Masters & Lovers Box Set Three

The Shadow of Obsession

Klempner - Twenty-Six Years Ago

Our final night. Tomorrow it’s back to the airport and the return home. We sit together in what passes for a tea-room in Helsinki, looking out of the window over the square. Mitch flips through a tourist guide.

I kiss the hollow of her collarbone where, around her neck, are the emeralds I gave her. “Thank you for wearing them.”

She turns those eyes on me, deep, deep green; lambent. “They're beautiful. Thank you for giving them to me.”

“Not as beautiful as you.”

She sucks at her lip then nods out to the snow-covered square. "It’s a lovely statue. It says here…" She holds up the tourist guide… "… that she’s called ‘The Mermaid’ but she looks like a woman to me."

“She has a lot of names. ‘Merenneito’, the Mermaid is what the artist called her. But she’s usually called ‘Havis Amanda’.”

She looks briefly at the guide again. “It says too, that students put a cap on her during some festival called ‘Vappu’. It must be quite a climb for them.”

I huff a laugh. “That’s not all they do. Vappu is the first of May; Labour Day here and a celebration. The local students take turns each year, college by college, to clean her down. They have trucks and cherry-pickers and God-knows-what to get up there. And for some reason, her breasts always seem to get more washing that the rest of her.”

And now she laughs too. “Some things never change.” Then her smile fades and her fingers touch mine. "Larry it's been amazing I've loved every minute of it. I feel I could spend the rest of my life doing this…"

… My heart pounds….

“… Just walking together, being together, sitting by the harbour… Thank you so much. I never dreamed anyone would do something like this for me.”

My throat tightens. “It doesn't have to stop, Mitch.”

She holds my hand in hers, stroking the back with a thumb. After a moment, she looks down. “Where did you get that? It looks nasty.” She traces over with a fingertip; a cold white scar against the tan on my hand. Several inches long. Ragged.

Where did I get it?

“No idea. I’ve always had it that I can remember… Probably a souvenir from my father.”

Her fingers tighten around mine.

“Mitch?”

She looks away again, slipping her hand away. “Give me time, Larry. I'm not ready.”

“But you're not saying no.”

“No, I'm not, but don't bulldoze me. It’s… not an easy thing you’re asking.”

I reach, reclaiming her hand. “I don’t understand why it’s so hard for you. I… Mitch, I think you know how I feel about you. I hope you feel something for me… don’t you?”

Her eyes flick to mine and away. She tries to pull away her hand but I tighten my fingers around hers. “Mitch?”

she says. “You

gnaws at me. “Yes, I

Don’t let it go…

in

Those eyes again, but…

What is it?

Fear?

Fear of me?

done to earn

of

cakes. In good but accented

a glass of wine,”

a glass of

waitress frowns and nods then trundles

is it? What is it you’re afraid of? You don’t think I

hasty, but then, “No, Larry. It’s not you. It’s me.” Her voice shudders. “Look, understand, when I

for

we both

*****

James

planning on giving that photo to Charlotte? The one of her

but I don’t think she’d be happy about Klempner in it. I did consider trimming him out, but that felt dishonest. Giving it to her seems a

have another look

photo from his wallet and, looking at it before passing it to me. “Her mother was

her daughter. Can’t say I can see anything of her father in her though…” The photo is a copy of the much older original, the colours faded with age, falsely tinted, but still, the

think? Do I

tough enough to handle it. However, why don’t you let me scan it and clean it up a bit? The colours are well out of true. If you’re going to give her

“Good idea.”

*****

for the comfort of friends and family around a warm fire. And with the three of us together, I

leg raised on a foot-stool, the heat of the flames eases

scent and nuances of amber and gold against the flickering light. A

both reading. He’s not a heavy reader and his book looks like

up from his

Suppressing a smile…

and I realise that all unconsciously, I have been ‘conducting the orchestra’ with a

sitting on the hearth is half-empty. Michael and I agreed that it would be better to have at least

her on the couch, he raises eyes and I

you reading,

up, raising her book, displaying the