Cherry on Top, page 9
It wasn’t her clothes. They were nice, of course. Black shorts with several pockets and a purple Henley with a lightweight black down vest. The hikers were definitely cool, their purple accents matching Cherry’s shirt, something she was sure Cherry did on purpose because when it came to fashion, Ellis had realized that Cherry knew what she was doing. The socks that were bunched at the tops of the hikers just left lots of leg to look at. And Cherry wasn’t a typical redhead. She wasn’t pale—she was almost olive skinned. Her legs were shapely—it was clear she either walked or ran a lot, or used to. And her ass—
“Doing okay?” Cherry asked, her voice cutting into Ellis’s thoughts, thank God.
“I am. You?”
“Great.” And she sounded it. Like she really was great. Her glance back to Ellis was heated, and she seemed to take a moment to find some words. At least, that’s what it looked like to Ellis, like she was deciding what to say. She finally asked, “How’s your sister doing?”
Ellis inhaled deeply, something she tended to do before talking about Michaela. “She’s good. I mean, as good as she could be, right?”
“You said it was a car accident?” Cherry’s steps slowed as she navigated her way along a rocky section of the bank of the stream. She glanced back quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It’s none of my business.”
And something about that, something about the offer to not talk about it made Ellis feel the opposite. She wanted to talk about it, and that was rare. “I don’t mind,” she said and was surprised to realize she meant it. “Michaela struggled her whole life. Well, not her whole life. We actually had a pretty great childhood. But from the time she was a teenager on, she had lots of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Her looks. Her weight. Body image, though at the time, I don’t think any of us really understood.”
“Ugh. That’s so hard.”
“It is.” Ellis did a hop-jump over a large protruding tree root. “Society is rough on women. It sets unattainable goals for us, then tells us we’re failures if we don’t reach them. Magazines, movies, models, television. And don’t get me started on social media and how that skews our perception of ourselves. Yikes.”
Cherry was quiet in front of her, so she assumed that meant she should continue.
“Anyway. Mikey struggled. Sometimes, she was happy, but mostly, she wasn’t. Her weight went up and down. She got really thin. Then she’d gain weight.” She paused as her brain tossed her a handful of images of her sister throughout their life, her body changing, her smile staying the same, her eyes always a little sad. Her voice went soft. “I always just thought she was beautiful.”
“I’m sure she was,” Cherry said, equally as quiet.
“Anyway, one day, my dad got a call that there’d been a car accident, that Mikey had hit a tree head-on.”
“God.”
“Yeah. Turns out they discovered in their investigation that she’d made no attempt to stop. There were no skid marks, nothing to indicate that she’d tried to steer away or hit the brakes.” She cleared her throat and gave herself a moment for the emotion to settle before she allowed a bitter chuckle. “Clearly, she didn’t count on the airbag.”
“Ellis, I’m so sorry. That had to be so rough on you and your dad.”
“I think it broke him,” she said honestly and matter-of-factly. Cherry grimaced over her shoulder. “No, I do. He died of a heart attack, but I really think his heart was broken because of his daughter.”
“Oh, Ellis,” Cherry whispered.
“After he died, I went through the whole house and Michaela’s apartment, had to get rid of things, decide what I wanted to keep. I found so much crap in Michaela’s room and on her phone about dieting and the accounts she followed on Instagram and Snapchat and Tumblr were just…” She shook her head, still bothered by it all. “All these beautiful women wanting nothing more than to change everything about themselves.” She sighed loudly. “The filters. The fad diets. The makeup. Telling her she should be or act or look a certain way, and most of the time, it was completely unrealistic. She never, ever looked in the mirror and saw what I did, how beautiful she was as a person. She never saw what she was. She only saw what she wasn’t. It all just made me so sad.”
“I can imagine.”
“So.” Ellis gave herself a mental shake. “You can imagine how much I’m not on social media and hate pretty much everything about it.” She laughed and held up a hand, even though Cherry, walking in front of her, couldn’t see it. “I know, I know, it makes me seem ancient, but I can’t stand the deception online. There’s so much of it.”
She thought she saw Cherry nod but couldn’t be sure.
“Anyway. Enough about that. How about this walk?” She frowned, annoyed at herself now for getting all preachy about things. “This place is beautiful.”
Cherry stopped at a somewhat clear spot along the bank of the stream and seemed to just stare into the water.
“You okay?” Ellis asked as she sidled up next to her. She put a hand on her upper arm tentatively. “Listen, I didn’t mean to get all judgy and weird just then. I think…” A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “I think I maybe have some unresolved issues around what happened.” When Cherry looked at her, she made a face, and Cherry’s surprisingly serious expression softened.
“It would only make sense if you did,” Cherry said.
“Yeah.” They stood quietly for a moment, just listening to the rush of water and the singing of birds overhead. “There’s something about nature, isn’t there?” Her voice was hushed. She didn’t want to disturb the incredible sounds around them. “I feel like it can restore your faith in”—she shrugged—“life. Goodness. Show you that things you might think are huge are really just small drops in a bucket larger than you can possibly imagine.”
“That’s beautiful,” Cherry said. “I love that.”
Another half shrug and then Ellis looked down at their feet. “How are the new shoes?”
Slowly nodding, Cherry tipped her foot in different directions, held it at different angles. “Really, really great. Maybe a little hot, but I think they’re waterproof, so that’s probably why.”
“Yeah? You should check and see.” Ellis indicated the stream with her chin and grinned.
Cherry’s smile grew, and something about seeing it after what felt like a long time of seriousness gave Ellis a sense of relief. Which she didn’t quite understand. “I think I should,” Cherry said, then reached out her hand. Ellis took it, the warm softness of Cherry’s skin shooting a jolt straight to Ellis’s center.
She swallowed hard.
Cherry stepped over a rock, then another, and set her foot directly into the water. She stayed shallow, as the boots were mid-cut, and she likely didn’t want to finish the hike in wet socks.
“And?” Ellis asked.
Cherry tipped her head one way, then the other, as if deciding on her answer. Finally, she said, “Well, my foot is cold, but not wet. Very cold, in fact.”
Her hand still in Cherry’s, Ellis squatted down and stuck her hand in the stream…and yanked it right back out again. “Holy shit, that’s freezing.” She stood back up and tugged Cherry by the hand. “Come on. Out.”
“Already?” Cherry teased. “How come?”
“Because if you fall in, I’m not jumping in to rescue you. Sorry. Too fucking cold.”
“Fine. I see how it is.” Cherry stepped back over the rocks, and her foot slipped. At least that’s what Ellis thought happened because in the next second, Cherry was in her arms, Ellis having kept her from falling on her ass. When Cherry met her gaze, their noses were mere millimeters apart. “Oh. Hey.”
“Hi,” Ellis whispered, and she kissed her. Hard.
Cherry kissed her back without hesitation, and Ellis marveled at that. No uncertainty. No tentativeness. Just lips and tongue and hands and…
The loud snapping of a twig jerked them apart, and they turned their heads in tandem to see another couple—a man and a woman—walking by, on the trail rather than the bank of the stream, but clearly looking their way. Cherry waved at them, said hi, and asked them how they were doing.
“Not as well as you two,” the guy said with a laugh and a thumbs-up. “Don’t mind us. We’re moving right along. As you were.”
Ellis watched in fascination as a line of red inched up Cherry’s neck and colored her face. But she was still smiling, and that made everything okay somehow. “So, PDA? Makes you blush?”
Cherry laughed and dropped her forehead to Ellis’s shoulder. “I’m a redhead. Everything makes me look like I’m blushing.”
“I disagree. You’re not a typical redhead, and this is the first time I’ve seen you blush. It’s really kind of adorable.” And it was. Cherry lifted her head again, and those deep brown eyes held so much in that moment—promise, sensuality, expectation—that Ellis felt herself go a little light-headed. She had to take a step back with one foot to keep herself from falling right the hell over at the impact. Her mouth went dry, and she needed a beat to compose herself.
“Everything okay?” Cherry asked with a cute little tilt of her head.
“Mm-hmm,” Ellis replied, then pecked her lips once before taking a subtle step back. Cherry gave her a look. Confusion? Uncertainty? Amusement? She wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she needed to put a little space between them, so she could breathe again. Because that was the issue, wasn’t it? Cherry literally stole her breath.
By unspoken agreement, they continued walking until they came to the cute little wooden bridge that crossed over the stream. They crossed it single file, Cherry still ahead. It turned the trail back on itself, so they were then heading the way they’d come.
Ellis forced herself to look around. To take in the trees and sunshine and nature itself. To inhale the scent of earth and sprouting flowers and spring. It was spring, and in Upstate New York, that was the marker for new beginnings, which wasn’t lost on Ellis, the irony. The parallel to her current life situation. Was Cherry a new beginning?
As if sensing her pensiveness, Cherry slowed a step or two, so they walked side by side on the narrow trail, and something about Cherry’s proximity seemed to calm things for Ellis. She couldn’t explain it, but it simultaneously calmed her and freaked her the hell out. Which shouldn’t have been possible, but totally was.
“I love this trail,” Cherry said, her voice almost reverent. And then she inhaled deeply through her nose and held her arms out to her sides. When she dropped them back down, she bumped Ellis with a shoulder. “You having an okay time?”
“I’m having a great time. Thanks for inviting me.” With a glance down, she asked, “How are the shoes holding up?”
“Amazing. Not a blister in sight.” She kicked up a heel, then almost fell, and Ellis caught her. Again.
“Wow, you’re really kind of a klutz, aren’t you?” she said with a genuine laugh, and Cherry joined in. Unless you’re just trying to get me to kiss you again…
“Maybe I just want you to kiss me again.”
And who was she to deny the request of a beautiful woman? She kissed her again, softly, taking her time, sinking in. Nobody interrupted them this time.
The remainder of the walk back to the parking lot was made in very comfortable silence, and they held hands as they went. Ellis laughed to herself about how it felt both schoolgirlish and perfect at the same time, Cherry’s warm, soft hand tucked snugly in hers. And when they finally reached Cherry’s car, which was first in the lot, they turned to face each other, and she actually toed the ground, moved some pebbles around with her shoe, and then looked off into the distance.
“This was really nice,” Cherry said, her voice quiet. “I’m so glad you came.”
“I mean, can’t have you breaking in new hiking shoes all by yourself. If I hadn’t been here, you’d probably still be lying in the woods somewhere.”
Cherry’s laugh was cute, and her dark eyes crinkled at the corners, even as she looked away.
“So…it’s the weekend,” she began. The idea of spending more time with Cherry had been brewing throughout the walk. “Are you busy the rest of the day?”
“I’ve got some stuff to do, but my evening is open.” Cherry leaned back against her car. “Wanna grab dinner?”
“Actually, I’d like to cook you dinner.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t realize you cooked. I thought you were all manager-y.”
“Listen, there’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Her voice had turned a bit flirty, and she knew it. Let it happen.
“Yet,” was Cherry’s equally flirty reply. Then she leaned forward and kissed Ellis’s mouth quickly. “Text me when, and what I can bring.” Then she turned and got into her car, and Ellis was left feeling a little bit windblown, kinda tousled by the speed at which the plans had been made. She stepped back as Cherry backed her car out and left, and she decided she kind of liked that. The whirlwind. It was invigorating and energizing, and she’d never really been around anybody like that.
A deep inhale through her nose, and she headed for her car. If she was going to cook Cherry dinner tonight, she needed supplies.
Chapter Ten
Cherry hadn’t taken enough photos in the woods. That fact was becoming clear as she sat with her phone and scrolled through the very limited selection. She did get a couple decent shots, both of the hiking shoes Peak had sent her and of the park itself. There was also one of Ellis that had very nearly taken her breath away. They’d been standing in a copse of trees, and the sun had to work hard to break through, individual rays pushing between leaves and branches, almost ethereal in their results. Ellis was standing near a big tree, her hand on its trunk, studying it, and Cherry remembered she’d been trying to ascertain which kind of tree it was. A ray of sunlight streaked across part of her face, leaving the rest shadowed, twinkling off her blond hair, highlighting the very light down on the side of her face near her ear, making her blue eyes sparkle a little extra. It was such a beautiful photo that she could hardly believe she’d taken it herself.
“Hey, bitch.” Shea sauntered in and plopped down next to her on her bed. “Adam’s cooking a late breakfast, so be nice and pretend to be hungry. And then tell him how good it was, even if it sucks, okay?” Before Cherry could answer, Shea leaned over to see what she was doing on her phone. “I am not ashamed to admit, that girl has me questioning my own sexuality.”
The joke tugged Cherry out of her sexy daydream, which she needed because she had work to do before her dinner date. “She’s ridiculously hot, isn’t she? God.”
“And things went well this morning?”
“The hikers were great. I’m about to edit some stuff together and give a little review.”
She could feel Shea’s eyes on her, and she didn’t mean to audibly swallow, but she did.
“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.” Shea turned her body so she was facing Cherry. “You told her about Cherry on Top, right? And about the fake girlfriend?”
Another hard swallow before she met Shea’s eyes. “I couldn’t do it.”
“What? Cherry. Come on. What are you doing?”
“No, you don’t understand. She told me the details of her sister’s accident.” She reiterated the things Ellis had told her, emphasizing the issues her sister had had with body image and all the social media criticism she’d professed. “She hates everything about social media and has no accounts of her own. She hates what it does to women. She thinks people like me set unattainable standards.”
Shea took a beat before saying gently, “I mean, she’s not wrong, is she?”
Cherry was sure her shock was clear on her face. “I’m not dangerous, Shea. I don’t make people want to drive their cars into trees. Jesus.”
Shea put a hand on her leg, which was probably meant as comfort, but felt more like placating instead. “No, no, I don’t mean that. Of course, you’re not dangerous. I think…” She seemed to struggle to find the right words. “I guess I just mean there’s a lot of truth to what Ellis said about social media.”
Cherry wanted to argue. She really did. But the truth was, she hadn’t thought about anything else since she’d left Ellis at the park, and she just didn’t want to anymore. At least for a while. She waved a hand and didn’t care if Shea saw it as agreement or dismissive. “It’s whatever.”
Shea stayed sitting next to her for several moments as she scrolled away from the shot of Ellis and back through photos of the hikers and the park and the trees and the stream. Finally, with a heavy sigh, Shea stood and left the room, and Cherry stopped focusing on her phone. Her gaze moved to the window, and she watched as the new leaves on the tree outside their building rustled in the gentle spring breeze. When she sighed and glanced at the doorway, Shea was there, leaning against the doorjamb, arms folded across her chest, but a sympathetic expression on her face.
“I really like her,” Cherry whispered, and she could hear the helplessness in her own voice.
Shea nodded as she smiled softly. “I can tell.”
“She’s cooking me dinner tonight.”
“Yeah? That’s pretty romantic.”
Cherry nodded. “She’ll hate me when she finds out.”
“You don’t know that.”
“How could she not, though? She blames people like me for what happened to her sister.” God, saying it out loud made it feel so much worse, and she hadn’t thought that was possible.
She expected Shea to come in and sit back down next to her, to talk her through, to make her feel better. But she did none of those things. Instead, she stayed where she was, and their gazes held across the room.
