The evening sped by and left Benjamin standing over Lisa on the grassy patch of riverbank along from the bridge as she slowly pulled her dress back over her shoulders.
“It’s colder than I thought,” she said, smiling.
“It’s not that bad,” he said. He hadn’t undressed.
“What’s the matter, Ben? You leapt up like I bit you,” Lisa’s voice was high.
“Nothing’s the matter I just wanted to stand. There is a bit of a wind coming in, huh.”
“It’s October now Ben, going to start getting cold,” she said.
Ben nodded with his hands in his pockets. He started to shift from one foot to another, like he was waiting in line.
“Am I keeping you from something, Benjamin Collins?” Lisa stood up.
“No, no, just you said you was cold, so…thought you wanted to go.”
Lisa stood in front of him with her arms folded and her head to one side. Lisa was a skinny girl, built like a bird, all delicate ribcage and thin limbs, not bony, just slight, but her hair curled and shook out long as it fell down her back and the way she carried it when she moved made it a part of her and she, her frame augmented by this mass of moving color, seemed more real, more substantial. Her hair was a mess from the sex.
“You were standing up before I even got my dress on,” she said.
“Don’t know,” said Ben. “Just felt wrong to just lie there just then.”
Ben wasn’t looking at Lisa any more, but she was staring at him, willing him to return her attention.
“We can go if you like,” said Lisa.
“Yeah, okay,” said Ben. He turned away from her and started walking and Lisa followed him through the bushes.
Ben reached the car before Lisa and when he looked back along the path and couldn’t see her he realized he had been walking fast. Six foot three inches tall, was Ben, and his normal stride would have outpaced Lisa on any day, and right now he was nervous. He stood by the car. He saw her hair through the leaves, then the print of her dress, and then the movement of her arms as she walked. She said nothing as she approached him.
“Sure you’re all right, Ben?” she said,
“Yep,” said Ben.
Lisa walked around to the left hand side of the car and opened the door with her keys.
“It’s open,” she said, and Ben gratefully pulled the handle on his side.
Lisa didn’t say anything until they were back in the town and a few blocks from Ben’s apartment building.
“I had a nice time,” said Lisa, looking across at him for a moment.
“Me too,” said Ben, but he kept staring through the windshield, and didn’t say anything else.
“It’s around here, isn’t it?” she said.
“Yeah, just past that tree,” said Ben, and he pointed.
Lisa stopped the car by the tree, heaved at the handbrake and turned to look at Ben, who was still staring straight ahead like a child about to be told off.
“Well Ben, I had a real nice time.”
“Yep,” said Ben.
“I can’t say you didn’t freak me out, cos you did, but hey. Them’s the breaks,” she said. Her elbow was on the steering wheel. She looked at him and she could tell he was itching to open the door.
“See you around,” she said, releasing him, and he popped the door and got out of the car.
Without waiting to see what he was doing she started the car and pulled away, accelerating past the speed limit in her frustration. Traffic was light in that neighborhood after midnight, so she kept on the gas, frowning.
A light turned red and she stopped, not wanting to. She shook her head, tapped the steering wheel and looked around the crossroads and sighed. The light turned green and she floored the accelerator. The tires protested for a second and then she was off, laughing, laughing. Laughing in the dark.
