The Upward Ripple

“What are you doing?” Cynthia whispered when he leaned in slowly.

“Showing you because words are clearly not my strength,” he whispered back.

She closed her eyes and he gently brushed his lips on hers. Cynthia had only two other kisses to compare Nate’s kiss to. A high school seven minutes in heaven encounter with some insignificant other and then the date turned monster and she could already tell that this was what a kiss was supposed to be. His lips were soft against hers and even when his tongue sought hers out, it was in the gentlest way. Her entire body was electrified by his kiss. She could not tell if he could tell by the time he pulled away.

“I do hope that clears things up for you, Cynthia Washington,” he said before he put on his helmet and restarted his bike.

All Cynthia could do was stand there and watch him riding away wondering if she had dreamt the entire encounter.

Chapter 6

Nate had been thinking of Cynthia’s lips ever since he got back to his hotel room. He thought about going back to her house, going back to explain himself but it is not like he could easily explain his actions to a woman he hardly knew. He wondered if he had rushed things a little too much. Maybe he should have waited before he asked her to move to New York. Waited a few more weeks before he kissed her. His only saving grace was the fact that she had not pulled away. Instead, she had kissed him back. Her lips had moved on his with such innocent passion that made him realize that his feelings were not unreciprocated or unappreciated.

He had half a mind to leave Colorado altogether. Maybe spend some time at the Blair house before he settled into the financial politics that was the running of his father’s business. However, a part of him could simply not leave that place. Not without knowing that Cynthia was going to go with him or not.

His mind was filled with strife. He could not seem to be able to make up his mind. He wanted to leave and stay all at the same time. The last time he felt that way was back when he decided to leave Colorado the first time and clearly, things had not turned out so well for him that time. His rash decision had cost him an opportunity he would never get again. The opportunity to say goodbye to his father. This time around, he was not so keen on making any rash decision. He wanted to make sure he gave the relationship a chance before he got out of dodge. This time around he was sure that there was no way he was going back to Colorado.

He did not know how long he had been pacing before he finally sat down. Everything that had happened in the last few days began playing in his mind like a movie reel. His move from Nevada. His recovery process…. A part of him was screaming that it had all been a mistake but another part of him was sure that to avoid Elise, he would have done anything including being a member of The Outlaws once again…

Fifteen Years Ago, …

Nate was still trying to wrap his mind around his mother’s death a month after she had passed away. It was not the easiest thing to do even though he had seen her slowly slipping away. For three years, it was battle after battle. She could not catch a break. First, it was the aggressive chemotherapy which made her feel sicker than ever and then after that it was the never-ending surgeries. It had been the hardest time of Nate’s life but after a year and a half, she looked like she would finally live. Hell, she was even on the way to remission. However, that relief only lasted a few months.

One Sunday afternoon as the Duncan family enjoyed lunch in the back yard, Nate noticed his mother suddenly get a distant look in her eyes. He wanted to alert his father. To say something, anything really that would call attention to his mother, but he seemed to have lost his voice. The next thing he knew, his mother was having a fit. It was the last time he ever saw his mother with her eyes open. The doctors said that there was nothing more they could do. That she was never in remission.

Nathaniel was beside himself. He begged the doctors for the best care, but all the specialists told him the same thing: the cancer had spread and all they could do was keep her comfortable. It was the hardest news Nathaniel had ever heard. The hardest news his son, Nate had ever had to live with. Nathaniel could not consider leaving his beloved wife, the love of his life in some hospital room. So, instead, he had one of the rooms of his home and a live-in nurse to see to his wife’s very need. If keeping her comfortable was all they could do, then he had to ensure that she felt comfortable in the one place he knew she felt the most comfortable. The house she had made a home in Colorado.

Nate had always had a bad feeling about the nurse, a young blonde woman who seemed a little too friendly with his father. The frequent hair toss, the hand on the shoulder, the little giggle that made Nate’s skin crawl. They were all classic flirtation signs. Nate knew that she was moving in on his father when he noticed that she was always a little too friendly. And that only got worse when Nate’s mother passed away. It had hardly been two months when Elise moved in on the older Nathaniel. It was one of the most ridiculous things Nate had ever witnessed and the fact that he could not change his father’s mind only made him more frustrated. It was not just the fact that he was moving on a little too soon after his wife died, it was also the fact that Elise seemed to take his father’s mind off the pain of losing his wife. Nathaniel Duncan was an old businessman whose wife and son had been his life for the longest time but losing his wife made him feel like he had lost a part of himself. A part that he could never get back and Nate knew that showing his disapproval of Elise was only going to drive a wedge between them. A bigger wedge than what had already been cultivated over the last few months of his mother’s illness.

The only thing Nate could do was leave. Staying at home having a front seat to the depraved relationship that was unfolding before his eyes only made him more and more resentful of his father.

How could he betray his wife like that? How could he move on so fast after her death? How could he not see that Elise was just another gold-digging wh*re?

He had too many questions running through his mind. That was the main reason he gave to himself in order to leave. He wanted to get as far away as he possibly could. An African safari would have been a great idea. So would an Asian expedition but he could not bear being so far from his father. It was ironic. He could not bear to be near him while at the same time, he could not stand being so far from him. He was not sure if he was thinking or not when he got himself a Harley from a local dealership. His love of two wheelers always made his mother sick with worry and because of that, he secretly rode dirt bikes without her knowledge. He had always wanted a powerful machine: A Harley Davidson, to be exact, because while the rest of his peers craved for sports cars and extreme sports, all he ever wanted was a bike with a sports car engine.