Animate Me

“Well, yeah, you’re always fun.”

She pushes my hair out of my eyes in a gentle way and smiles warmly.

As much as I know I shouldn’t say anything, being this close to her does something to me.

“Hey, would you mind if I practiced with you one more time? You know, to get ready for my date with Dani.”

“You want me to kiss you?” she asks, not sounding against the idea.

“I thought maybe this time I could try to kiss you. You know, learn to be more assertive.”

“Are you going all alpha-male on me?”

“Well, I thought I would try. But if you don’t want me to…”

“No, I’m committed to the cause here. We are sacrificing for the greater good. Go ahead and pretend I’m Dani. Pull me in your arms and kiss me, you fool.”

“Okay,” I bite my lip and try to figure out which angle I should work from. “Are you ready?”

“Don’t ask that. It’s not sexy to ask a woman if she’s ready. Just give her the look and if she gives the look back, go for it.”

I repeat that advice twice in my head so I won’t forget it. “Okay, the look.” I narrow my eyes at her.

She giggles. “You look pissed. Why don’t you take your glasses off?”

I pull my glasses off and carefully fold them, slipping them in my pocket.

“Wow, your eyes are amazing!” she exclaims. “We’re going to take you contact lens shopping soon.”

She loves my eyes. I’ll put up with sticking painful plastic discs in my eyes just to hear her swoon like that again.

This time I just look at her without trying to be cool or suave and I can feel the difference. I’m looking at her with my heart not just my eyes, and I think she sees it too.

Her eyes say yes back. She settles against the wall right next to the door and waits.

I lean down and move forward, leading with my lips as if they’re a missile slowly heading towards a target. When they land I remember how soft and warm she felt last time we kissed, and I relax into her and let my instincts take over.

She’s tentative, seemingly not wanting to take over, but lets me give my best effort. If I were being graded, I probably would’ve gotten a C plus, not stellar, but a far cry from my previous total failure.

When we part she looks up at me and smiles encouragingly. “Once, more,” she instructs, “but this time we’ll get your hands involved.”

She takes one of my hands and perches it on her shoulder, the other on her hip. “Okay, that’s good,” she affirms.

Wow. What a difference; I’m stu

Deep breath, I look in her eyes…they are sparkling and saying, oh yes, kiss me. I note the green light, and go.

This times when our lips touch the melting begins immediately. I don’t even think about it, the hand on her shoulder slides to her back and pulls her into my arms. The other hand winds across her hip to her lower back, just above her bottom. I press her even closer as our lips move together. When I feel her hand twist in my hair my tongue gets involved…very involved, and so does hers.

I’m kissing Brooke, and it’s so hot. This has to be at least a B plus. Hot damn.

I only pull apart when I worry that if I don’t pull my hips away I won’t be able to hide my growing secret. He’s that happy, the guy in my pants, and I’m not ready for Brooke to meet him yet.

I open my eyes to see that Brooke’s are still closed, and her lips flushed and swollen.

“Wow,” I whisper and she smiles lazily.

“Yeah, wow. You’re a fast learner.”

“Well, I have a great teacher.” I grin, trying to keep her attention focused above, so she doesn’t see what’s happening to my body below.

“Keep kissing that that, and no girl will be able to resist you.”

“Okay.” I nod my head. I desperately want to forget that in her mind this was intended for Dani, and she was just trying to help me.

She pulls the door open. “Thanks again for your help with the website. Can we do this again next week?”

“Sure,” I say as I step outside. “So, see you tomorrow afternoon.”

“See you,” she says softly, smiling.

I’m almost to the gate when she calls out to me.

“Hey Nathan, when you go to Starbucks, do you buy Dani a drink too?”

I should probably lie, but I just can’t. Not about this. It’s Brooke and my special thing…just ours.

I shake my head and push my hands in my pocket.

Her smile is big and bright. If I didn’t know better I would think that she was really happy about that.

“Just wondering,” she calls out, before buzzing the gate and waving her final goodbye.

Later, about a mile from my house, I drive by my local Starbucks and smile. It’s closed, but its sign’s still lit, glowing against the dark sky. That green and white circle is the bright light in my murky afternoons, my very own Brooke-beacon of hope. In my quest for Brooke, I have come to believe in its power as we move forward, one caramel macchiato at a time.

Animate Me / Chapter Seven / I am Clark Kent

“There’s nothing better than a little old-fashion Smurf Power!” ~ Hefty Smurfvi

Just past noon Joel sticks his head in my cube. “I think the Incredible Hulk is looking for you.”

I find my tall, well-built brother, Curtis in the lobby chatting up one of the producers, Dawn. His charm is irrefutable. Dawn is pretty serious, yet he has her giggling.

“Hey Nathan,” she says as I approach. “Look who I found.”

“I found you,” he corrects her. “And you can bet I’m going to come looking for you again.”

She blushes, looking down. “Okay, well it was nice meeting you Curtis.” She scurries off.

“Do you know I’ve seen at least a dozen cute girls since I’ve been here, dude. You should be hitting this stuff hard.”

“Thanks for the brotherly advice,” I say, trying not to smirk. “Hey, you still want to see my work before we have lunch?”

“That’s why I’m here,” he responds, nodding.

I lead him back to my cube and he starts looking at the drawings on my animation desk. “I still can’t figure out how you learned to draw like this. It’s not like we have a single artist in our family.”

I click on my computer screen. “Here, check out this pencil test of a scene I’ve been working on.”

A sequence comes on of Bucky chasing Bernie through a flea market and strange items like sombreros and suits of armor attach to them as they run.

“Where’s the color and why are they floating in space?” he asks, leaning into the screen.

“I’m working on the animation part. When I’m done, the character lines are digitized and the colorists digitally paint the animation. Then the backgrounds are created separately by a different set of artists, and the work is then layered together.”

“That sounds complicated.” He says, rubbing his chin.

“Yeah, and that’s not the half of it. There are sound effects, music, editing. Not to mention the writing, storyboarding and timing and voice recordings at the front end. These days most studios do most of it overseas, so I’m lucky I still get to do it this way.”

“All of that for a fucking cartoon,” he shakes his head in disbelief.

“Well, I could say the same for what you do—all that bullshit for some fucking money.”

“Don’t pop your cork, bro, I’m actually really impressed.” He pats me on the back. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

I decide to take him to Mo’s in Toluca Lake because the burgers are almost as big as his head. Big C still eats like he did when he played football in high school.

“So how’s it going with Beth?” he asks before taking a handful of fries.