Under Construction
an excerpt

“I don’t know what it is or why it’s happening with you,” he said. “But I’ve never felt such a strong attraction to a woman before. Since the day that you opened your apartment to me and let me use your phone, I’ve felt connected to you. I’ve felt an attraction from you as well but I didn’t… I didn’t want to act on it unless I was absolutely positive that you returned the same feelings.”

“And you think that a sketchbook full of drawings of you is the answer that you needed?” Mina asked, carefully.

“Yes,” Taylor smiled. “Either that or I should begin to consider a career in modeling.”

She laughed gently but when Taylor pressed his hand against her cheek gently, she felt her breath steal from her lungs and her pulse accelerate. He was looking down at her, his mouth turned into a curious smile, and his eyes searching hers.

She wasn’t sure what he was looking for but she was positive that the gold flecks in his eyes perfectly matched the ones that she’d drawn onto his portrait just a few days before. She was sure that her face fit perfectly inside of his hand, as if her bones had been grown just for his touch. Mina had no doubt in her mind that every freckle, every mole, every tiny little eyelash on Taylor’s beautiful face had already been once discovered by her graphite pencil. And Mina was definitely, positively, absolutely sure that when he kissed her, it would be better than she could have ever imagined it to be.

She was right. As the rain fell between them, soaking them to the bone, Taylor leaned in close to her and touched his lips to hers so softly, that at first, Mina thought she might have imagined it. Fearing that it was only the rain that had touched her lips and that he hadn’t actually kissed her at all, she reached for Taylor and pulled him close to her, holding handfuls of his wet shirt in her hands to steady her. She pressed her lips to his forcefully and for all of the strength that she exerted upon him, Taylor gave back with just as much resolve. With their bodies pressed close and their mouths yearning for the taste of each other, everything else suddenly ceased to exist - everything but the electricity that passed between them.

Thinking back on it later, Mina figured that she had imagined it, but she could have sworn that the fusion of their lips - the unadulterated voltage of their kiss - had brought the lightning from the sky. It had struck hardly ten feet away from where they stood, sparks leaping from the surface of the rain slicked roof. And later, when Mina and Taylor each returned to their respective apartments, both smiled because they knew that the static electricity that tingled in the tips of their fingers and on the skin of their lips had come from an uninhibited exchange of desire that had caused a power outage throughout the entire apartment building.