“I think we should go down to my bedroom,” Ava said. “Will you be okay navigating the stairs?”
“I think so,” Noah croaked. Reluctantly, he let go of her.
It was a good thing she had warned him. Going down the tight spiral staircase was more challenging than going up. He took his time, with one hand grasping the steep bannister and the other hand wrapped around the central pole, especially during the portion when he seemed to be looking straight down six stories to a neighboring granite patio.
To Noah’s astonishment and relief, once they got into the bedroom and the French doors closed, Ava was as much the aggressor as he was. After getting rid of the decorative pillows and the cats, they quickly made short work of each other’s clothes and collapsed onto Ava’s bed.
As if regaining consciousness several minutes later, Noah suddenly became aware of the surroundings. The bedroom lights were on and the draperies for the French doors were fully open. Concerned that Ava would find the situation untenable, as it was her house and her neighbors, Noah pushed himself up on an elbow. Looking down at Ava, who smiled up at him, he thought he’d never seen anyone so beautiful and so sexy. “Should I get the lights?” he said, almost in a whisper. The last thing he wanted to do was compromise the atmosphere, but he didn’t want her to feel uncomfortable.
“Who cares about the lights,” Ava said. She reached up and pulled Noah down onto her.
Her strength and her passion, which seemed to mirror his own, impressed him greatly. Forget the lights, he thought, and allowed himself to be lost in the moment.
Almost an hour later, they rested in each other’s arms. After a few minutes Ava excused herself. “I’ll be right back,” she said. And then playfully added: “And don’t you move!” Without the slightest concern for her nakedness, she slid off the bed and disappeared into the master bath. She didn’t even close the door.
Noah felt delirious with pleasure, almost drunk. He looked around the room. It was like a dream, too perfect to be true. He had never had the pleasure of being with a woman who seemed so comfortable with her body. There was no way Leslie would have been willing to make love with the lights on, and during the few times they had had sex during the day, she immediately insisted on covering herself with the sheet the moment they were done. It wasn’t that Leslie didn’t have a good figure, because she did. Yet Leslie had always acted somewhat embarrassed about the whole process, the exact opposite of Ava. Vaguely, Noah wondered who was more typical, because as an adult, he’d not had that much experience. He’d had more experience as a teenager, but those episodes were over before they started.
Ava returned after a few moments just as naked as she was when she had left. Noah had half expected her to reappear in a robe or some other covering. Instead, she seemed to revel in her nudity. Noah couldn’t have been more pleased, as it made him more comfortable at having resisted the temptation to pull on his own clothes.
Jumping onto the bed, Ava proceeded to tickle Noah, further surprising him with how relaxed and natural she was. It was as if they had been intimate for some time rather experiencing their first episode. It helped that Noah was an easy target since he’d been exceptionally ticklish from as far back as he could remember.
When the tickling was over, to Noah’s relief, Ava sat up. “I hate to be a spoilsport,” she said, “but sex makes me ravenous. How about we try the elevator and go down to the kitchen for some munchies?”
A few moments later and still as naked as a jaybird, Noah found himself pressed up against Ava face-to-face in the smallest elevator he’d ever been in. They kissed again as they silently and effortlessly descended.
To Noah’s surprise they ended up on the ground floor instead of the kitchen floor. “I’m going to get us some terry robes from the guest apartment,” Ava explained. “Hold the elevator door open. I’ll be right back.”
Noah did as he was told. He couldn’t believe what had happened. In one unexpected evening he had a sense that the anxiety-producing, upcoming M&M Conference might possibly be under control, and, more important, he might have found a new love. He was hard put to decide which was more incredible. Could it be true, or was this all a dream? If it was, Noah didn’t want to wake up.
12
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12, 8:37 A.M.
“On to the next case,” Noah said into the microphone. “Appropriately enough, it is the fifth and last page of the handout.” There were a few titters from the audience reflecting their tenseness about what was coming. Noah had written out the key facts on each of the cases to be presented for the M&M and had provided them to everyone as they arrived.
Noah was back in the Fagan Amphitheater. This time he was alone in the pit, standing at the lectern, looking up at the tiered room whose upper reaches were lost in shadow. As expected, the room was full to overflowing, which had intimidated him at first, especially with all the big guns of the department, including Dr. Hernandez, Dr. Mason, and Dr. Cantor, filling the first and second rows. Ava was there, too, about ten rows back off to the left, dressed in her usual hospital garb concealing her trim, athletic body and a bouffant cap covering her striking hair. All the rest of the seats of the entire amphitheater were occupied as well. There were even people standing way up in the back a full story above, leaning on the railing. Everyone had come for this last case: the Bruce Vincent disaster.