Gogoll In the Heat of the Night

1. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-3-95609-140-7
Verlag: el!es-Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 216 Seiten

A steamy summer night on the Rhine, a hot love affair ... it wasn't supposed to be any more than that. But when Tina is in need of a lawyer, she cannot think of anyone but Mar. That's when, out of nowhere, other feelings and not just the hunt for the right paragraphs, enter the equation. Tina doesn't want to hear about it, since the motto 'It was just sex, not love' still stands between them like a wall. Will they some day be able to overcome their differences?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Gogoll, Ruth

Leseproben

In the heat of the sweltering night, anything could happen. It was humid, and the long-announced rain, which should have brought some cooling with it, still hadn’t arrived. Tina lay on her bed and stared out of the window. She groaned in torment. The bed sheets – which she could change as often as she liked – stuck to her body, and although she was naked, she still felt as if she needed to get strip to finally escape this heat, this humidity, this thick moisture that hung in the air like steaming fog.

Tina rolled over to reach the cooler side of the bed. That brought only fleeting relief, for she had barely touched the sheet before it heated up and stuck to her exactly like the damp sheet on the other side of the bed.

“Damn,” she cursed, and swung her legs out of the bed. She stood up.

With a hesitant step she crossed to the window. No cooling breeze. The air was as still as it would be in a closed room, although all the windows and doors in the apartment were wide open.

She studied the sky. Full moon. The bright disk threw so much light inside that the bed gleamed whitely. And she could see every blade of grass in the garden.

A cat strolled self-confidently across the meadow on its way to or from somewhere.

Tina made a faint noise as she shifted from one foot to the other.

The cat stood still and looked up at her – not frightened, and not apprehensive. Rather, slightly surprised. What? You see me?, her glance seemed to say.

Tina had to smile. “Yes, I see you,” she said aloud. “There’s a full moon.”

The cat continued to stare at Tina, and then it turned its gaze away as if it wanted to shake its head. It continued on its way as quietly as it had come.

Now I’m talking to a strange cat that’s sneaking through the garden, Tina thought. I must not be all there.

She sighed. Once again on this day, in this night, she made her way to the shower. It was the only thing that helped – even if only for the short term.

She turned on the faucet. The water poured out lukewarm, and only turned cold after a while. Tina stood under the shower for a couple of minutes, until she felt the relief of being cold, then turned the water off.

Sighing, she skipped any contact with a towel and went back into the bedroom, dripping wet. How was she supposed to survive this night?

All at once music drifted softly through the window. Oh, right, the summer party on the Rhine banks. That was today, after all.

She took a deep breath. She couldn’t sleep anyway, so why not go? Maybe it would be a little cooler on the Rhine.

Absent-mindedly, she reached for her brassiere and put it on. Even as she was fastening it, it occurred to her that as little as this piece of clothing was, it was still too much. She looked for a thong in her wardrobe. That at least would work. Not too much material.

A light summer dress that she finally let slip over her body as the last thing flowed softly around her, but felt to her almost like armor. She would have liked best to have been able to go out naked.

When she was finished, she studied herself in the mirror. Sweat gleamed on her upper lip. She washed her face and powdered it in the hope that the shine wouldn’t return too quickly.

She took her purse and slipped into her lightest sandals.

That would be enough for the fifteen-minute trip to the Rhine.

When she came to the wide meadows, she was surprised to see so many people – who apparently couldn’t find any sleep at home either. It was a summer party still in full swing, even though it was long past midnight. She went over to a booth for drinks. “A Coke, please,” she said to the man who was busy drawing a beer.

“Just a moment.” He was taking his time, not letting anything rush him.

“Hey, the young lady is thirsty! Could you put some steam in it?”

Tina turned towards the voice, which had come out of nowhere.

“Okay, I’m on it,” the man growled. He left the beer where it stood and opened the fridge.

“Thanks,” Tina said, and with some curiosity studied the woman who was standing behind her. “But there’s no need for any more steam. I think it’s humid enough already.”

“Oh, well.” The other woman shrugged her shoulders. “That’s exactly why you need something cold to drink, isn’t it?” She reached for the can of Coke, which the man had left on the counter. “I’ll pay for that,” she said to the man, “and now you can finish my beer.”

He threw a hostile look at her and returned to the tap.

“My name is Mar,” said the brunette. “Actually, Martina, but I skip the Tina.” She laughed. “I am –,” Tina smiled, amused, “Tina.”

“No way!” The woman who called herself Mar stared at her.

“Yes!” Tina was still smiling. “And I didn’t even have to shorten it. I was christened that way.”

“Are you . . .” Mar discreetly looked around, “alone here?”

“Yes.” Tina’s smile turned into a smirk. “Completely alone.”

“I know, I’m nosy.” Mar smiled. “I apologize.”

“No problem.” Tina took a drink of her cola. “People have to be able to get to know each other somehow.”

“That’s true.” Mar observed Tina with marked interest. “You don’t have any objections to getting to know me?”

“I like direct women.” The corners of Tina’s mouth twitched.

Mar lifted her hand and gently stroked Tina’s cheek with it. “Do you know that you’re incredibly beautiful?”

Tina groaned.

“Not the newest come-on line, is it?” Mar laughed. “You’re absolutely right.” She once again stroked Tina’s cheek. “And in spite of that, I still think you’re amazingly beautiful. I can’t change that.”

“Thanks. Even if it’s not original, it’s still good to hear.”

Mar picked up her beer and took a drink. “I was just about ready to go home. Only wanted to have a beer and then – there’s somehow not much going on here.”

“Couples,” Tina remarked, and let her gaze wander across the meadow. “It’s all just couples.”

“Exactly,” nodded Mar. “Couples or groups of friends. No lonely women looking for a connection.” She winked slyly. “Until you showed up.”

“How do you know that I’m looking for a connection?” Tina emptied her cola and put the can back on the counter.

“Oh, I wasn’t making any assumptions about you,” Mar lifted her hands in a gesture of disavowal. “Of course, you could be waiting for someone, or you might belong to one of those groups of friends down there.” She looked towards the Rhine. “Obviously, though, I didn’t want to exclude the possibility.”

“Feel free,” Tina said. “But that still doesn’t mean that I didn’t simply want to take a walk to escape the heat in my apartment. After all, that’s the way it was.”

“You live around here?” Mar asked.

Tina nodded. “I heard the music through my bedroom window. And since I couldn’t sleep anyway, I decided to come down to the Rhine in search of a little coolness.”

Mar studied her for a bit. “May I accompany you – on your search? Do we want head towards the water? I think it’s most pleasant on the shore.”

“Probably,” said Tina. “But the nicest places are guaranteed to be occupied by couples making out.”

“We’ll just toss them in the river.” whispered Mar with eyes that flashed daringly. “They won’t even notice, in their condition.”

Tina laughed. “I would notice it – definitely.”

“But you’re not making out right now,” said Mar. “So no danger.”

Tina became serious. “No, I’m not making out right now,” she said. She turned around. “Let’s go.”

They strolled along the shore and remained standing there for a while, watching the stars in the sky and the moon, a foot and a half apart from each other, each lost in her own thoughts.

“Isn’t it wonderful, how the moon reflects in the water?” Mar asked once, softly. “I’m not romantic, but it has a magical power that always fascinates me.”

“I believe I’ve rarely been near the water during a full moon,” said Tina, almost dreamily. “I think it’s really enchanting. Like escaping into a different world.”

“The lower world.” Mar laughed softly. “If you were in the water, there, where the moon’s reflection is now, you’d sink. And it’s very deep there.”

“And all the while the water looks as if you could just walk on it,” replied Tina, still lost in herself. “Without sinking. As if the surface really were a mirror that would hold you up.”

“You apparently have a powerful imagination,” said Mar. She regarded Tina’s profile, with her skin that glowed like marble in the moonlight. Although Mar claimed not to be especially romantic, she seemed to be feeling a bit out of character at the moment. There was something about Tina that positively demanded romance. “That . . .” she cleared her throat, “I like that. You have to understand that I have almost none.”

“No romance, no imagination. Isn’t that a little boring?” Tina smiled and looked across at Mar.

“It certainly is,” Mar took a step towards her. “That’s why it’s so important that there are women like you. They make up for it.” She...