoke.

It all made her wish that, more than anything, she could be there with them. But it wasn't possible. Mentally insertingherself in the photos was as close as she could get. The last photo she looked at, a picture of the three of them, handsome and grown in a cemetery, made her decide it was too much. As soon as she realized where they were, she closed the app and dropped the phone to the floor.

The next two beers went down quickly, making her head swim. The emotions fought against her control as tears collected in the corners of her eyes. That's when she decided to look for a distraction. A fling, maybe.

The app had been bright, a pink and blue logo with hearts and promises. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, but she managed to get out of the tub and into bed, a feat. The beer last night had done nothing but deepen the longing, no the need, for connection. Hence the downloading of the bright app and the connection with Aurelio.

Shaking away her thoughts, Mia finished the rest of her routine. Stepping out, she reached for the towel and let autopilot take over once more. This time, she didn't let her mind wander too far. With all her errands completed, she had the rare opportunity to do whatever she wanted. For a moment, the idea of texting Aurelio again popped up. She still hadn't heard back from him since sending the selfie, so she wrote an imaginary message to him. An invite to coffee and then maybe her place if things went well. The floor was cold beneath her bare feet as she moved towards the bed, still wrapped in a blanket. Envisioning his forward reply, she grinned and imagined snapping a selfie. The towel would fall to the floor as she revealed herself to him.

As she gathered clothes to put on, she imagined his face, eyes wide with shock, when he opened the messages. The first one he would see was her innocent car selfie, a red herring. He would be in for quite a shock as the photos loaded, each one more scandalous than the last. For a moment, the pull to do exactly what she pictured was strong.

“I barely know him,” she reminded herself out loud, her voice just a whisper. She heard the reply in her head. Theso what?was light and fun in her ear. Her grin grew. She bit her lower lip as she felt herself giving in to the idea.

“Well, no one said Ihadto send the pictures to him…” Holding the towel closed with one hand, she leaned forward to grab the discarded phone and slid the lock screen open. Before she could change her mind, she clicked the camera app and snapped a photo of herself. She looked away as her hand released the towel, taking another shot. The shutter clicked as she stood naked and exposed before the lens. Glancing at the screen, she let out a soft gasp.

Her cheeks flushed. She had seen her naked self in the mirror plenty, of course, but this was different. There was an air of indecency as she held the camera out, twisted so her round butt poked out.

Finally, she collapsed on the bed with a soft giggle, feeling giddy, stupidly so. Her smile stretched across her face as she breathed deeply. Mia couldn't remember the last time she had done something so out of her wheelhouse.

With her eyes closed, she imagined texting Aurelio the photos. They flew across the city to his device, lighting up the screen with notifications. Her cheeks flushed as she pictured him, slack-jawed, furiously typing out a salacious response while his jeans grew tight. She reached for the phone; her mind almost made up to start making her dreams a reality. The simple message was a red herring. She would ask how his day was, and no matter his response, she would shoot off one of the dozens of photos. Hitting send on her simple text, she excitedly waited.

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