Chapter 4

A few hours earlier...

“You know if it is a date,” Aaron said, “That’s okay with me.”

Rashida gave her son a strange look, wondering what he could possibly be implying.

“If that’s what you were worried about,” he continued, “I want you to be happy, whatever that looks like.”

Rashida chuckled.

“For the record I am happy,” she smiled, “But soon or later Chloe’s not going to be, move your naked ass.”

“Alright, fine fine, Aaron surrendered, opening the door to step outside, “You have tomato on your boob by the way.”

As Aaron stepped outside Rashida looked down to look for the stain he was pointing at.

Rashida couldn’t help but be immensely proud of her son and of the fine young man she was watching him become. She thought back to her relationship with her own mother. A cold soul who still held Rashida with a certain amount of distance all her life, not to mention how she abandoned her daughter at her weakest moment without so much hesitation. Sure Rashida’s father could be a harsh man but the moment Aaron was born she knew she would take on a hundred of him without a second thought to ensure the best possible life for her son.

Even when she discovered she had cancer and wrote to them again for the first time in years, getting their new address from an old friend from high school she was still in touch with, she heard nothing back.

Compare that to Aaron and even Clark’s behaviour over the past few months, both were nothing but supportive, annoyingly supportive in fact, so supportive that Aaron actually purposely infected himself with the Spell just so he could hug her.

She couldn’t help but feel guilty that her son was damned to permanent nudity because of her. But the weight lessened when she remembered he was spending the evening around a gorgeous nude girl and was probably close to scratching the same itch she had for the past four days, an itch that she just couldn’t seem to scratch with her own hand, but not for lack of trying.

She had finally found the stain Aaron was talking about under her nipple when Clark walked in the front door, just in time to watch her wipe the red mark off her breast and bring it to her lips.

“Oh ... uh...” Clark stammered, freezing in place, “Sorry, I’m early, is this a bad time?”

“Well I was gonna get all dolled up for you,” Rashida said, cutting the tension with sarcasm, “But then I remembered all my Sunday best was at Goodwill so...”

“Right,” Clark smiled awkwardly, kicking off his shoes and walking into the kitchen, “I brought us some wine if that’s okay. The cheap red stuff you like.”

“Sounds perfect,” Rashida grinned, “Why don’t you pour us some? Dinner will still be a couple minutes. You like Chicken Masala, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” Clark assured her, “Sounds awesome.”

“I thought you would,” Rashida lied as Clark found the wine glasses.

“Aaron looked to be in a mighty fine mood,” Clark said as he poured the glasses.

“Well, wouldn’t you at his age?” Rashida asked, “Imagine getting to spend the evening with a pretty naked girl with no parental supervision.”

“Wow my imagination’s good,” he said, nodding toward her.

Rashida could feel herself blush at the compliment.

“Well it’s not quite the same,” She said, tempering her expectations as she picked up her glass.

“Yeah I know,” Clark accepted, “Cheers.”

The two clinked their glasses together and took a sip.

“You’re comfortable with that arrangement?” Clark asked, pulling up a seat, “Those two running off in their current state?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Rashida asked, stirring the dinner on the stovetop.

“Well ... it’s just ... considering your history,” Clark stammered, trying to avoid a nerve.

“Believe me,” Rashida chuckled, “Aaron and I have had many a talk about how to avoid my particular situation. Chloe is much smarter than I was at that age, and besides, even if it does happen. They’ll have something I didn’t have back then.”

“What would that be?” Clark asked.

“Me,” Rashida said firmly, “I’m not gonna do what my parents did. Aaron’s gonna always have someone in his back corner if I have anything to say about it ... not to mention Chloe’s dad is the type of guy to take shotgun wedding very literally.”

Clark laughed at the thought.

“I swear,” she said, “I have not been more scared of a naked man in my life.”

“Try the men’s locker room down at Planet Fitness sometime,” Clark joked.

“Ooh don’t tempt me,” Rashida said suggestively before her face immediately fell flat as she caught herself.

“Y’know, speaking of Aaron,” Clark began, approaching the topic carefully, “I think he’s under the impression that this is some kind of date.”

“He actually said something similar to me,” Rashida said, purposely looking away to hide her face as she pulled some dishes out of the cupboard, “Crazy idea huh?”

“Young people getting ideas in their head I guess,” Clark shrugged, “I can’t even remember the last date I was on.”

“I can,” Rashida reminisced, “It was with the captain of the football team, Carter Pullman.”

“Rather cliche isn’t it?”

“Shush, anyway he took me to the movies. I don’t remember which movie, neither of us was paying attention. Actually, we got kicked out for getting too handsy in the back seats.”

“Sounds about right,” Clark nodded, “So what happened with football star Carter?”

“Aaron happened,” Rashida explained, “That fateful house party was a few days later.”

“Wait a minute...” Clark realized, “He’s not...”

“Aaron’s father?” Rashida said, finishing his thought, “No probably not, Carter was Korean. Didn’t look like Aaron at all.”

“Oh, okay,” Clark said, taking a sip of his wine as the two fell into an awkward silence for a moment.

“That should be good enough,” Rashida said with an almost forced smile, flicking off the burners and grabbing a pair of oven mitts.

Clark stepped out of the way as she carried the pot to the table and carefully placed it on the wire rack in the centre, he quickly followed her bring over the opened wine bottle and their two half-full glasses.

“Looks good,” he said as Rashida stepped over and tossed her mitts back onto the counter, as she turned her back his eyes flashed downward for only a moment before he caught himself.

Clark turned his attention to Rashida’s chair, which he pulled out so she could sit.

“Oh, a gentleman,” Rashida joked, sitting out but still leaning forward so as to not touch Clark’s hands with her back, “Haven’t seen one of your kind for a while.”

“We’re an endangered species,” Clark joked back before reminding himself he was just looking at her ass five seconds ago.

As Clark sat down Rashida was already busy scooping some masala onto his plate before placing some on her own.

“Thanks for dinner,” He said as he picked up his fork and ate a few mouthfuls.

“Of course,” she smiled, reaching over to top off her wine.

“Hey,” Clark said, holding out his hand to get her attention, “I’m sorry I overstepped about the whole Carter thing, it’s none of my business.”

“No no no,” Rashida denied, “It’s not that, it’s just.”

She sighed.

“It was a dark spot in my life,” she admitted, “You know what my folks said to me when I told them I was pregnant.”

Clark shook his head.

“They called me a whore. They called me a whore and threw me out on my ass, and I had a hard time finding a reason to disagree with them. So I tried to be the opposite of that if I was gonna raise a bastard child I would be the most Norman fuckin Rockwell mother you could find. Then this happened to me.”

She motioned down to her nude body.

“And don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth here. I know it’s a small miracle I’m not actively dying and if showing off my bits is the price of watching my son grow up I’ll pay it but ... the way people looked at me like the doctor from the treatment centre or the cashier in the grocery store, it just kind of reminded me of all of that.”

“Rashida I’m sorry,” Clark said, “It’s just ... you looked so confident.”

“Well that’s because you were around,” she admitted, blushing as she did so, “It kills me that I can’t tell Aaron who his dad is. I think it would be worse if you weren’t around. We would’ve never survived if it weren’t for you. I don’t even want to imagine where we would’ve been without you, through the pregnancy, terrible twos, even the cancer. I didn’t feel like the two-bit whore my parents thought I was because of you. So what I’m trying to say and why I invited to dinner tonight is ... thank you.”

“Hey, look Rashida it was nothing-,” Clark began.

“Stop,” Rashida interrupted, “I don’t want to hear any belittling, not for this.”

“Okay then,” Clark accepted, “You’re welcome Rashida, and I would do it all over again.”

“Thank you,” Rashida grinned, “Now eat your chicken before it gets cold.”

The two exchanged small talk as they wolfed down the chicken masala, as much as Clark had been denying it with Aaron earlier he did feel like he was on a date, and he was entirely comfortable with that fact.

“Thank you for dinner,” Clark said as the two cleared the table, “You go sit down, I’ve got dishes.”

“Actually,” Rashida began, “I was thinking we could leave that for later. I thought we could go for a swim, it’s a beautiful evening for it and frankly, I’m a little jealous that Aaron gets to hang out at that beautiful beach.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Clark agreed, “I’ll go get my suit.”

“You know you don’t have to,” Rashida reminded him, “Not like you’d be the only one going without.”

Clark seemed to freeze in place at the notion.

“Never mind,” Rashida immediately took back, “I’m sorry I suggested it.”

As Clark walked over to his side of the duplex to get changed Rashida made her way out to the backyard and to the end of the pool to retract the pool cover with the hand crank.

She had barely retracted the cover halfway when Clark came out in his bathing suit.

“I can do that,” He assured her.

“I’ve gotta rebuild my strength some way,” she said, standing up to catch her breath, “Or else I’m just gonna...”

She had a hard time finding words for a moment as she felt the blood almost sink out of her head, her vision blur and the loss of balance overtake her.

She felt the water surround her as she fell into the pool and her senses began to return.

Before she could start kicking her way to the surface she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her and pull her back up.

“Rashida, Rashida are you okay!” Clark demanded as he pulled her to the edge of the pool.

“Yeah, yeah,” She assured him, placing a reassuring hand on his shoulder as he rubbed her back, “I guess that’ll teach me to slow down.”

She soon became acutely aware of the scrap of bathing suit floating next to her in the water.

“Clark,” she said, “You’re touching me.”

“Oh shit,” he realized, “I’m sorry, I just did it without thinking.”

“No,” she said, “I mean.”

She pointed to his shredded trunks floating in the water.

“Oh god,” he said, looking down to see he was as naked as Rashida was, his free hand immediately shooting down to cover himself, but not before Rashida got herself a good look at him.

“Clark,” Rashida chuckled, unable to help herself from being amused by his embarrassment and her own delight with the size and shape of him, “You’re still touching me.”

He went to pull his hand away before she grabbed his wrist.

“I didn’t say stop,” Rashida smiled, wrapping herself around Clark and locking his lips with hers.

Neither Rashida nor Clark could remember how long they had each wanted to do this. Usually using the complexities of life to excuse why they hadn’t. But regardless it was happening and Rashida was enjoying it.

So much so that she could’ve punched Clark when he pulled away.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Don’t,” she begged, refusing to let him go, “I have been right here for nearly twenty years. We’ve danced around each other for god knows how long and wasted both of our times. Now we’re here and there’s nothing getting in the way. I love you, I want to do this. I consent to everything that’s about to happen. So stop being such a goddamn gentleman and put me out of my misery.”