Chapter Text
JIM
Jackie’z Dance Hall.
ARCHIE
So formal.
JIM
Cállate. Make it quick, I need to cut like a million limes.
ARCHIE
But I’m booooored.
JIM
Not my problem. Lot’s of Calypso’s Birthday prep to do too. You could come help.
ARCHIE
Can’t today, gotta go work at the pet store later… Anyway, I can’t wait for the party! It’s going to be amazing!
JIM
Always is.
ARCHIE
I wonder if New Girl will come. She seemed to really hit it off with Ed, huh?
JIM
They were out on that pier for a loooong while.
ARCHIE
That would be so cute if they come to Calypso’s Birthday together! Oh hey, do you think Olu’s going to bring Zheng?
JIM
One way to find out.
(Beeeep. Beeeep. Beeeep.)
OLU
Hello?
ARCHIE
Hey, sweetie.
JIM
Hi, babe.
OLU
Oh no.
JIM
Oh yes. Have you decided?
OLU
I’m just…I’m not sure. If that kind of party is…like…her thing? She’s really smart.
ARCHIE
Even smart girls need to cut loose sometimes, Olu!
JIM
She’ll just be excited to hang out with you.
OLU
I guess…maybe…
ARCHIE
Good enough for me!
(Beeeep. Beeeep.)
ZHENG
Red Flag Theater. (Long pause.) Hello?
OLU
Uh…hi.
ZHENG
Olu? Is that you?
OLU
Yeah.
ARCHIE
Hi, Zheng!
ZHENG
Oh! Archie?
JIM
And Jim.
ZHENG
Wow…the whole gang! Well, this is…interesting. To what do I owe the pleasure?
ARCHIE
Well, you know about Calypso’s Birthday on Saturday?
ZHENG
Oh yeah, that’s the big party at the dance hall, right?
ARCHIE
Yeah! Sounds fun, right?
ZHENG
Seems like it could be.
ARCHIE
Right on. Well, Olu has something to ask you.
ZHENG
Oh?
OLU
Archie, stop…rushing me. Okay. Zheng. Would you…would you like to go to Calypso’s Birthday? With…me?
ZHENG
Olu! I’d love to!
OLU
Yeah?
ZHENG
Definitely! It’s a date.
ARCHIE
Awww!
ZHENG
Hold on (muffled) No, why would we serve soup in a movie theatre? Who does that? (normal volume) Sorry, I have to go. See you soon?
OLU
I’ll stop by tomorrow.
ZHENG
Good.
(Click)
OLU
Okay, I’m going to go lie down on the floor for a little while.
(Click)
JIM
High five.
ARCHIE
Right back atcha.
* * *
The lighthouse had been there as long as Ed could remember. A friendly presence, watching over the town like a neighbor with the porch light on. It was reliable in its intermittent glow, lighting up the sky like clockwork every thirty seconds. It had actually been a bit odd and unsettling, that couple of weeks the lighthouse had been dark. Ed hadn’t realized how comforting she found it, the strange little nightlight. Fitting that Stede would make a home there.
Just across a short stretch of water, the lighthouse looked close. Close enough to swim to, even. But, because it was situated on a peninsula, it actually took some time and effort to reach by land. Ed enjoyed the windy ride along the cliffs, then through forested parklands with glimpses of water peeking through the trees. The air was fresh and crisp, the salt smell heavy.
It had been years since Ed had been out here. She used to go on rides to places like this with the Inked Ladies, just for fun, to feel the wind in their hair. Et cetera et cetera. But it had been ages since they’d done something like that.
The trees receded, and then Ed crested a hill and the lighthouse appeared, a candy striped beacon across the dunes. Ed began to feel a little nervous as she slowed and pulled into the driveway, which was ridiculous, but there it was.
A strange sound joined the surf and the calls of seagulls. A high-pitched…yipping? Ed put her foot down and was surprised to see two small dogs, maybe puppies even, running towards her, little sandy, curly haired bundles of energy. And there, standing in the driveway, was Stede, lovely in teal, with wind-tousled hair and clearly a bit sunburned from her beach outing yesterday.
“Louis! Alma! Come back here!” she shouted.
“It’s okay,” said Ed, sitting sideways on Queen Anne and bending down with outstretched palm so the pups could smell her. They took turns trying to jump up onto her leg. Ed didn’t really consider herself an animal person, but she could make an exception. She tentatively picked up one of them, and it licked her face, making her giggle.
“That’s Louis,” said Stede. “And Alma” She gestured to the other, who was now nudging a beach ball around with her nose. “They're still puppies. And a bit resistant to training, I’m finding!”
Ed released the squirming pile of fur back down to the ground, then looked back up to Stede’s sunshine smile. “Adorable,” she said.
Stede flushed and nodded. “Yeah, they’re pretty cute! A bit of a hassle to travel with, especially on short notice, but I definitely couldn’t leave them.”
“Understandable. So, came out here in a hurry then?”
“Yeah…” Stede scrunched up her face and said, “Kind of a long story, though. Come in, Ed, I want to show you around!”
Ed was a little disappointed to not get any details on the eye-stabbing incident, but she decided to trust that she’d learn more soon enough. She parked Queen Anne and followed Stede up the walkway. The lighthouse was rising up from a cheerful yellow building with big windows and vines growing along the walls. Flowers in mauves and blues and lavenders lined the front of the house and the driveway.
“Do you live here?” asked Ed.
“Oh yes! It’s quite a lovely house, actually! I’ll give you the tour!”
Stede opened the door and held it open. With the dogs tagging along at her heels, Ed stepped into a cheerful space that fit Stede perfectly—cozy, comfortable, colorful. There was a small kitchen with a little table by the window, adorned by a flower in a vase. The kitchen led right into a living room with a couch and a chair and coffee table. The furniture was a bit worn and boring and beige, but there were lots of more interesting touches: a colorful crocheted blanket on the back of the couch, a pillow shaped like a seashell, tons of knickknacks on every surface, including a ship in a bottle and a sculpture of a mermaid. In a meta touch, there was a vibrant cubist painting of a lighthouse on the wall. Ed wondered what elements came with the house and which were Stede’s. In the corner of the living room was a large spiral staircase that Ed assumed led up into the lighthouse itself.
“Might as well start with the main event,” Stede said with an eyebrow wiggle.
The main event was, as Ed suspected, up that winding wooden staircase. The pups whined on the other side of the little gate at the bottom of the stairs while they ascended. It felt like they were climbing into the sky, and Ed’s thighs were burning by the time they reached the top. Instead of the wide open panorama she was expecting, the circular room was fairly dark, with shades drawn down from ceiling to floor. In the middle of the room was what looked like a huge glass egg, almost as tall as Ed, covered in ridges that created elaborate arced patterns. It was beautiful.
“Don’t touch,” Stede said, as if she could read Ed’s mind as she stepped towards the structure, hand itching to reach forward. “The oils from your hands could damage the Fresnel lens.”
“Sensitive, huh.”
“Yes. And very strong. I have to keep the shades drawn so it doesn’t concentrate the sunlight and burn down the wooden tower.”
“Wow! Beautiful and powerful, huh?”
“Yes, quite the combination,” said Stede with a smile and sideways glance that surprised Ed with its intensity. After a loaded pause that made Ed feel some kind of way, Stede cleared her throat and looked down, then began speaking again with exaggerated enthusiasm, moving about the space and pointing things out. “So a big part of my job is just opening the shades in the evening and closing them in the morning. Turning on the bulb and the rotating mechanism. It doesn’t run on a hand crank any more, at least. But there are a lot of things that can break, I’m learning. I need to keep an eye on the weather, turn on the fog horn if needed. Oh, that reminds me, I have to get in touch with Buttons; she says there’s some sort of weather event happening this weekend? She’s a little…kooky, but she does seem to know her stuff.”
Kooky was one word for it. Everyone knew the resident bird-lady, but Ed couldn’t say she quite understood what exactly her deal was. Honestly, it was kind of cool the way she seemed able to communicate with any winged creature. “Yeah, Buttons is a character.”
“She gave me her telephone number, but she never answers when I call, so I’m not sure what she’s using it for,” said Stede with an annoyed brow wrinkle. She pondered for a moment, hand on her hip. “Ah, well, I’ll just trust she’ll find me if it’s that important. Oh, but let’s open one shade so you can at least appreciate the view!”
Stede drew the shade, and Ed gasped. At the vast blue, the deep hue of the sky and the deeper shade of the water, meeting in a thin mysterious line out in the distance. The white capped waves crashing on the shore. A couple of sailboats, so small they may as well be toys. The seagulls soaring up here, right outside the window, as if she and Stede were also animals of the sky. “Fuck,” said Ed, like an idiot.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” She could feel Stede’s arm next to hers, the magnetic pull there, as if the tiny hairs were trying to reach out and touch.
But it was over too soon. Stede was saying, “Well, we better not burn the place down!” while pulling the shade, and then she was leading Ed back down the stairs, back to solid ground.
The dogs were acting as if they had been abandoned for months, jumping up despite Stede’s admonishments, all wagging tails and scrabbling paws. “They’re going to be mad we’re immediately leaving them again,” said Stede, and Ed realized the tour wasn’t over yet. Stede opened a door that Ed had assumed was a closet. “Now, I’ll take you to the heart of the operation.” Inside there were stairs heading downward. Stede ushered Ed through the door while wrangling the dogs, then followed her down into the basement, which was much more utilitarian than the rest of the house: unfinished walls, cold cement floor, a bare lightbulb illuminating the room, and a couple large, noisy appliances humming away in the center. “Here are the generators!” said Stede, gesturing at them proudly. She then looked around at the rest of the room with a bit of distaste. “This space needs some heavy refurbishing. I mean, aesthetically of course, but also the technology. Honestly, it's ridiculous we’re still relying on generators here, it's not like this is some remote outpost…”
And Stede launched into a long explanation of how the generators worked, the problems she had had with getting them running upon arrival, and the various fixes that needed to be implemented, but to be honest, Ed stopped paying attention. She considered herself fairly technically minded (did most of her own bike maintenance for example), but she was just too distracted by watching Stede—the excitement in her face and body, the broad gestures, the way her eyebrows leapt about and her face grew pinker and her cadence increased as she went on and on.
When she paused to take a breath, Ed said, “I’m fucking impressed that you figured all that out.”
“Oh…” said Stede, and then a war of expressions played out on her face, as if she weren’t sure which train of thought to follow to the next station. Finally, she sighed. “Well, honestly it took me longer than it should have. I was really so dead set on doing it all myself. I did ask for Olu’s help at the library to find the right books, and it got me most of the way there, but I was still stuck. But finally, she helped hook me up with Pete, who had done some maintenance out here in the past. I should have asked for help sooner.”
“Hey, I think it’s normal to want to figure things out on your own.” Ed took a step closer. She wanted to put a hand on Stede’s arm, but she wasn’t sure how Stede would respond to that.
“I suppose. I guess I just want to actually accomplish something. Do real work, not just get everything handed to me. Build a life for myself. And…I know it’s okay to ask for help. I do! But I guess I was worried people would realize what a fraud I am. That I might lose all this. And I definitely can’t go back. I won’t.”
She suddenly looked like she was holding back tears, and Ed couldn’t help it, she stepped into Stede’s space and put arms around her. Stede was stiff at first, the muscles tense beneath her soft blue blouse, but then she exhaled and Ed could feel the release as she brought her arms up behind Ed’s back. She smelled like lavender and the ocean.
“You’re not a fraud, you’re fucking brave.”
“Oh, that’s very kind.” Stede huffed out a short laugh. “This is so silly! I don’t know what’s gotten into me!”
Ed gave her one final squeeze, then pulled back. “It’s okay. Think you must still be pretty stressed about everything.” She missed the hug as soon as it was over. Didn’t really go around hugging people most of the time.
After they made their way upstairs, back to their enthusiastic welcoming committee, Stede offered to make tea. Ed didn’t really drink tea; she was more a sugar-sludge coffee and cigarettes type of girl, but she thought, “Why not?” and settled into the couch, where the two dogs quickly joined her, while Stede bustled around the kitchen. In a matter of minutes she appeared with a floral teapot, china cups on saucers, sugar cubes and a pitcher of cream, toasted English muffins, and a pot of orange marmalade. It was a lot more than just “tea,” but Ed wasn’t about to complain.
“Louis, Alma.” Stede gave the dogs a reproachful look, while they maintained complete waggly-tailed innocence. “I think I'm giving up on trying to keep them off the sofa,” she said. “Too much trouble.”
Louis nestled in on Ed’s lap as if he understood the words, and Ed scratched behind his ears while asking about the decorations. Apparently most of them were Stede’s—her friend Mary had managed to send out many of the things that Stede had been distraught about leaving behind. Ed tasted the tea, which had a mild floral quality to it. It was delicate and subtle, and Ed liked it, but she couldn’t help eyeing the additions Stede had placed on the tray. She added four sugar cubes while Stede settled on the couch and told Ed about the ship in the bottle. She had bought it from a shop as a child and looked at it every day, knowing someday she’d see a ship for real. And then when she had found the job listing in the newspaper for a lighthouse keeper, it was like it was meant to be! Ed listened and nodded and marvelled at Stede’s unabashed hope, at how she seemed able to forge a path to her destination out of sheer will. She tasted the doctored tea. Pretty good. She added three more cubes for good measure. She sipped it. Bang on. “Cream?” asked Stede, holding up the pitcher.
“Hell yeah,” said Ed.
With the cream, the tea had turned into something luscious and decadent. It warmed her insides and made her want to sink into the sofa and become one with it. When she took a bite of the English muffin spread with butter and marmalade, she couldn’t help but moan with delight. Fuck, that was good. “Big mistake, mate. I’m never leaving now.”
“Good?” Stede had a dimple that appeared when she looked especially pleased. Ed wanted to touch it, lightly.
“Fucking fantastic.” She pulled her legs up onto the couch and leaned closer to Stede. “What’s the real deal, though? I mean, like, you’re rich right? Why have you never been to the ocean before now?” At Ed’s shift in position, Louis jumped off Ed’s lap and trotted outside through a doggie door, followed by Alma. (Fine then. Their loss.)
“Well…” Stede chewed on her lip, considered. “I guess my family kept me on rather a tight reign. I wasn’t allowed to do anything by myself. I started pushing their boundaries a bit in high school. My best friend Mary and I played the old, ‘sleeping over at each others’ houses’ card and took the bus into the city. I still don’t know how we got caught, but we were both grounded for months after that. So we had to be quite a bit more careful. And my parents knew I wanted to travel, to see the ocean. They held it up as a reward. If I did exactly what they wanted, we’d go. But it never happened. I was always failing them.” Stede held her teacup tightly and looked out the window.
Ed didn’t quite know how to respond to that. ‘Cause she knew shitty parenting from her dad (now long-dead), and had a few scars to prove it, but she always knew where she fucking stood. None of this weird manipulation bullshit. So she just gave Stede a gentle little nudge on the shoulder and said, “Well fuck them, glad you made it out. How’d you manage it, anyway?”
Stede perked up a bit at the question. “Can you keep a secret?”
“‘Course.”
“They were keeping me under lock and key until they could marry me to produce an heir. I managed to delay that for a long time, until I was quite past the normal marrying age, but about six months ago, they arranged my marriage to Nigel Badminton.” Stede visibly shuddered. “There was no romantic interest between us, but I guess my father’s money was interesting enough to overcome the disgust he apparently had for me. Which was mutual. Anyway…”
Stede pulled her feet up on the couch too so they were both cross legged, facing each other.
“Father had me work as a secretary in his office to fill an emergency vacancy. He didn’t really want me to be working like that, thought it was “unladylike,” but he had had a spate of people quit, can’t imagine why,” (with a delicious bitchy eye roll there) “and really needed the assistance. I guess he also figured the wedding was in the works, so there wasn’t too much left that I could do to ruin things at that point. Anyway, I had access to all the books and finances, so I took the opportunity to get ahold of some of my inheritance a little early in preparation for my departure. And maybe I threw some money to the NAACP and the Daughters of Bilitis as well, who’s to say?”
“Stede Bonnet,” Ed said with a smile creeping onto her face. “You’re a hardened criminal. And here I thought I had to hide some of the more unsavory parts of my background, but no.”
“We’re just two lawless reprobates, Ed.”
They grinned at each other for a moment, then Ed stretched in a way that she knew would highlight the knot of scar tissue on the left side of her belly, which had been hidden by her high-waisted swimsuit yesterday. “Wanna compare scars, then? Bet you’ve got some impressive ones.”
Unfortunately the whimsy flew out of the room at that, as Stede’s smile collapsed and was replaced by a flash of what seemed to be anger. “Who did that to you, Ed?”
Ed cursed herself for pushing this game too far. “Eh, just occupational hazard. I can blame fucking Jack for this one, though.”
“Who’s Jack?”
“Used to be a friend. Or something…” Ed twirled her hair and swallowed. Fucking stupid that she still got upset thinking about this. Fucking Jack didn’t deserve that brain space. “Anyway, she tipped off my location in Blind Man’s Cove to some thugs who had it in for me.”
“No! That’s terrible!”
“Yeah, well. I recovered fine. Could have been worse. The next time something similar happened…” Why was she talking about this? She needed a cigarette. She tapped one out and lit it, took a drag, and exhaled, immediately feeling a little sharper, less unmoored. “Fucking Jack. Anyway, Izzy tried to bail me out in unsafe conditions and wiped out. That’s why…” Ed shrugged and gestured to her leg.
Stede looked even paler than usual. “How awful.”
Ed had been so sure that Jack had turned over a new leaf. But she had been wrong. Too blinded by the physical relationship that felt like affection at the time? Or by her willingness to look past red flags and just see what she wanted? Who knows. Didn’t matter. Same result, either way. “My fault, though. Fool me once. Fool me twice. You know.”
“You said she was a friend, though. You can’t be responsible for everyone’s actions. You couldn’t have—”
“I could have done a lot of things, Stede.” Ed immediately worried that she had been too harsh, but Stede didn’t look put off. Was listening, attentive as ever. Ed tapped some ash into the adorable whale-shaped ashtray that Stede had surely put out just for her. “I mean…well, obviously she wasn’t really a friend. I learned from that. I’m a lot more careful now.”
“Trust no one.”
Ed started at that. But of course Stede would have noticed her tattoo; she had had it out on full display yesterday. It was still partially visible in her crop top at this moment. “Right.”
“Do you trust your friends I met yesterday?”
Ed didn’t have an immediate answer to that. “Dunno. Izzy’s basically built her whole personality around the idea of loyalty, but…I actually think it blinds her a bit, makes it harder for her to always make the right call. And her weird obsession with image…” It seemed to intensify by the day. But if Ed started talking about that, she’d complain for hours, which Stede didn't need to hear. “And Ivan and Fang… They’re solid. Don’t really have a reason not to trust them, I guess.” Except her own fucking broken barometer. She put out the cigarette.
Stede was looking at her intently. “I hope the people in your life earn your trust, Ed. You deserve that.”
Ed exhaled something like a laugh, even though there was nothing funny. “Don’t deserve much.”
Stede took her hand then and rubbed her thumb across the hills and valleys of her knuckles, soft and gentle. “You deserve everything, Ed.”
The kindness was so startling that Ed almost laughed again, but Stede was gazing at her, serious as a heart attack. Ed swallowed. Either this earnestness was genuine or Stede was a real smooth motherfucker. And Ed knew which reality she believed.
Stede’s eyes were soft. Her hand was warm. Ed wanted to be closer to her, so she leaned in, and Stede didn’t flinch, kept holding her hand, and it was going to happen, it was—
Bang bang bang bang
Bang bang bang
Ed leapt to her feet, and she found herself holding the knife she kept in a holster on her calf, looking for the source of the banging and shaking. “What the fuck is that?”
“Oh!” Stede was still sitting on the couch, looking at the knife with wide eyes. When the banging started again, she jumped, and then rolled her eyes, seeming properly pissed off. “I think that would be Pete.”
“Jesus.” Ed put her foot up on the arm of the couch to quickly sheathe the knife, feeling Stede’s gaze on the weapon the whole time. She locked eyes with Stede and winked.
Stede flushed. “Of course today she would be early. Sorry our tea was so rudely interrupted, Ed!” She stood up and smoothed down her slacks. “Might as well go say hi.”
They went outside to find both Lucius and Pete working on a large shed that was attached to the house. Lucius, in blue denim overalls, was up on a ladder, painting a huge green stripe on the wall. Pete had abandoned the hammer and was holding one drill in each hand, looking ready to go to battle while the pups scampered around her.
“This whole thing is lacking structural integrity,” said Pete with grave seriousness. “It’s a good thing we got here when we did. Need to run a tight ship, right Ed?”
“Uh, sure,” said Ed.
“Right,” said Stede. “Lucius, shouldn’t you wait until the repairs are done to get started on painting?”
“Beauty waits for no man. Or woman. A very wise person once said that to me.”
“What? Who…oh that does sound like me, doesn’t it. What was I talking about? Never mind, carry on.”
Lucius lifted a foot coquettishly and said to Ed, “Hope we weren’t interrupting anything in there?”
Ed folded her arms and glared at Lucius. “Tea,” she said.
“Okay! Sure, tea.” She nodded then went back to painting, but looked like she was biting her tongue.
“Well, this is all very exciting, but I actually haven’t finished giving Ed the tour.” Stede waved at Ed to follow her through the door into the shed.
“Stede, I don’t really know if you should be in there while we’re—” Pete was saying.
“It’s fine!”
Ed followed her into a large open space with sunlight streaming in through several windows. Ed turned in a circle to see everything: stacks of lumber, a big tool chest, a table saw, cans of epoxy, and various tools scattered about. In the center of the room, there were a couple of sawhorses holding up two large curved pieces of plywood that met together in a point, with rib-like pieces of wood connecting them in the middle. It was certainly early stages, but the shape of it was unmistakable.
“Is that a fucking boat, Stede? Are you building that?”
“Yes! I figured I’d like a boat, so why not?” Stede looked proud, but also a bit apprehensive as she watched Ed.
“That’s fucking amazing!” Ed walked around the boat-in-progress and ran her hand across its hull. It was smooth and warm from the sun coming in the windows. “Okay, you’ll have to take me out in this when it’s done.”
“Of course, Ed!”
Ed knew a lot could happen in the next few…months? Or however long it took to build a boat. But it felt good to pin down this moment in the future, tie herself to Stede somehow.
“How’d you even learn how to build boats?”
“Books of course.”
“Fuck, mate, that’s insane.”
“Well, I’ve always been fairly handy. Used to tag along with the maintenance workers at our house when I was a kid and learned a lot. Until my parents put a stop to that. But still, know my way around a tool box.” Stede smiled.
Ed was impressed, for sure, but she also found herself feeling…jealous maybe? Like here she was, bored out of her skull, miserable with the drudgery of it all, and what was she doing about it? Nothing. Unlike Stede, here, who decided to just chuck a hand grenade into her comfortable life and turn it all inside out, build something from nothing, and act like it’s just any other Tuesday.
Ed shook her head and let a soft laugh tumble out. “Stede, I’m blown away. It’s really hard to find someone doing something original out here. Thank you for showing me.”
Stede glowed at the compliment. “My pleasure! Honestly, since I’ve gotten the lighthouse working, it’s been a bit lonely out here. Pete and Lucius have been coming by a lot, and now they’re working on the building for me, which has been great. But uh…it’s been really lovely to have you here. Thank you.”
“Wish I had something interesting to do for you in return. Oh!” Ed had an idea. A fun idea. “Want to take a ride on the bike?”
Stede’s face lit up. “Wow! Sure!”
“I can even teach you to drive, if you want.”
“Oh, Ed!”
Ed took that as a yes.
* * *
Everything was a work in progress. Stede was a work in progress. It was clear with every step through the lighthouse, every little thing that she pointed out to Ed, how much she still needed to do.
Stede’s whole life, she had had everything handed to her. She was lucky, she knew. Lucky to have such a privileged upbringing. Her family’s money and social station and her white skin allowed her to have many fine things and afforded her a certain amount of comfort and security. But it was all empty, wasn’t it? She had earned none of it. And what was comfort and security, in the end? It wasn’t a life. It was just an illusion of a life, a sand castle that would topple and sink in the inevitable change of the tide.
It felt like the complaint of a silly little rich girl. But Stede couldn’t help it. All she wanted was to be a person. But she couldn’t do that in her former world. She was stuck partway there. Like a wooden doll. Or a half-formed lump of clay.
Now that she was free, she felt pulled in so many different directions at once. To the sea. To adventure. But most of all, she wanted to be seen and noticed for contributing something. For accomplishing something. For using her mind and her hands to build something real and solid. When she saw the ad in the classifieds, she knew she was meant to be here. The lighthouse called to her. There was the romance of it, sure, the quaint seaside town, the ocean breeze. But more importantly, she knew it was a place she could be useful. Put in an honest day’s work. Guide sailors through the storm so they could survive another day on the open ocean.
Stede hadn’t told Ed all of this, but she seemed to somehow understand. And, despite all of Stede’s shortcomings, she seemed to like Stede. Funny, that. And now, she was offering Stede the opportunity to ride Queen Anne, clearly a prized possession! How could Stede turn that down? She wouldn’t squander the opportunity.
Stede had known, intellectually, that getting a lesson on riding the motorcycle would probably require Ed to sit behind her. But she hadn’t realized what it would feel like to have Ed’s soft front pressed against her back, her arms wrapped snug around her middle, occasionally letting go to point something out, but always returning there, a place where no one had touched Stede, ever, in her memory. She tried to pay attention to all the explanations, but she kept getting distracted by the warm breath on her neck, the tattooed forearms, Ed’s thigh against her hip. And then she was being guided to bump up the kickstand, turn the key, then hit a button, which brought the shimmery purple bike to life beneath her.
“Okay, now pull the clutch.” Stede had no idea where that was, but Ed guided her to squeeze her left hand. “And push down with your left foot to get into first gear. Great! Now slooooowly let go of the clutch.”
The bike began to move forward. Stede walked her feet along the ground as it picked up speed.
“Okay, now lift up your feet.”
They were really moving now. It wasn’t so different from a bicycle, but Stede could feel the power of the vehicle beneath her.
“Now you can give it just a little juice…”
Ed’s hand upon Stede’s made such a jolt fly through her that she pulled way too hard on the throttle, feeling the bike accelerate wildly. The next thing she knew, they were off the road and into the bushes, bike halfway fallen over and branches scratching at Stede’s arms.
Ed! Stede turned to check on her, and was shocked to find Ed laughing uproariously. She helped Stede off the bike before righting it.
Stede spoke when she caught her breath. “Oh, thank god Ed, I was worried you’d be hurt!”
“Nah, mate, this is the most fun I’ve had in ages! Guess next time we need to get you doing some drills in a parking lot before we take you out on the road again. You’re a right firecracker.” Ed chuckled and began to pick branches off Stede’s shirt. “Oof, sorry about the shirt. Might be done for.”
Stede was smiling like a fool, the torn shirt already forgotten. Next time.