Looking over at her and seeing the contentment on her face as the warm, mid-day sun bathed us made it all feel so normal. If I hadn’t been wearing my cut, and she hadn’t had that purple scarf on a warm day we could’ve passed as just another tourist couple dotting the scenery with nothing but time and nowhere to go. When she glanced back at me I could tell that she was feeling it too. It was surprisingly nice to lose ourselves in mundanity.
“Teach me how to sign,” I said, but with my hands and not my mouth.
Sarah’s eyes went wide, then she paused for a moment realizing what I was trying to say and noiselessly laughed. She wouldn’t tell me what I actually said, but apparently I was pretty far off the mark.
“I’ve never seen you laugh before,” I said. It didn’t matter that it was at my expense I still enjoyed the look of that kind of unbridled joy in her face. Sarah immediately got self conscious and buttoned up her emotions. It was incredible how quickly she could turn all that off.
“Hey, I didn’t mean—” I wasn’t sure what I meant but fortunately I didn’t have to finish the sentence. She slowly signed a small sequence at me, then mouthed the words.
“Hello. My name is Sarah?” I asked, having no idea what each word meant. That didn’t bother me because I was becoming an expert at studying her lips.
Sarah nodded, a barely perceptible smile creased her lips. Then she motioned that I should try it.
I exhaled through my nose and gave it a shot. After several failed attempts she reached over and shaped my rough hands into the proper positions. Her smooth fingers were a warming balm on my calluses, and if anything it actually made it more difficult to learn the sequence. Part of me wondered if I were fucking up just to get her to touch me.
Finally finding a sense of focus I took off my heavy, metal rings and gave it an honest try.
Her smile deepened, then with a mischievous glint in her eyes she scribbled something down to show me. “Good. But your name isn’t Sarah.”
“Alright. Alright,” I chuckled, slicking my hair back and glancing around to see if any of the dozens of people in the area had caught that. The park we sat in wasn’t private by any means, but it seemed like everyone was lazily passing through. No one took any interest in a biker or a mute girl, and that was fine by us. “What’s the word for Wreck?”
Sarah thought about that for a minute. The puzzlement on her face made it obvious that she’d never considered that question before. Finally she gave an exaggerated shrug with upturned eyes, having no idea what to tell me.
“How ‘bout…” I paused, wondering if I should tell her. Ah, fuck it. What could it hurt? “How ‘bout Stewart?”
“Stuart?” She wrote, equal parts confusion and interest creased her brow.
“With a double-U, but yeah.” I brushed down my beard’s flyaways from the harbor breeze. “I’m a mutt and some part of me is Scottish.”
Sarah looked appreciative that I would share something like that with her, then a little guilty for some reason.
“It’s not that big a deal really.” I said trying to put her a little more at ease. “I just don’t go by it anymore. Once we get MC names that’s pretty much it. Fuck I don’t even know if I know what Yoga and Buck’s real names actually are.”
Sarah signed the word for my name then showed me how to do it. After I did, signed the whole sentence correctly she flashed me a small smile.
“It’s nice to meet you, Stewart,” She mouthed the words as she signed it, then stuck out her hand to shake.
“Yeah,” I agreed, taking her hand. Pausing, I ran my thumb gently along the back of her hand. My gaze drifted upwards to capture her eyes. The sun caught dark flecks in her irises that I hadn’t seen before glint, almost twinkle. God, this woman was fucking beautiful. “It is.”
Our lesson was interrupted by a family attempting some kind of picnic lunch with the checkered blanket, basket of food, and cooler, the whole nine yards. What might’ve been a cute idea originally was quickly turning into a disaster for the overburdened couple as their three screaming children became unruly, refusing to stay put. The baby cried inconsolably, the toddler screamed, throwing whatever he could get his hands on, and the preschool-aged girl ran to each passerby introducing herself, only to be yelled at by one of her fathers not to talk to strangers. While I could always enjoy watching a good human trainwreck, the cacophony of shrill wails, soothing baritone and angry scolds was too much for us. Sarah and I decided it was time to move on.
After a little walking Sarah slowed to a crawl by the entrance of the Maryland Science Museum. When I picked her up she’d told me that we could do whatever I wanted, but after food and a tour of the inner harbor area I was good. Never caring all that much about the science of things so I wouldn’t have spared this place a second glance but it was pretty apparent that Sarah was into it so who was I to deprive her?
I cocked my head toward the door with raised eyebrows asking her if she wanted to head in. She replied with a sheepish bite of her lip and hopeful eyes, but didn’t want to say yes for some reason.
It was enough to make me wonder what Patrick had told her about our arrangement. Were there rules she had to follow that I didn’t know about? If there were that shit was stopping right the fuck now.
“Hey, this isn’t going to work if we only do the shit I want to do. I’m not that cultured of a guy and I don’t know much about the area. So
