Sonia had a craving to smoke, and talking to Damien elated her extraordinarily. She had never felt so attracted to a man, mentally and physically.
Damien handed her the electronic cigarette, after charging it with a good tobacco liquid containing a certain percentage of nicotine and Sonia took it from him as a child taking an ice cream cone from the hands of its mother.
She took two or three puffs, long and close between them, turning her back to Damien, maybe to hide the yearning she was feeling.
It was a good chance for Damien to watch her from behind. He noticed her rounded hips, straight legs, which were so tightly wrapped within her tight jeans that he could admire their perfect shape. Her shortly cut hair, allowed him to admire her long elegant neck.
Damien walked silently towards Sonia, stood to her left and then moved in front of her like a dancer who takes the hand of his companion to invite her to dance. While he moved he could smell the fragrance that radiated from her neck and hair.
He closed his eyes and fully savoured the scent, mentally picturing Sonia, as if he had a three-dimensional view, in front of her mirror at home, as she sprayed the scent on, raising her neck, turning it, bowing her head and lifting it up again to see her reflection, in all its beauty.
Sonia turned her face towards Damiens, who was just a few inches away from a kiss; they looked at each other for a moment that seemed endless and eventually Damien, more alert than Sonia, took the cigarette from her hands, which she gave up as a robot without its CPU.
What do you think? asked Damien, while moving slightly away.
Its good! I didnt imagine it would be! Sonia answered, recovering from her momentary confusion.
This might help you stop smoking, Sonia. You have no idea of the benefits that you will find, not only for your health, but also for your whole being. Dont allow tobacco to waste what nature gave you, your beautiful smile, the colour of your skin, its softness! Damien spoke as he continued to look into Sonias eyes, trying to communicate that he really believed that those words were meant for her wellbeing.
At that moment Sonia decided she could talk to him about her illness, surely he would listen to her; something told her that he would help her face her disease with a positive attitude, rather than let go and give up fighting. Maybe Damien was the right person to offer her some moral support.
When I came here the first time, - Sonia started, collecting her courage - I had just come out of the doctor's office across the street, I went to pick up the tests that confirmed that I have a tumour.
Oooh! Damien interrupted her, visibly shaken Are you sure?
Yes Im sure. Excuse me if I told you this, I know its a little confidential, but I wanted to talk to someone who wasnt part of my family or friends; I think you can understand why.
Yes, I understand answered Damien people who have known you for a long time, always feel very emotionally involved or very embarrassed in these cases, and at the end they are incapable of seeing the situation from a different perspective than yours. You put a lot of faith in me to tell me about it, I thank you for that.
Sonia sought for a way to ease the drama of the topic, not that she regretted have confided in Damien, who was really only a stranger, indeed, she was glad; however, she believed that she would have the opportunity to talk to him on more occasions, since she was about to become a new customer of his, therefore she would have met him again.
She approached the counter and saw that strange metal object on which Damien was working before she entered the store. She picked it up and asked him what it was.
It was then that he moved closer to her, took her hand which held the basic atomizer with the mounted resistance and at that moment the resistance became incandescent.
Sonia, frightened, immediately dropped it into Damiens palm who sharply said:
Be careful! I forgot to turn it off he lied luckily you didnt burn yourself, Im sorry.
No excuse me, - said Sonia, who at that point assumed that the object had an internal battery I shouldnt have touched it, its my fault, anyhow Im not hurt.
Damien shook his head. This shouldnt have happened.
His heart could have resisted her beauty, but not the heart of that atomizer, which had not put up a strong resistance to her.
Part eight (Sonias dream)
The new electronic cigarettes battery was still hot, when Sonia put it down on the nightstand next to her bed. She was glad to have been able to smoke, oops!... Vape as Damien said, even in her room, without filling the air with that disgusting scent of tar.
She had inhaled a good dose of nicotine for that Saturday night, following a tasty pizza she had delivered to her home, which she had eaten in the company of her favourite TV show: Columbo.
Once she turned off the TV, she checked her bookmark, which indicated that she had another twenty pages to finish the novel she was reading; She shook her head undecidedly, trying to choose between reading or sleeping, took another look at the electronic cigarette, thinking that she could still vape while reading, without having to worry about shaking the ash or not falling asleep with a lit cigarette. Finally she gave up and decided that it would be better to turn off the light, close her eyes and let herself fall sleep without the anxiety of the ringing of the alarm clock. The next day was Sunday; she had already planned a bike ride with Giorgio, her boyfriend.
For almost a year now, Sonia lived alone in a two-roomed apartment that her parents had bought her with the savings of a lifetime, even though that meant they would be separated from their only daughter, who had chosen to live in the city of Florence, which she preferred to Turin, where she was born and raised. She got out of the bed and, as she did every night, she walked through the sixty square meters of her apartment. Every single night, she had to make sure that she had closed the front door, leaving the key in the door, half in and half out, as she had read in a police warning.
She then proceeded to control the windows and the shutters, and finally, with the adrenaline of a scared child who has to cross a dark hallway, she always checked the closet, which required opening the built-in wardrobes to see if anyone was hiding inside it, waiting to jump out in the middle night to attack her as she slept.
She never stopped to wonder, however, what she would do, if she had ever really found someone in the closet.
After carrying out her ritual control, she locked herself in her room. She climbed back into bed and turned off the bedside lamp.
She never fully shut her bedroom window shutter. Sonia always left a few gaps through which the light of the street lamps could pass through. Living on the second floor of an apartment building, the light coming through was enough to reassure her. She didnt like to sleep in complete darkness.
From the upstairs apartment, or from the one below, came voices and music that she had never heard before. Maybe someone was throwing a party. After all it was Saturday night, some preferred to read a good book in peace and others chose to celebrate in their home, inviting their friends. All in all, that noise in the background kept her company and she fell asleep, feeling a little less lonely.
Before she closed her eyes, she saw streaks of light cast from the open gaps of the shutter, shining on the medical records that she had left open on the dresser opposite the bed. The headlights of a car bounced their light onto the windowpanes, (she never quite understood this phenomenon), and the play of reflections it created was sometimes curious, sometimes entertaining. This time, it was ghastly...