Gods of Old, Part1: Veles

Chapter 2: Not a Date, Gelato

Sitting at her favourite table at the ice cream shop, Ilona is thinking that Veles and Vesna couldn’t be more different even if they tried. For one thing, Vesna is blond and petit, but Veles is tall, dark, and built like an athlete. To break up the uninvited silence, she asks the first thing that popped on her mind:

“Are you and Vesna really related? You are so different.”

“Yes,” comes a quick reply. “ I am three years older. We don’t have the same mother, but we did grow up together. She is the closest one to me out of all my siblings. And totally  opposite from myself. Maybe that is why we get along.”

“She is like a tornado. Does she ever slow down and take a day off? She drives us all crazy with constant action. You know, sometimes I just need to sleep ” she expels a breath of frustration over her dear friend.

Veles laughs at that: “Yes, she can be a handful, if you let her. You must stand up for yourself and tell her to stop.”

“Oh, but I can’t. I need her too much. She is my best selling creator. All my readers are waiting to hear news from her. What if she cuts me off? What then?”

“She won’t! With this, you will get some bonus points in her book. Trust me on this. I do know her fairly well.”

-/-/-

He keeps watching her attentively. She seems to have wandered off, deep in her thoughts again. Absentmindedly, she stirs her ice cream into a mush. That is a no go in his book, but she still commands his full attention. That elfish face, with a tiny nose and porcelain skin. She is wearing only mascara and nothing else. Her perfect features are mesmerising, he simply can’t look away. And then he finally notices what is so different and eye-catching about her. Red hair and green eyes but no freckles! A natural redhead with her pale complexion should be covered in freckles, but she has not a single one.

“Where are your freckles? By natural law, there should be some?” He suddenly blurts out. She stiffens in her chair and stops stirring the mush her ice cream has become. She doesn't move, doesn’t look up, she barely breathes. That worries him, he wants to take her away and shelter her from all the pain he feels she’s in. But he can’t, because he is the one who has caused the pain.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn't have asked that. Now that I think about it, it probably has something to do with the F word that should not be mentioned.” He slowly reaches his hand over the table and covers hers, in an attempt to try and soothe her. The tingles running up his arm surprise him, as he was not expecting to feel something so delightful. Is she the one he’s been waiting for? Is that the reason why he suddenly cares and instantly feels sorry for causing her pain?

“ You are perceptive. Most people don’t notice. But this is not something to be discussed in public. I feel like I can tell you. I don’t know why, but I trust you.” She slips a white card to him: “ My number. Call me, let's meet again.”

-/-/-

Ilona is trying hard to keep her emotions in check. She decides to leave early and kisses him on his cheek in passing. Just as she would have done with any of her friends. Just that tiny contact of skin to skin, sends trill up her body. She feels energised, happy and horny, all in a tight bundle that threatens to explode any second. She quickly leaves, to keep herself from jumping his bones right there in the ice cream shop full of people. Out on the street she turns left and almost runs to her office. She does have a job to do. The article for tomorrow will not write itself. And she needs to turn it in to the editor by seven.  Allas, there is a tall, handsome distraction on her mind. Oh, that kiss! If an innocent kiss on the cheek can cause such havoc with her hormones, imagine what a real kiss would do.

-/-/-

Stuned, Veles just sits there and turns the little white card around between his fingers. His ice cream all but forgotten, slowly turns to that gross inedible mush. He keeps replaying that kiss in his head. Why did she do it? That woman is such a mystery, wrapped in an enigma with a twist worthy of Sherlock Holmes. And he intends to solve it. Determined to start right away, he pays for their ice cream and goes home to wait for Vesna.

Pacing up and down the apartment does nothing to quell the nervous energy that has built up on their non-date. Veles decides to cook dinner for Vesna. Upon, opening the fridge, he frowns in confusion. Vegetables and fruit on all the shelves. Vesna stacks the fridge for herself. To give her some credit, he is never here anyways.

“So, it’s ordering delivery for me and cooking something for Vesna,” Veles mutters to himself in front of the opened fridge. “Rabbit food and nothing else! Oh, well, a salad it is.”

He calls his favourite restaurant to deliver some steaks and baby potatoes, then he sets all the ingredients for a salad on the counter. Two ripe pears, blue cheese, a head of lettuce, cherry tomatoes,  two carrots and a cucumber. He cuts the pears in small cubes and puts them in a pan with half a bottle of Merlot. Then he sets them on the stove to slowly simmer away. The wine needs to boil down to a thick sauce. Now he has time to play with the lettuce and cut it in stripes. The carrots and cucumber, he peels them into thin stripes with a peeler. The Blue cheese he cuts in cubes and adds to the mix. Cherry tomatoes only go in half and in the bowl.

Time to set the table for two. He takes a look around the kitchen. All wooden cupboards and no patience to go through them all. A snap of his fingers does it. He is the god of magic, after all. A nice white tablecloth appears with plates, glasses, a vase of white roses and silverware from his home. “Candles or no candles,” he says to himself. “No candles, it’s Vesna.”

A glance at the clock on the wall, tells him it’s almost time for Vesna to come home. Going back to the stove, he takes the pears out of the pan and adds them to the vegetables and cheese mix. Adding some olive oil to the wine reduction, he starts to make the dressing. A touch of vinaigrette and some sesame seeds, salt and pepper. It’s going to be delicious.

Veles hears the door open and calls out to Vesna: “ Hey lil sister, I made you dinner! And mine should be here any minute now. “ 

“It’s here! I took it off the delivery guy down in the lobby. You owe me 35 euros.” Vesna calls back to him as she enters the dining room. “ I like the table. What’s the occasion?”

“Can’t I do something nice for you, just because?” He says, as he brings in the salad he made for her. “ I will even share some of my stake if you wish.”

“No, thank you. Still a vegetarian. But that salad sure looks inviting.” She smiles back as she takes her place. “ The stains on your shirt tell me you made it yourself.”

Veles transfers his steak and potatoes to a plate and sits opposite from Vesna. After eating in silence for a few minutes, each of them is appreciating the food they have and slowly sipping their wine, Veles finally tells her about his afternoon with Ilona.

“Ilona fascinates me. She is so full of life, elegant, beautiful, that flaming red hair of hers calls out to me. I asked her out after you left. She thought you set us up. I managed to persuade her you didn't. And I made her distant and really sad when I called her a firebird. She will tell me about that, she said.”

“Oooo, you couldn’t have known. That’s really bad, but I can’t tell you. She swore me to secrecy and I can’t break my promise. What happened next?”

“ We went to the ice cream shop at the corner and talked some more about nothing important. Well, mostly you. She admires you. But you do have the tendency to push people till they burn out. I would appreciate it if you would loosen your hold on her just a little. I think she is the one. The way I feel around her… It’s electrifying! She gives me a high like nothing else ever did, just by a touch. I made you dinner tonight so I would  burn off some of that energy.”

“It was amazing, I have to give you credit for that. Veles, please don’t break her heart. Ilona doesn't date. Ever! I know people that have known her far longer than I. They all say the same, that she doesn’t date.”

“ She kissed me before she left. It was like a strike of lightning. I froze, I had to hold still not to throw her over my shoulder and carry her here to ravish her senseless. I don’t think that would have gone well.”

“ A public disturbance in an ice cream shop? That would have been bad, very bad indeed. Ilona is not one to cause a scene.” Vesna laughs at that. “But I can imagine what that would look like.”

“Is it too soon to send her a text tonight?” Veles changes the course of conversation.

“Depends on what you want to write. You better not scandalise my best friend!”

“ Woooow, slow your dirty mind down. I just want to wish her sweet dreams. Who do you think I am?” Veles gets up from the table and starts collecting the dishes.

“Hey, what is it with the indignation? I know you, remember. My brother, the mighty god of the underworld, the trickster, the magician. Don’t pretend to be all innocent. You think, I never heard of all your conquests and the broken hearts you left behind?”

“You forgot water, earth and cattle. And I never forced any of them. I actually had to fend them off. Will you manage the dishwasher, I have no idea what to do with it?

“Sure. It’s not that difficult, you know. Just two buttons. And you're not listening to me at all?!” Vesna demonstrates the buttons with a wave of her hand. Then she smacks him on the back of his head.

“Ow! I’m listening! What did you want to discuss with me?” He rubs his head with a dramatic gesture.

“The winter line I’m working on. Let me get my laptop.” She snaps her fingers and it appears on the counter. Vesna opens a file folder with designs and turns the screen to him. “I want an honest opinion from you. What do you think, left or right?”

“ I like them both, except…. oh wait, is that arctic fox fur? Aren’t they endangered?”

“Relax, it’s fake. Really good fake. I have a guy here in Milano, he specialises in creating synthetic fur. It looks real, it feels real, but it’s not.

“Ok. I believe you. Make both of them, I can’t decide. I would wear them both.”

“Great! Stuck again. I will have to figure out how to make both work in the winter line. Maybe just pick one for the fashion show?”

“The gray jacket with fake arctic fox fur. That will stand out more.” Veles points to the screen.

-/-/-

Later that evening, Ilona is home alone with her cat, getting ready for bed as her phone chimes indicating she just got a text:

-Have a great night and sweet dreams, my dear. Veles

Oh, she will have great dreams. Her daydreaming in the office will continue in the night. She is certain of that. And he is thinking of her as well. That makes her all hot and tingly. She gets under the covers with a smile on her lips and hugs her pillow tight to her chest. On impulse, she reaches for her phone and sends a text back:

-Thinking of you too. Night. Ilona