This Lawless Love [wlw]

Chapter Ten: Claudia Antonik

It seems that 'indefinitely' may have been better off as 'forever'. Claudia had been gone for two weeks and while that may be a standard duration for business trips, Almenira felt every day of her absence was growing into eternity. She woke up everyday with nothing else to do but haul ass to school, hang out with Mei-Song for a couple of hours, return to a house too big for her alone, binge watch some mediocre show to pass time then repeat.

She didn't realize how big of a role Claudia played in her life but now that she was missing what she used to have, she recognized that she actually spent more time speaking with her neighbor than others probably would. Some weeks, she would only see the woman maybe three times a week and then stand around talking for at least 15 minutes but even those seemingly brief interactions were evidently a big part of Almenira's present life.

She missed her. Badly.

On the third day she spent wishing she could see the woman again, Almenira realized she didn't even have her number.

On the fifth day, the sun was glaring and as Almenira passed by the scenic property, she remembered that it had not rained for over a week. She hadn't seen anyone stop by to water Claudia's plants, something she was sure needed to happen since the woman was out there doing it herself almost everyday. Though it seemed unlike Claudia to forget about her plants, Almenira didn't want to go off of that notion and have the woman upset that they died.

Since then, Almenira has researched more about the variation of flowers and ferns Claudia tends to than she did researching for any of her classes. She watered the ones that needed to be watered every other day and used water cans on the ones that were too delicate to handle the spray from a hose.

Good thing she did too, now that week two approached Almenira felt proud of herself for taking the initiative. The gardens were as bright and proud as it was when Claudia left. She could see why the woman dedicated so much time to it. It was surprisingly relaxing.

"Hello!" Came a sudden holler from behind her. Almenira jolted in fright, similar to how Claudia did when she would approach her without warning. She had to stop doing that to her now that she knew how it felt.

She dropped the hose she was holding which caused it to whip around on the floor, sending streams of water everywhere.

"Shit!" Almenira yelped, jumping to catch the aggressive hose without getting assaulted too much by the flying jets of water. Whoever had yelled out came running up as well, grabbing at it the same time Almenira did which only caused them both to hesitate to allow the other to make the catch. When neither ended up moving, the hose continued to writhe around, further wetting Almenira and whoever else.

"I'm so sorry!" The stranger exclaimed as they lunged forward to take hold of the hose. Almenira only spared a glance in acknowledgment before she ran to the faucet at the side of the house to turn off the stream.

When she heard the hiss of running water die down, she walked back to the front where the loud stranger held the limp length of the hose awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it. I dropped it," Almenira huffed, out of breath after the brief struggle.

"and I scared you," the stranger laughed. Almenira wiped the rolling water droplets from her face before getting a better look at them.

She was a woman. A beautiful one, at that.

She had copper skin and a tall, lean physique popularly attributed to models. The woman looked like she was of middle eastern descent, and Almenira became curious as to what region. Her bone straight hair tickled her tailbone. It was silky. Very silky, and looked like a black, glistening stream.