MOM

      After breakfast, Ethan went back into Faith's room and started to unpack his clothes to put them in her closet. Faith came into the room and Ethan did not look at her, she stood at the door for a while, watching him. He finally looked at her. 

      "Hey," he said staring back at what he was doing. 

     "Are...you still mad?" she asked, putting her hands behind her and walking up to the bed. 

       "What do you mean mad?" 

       "About the reason, I didn't show..." 

       "Faith, I have decided that we can't stay in the same room. I mean sleep here together." 

       "Why not? Ain't we acting anymore?" 

    He looked at her again. "We are two adults who are sexually attracted to each other, at least I am. I can hardly stay in this room with you without having wild thoughts." 

       "What?" 

      "Yes, Faith, I'm a man and I can't always put my libido at bay, you are an attractive woman and..."

       "Stop!" 

       "I don't want to put us both in an awkward position, that is why, to keep leading my mom on, my belongings would be here, but I'll sleep in my room at night and wake up early to come over here." 

       "I know this has nothing to do with what you just said. We have stayed in the same room before and you never felt..." 

       "That was before, Faith! That was before I got to know the kind of person you were and come to accept you." 

       "Wow," Faith said and moved towards her nightstand to keep her phone. 

       Ethan fought the urge to grab her, haul her against him and kiss her. He shot his eyes and shook his head. Faith faced him once she was beside her nightstand, they were so close that he perceived her scent and her hair creams. She didn't even know what she did to him, he was barely keeping himself from rushing up to her, grabbing her and tearing off those little light clothes on her body and make sweet, sweet love to her. 

      "You don't have to say that, I know you are a gentleman." 

       "Fuck gentility!" he said and strode over to her, hauled her against him and took her lips in a maniacal rage. Her lips were so soft that he wanted to devour them. 

     She was surprised at first, but surprise gave way to helplessness, then to passion, to fire. She kissed him back, holding him closer to her, standing on tiptoe and pressing herself against him. She wanted him as much as he wanted her. They devoured each other as the fire of desire burned in both of them intensely. 

      She kept letting out soft and low hums from her throat. The kiss became more furious and as the heat increased, he caught hold of her night robe and yanked it away from her body, leaving her with only her thigh-length nightwear, she fumbled with his button, and he helped her. Together, they yanked away from his shirt. He cupped her face with his hands while her hand went down to his belt. 

      A persistent knock came at the door, dragging them out of the cloud they have been wrapped in, then followed common sense and shame. They pulled away from each other quickly. He grabbed his shirt from the floor and stared at her with wide eyes as if he just realised that he had just eaten the forbidden fruit. 

       "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said and attempted to go close to her. The knock came again, more loudly. 

       "Ethan! Whatever are you doing there?!" his mother's voice rang out from behind the door. 

      Faith couldn't even talk all she did was pant heavily and stare at Ethan. He finally took a few steps back and broke his gaze away from hers.

      "I'm here mom!" He opened the door and went outside. 

     Faith inhaled and exhaled deeply and fell onto her bed. What just happened? 

      "I want to go shopping in town." 

      "I can drive you," Ethan offered. 

    His mom looked at his bare chest. "It seems you are very busy with your girlfriend, I wouldn't want to disrupt least it would be counted as animosity on my part. I insist," she added when she saw that he wanted to protest. 

      Nora picked enough foodstuff. She hardly adapt to foreign foods, so she needed a lot of American foods before going to Italy. She was so excited that their journey to Rome in Italy was finally coming to pass. She needed to meet with Faith and know about her whereabouts yesterday night, that text she sent to her doesn't measure to anything. 

      She picked spinach and was contemplating if she should put it in her cart or not when she saw an older woman whom she felt was familiar. On a closer look, she saw Mrs Floyd picking something from the racks. She quickly turned and backed her. She crumpled her face. What was she going to do? She started moving backwards without looking in front so that she won't see her. 

      Then she bumped into someone and her handbag fell she turned and bent immediately and peeped from the legs of the person she bumped into, Mrs Floyd was not there, she widened her eyes and looked again but she wasn't there, she looked behind, she wasn't there either, she heaved with relief and stood to face the person that had bumped into her. When she straightened up, she came face to face with Mrs Floyd. She gasped. 

      Mrs Floyd stared at her steadily, standing hands akimbo. "You?" 

Nora chuckled awkwardly. "Mrs Floyd! I didn't realize it was you I ran into. I'm sorry, mom," she said still chuckling. 

        "Why do we keep running into each other?" 

       Nora laughed. "I could ask that too." Another laughter. She saw that Mrs Floyd wasn't laughing nor smiling. "Oh, sorry, you're probably not in the mood." 

        "Stay away from me. The next thing you start screaming and accusing me of racism." Mrs Floyd pushed her trolley forward. 

    Nora turned and followed her. "Oh, mom, are you still mad at that? I was drunk and I become really cute when I do that." 

     Dolores sighed and continued walking. Nora followed her.  

       "Mom?" Nora called looking at her face. 

      Dolores halted. "It's Mrs Floyd," she warned. Nora smiled broadly at her, she scowled and slightly jerked her head back. "Did I say something funny or do I look amusing?" 

        "Oh, mother..."

        "It's Mrs Floyd!" 

       "Mother Mrs Floyd, I just realized where your son got all that handsomeness from," Nora said and demonstrated. "You are still beautiful, despite that you are...advanced in age and you are not even smiling. Who knows what you would look like when you smile." 

      Dolores tried to suppress the smile that was tugging at the corners of her lips. "Stop flattering me," she said waving her off. 

      "Flatter? Oh, my God! Have you not been looking at yourself in the mirror?" Dolores started moving again and Nora went after her, still talking. "I doubt you have because if you have seen yourself in the mirror, you would know that flatter is not an essence here." 

      Dolores stopped and picked up an item from the rack, a smug on her face. "Well, I will accept your showers of praise because you are not the only person saying that to me." She picked other canned foods. 

       "That's my girl!" Nora cheered. Dolores shot her a sharp look and she stopped talking. "That's my woman," she said as Dolores started to go away again. She followed her. 

    That was how Nora followed Dolores around the mall, calling her mom while Dolores kept saying. "It's Mrs Floyd!" A few minutes later, they were both laughing out of the mall. 

       "You are hilarious, Nora," Dolores said. 

        "I know right?" 

        "So, you will go to Rome next week?" 

        "No, I said the day after tomorrow." 

      "See you then," Mrs Floyd said and started going to her car. 

       "Mom?" 

       "It's Mrs Floyd! Whatever made me talk with you?" 

        "Because I'm impossible to ignore." 

        "Flatter yourself," Dolores said and opened the trunk of her car and started tossing in her goods.

       "Are you not famished Mo...Mrs Floyd, let's go to a close restaurant and have some breakfast."

       "I have been hungry, where is this restaurant?" 

      "Just follow my lead. Get into your car and follow mine. 

      "You would take me to a body spa once we are done eating!" Dolores called before she entered her car. 

      "Aye, ma!" Nora said and saluted and entered her car. 

      They zoomed off and the drive to the restaurant suddenly turned out to become a race. The two of them didn't want to be behind. It started when Mrs Floyd overtook Nora. Nora had gasped in her car. 

        "Why is she overtaking me? I'm the one showing her the way." Nora had stepped on her accelerator and had overtaken Mrs Floyd again, but Mrs Floyd won't hear of it, so she stepped on hers. 

      That was what they did until they had gone around the town and finally arrived at the restaurant. They ate a hearty breakfast and raced again to get to the spa.