Chapter Fourteen
When trying to lose weight it’s not wise to sit and watch the Food Network. Even the grossest looking food will make you hungry.
—Tensanne’s inner thoughts
Tensanne
“OH, GOD. WHO shit in my mouth? Why is the room moving and why is there a marching band in my head?” I whine, prying my tongue from the roof of my mouth. My stomach decides to revolt in a tumultuous roil and grumble. I fly off the bed, rushing to the bathroom, barely making to the toilet when all last night’s fun comes back out as regret. My head pounding with each heave of my body. Flashes of the most vivid dream reveal themselves with each hurling stomach clinch. Kohl, his lips, his touch, his hardness resting so perfectly against me. Each image in fantastic technicolor. I can almost feel his warm lips pressed against mine. I reveal in the pictures that are playing like a dream formed memory when a cool washcloth is placed on my neck causing me to jump back away from the porcelain throne. Standing in the doorway, rumpled and wrinkled is Kohl, hair standing in disarray with a lazy sleepy smirk formed on his plump pink lips.
“Oh, God,” I groan, “Last night wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“You need greasy food and coffee to absorb some of that alcohol flooding your system,” he orders, dodging my question.
At the suggestion of food my stomach purges and bile rises. Crawling my way back to the toilet, I begin to dry heave. My throat is raw, the band playing Revelry in my brain marches on while I grab the toilet seat for leverage against my body expelling what isn’t there. Once the ravaging calms, I roll to my side resting my cheek on the cool tile of the bathroom floor, the chill cooling my heated flesh. Squinting my eyes at the door, Kohl is gone. Maybe he wasn’t there, I think as I drift to sleep.
The smell of bacon and eggs wakes me from my fetal position on the hard tile. My stomach, once again, registering its protest. Rising, my hair is matted with vomit on one side, my mouth tastes of crap and I’m sure my breath is rancid. Kohl once again appears in the room.
“Come on, Tennie Girl, you need to eat,” he encourages reaching for me.
“No, don’t touch me. I’m nasty,” I say finally noticing my clothing or my lack of clothing. “Shit, Kohl. I’m not dressed. Go. I’ll take a shower and be out in a bit.”
Once he’s gone, I ease myself off the floor and stand in the hot stream of the shower. Washing away the vestiges of the night before. Feeling somewhat refreshed, I finish, wrapping my hair in a towel and putting on my robe hanging on the back of the door.
The smell of coffee lures me from the confines of this safe room where I don’t have to face the fact that I may have thrown myself at my best friend and was rejected. It’s time to face the music, I think opening the door, seeing Kohl holding the red potion bottle in his hand.
Raising his twinkling eyes to me he asks, “Are you keeping a little genie in here? If I rub it, will a little half naked woman pop out?”
Grabbing the bottle, I move to the cup of coffee he has waiting for me, placing my everyday dose of two drops in the cup. “It’s a magic potion,” I state setting the bottle back on the desk next to the other bottle. Humming in pleasure when the warm liquid hits my battered throat.
“A magic potion?” he asks raising an eyebrow. “What do you mean it’s a magic potion?”
I explain the gypsy woman and the little shop. Giving him each detail about believing and how it supposed to work.
“You believe all that?” he asks, rocking back on his heels with his hands in his back pockets.
“I didn’t at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought ‘why the hell not’. Believing in magic couldn’t hurt. Dr. P says a simple belief in something can have a tremendous physical effect in restoring control over certain situations. Believing puts the power back in my hands. Since I started the potion I have become friends with you, became fit and lost some weight and I’m feeling more secure in my own skin. Whether the potion is actual magic or not, the effects are the same. My belief in it has changed my life, it has made feel beautiful, strong and determined.”
Clasping my face in his hands he peers into my eyes. His blue orbs beaming warmth into me, “You are irresistible, Ten. Your beauty is not all on the outside. There is so much more to you than an appealing face. You’re sweet, kind and off the charts smart. Your heart is the size of Texas and you love with all of it. You smile and make everyone smile with you. It’s always been there. But if that potion makes you feel everything I see, what I have seen from the beginning; you use all you want.”
Pulling from his grasp to stop the heat creeping along my skin, I have to know if last night was real or my overactive brain, “How long have you been here? Did you get in this morning?”
* * *
Kohl
My brain screams at me to lie. She doesn’t remember last night and I’m not certain I should tell her. Judging by the mortification on her face, she’s not ready for the truth, yet.
“Yes, I came in early this morning to bring you your Christmas present,” I lie.
Her shoulders relax, she takes a deep breath and smiles, “A present? You got me a present?”
“Of course,” I reply pulling the envelope from my back pocket and handing it
