Sandalwood Pt. 02

Wore a turtleneck sweater yesterday to school for the first time, Cole texted Maya a couple of mornings later. Thanks, by the way.

"Izzy!" he called from his bedroom door. "Did you brush your teeth?"

"Yes!" a little voice called back.

"Got your homework in your bag?"

"Ye-es!"

"Awesome! Now let's just get your--" He saw her dancing on the couch. "Where are your pants, kid?" She looked down at her knees and giggled.

"They're invisible pants."

"Do invisible pants keep you warm when it's zero degrees outside?" Izzy stopped and thought.

"Maybe I'll save my invisible pants for summer."

"Good idea," Cole smiled. He jumped a bit when his pocket vibrated.

Sorry about that, Maya had texted back. I couldn't help myself after you took your shirt off.

Cole clenched his jaw at the memory of her mouth on his neck and felt himself getting erect again. "Goddammit," he muttered, leaning over and putting his forearms on the dresser.

"Daddy, did you get hurt?" Izzy appeared with her jeans on.

"No, baby girl," he said in a strained voice, turning slightly away from her. "Daddy just stubbed his toe. Put your lunch in your bag, please." Hockey game, hockey game, hockey game... scoring... An image of Maya's perfect, naked breast flickered across his mind and his body responded.

No, nooooo... not scoring. Okay, no more phone. No more texting her during the day or you're going to get fired before Christmas for walking around hard in front of seven-year-olds.

He was tempted the entire day but didn't pull out his phone once. After he tucked Isabel in at around 8 p.m., he turned toward his phone sitting on the counter and gingerly picked it up. One message from 11 hours ago.

Uh-oh. Maybe I shouldn't have brought that up?

No, Cole smiled as he typed. I... I couldn't walk for a bit after seeing your reply and thought it best not to text you during the day.

LOL, it's that easy, huh? Maya responded a minute later.

I just didn't expect what happened between us.

Wait, Maya wrote, you kissed me and you didn't expect it would go further? Cole winced. He wondered why he couldn't manage to say the right thing to her.

I... I guess I didn't think about what would happen after. If I had to guess, I'd think you'd slap me or ask me to leave, maybe.

A few minutes passed without a reply. Just as he was starting to doze off, a ping.

Why would I do that when I was hoping you'd kiss me? Cole's heart soared. For the first time since he walked in on Janice and Jack a year and a half ago, he felt like life could be good again. He half-considered going over to Maya's that minute but his train of thought hit a snag the next second. Oh, sorry, one of the boys just crashed something in the kitchen and I gotta go, Maya wrote. Get some rest.

Right. Her boys arrived that day. And Izzy was sleeping in the next room. Think with your head, jackass, not your crotch.

Over the next few weeks he made sure to text her at least a couple of times every day, feeling like she might forget him if he gave it too long a gap. He knew he might have been coming off as desperate but what was the difference, he reasoned. He was desperate. He'd been desperate for her for the better part of a decade, but all that time thought he'd only have a shot at her in some alternate universe. Somehow the stars lined up in his favour, and now this was that universe.

Christmas morning, he glanced at his phone while Izzy played with the presents she'd just opened. I hope you're having a good morning, he typed.

Merry Christmas, Cole, came the reply a few minutes later with a heart emoji.

I didn't... I wasn't sure if I should say that to you, Cole wrote honestly. He'd decided to stop overthinking about whether he was saying the right thing, what with all the times he'd guessed wrong.

Well, it only set my skin on fire that one time, Maya replied, and he did a spit take with his coffee.

"Ew, Daddy," Isabel said, looking up from her new tablet.

"Sorry, pumpkin," he said, coughing and laughing. After he grabbed a rag he went into his room to get a fresh shirt. His phone pinged a few more times.

I don't know what white person started that rumour that people who don't celebrate Christmas are offended by merely saying 'Merry Christmas.' The only reason everyone says happy holidays is because there's a tonne of celebrations that happen across several cultures between November and January. Does anyone think anyone will get offended if I wished them a happy Divali?

I don't know, Cole wrote, but I'll ask at the next white people meeting and find that out for you.

In her living room, Maya burst out laughing. Manav and Tejas threw each other a look.

"Oh, it... it was a funny meme," she said weakly, still giggling.

"Oh, lemme see," Tejas said, reaching for her phone.

"No!" Maya shrieked, clinging to her phone and running into the den.

"Mom, I'm 14!" Tejas shouted after her. "I guarantee I've already seen worse."

Ohhhh, you got me into trouble with my kids, she typed after shutting the door.

You made me spit out my coffee in front of my daughter, so no sympathy, was Cole's reply. Maya paused.

So what are you wearing? She smiled wickedly to herself.

Do not do this to me, Maya, Cole responded. I am white-knuckling the next 10 days until I can see you again. Do you mind if I come over on a weekday, or should I wait until the first weekend after school starts up again?

Up to you. I'll be here every night that week, and I'm dropping the boys off on the Sunday before, Maya typed, curled up in her office chair. She thought about the way he'd effortlessly lifted her onto his lap after undoing her shirt buttons, and the mere image made her shiver.

Do you like Indian food? If not, be honest and I'll plan something else. I won't be shocked and offended the way I was the last time someone told me Merry Christmas.

Lol, Cole wrote. Look, I'm always learning with you. And yes, I love Indian food.

And you're okay with no meat?

I'm not a T-Rex, Maya, Cole wrote. I'll eat anything you make. It's sweet enough that you want to get dinner ready for us. I'll show up hungry. Maya looked down at her toe rings, thinking about the times she planned dinner ahead of time with Ram, only for him to call at the last minute and say he grabbed something at the office.

Okay, nice, she replied. Whenever it is you decide to come over, just let me know the day before. She closed her phone and slipped up to her room, hoping the kids would immerse themselves in video games and forget to ask her for the meme.

***********

"Hey, I'm just getting in the truck," Cole said, calling Maya from the school parking lot through the vehicle's Bluetooth. "Can I swing by the store and pick up a bottle of wine?" It was the Wednesday of the first week after the winter break. Janice was to pick Isabel up from school today and keep her until the following weekend, and Cole had made sure to even out his beard and get a haircut last night.

"Uhhhh, if it's only for you, sure," Maya said cheerily. Cole could hear the range hood whooshing in the background.

"You don't drink either?" He felt even more embarrassed at how smashed he was the first night they met. "Why were you even at the pub that night?"

"I was craving sweet potato fries?" she said. "I don't know how to tell you this, but alcohol is not the only thing they serve there." Cole laughed sheepishly and started his engine.

"Well, what do I bring you, then?"

"Just you," Maya said. "Park inside. I'll leave it open."

Five minutes later he was hitting the close-door button on the garage panel, watching the sunlight fade against the white metal of his truck and then disappear. He stood in the dark with his hand on the mud room door handle, trying to slow his breathing. Then with one swift movement, he opened the door and stepped inside.

There was Maya at the stove, oblivious to his entrance as she flipped some flatbread on a pan. Cole felt his mouth go dry as he took in her beauty. She wore a sheer, forest green sari that barely covered her upper body, and a cropped black blouse that clung tight to her breasts.

Her hair was pulled up in a high ponytail, and gold bangles hung loosely at her wrists. Her eyes were lined in black, just as they had been the last day he'd seen her in his classroom a lifetime ago. Cole lost his grip on the mud room door and it slammed shut, making Maya jump.

"Sorry," he apologized, knowing he wasn't going to get a cogent sentence out while still staring at her. "I just--you look incredible." She beamed.

"You're not so bad yourself, Teach," she said, adjusting the pleats against her skirt and across her breasts. Cole took off his jacket and took a step closer, putting his hand on her warm, bare midriff.

"It's hard to believe you have two teenage kids," he said, no longer trying to censor himself. Her stomach was soft but still flat.

"I started and finished kind of early," she smiled and ruffled his beard. "It's not so fun when you have them at 25 and 26 and then you've got stretch marks before you're 30."

"That's what you think I noticed first?" Cole asked, taking between his fingers the meter of cloth that fell over her left shoulder. Maya squeezed his hand and lifted up to her tiptoes to give him a kiss on the cheek.

"How good are you at Scrabble?" she asked. Cole lifted an eyebrow.

"That has to be the last thing I expected you to say."

"I have to let the paneer simmer on low for a while and we'd have enough time for a game. It's on the kids' video game console but they thought it was so boring they wouldn't play with me for the whole break." Maya slipped her arms around Cole and rested her head on his chest, standing just a bit past his shoulder. "Will you play with me?" Cole pursed his lips as he felt his soldier rise.

"Jesus, Maya, how do you keep doing that to me?"

"I'm not doing a thing," she laughed, feeling his partial erection against her thigh. "It's not my fault you're so frustrated."

"About that," he said, limping over to the living room and switching on the Xbox, "what do I get if I win?"

"Oh, you won't win."

"Do you know how much English I had to take to be a teacher?"

"Do you know I went to journalism school?" He hadn't known that, actually.

"Okay, let's do this," he said. "Whoever has more points per round has to answer a question about themselves." He handed her a controller and started selecting game options.

"Look, if you want to know everything about me, just ask," Maya said, turning the stove down and picking the couch opposite him. "No need to go through this rigamarole of trying to be a hero at Scrabble." A few minutes later, Cole shot her a smug glance looking at his 25-point word against her 16-pointer.

"Any tattoos or piercings?"

"That's you want to know first?" Cole tilted his head and continued to smirk at her until she rolled her eyes. "Fine, yes. All the piercings you see are all I have--two earlobes and my nose stud." Her voice suddenly dropped as she locked eyes with him. "And I've got a tattoo of a sandalwood tree right here." She pointed to her right thigh and Cole closed his eyes as his heart sped up. "Who knows, you may see it tonight."

"You play dirty, Kumar."

"It's Scrabble, Gundersen. I go for the jugular." Maya was able to snag the lead for the next few rounds. "What are you most afraid of?" she asked, setting down her controller and getting up to stir the paneer. Cole wasn't expecting that.

"Snakes," he said, while thinking about being old and alone.

"When was the last time you were the most angry?" Maya asked, realizing her mistake as she said the words. "Wait, no. I know that answer. Nevermind."

"It's not when I caught Janice cheating, if that's what you're thinking," Cole offered. Maya looked surprised. "That moment gave me a lot of answers as to why our marriage had been as shaky as it was. The last time I was livid was when we started to find the mass graves of Indigenous children at closed residential schools all across Canada.

"This country murdered them and inflicted untold trauma on those who survived, and we're all just treating it like an oops. Some of those babies were three years old." Maya forgot herself for a moment. "You have another question, you know," Cole said softly.

"Oh, right. Ummm..." Maya tried to remember what it was. "Who was your first girlfriend?"

"Kathy Klein in eleventh grade. It lasted five months and meant nothing, I swear."

As Maya put down her next word, Cole gazed at her face contorting as she mouthed out words and shuffled her tiles. She would periodically stare off into space and then come up with a combination that never occurred to him. The bag of tiles was empty and Cole was 30 points ahead.

"You never answered my question," Cole said. "What do I get if I win?"

"I'll give you a clue," Maya said, tucking her legs beneath her and letting her ponytail fall across her chest. "You'll be getting the same thing even if you lose." She turned her eyes to the TV screen, trying to seem unaware that Cole's concentration was shot. No way, she thought, her face bursting into a grin at her last seven letters. M-L-E-R-O-A-A and there's just enough space after 'rig' in the corner!

"Ohhhhh, that is ironic," Cole shook his head as she put down 'rigamarole' and ended the game 68 points in the lead. Maya got up nonchalantly and smirked all the way through dinner. "You've never won at Scrabble before, have you?" Cole said flatly while washing dishes.

"Oh, I fully expected to win," Maya replied as she packed up the leftovers. "I just didn't think it would happen in such a chef's kiss kind of way." She came up behind him and molded her front against his back, her arms reaching around and her fingers slipping into his belt loops.

"Maya, these dishes are too nice to break," Cole said gruffly as he felt himself stiffen for maybe the millionth time that evening. "You have to stop that."

"Put the dishes down for a second," she whispered, standing up on her tiptoes and dropping a kiss just above the back collar of his polo shirt. She couldn't help but think how the hair that brushed against the nape of his neck was soft like a puppy's fur.

Cole shut off the water, dried his hands, hit the kitchen light off, and picked Maya up. She shrieked and laughed as he carried her to the dimly lit living room, then sat her down with her legs across his lap, exactly as they had been six weeks before.

She tenderly held his face and kissed him slow and easy, deepening each kiss and searching for his tongue with her own. He pulled back.

"Maya, I can't--I mean I don't--" She suddenly felt foolish and slipped off his lap.

"Um, no, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed you wanted me to--" Cole put a finger against her lips.

"Oh, no, no, no. I wasn't talking about that. I, uh, I don't know how to take this off," he said, lifting up a pleat of her sari. "Is there a zipper somewhere in the back? Sorry... you're gonna have to help out the clueless white guy." Maya laughed, mostly out of relief, and stood up.

"This is just six yards of straight fabric," she said, reaching down to where her pleats were fastened below her navel to remove the safety pin there. "You tie a sari around yourself," she continued, removing the second safety pin at her left shoulder. Then she took off her bangles and laid them down next to the pins on the coffee table. "So you're not going to unzip me, Cole. You're going to unwrap me."

Cole's heart pounded as he stood up and brushed aside the fabric that fell over her shoulder, dropping half the sari to the ground. Maya guided his hands to her navel and had him tug at the pleats, releasing more fabric. She then slowly twirled as he pulled out the rest, which was tucked into a cotton underskirt.

As the sari cascaded to the carpet and Maya stood there with her entire mid-section bare, she looked into Cole's eyes and pulled his fingers up to the hook-and-eye clasps that held together her cropped blouse.

Once she showed him how to undo the top hook, he did the rest and then found the drawstring at her hip that loosened her underskirt. He peeled both the blouse and underskirt off, then unhooked her bra and slid down her panties. Maya couldn't remember the last time she had been--or felt--so exposed and she instinctively brought her hands up against her body.

"Don't," Cole whispered, gently holding each of her hands to her sides. "You're breathtaking." He brushed his fingers across the sandalwood tree tattoo on her thigh, just where she said it would be. "You're sure you want to do this, though? With me?" Maya was struck with his gentlemanly nature when she was sure he would just grab her, but she still giggled.

"No, I thought I'd get naked and then maybe go to the park." Cole chuckled in spite of himself, then pulled her close and slowly kissed her. His mouth travelled to her neck as he dragged her down to the carpet. She sat curled up in his lap as their kisses intensified, then let out a little yelp as he flipped her onto her back atop her discarded sari.

Maya gasped and tossed her head back as soon as she felt Cole's mouth envelope her right nipple. He felt her nails scratching against the back of his shirt but Cole wanted to take his time. He licked and sucked on each breast until Maya cried out and he could hear her breathing turn slightly ragged. Gradually, he made a path of kisses down her ribs and past her stomach. As he held her thighs open, Maya recoiled.

"No, sweetie, you don't have to--" she forgot her words as she felt Cole's tongue dance inside her. "Cole..." she groaned and squirmed against his mouth but he tightly held her legs apart and worked her until he felt her start to tremble. Then he sat up on his haunches and put a throw pillow from the couch beneath her hips. Before she could react, Cole slipped two fingers inside her and stroked them upwards, rubbing until a tiny spot began to harden against her front wall.

He watched as her eyes widened, then lowered his face back down her clitoris, mercilessly lashing at her with his tongue while his fingers kept rubbing. Maya writhed but it was only seconds before she began to scream Cole's name and bucked against his hand like a woman possessed. Cole watched as she grabbed on to the sari beneath her, her eyes squeezed shut and her jaw shaking from the earth-shattering climax that ripped through her.

Maya was still whimpering and rolling in the afterglow when she felt Cole move away. She tried reaching for him but her arm simply flopped back to the carpet.

"Easy, hon," he smiled. "You're really something, you know that?"

"Me?" she slurred, still trying to reach for him although she saw him pull off his shirt and undo his belt buckle in the hazy darkness. "I can't even see straight because of you." Now naked, himself, Cole curled up beside her and slipped his arm under her head, drawing her close enough to feel her heart pound against his bare chest.

He tangled his legs with hers and held her as she came down. "We're not done yet, right?" she breathed, wrapping her fingers around his erection and giving him a gentle squeeze." Cole swallowed hard.

"If we are, I may die right now." Maya giggled and crawled under him, putting her knees on either side of his waist and tilting her face upward to kiss him. "Wait," he said, reaching back toward his jeans, trying to find his wallet.

"I can't get pregnant, Cole," Maya said softly. He stopped and looked down at her. "I had complications after the second birth. Originally, I wanted three kids. Um, but if there's been someone else for you..."