Page 75 of Defect
I made him a big bowl because there was no way in hell he could eat the same small bowl I ate and be satisfied. He sat on the floor in the main yoga area and ate oatmeal while I knelt behind him and worked the knots out of his broad back and wide shoulders. He was a mass of tense rocks.
I was too.
Ezra let his spoon clatter in the bowl when I got the muscles in his neck. He snagged my wrist in his hand and kissed the underside of it. “So fucking sweet. Like roses and sugar.” His warm tongue trailed up my forearm and stopped at my inner elbow. I drew in a staggered breath as he pulled me over his shoulder and into his arms.
“You are so special, Solana.”
“So are you.” I hooked my arms around his neck and we fell into a deeply intense session of lips and tongues touching and dancing against one another. My body hummed with happiness being back in his arms.
A sharp knock on the window broke us apart and I had no doubt in my mind about who was banging like that. Ezra and I shared a look and I stood up with a sigh.
Mrs. Fredericks stood there ready to pop a fucking gasket. She definitely saw Ezra and I kissing and cuddling. “I’ll handle this shit. Go in the back,” he said.
“No. You know damn well I’m not letting you deal with this alone.” I fixed my shirt and looked up at him. “Are you going to confront her?”
He looked at the window at his glaring mother and loosened the muscles in his neck.
“I don’t have a fucking choice. I don’t want to lower the vibration in the studio though.” I wondered if he could hear the change in his language since he’d started coming to the studio daily.
“That’s what we have sage for. This is your safe space too and we have a couple of hours before we open for classes so…air her ass out. Do what you need to do, baby.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead.
“Nah, not here.” He unlocked the studio doors and let his mother in. It wouldn’t have been visible to anyone except for me but I saw the way his top lip curled microscopically in disgust at his mother. He didn’t even want to look at her and I didn’t blame him. I was having a hard time looking at her too.
“You two are sleeping together! I’m calling the police!” She moved past Ezra and launched her outstretched pointer finger in my direction. “You’re taking advantage of a mentally ill teenager! You should be ashamed of yourself!”
Oh, lady that’s the wrong tree to bark up.
“Ezra is a grown ass man and I’m a grown woman.” I still had reservations about being with someone ten years younger than me but I wasn’t going to let Mrs. Fredericks point fingers when she had no room. Her house was made entirely of glass and she had one hell of an arm.
“You’re a disgusting piece of trash for preying on someone like him.” The corners of her lips turned down and her cheeks trembled with fury.
“You’re not going to talk to her like that. She didn’t do anything wrong and neither did I. Now go home or go to work or wherever you need to go. Get the hell away from this studio. We’ll talk later on tonight because I have something to get off my chest.”
“I’m not leaving you here with this perverted woman. Ezra, you can’t see it because of your brain injury but she is preying on you. She’s manipulating you.”
“She’s not manipulating me! I want to be with her. She’s the only good thing in my entire fucking life right now thanks to you! Leave Solana out of this and go away.”
“You didn’t come home last night. Do you know how worried I was about you? You can’t do that. You are not capable of staying out overnight without me. Do you remember what happened in Inglewood? What if that happened again?”
“Let’s not talk about this shit right now. I can’t. I don’t want to have this conversation here. This space is sacred to me.”
“Our homeshould be sacred to you. You should respect it enough to come home at night. You could have been seriously hurt. I don’t know why I expect more out of you. I know better. You can’t make educated decisions.”
“Oh my god,” I groaned, looking up at the ceiling. I needed hard liquor.
“You shut your slut mouth.” She growled at me baring her teeth like a wild animal ready to strike. I dared her. I fucking dared her. She’d get the rudest awakening of her life.
“We’ll talk later. I’m not leaving the studio and I’m not coming back home. I’m done.” Ezra folded his arms across his bulky chest and challenged his mother with a stare. She didn’t back down.
“What do you mean you’re not coming back home? Oh my lord. Your brain is deteriorating. I need to get you to the doctor. You know you can’t live without me, Ezra. Why are you lashing out and trying to hurt me?” She turned her glare toward me. “This isyourfault. You and this blasphemous place.” She waved her hand in the air.
“I didn’t do anything. You did all the work showing your son he couldn’t trust you.” I had to literally bite down on my lips to stop myself from laying her ass out. It wasn’t my place. Ezra looked at me and I held my hands up in surrender.
“Ezra, come with me. I need to get you to the doctor immediately. You’re not thinking straight.” She tried to reach for his hand but he yanked away.
“Don’t touch me!” Words exploded from his mouth peppering the air. “I said go. Trust me you don’t want to have this talk right here right now.” He walked over to the door and yanked it open. The metal and glass trembled in his grip. I was terrified he’d shatter the door completely.
His mother must have felt the same way because she walked over to the door with wide, terrified eyes. When Ezra was raging mad, he seemed to be even bigger as if he really needed that boost. If you didn’t know his gentle spirit, it could be horrifying to watch in action. His deep voice was rough and rose high to the ceilings scraping them with anger.
