THE VIXEN

Axel felt a light heat drift onto his cheeks as he chuckled away. “You’re far too kind.” He tried, with a decent glance over in her direction. She certainly was very attractive herself, but Axel knew better. He could look, but boy, he could not touch, because he did not know how to stop himself. Still, he felt it in his body, the attraction of want and desire. “Atta girl. That’s the kind of attitude I like to hear.” He voiced back, before clearing his throat. “Hookah bar it is sweetheart.”

“Only as kind as I want to be,” she responded. Rosalie noticed his glance towards her. It didn’t do much to inflate her ego, but it did give her a sense of satisfaction. Perhaps if he weren’t married things would be going very differently. Perhaps they still would. “You’re the one with the keys. It’s over on main street. Bright neon blue sign. Can’t miss it.”

As her words pierced through the veil of marriage that he was trying to uphold, he shrugged slowly. “Why would she be upset? I can have relationships with people outside of my marriage. It’d be an isolating life if I wasn’t allowed that.” He tried, though, he could already imagine what she was getting at. “Guess it just depends on the type of entertainment we waste our time on.”

“I suppose you’re right. I guess I would be jealous of any woman that talked to my husband if he were as attractive as you.” There was no harm in flirting, right? Rosalie could hear Fleur’s voice in the back of her head though, telling her to run and stop being so stupid. “I think I’ll leave that up to you. I tend to be very...flexible when it comes to making decisions.”

He would have felt bad if he he wasn’t trying to protect himself. One day he might tell her, but it was too soon to tell anyone. Aaron wanted to establish something in town before going and outing himself to the people who knew him. “If that’s all I can ask for right now, thank you.” Aaron feigned being upset. “Am I most people?” He questioned before smiling at her. “I’m not going to run and tell her anything. I’ll be here if you want to talk, and if you don’t we can just get drunk instead.”

Rosalie looked down her glass again. It was something to focus on and keep her distracted from looking into Aaron’s eyes, which she knew would melt her. “No, you’re not most people.” Her distraction failed. She looked right at him and smiled. “Well, you better catch up because I’m already half way there. I have an idea of how we can speed this up though.” She flagged the bartender down once again, ordering more shots than probably was healthy for the two of them to consume. “Just like old times, right?” she asked before downing one.

“I thought as much.” Axel chuckled sheepishly as he watched her with a grin. “I…yeah. I am.” He brought his hands together, over his lap, as if he were considering twisting at the wedding band around his ring finger, though, he knew how awful that would look. Instead he cracked his knuckles lightly. “Yeah, no kidding. Sounds like a good time though.” There was certainly room for him to go deeper, but he felt like he was already pushing it. “I’m always looking for new ways to keep myself entertained in this hellhole of a snake pit.”

“Oh,” she said almost despondently. “Well...won’t your wife be upset that you’re talking to me?” she asked. Rosalie knew she should leave so she didn’t cause any problems, but she found herself frozen in place. Anything they were talking about disappeared from her mind. She was more focused on the ring she saw on his finger. It was almost blinding to her. “Are you sure I’m the right person to keep you entertained?”

Aaron had joked to cover up the fact he didn’t want to tell her, sitting in his own silence as he waited for her to explain. He was willing to wait as long as she needed, wanting to deflect the attention on her instead of him. But as she searched for prying eyes and ears, the conversation turned to something he didn’t want to talk about. It wasn’t the lie he needed to come up with that was hard, it would be keeping it. Especially since Henley knew he’d been fired, but she didn’t. “I’d much rather be in the lab.” It’s where he’d felt at home, a sort of peace he needed in his life. Now, there was a missing piece. “There was some HR bullshit, so I’m currently freelancing.” It was only partially a lie, one that would be easy to keep up with. “Why would I run to your sister? You were always my favorite.”

Rosalie could tell he was avoiding the question. She wasn’t sure why, but she would get to the bottom of it. She didn’t like being lied to, but she wasn’t going to pry too much. If he really wanted to tell her he would. “I’ll choose to believe you for now,” she said, spinning the straw around in her drink. “I have a feeling there is a lot more to it than you’re letting on.” She looked up at him, a small smile coming onto her face. “I don’t know. It’s what most people have always done.”

“I came here to get a drink,” he teased, not willing to make the conversation about himself even if his motives were. Aaron was sure him getting fired was out there, and maybe the reasoning too, but if she didn’t know then he was going to keep it that way. “You don’t have to apologize, you didn’t know it was me.“ His shoulders shrugged, “What has you overwhelmed? I almost didn’t recognize you, this isn’t a regular occurrence for you, which only means that something is very out of sorts.”

“I meant why are you in this town.” She looked into her glass that was nearly empty. A sigh came out from between her lips that were tinted pink still from the lipstick that had worn off throughout the night. To avoid saying anything else for a moment longer she slowly drank the last few sips of her drink. When she was finished the held her finger up to alert the bartender she wanted another. Just moments later another replaced the empty glass. Rosalie knew she couldn’t avoid talking forever though. Before speaking she glanced over both shoulders just to check that they weren’t in anyone’s ear shot. “Well, it’s very out of sorts for you to be working in the field. Don’t you think?” she asked. “I’m surprised you’re not in the lab.” She spoke quietly, almost in a whisper so no one would hear their conversation.  “I’d rather not talk about me or why I’m out of sorts. You’d probably just go and run to my sister and tell her anyways.”

“No. Because you love attention, sister dear.” She rolled her eyes, unamused. “I care. But I’m not going to help if you’re going to be ridiculous.”

Rosalie scoffed. As if, she thought. “You can’t help anyway,” she stated. “It’s not really a fixable problem.”

“I take it you’re not married.” Axel muttered through a slim grin as he looked over to the woman, feeling as though he were nearing boundaries with her, specifically ones he set for himself as far as crossing the line went with other women. He watched as she seemed to get closer, his heart beating a bit faster. “Blue balls, huh?” He gave a hearty laugh as he watched her, grin pulling at his lips. “Sounds like you know your stuff.” Axel’s eyes went to her lips before glancing back to her eyes, not wanting to wander any lower, despite the desire to. “I agree. Experiences can vary. But how will you ever experience anything new if you’re stuck in the past?”

“I am definitely not married,” she said with a quiet laugh. “Are you?” she asked, trying to discreetly glance at his left hand to see if there was a ring. His hand was just out of view though and she didn’t want to make herself obvious. “Strange name for something so good that’s normally so bad.” Her hand was set on the center console and she tapped her fingers against it, her nails making a soft clicking sound as they made contact with it. “You’re right. Maybe I should try something new. Maybe you have some ideas to help me out.”

“Well, you don’t have to sit here alone.” He brushed back a piece of her hair, not used to seeing her like this. Aaron ordered his own drink when the bartender came over, chuckling softly. “I should have ordered four drinks just to catch up.” Except, maybe only one of them getting drunk was a better idea. His hand went to his heart as he feigned being hurt, “Harassing you? Ouch, I take offense to that.”

The minute she saw him everything began to crumble. Her perfect facade began to crumble, but when he brushed a strand of hair from her face everything collapsed. She wanted to ask him why he was here. Did Fleur know? Perhaps she sent him to keep Rosalie in check. She took in a shaky breath before speaking. “Why are you here, Aaron?” she asked him. She wanted to hug him. Ask him how he was doing and pretend everything was okay, but it wasn’t. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you,” she said trying to redeem herself. “I’m just overwhelmed.”

“Whatever it is, I need to find some new company anyways.” Axel sputtered off with a cheeky grin. “Yeah, no shit. Consistency is a trap to live life in a bubble.” Axel wanted to live freely and for the most part he had succeeded in that, though, there had become a more narrow scope of his stability more recently and he wasn’t complaining. Still, with the young woman, it seemed possible to at least entertain the idea of a less stable life. “That…sounds good.” He nodded, with the idea that if it tasted good and smelt good, maybe Roxi wouldn’t be on his case so much, especially with the bay on it’s way. “Oh boy. That sure sounds exciting. I don’t doubt you miss. Experience comes in all shapes and sizes.”

“New company is usually a good thing. The same people tend to drag you down eventually.” Rosalie flipped her hair behind her shoulder before turning in her seat to face him. This was the first time she intently looked at him. He was extremely attractive and the stubble on his face made her heart skip a beat. Maybe he was her ticket away from consistency. “Oh, it’s really good. I went to this one place once and they had this flavor called blue balls, which I thought was hilarious, but it was actually really good. A mix of all these fruity flavors.” She ran her tongue along her bottom lip. “Some experiences are better left in the past though.”

Fleur was never good at comforting her baby sister. Te act itself felt robotic, forced, and Fleur hated that. She wanted to be a god sister but all she could think was that her sister was being…weak. “I’m hardly harassing you. I just asked if you were alright.”

“If I wanted to tell you what was wrong don’t you think I would have came to you first instead of drowning my sorrows with alcohol?” Rosalie snapped at her older sister. “It’s not like you actually care anyway. You have to ask because you’re my sister.”

Amelia looked at the other woman, a little dumbfounded, not believing that she was offering to pay for her. “I- Are you sure? I feel bad, I mean you helped me, it doesn’t feel right.” She said as she walked into the bakery, the delicious smell surrounding them.

“No, I insist,” Rosalie told her. “Good karma must be coming your way because this is slightly out of character for me. Not that I mind of course.” She smiled and walked up to the counter, looking in the glass case to see which pastries she wanted for herself. “Have you tried the cream cheese danish here? I’ve always loved those.”

Abruptly stopping before she ran into the stranger, Amelia stood there, hands on her knees, watching the rest of her money fly away. “Goddammit.” She muttered, of all the rotten luck. “Thank you, so much.” Mia looked up at the woman who had caught some of her money, very thankful she had at least gotten something, taking them and shoving the bills back in her pocket, not wanting to bother with the wallet in fear of it happening again.  “This crappy weather is something else.” Mia straightened up, laughing halfheartedly and breathlessly, looking at her savior, well sort of savior. “Thanks for doing that, you didn’t have to, can I buy you a pastry or something to repay you?”

“No need for that,” Rosalie said. “You already lost a fly-away bills, no need to waste more on me.” She smiled at the girl. “Besides, it’s what any decent person would do. I take it you’re going to the bakery then? Let me buy you something instead.” Rosalie opened the door, holding it open for her to go first. She wasn’t taking no for an answer.”

“A bong? Geez, no wonder it’s more popular among those college kids. Talk about being friends with teens.” Axel murmured, sly grin pulling at his face. “You know, even though things have changed, there’s still that consistency of it all. But, I mean, hey, I won’t knock hookah off until I give it a try. Flavored tobacco doesn’t seem all too bad. And, I’ve been trying to kick my smoking habit anyways. How bad can this be compared to that?” Axel looked over her, unbuckling his seatbelt as he put the car in park to get out. “You’re still young. You’ve got loads of time to live still. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Rosalie let out a laugh at his comment. “Maybe you’re only worsening the case against yourself,” she teased. “Consistency is something I’ve been trying to escape for a long time. A consistent life isn’t always a happy one.” Her nails dug into her palms. Consistency is why she ended up in this damned town in the first place. “I can assure you it tastes a whole lot better.” She scrunched her nose up. “And smells a whole lot better,” she added. Rosalie looked over at him as he took his seatbelt off. “I may be young but don’t think just because of that that I haven’t seen or experienced things to last three lifetimes.”

“Oh, trust me. They already have the wrong idea about me.” Axel chuckled softly, falling into a realm of some type of friendship that he hadn’t experienced with anyone that he didn’t consider family. “God, that sounds amazing. I could use a drink these days. Though, I gotta be frank, I have no fucking clue what the hell hookah is?”

“What?!” Rose exclaimed a little loudly. “You’ve never heard of hookah? When I was in college I went all the time with my friends. It’s essentially this...bong looking thing. That’s the only way I can think to describe it,” she told him with a light laugh. “There’s water in the bottom and hot coals on top and long tubes on them. Multiple ones. That’s where you smoke it. It’s essentially just smoking vaporized, flavored tobacco. My friend bought one when we were still in school and we used it to smoke pot. It seems like that was a lot longer ago than it was. A lot has changed.” She leaned back into the seat of the car. “I think I might need more than one drink. Existential dread is setting in on me.”

You know those bright, sunny days when it’s warm with a nice breeze that blows all your cares away as you stare out into the distance thinking about nothing really at all?  Today wasn’t that sort of day, for Amelia at least. Cold winds blew in sleet like rain, covering what could have very well been a beautiful sunset, That’s just how it goes sometimes, and that was how it was going for Amelia McKay as she trudged back to her new home, wind whipping her hair, thunder rolling in the distance. At least she didn’t have to worry about lightning striking her. Pulling her jacket tighter around herself, she could smell the bakery before she saw it. Passing the window, she looked inside to see the warm glow, freshly baked pastries, just sitting there, tantalizing her. Maybe she had enough money. Mia pulled her wallet out of her pocket, pulling out her cash to see how much she had when a strong gust of wind blew, ripping the bills from her hand. “Shit!” Shoving the wallet back in her pocket, she took off after the flying bills “Stop that money!” She yelled, seeing someone up ahead.

Rosalie had a routine. At least she tried to have one. It usually consisted of getting ready in the morning and going into town for breakfast and coffee. Since her car was constantly at he mechanic her calves had gotten very strong from all the walking she did. Thankfully, she lived close to the main street. The thin heels of her shoes clicked against the concrete as she walked down the sidewalk to the bakery that morning. She didn’t always go to the same place for breakfast. Sometimes it was the diner, sometimes it was the coffee shop, but today was definitely a sweet, carb filled day.

As she turned the corner the wind violently hit her. She held her jacket tighter against her torso. The wind also carried green pieces of paper. Rosalie looked up just in time to see the young girl running towards her. She tilted her umbrella back and her perfectly manicured hand reached up and grabbed as many as she could. The rest were gone with the wind. “The weather is not in your favor today,” she stated to the girl, handing her the bills back. “I grabbed as many as I could.”