Déjà Vu - 3. Chapter 3

Kevin and I both stretched, tidied up the living room, and began to start our day. I told Kevin to take a shower first since he was my guest. By doing this, it gave me a chance to make coffee and a light breakfast of toast with scrambled eggs. I picked up my phone, plunged it in to charge, and hit shuffle all on my songs. 'Relax, Take It Easy' by Mika began playing. I had drank heavily and I was awake, earlier than I would normally be, but I was not feeling slow or hungover. In fact, I had just finished cooking the scrambled eggs when Kevin walked out of the bathroom.

Kevin only had a towel around his waist. My eyes wanted to travel down his chest, instead my eyes met with his. Those crisp jade eyes transported me to Feudal Japan. In the far distance we saw a temple and heard drums. I was walking behind a Samurai, he then turned and his eyes met with mine. I knew those eyes anywhere. Although the color had changed, the soul behind them was the same. I called out, "Kevin", but the voice was in Japanese. My voice was soft and light. Confused I turned to the river that we were walking along and saw my petite frame in the reflection. I was dressed in a peach kimono with Sakura trees growing up from along the bottom edge. They grew upwards towards my knees and branched out below my hips. My makeup and hair were done as well. I was, maybe, eighteen and my Samurai was in his late twenties.

Suddenly as the wind changes direction, we were ambushed by those who did not like the current Shogun's policies.

My Samurai said peacefully, "We are fleeing from our land. We want to live in peace and serenity. Will you let us go on our way?"

The man behind me grabbed me, they wrapped one hand around my stomach and the other hand was gripping my neck. He licked the back of my neck, I cringed and bowed my head.

My Samurai saw this and his eyes glowed a bright fire red. All I felt was a light breeze and felt the man's hands release from my body. I looked around us, I could smell iron from the blood and the way it pooled on the grasses was like red dew of the morning.

"Steven? Steven are you going to take a shower?" My Samurai asked. I shook my head seeing those crisp jade eyes and the red five o'clock shadow looking at me.

"Yes. And I better hurry. Did you want a clean shirt to wear?"

"I would like that."

"Help yourself to whatever will fit in the closet. Not only the shirts, but to whatever will fit." I gave his hand a squeeze. "I shouldn't be long."

I went to the shower, turned the water on, went under the falling water and closed the curtain. I was on auto-pilot as I went through the motions of showering however my mind went daydreaming again. This time I was transported to a cub car going to Los Angeles from New Orleans in the late thirties. Arriving in Phoenix I enjoyed the landscape by myself, until a stunning woman approached me and asked if she could take the window seat next to me. I agreed and she sat next to me. As I looked at the desert landscape, I asked what are those strange trees out the window. She told me that those were Joshua trees. I asked where she was going and what she was doing on the train by herself. She just laughed and asked me the same question, since I was a single woman too.

I wiped the condensation off the mirror and I brushed my teeth. I just walked out into my bedroom like I would normally do and Kevin had clothes pulled out and scattered all over the room. I just laughed as I pulled out a pair of underwear.

"You must feel very comfortable around me if you walk out in your birthday suit." Kevin smirked. "Not saying that I object to the view."

"Sorry," I said as I was still dressing myself, "ever since I woke up, I have been having these flashback of past lives. On was in..."

"Feudal Japan and the other was a cub car?"

"Yes and I don't know why I am so free with you or so happy and focused by you being near me."

"I am glad one of us is focused. I have been a mess since you took your shower."

I finished dressing and helped Kevin find something of his own style from my clothes. "How is this?" I asked standing behind him in front of the mirror.

"Wow. Thank you." His eyes sparkled and his smile made my heart skip a beat. "I just noticed that your eyes change colors. They are deep brown but now they are a light brown with green around them. So mesmerizing!"

"We better hurry or Laura will be upset. I cannot deal with her this morning. I am just glad that tomorrow is Friday."

"I am as well. This week has been full of surprises to say the least." Kevin grabbed my hand and we were out the door to work.

****

We arrived at work five minutes early and under the radar of Laura. We were in my office with the door open, I gave him the tasks that I needed done before lunch, and he left to his desk. Thirty minutes later, Laura rushed in, slammed the door, and said, "You sneaky bastard!"

"Would you like to explain why I am a sneaky bastard?"

"Kevin is wearing your clothes and you are here on time. Did you even sleep last night?"

"Ja Fräulein, aber es tut mir leid! I'm not going to gossip."

"SO YOU HAVE GOSSIP!"

I called for Kevin to come in my office. He did and I asked, "Kevin, would you mind if I told Laura what happened last night or would you?"

"Aside from the hours long foreplay session or the reenactment of, 'Fifty Shades of Grey'?"

"I'm going to need popcorn and a fan!" Laura said as she sat on the sofa.

"The truth will do nicely." I said

"After work we went to the local, got pissed, then I went to his flat. Only to make sure he made it home safely. I put the kettle on, we fell asleep on his couch watching some movie and woke up. Honestly." Kevin said and then asked, "If that is all..."

"Thank you. You may finish your work now." He left and closed the door. I turned to Laura and said, "See, nothing happened."

"You might think that nothing happened, but I see the truth. You like Kevin and I can tell by your body language. You really like him! What happened?" Laura was shocked and very few things of this world shock that woman.

"Come over tonight for wine and you can find out."

"Try and stop me! I will be around 7pm. I'll bring the wine."

"Great. Now leave me alone. I need to finish so I can enjoy the weekend stress free, for once."

The rest of the day flew by. Kevin and I grabbed a sandwich, a bottle of water, went across the street to the park and enjoyed the fresh air. We were talking, Kevin about the UK and traveling Europe, I spoke about living in the US and about all the places I've been here. We were eating and we had some mayonnaise on the corner of our mouths, we both wiped off the mayo and laughed because we thought it was so cute. We walked back to work, still talking about our pasts and what brought us to this point in our lives. We rode the elevator up to the eleventh floor and Laura greeted us at the door with a flash from her phone.

"Really?!" I said as I was caught off guard.

"Bloody hell!" Kevin was rubbing the flash out of his eyes.

"I'll send it to you in a bit. Until tonight!" Laura said as she ran off.

"What was that about?" Kevin asked.

"She wants to know about me." I said as I opened the door to my office and closed it after Kevin walked in. "We are good friends outside of work, but we try to keep things professional while at work. Remember how she treated you yesterday?"

"Yes. What of it?"

"Laura did the same thing to me a few years back. We had some drinks and we ended up at my apartment like last night..."

"...and nothing happened." Kevin said uneasily.

"Correct, nothing happened and at that point she knew I was gay. Since then we have been good friend keeping each other sane. However, tonight she would like to come over and have some wine with you and me."

"When are you going to ask me about coming over?"

"I thought you were coming over to claim your clothes."

"You cheeky monkey, you! I knew there was something I liked about you."

"Other than the view of my birthday suit? I don't know if I should be flattered or embarrassed."

"Flattered! Definitely flattered!" Kevin came towards me and held both of my hands in his.

"Well, if we are being honest. The view I had of you in the towel this morning was delightful."

"Mind if I accompany you home after work?"

"I would love that."

We finished the rest of the day. I prepared my desk for work on Monday and locked my office door behind me. Kevin looked at me and we walked to the elevator. I heard the notification ring on my phone letting me know that there was a new message. I opened it up and it was from Laura. It had the picture from after lunch with the caption, 'Hope this is the beginning of something special.' I showed the picture to Kevin and he noticed that we were holding hand when she took the picture. I put the phone back in my pocket, the song, 'A Kiss to Build A Dream On' by Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald came to mind as Kevin and I held hands all the way back to my apartment.