Page 42 of When Sinners Fall
“Denial. Up to you if you get the rest or not.”
“You’re going to deny me orgasms to get what you want?”
“No. I’m just going to lock the door to get what I want, but we can also play with being nice or not while we’re here. You want me nice or nasty?” She laughs and walks into the room, swaying her hips until her hand's on my chest and she’s pushing me back further into the room.
“Two can play at that game,” she says, dropping the sheet from her skin.
I chuckle, darkly. “Doubt you know how far that game goes, Wren. Don’t be thinking you do.”
She runs her tongue over her lips and starts tugging at the buttons on my jeans. “Well, let’s find out, shall we?”
Yeah. Let’s.
~
“I’m gonna end up crushing that damn phone if you don’t put it the fuck down.” She holds one finger up, trying to tell me she only needs another minute. I don’t care. I’m doing this for her, and me maybe, and I’m not into hearing her talk to someone else anymore.
I swipe for it, but she turns and spins away from me, skipping her ass out of my reach this time. My eyes roll, and I look out towards Lafayette cemetery until she comes back to my side and smiles.
“I’m done. Promise. It’s just the flowers, you know?” No, I don’t know. Nor fucking care. “Anyway, where are we? Oh. That’s a graveyard.”
“It’s Lafayette cemetery. City of the dead.”
“Creepy place for a date.”
I snort and keep walking us to it, taking her hand in mine. “It’s a place I like. Came here the first time I was in New Orleans. Something nice about it. Quiet.” I look over to the left, watching a load of tourists taking photos, and keep us walking out towards the older part. “There’s over a thousand family tombs here. All of them housing generations of the same genes. That means something to me. Family. Loyalty. It’s kinda good to think they’re still together in death.”
“Wow. Happy thoughts.” I look down at her and chuckle lightly. “You’re a real ray of sunshine these days, Dante.”
My shoulders shrug. “I am what I am. This is me showing you that, Wren.”
She smiles and follows me along a path, her gaze scanning the old white tombs, and I think about how close this ground is to me. Every day I wonder if it’ll end in me being dead. We've all been so close to it through the years. Elias is gone now, taken from this life by the world we exist in. She’s making me question that with every smile she throws my way, somehow taking me back to what life might have been. Nothing will change now, though. We’re all in too deep. All too fucked.
Her hand brushes at some crumbling brickwork so she can look at the names. “Eighteen ninety-six,” she says. “I wonder how many are in here. Can’t make out the names. There are more names down here too, look.”
“Doesn’t matter to us what their names were. They know them. They know everything about each other.” Just like I do with my own family. “They probably knew what they all feared, what they loved, what they needed to make them feel safe and part of something bigger than them alone." She looks at me as I walk along another run of tombs, listening for more. “A woman’s son was hanged here. They say she was a witch who cursed the town with fire. Damn place burned twice after that. Pretty much destroyed it.”
“Really?” I nod and keep moving, taking in the near silence and gentle sounds in the air. “Well, witches and the dead. You’ve really taken me down a new route of dating.” She giggles and leans her head on my arm. “Can’t say I’ve ever done that one before. I know what you mean, though. It’s lovely here in some ways. Peaceful. Well, it would be if all those other people weren’t here taking photos. Seems a bit weird to do that. Disrespectful.”
“Yeah.”
We keep walking until the gates come back in front of us, and she turns around to look back in there. “Thank you,” she says, smiling. “I needed this with you.”
“You did?”
“Yes. Some time, you know? To remember you talking like you used to.”
“I never talked. You talked.”
“Well, yes, but I always felt like you were listening back then. Really listening. Can’t say I’ve felt the same lately sometimes.”
I pull her back towards me and put her face in my hands, ducking down so I can get right in front of it. “I always listen to you. Always did. Still do.” Doesn’t mean she’s getting her own way about things, though. Not now. That’s not how my world works anymore. She stares at me, tilting her head about, as I stand back up. “Do you want to get out of here?”
“Well, as we’re not dying anytime soon and don’t need burying, I’d definitely say we’re done here.” I frown at the thought. Maybe wishing that threat wasn’t real on any given day of the goddamn week. “I mean, it seems like you can look after both of us well enough these days.” She walks backwards, pulling my hands so she can get us moving back towards the centre of town. “Let’s do happy thoughts for the rest of the day, yes? Where to next?”
Happy thoughts.
I wrap an arm around her, steering us back through the tourists hanging around. There isn’t much happiness in any of my thoughts, but here, now, with her, I guess I'm beginning to find it again. “You still like ice cream?”
