Just after Marta lit her second cigarette- amasing herself by actually
lighting the cigarette while driving, she had her first bad experience while
smoking.
It was the light at Rector and Asylum. The light, which had taken on the
status of urban legend, went yellow as the car in front of her sped through.
She considered running it, but it was a quick change. Legend was that several
people had died of heart attacks waiting for the light to change. The truth
was that several people had been t-boned trying to run the damn light. Marta
had timed the light- it took a full two minutes to change.
As certain as taxes, and with no loopholes for the pampered and privileged.
Marta relaxed. So what ? She could drive down the road smoking her cigarette,
or she could sit her smoking her cigarette. Either way, she had plenty about
which to be happy.
A white Jetta pulled up in the next lane. She looked over as she drew on the
cigarette as saw a stunning young woman in her early twenties wearing dark
sunglasses which did nothing to hid the perfect roundness of her face. She
turned her head and smiled at Marta, then rolled down her window. Marta
thumbed the passenger side window.
“Can I help you ?”
“Well- this is going to sound desperate, but I’m dying for a cigarette. Is
there any chance that-”
Marta pulled a second pack out of the carton and dexterously tossed it across
the space between them.
The woman stripped the cellophane, extracted a cigarette, and lit it with a
speed which made Marta envious. She inhaled sharply and blew smoke out her
open window. She then made to toss the cigarettes back, but Marta shook her
head.
“Please, keep them. I have plenty more.”
“Thanks,” the woman said, inhaling again and then treating Marta to a very
pleasant nose exhale. “My name is Dana. I owe you one.”
“Marta. Glad I could help a fellow smoker. Anytime.”
They talked until the light changed- and smoked.
Lauri, Lisa, and Comfort walked into the house, all three holding the
cigarettes they had just lit. Comfort was so excited. She’d always resented
the fact that Lisa and Lauri could smoke at home, whenever they wanted to. And
it was trying, always going to their houses, imposing on their parents, and
never being able to reciprocate. But that was all going to change.
She shook snow from her hair. It had started to flurry as they’d left the
school and by the time they’d reached the house it was nearly blizzard
conditions. The girls walked into the living room and there was Mom, sitting
on the couch, legs curled underneath her, smoking a cigarette and reading the
unofficial biography of David Duchovny.
“I thought I was going to teach you how to smoke, Mom !”
“I decided to get an head start. What to you girls want for dinner ?”
Comfort looked at her mom. “It’s like 4:30.”
“I know, but with the snow- well, if we don’t order something soon, you’ll
have to eat my cooking, and we don’t want that, do we ?”
They talked about it for a few minutes and then decided on Indian food. Marta
enjoyed the casual conversation and the opportunity to watch the girls smoke.
She carefully watched the way the girls held their cigarettes, far enough up
on the filter to allow them to be smoked easily but low enough that the
cigarettes looked long and sleek in their youthful hands. They held the
cigarettes down by their waists, wrists angled upwards, the fingers holding
also angled but curved.
Lisa seemed to like holding her cigarette up high, elbow bent fully. She also
had a certain way of lifting her chin to exhale. It was very sexy. In fact, it
was quite easy to forget that she was only seventeen.
And Comfort. She had taken to smoking in a very adult way. Again, she was
reminded of Regina, not a teenaged girl.
They headed for the den to study, and for the next several hours Marta found
any number of excuses to intrude so that she could watch them smoke.
They understood, and no one minded.
Marta was surprised to see the girls up when she went downstairs. She was
mildly embarrassed to be walking around in a robe, but the girls were in
various pairs of Comfort’s pajamas.
They’d gotten snowed in. School was closed today and they looked happy about
it. They were sitting on the floor in front of the television, smoking and
watching Comfort’s favourite movie, Highlander. They were laughing and
talking, waving their cigarettes around casually and trimming ash into a
common ashtray. It was fun to watch.
“Everyone want coffee ?”
They nodded.
“Wait `til you have a cigarette with your coffee, Mom. There’s nothing quite
like it.”
“I’ll start the coffee before I take my shower.”
“You’re not going to work, are you Marta ?” Lisa asked. Marta had insisted
that the three of them should be on a first name basis.
Regina and Vivian both lived a good forty-five minute drive to work, but Nick
could walk there. The thought of having him alone- yes, she was definitely
going, snow or no snow.
“I have to,” she lied. “It’s not that far, and I’m sure the main roads are
passable.” That wasn’t what she’d heard on the radio, but the BMW would handle
the weather fine.
“Boy, you really must have it bad for that Nick guy,” Lisa said, and then
winked at Marta devilishly.
“What are you girls going to do ?”
“There’s a Playgirl pay per view on in half an hour. We were going to sit
around, smoke, and get horny,’ Comfort said.
“I’m going to regret adding you to my American Express yet,” Marta said, but
with a smile.
The BMW didn’t handle the snow as well as Marta had hoped. A few dozen metres
short of the stoplight at Rector and Asylum, Marta let her attention drift to
her cigarette, and the BMW simply slid off the side of the road. No one else
was out on the roads, except a plow which had gone ponderously by her in the
other lane a few moments earlier.
She tried to get out of the spot she was in by rocking the car back and forth
between first and reverse, but it wouldn’t quite give.
She looked in the rearview and there was no one at first. But then she saw a
white Jetta with Maine plates working its way slowly up the road. As it got
closer, emerging from the still-falling snow, she saw the woman at the wheel.
Cigarette in her left hand, sunglasses even in this weather. Unbelievable, but
it was Dana. She came to a stop about ten metres behind Marta and got out of
car.
“Looks like you could use some help,” Dana said, looking down into the open
window. She exhaled and her smoke drifting into the car. “I’ll push you out.”
She paused, reached into her pocket, and pulled out a business card.
Dana Drackow, Massage Therapist.
“Give me a call sometime.”
Marta took the business card, passed her own back out the window.
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Just hope this works,” Dana said, and went back to her car.
She drove up behind Marta slowly, until their bumpers were actually touching.
Marta shifted into neutral, letting Dana push her forward. Once she was moving
she looked up, saw the light was green, and shifted into first.
Dana followed her all the way to the office and then drove on. According to
her card, her office was just a mile or so down the road. Marta wondered if
maybe her generosity hadn’t allowed her to make a new friend. Then her
thoughts turned to Nick and she went inside.
The place was empty. She was the only one there- besides Nick. His office
door was closed, but she could hear him pecking away on his keyboard.
She went over to her desk and immediately took her cigarettes and lighter
from her purse. She set them down casually on the desk where Nick would have
to see them. At least that was what she hoped. She then booted her G3 and went
to work on some ad copy that really did need to get to the California office.
Technically, of course, she could have done the work at home, but it was
better to get a second opinion, even about things like this which were in the
end her decision alone.
Time went by. Half an hour. Forty minutes.
God, she was dying for a cigarette.
That was a new sensation. New and unexpected, but somehow it was also
welcome. She was actually considering going outside by herself to smoke when
the door to Nick’s office swung open. She turned her head just in time to see
Nick scratching himself. She quickly turned away, smiling. It was cute
somehow, him doing something so utterly human.
“I didn’t think anyone else would show up today. What are you doing here,
Marta ?”
“I wanted to get this copy out today and I figured since you’d be here, I’d
run it by you.”
“You could have emailed it-”
“Phone is down at home,” Marta said. It was a double lie. The phone was
working-she’d just got done talking to Comfort- and she had a cable modem. But
he didn’t know that.
He was walking towards the door.
“Let me just smoke a cigarette first and-”
He stopped walking.
She followed his eyes to the pack of cigarettes so prominently displayed on
her desk.
“Mind if I join you ?” Marta asked.
“I didn’t know you smoked.”
“I just started yesterday,” Marta said cheerily, grabbing her coat.
He obviously didn’t know what to say. They walked outside in silence. The
wind was blowing hard, throwing snow everywhere, but the door was flanked by a
glass wall on either side. They stood in this well and provided a shield for
one another as they lit their cigarettes.
He smoked Marlboro Medium 100s, she noticed. She doubted that cork filter
would look good in her hand, but it was fine in his.
“If you don’t mind me asking- well, I’m very curious. You just started
smoking yesterday ?”
“Well,” Marta said, starting to tell the story she’d spent most of the last
twelve hours rehearsing, “I just found out that Comfort’s been smoking. I
could have gone ballistic, you know, but instead, I sat down and asked her to
explain to me why she’d picked up the habit.”
She paused, looked Nick in the eyes, and drew on her cigarette as deeply as
she could.
The spark in his eyes told her she’d made the right choice.
“And she said that the only way to know was to try it, right ?”
“Exactly. So I did. And I liked it. A lot. I decided that I’d start smoking,
too. I know that’s not exactly smart parenting, but-”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” he said with a wry smile. Then he reached out
and gently touched her free hand with his. “I think that’s very smart, Marta.”
“So here we are, smoking together.”
“I’m glad,” he said.
“Really ?” Marta asked, as if she didn’t know that. Suddenly all the years,
all the unrequited chemistry between them seemed to be boiling in her veins.
“I- oh shit. I’m a real bull in a china shoppe sometimes. Here goes. I’ve
always been attracted to you. Since the day you walked in the door.”
“I thought you were attracted to Vivian and Regina.”
He pulled on his cigarette, held the smoke, exhaled. Marta followed suit,
holding the cigarette up high as she exhaled.
“It’s just harmless flirtation. I am allowed, aren’t I ?”
“You just like them because you like watching them smoke.”
His infectious smile grew.
“I guess both of us can be blunt.”
“You were telling me why you’re glad I’m smoking,” Marta prodded, following
up with an inhale and nose exhale.
“You are so beautiful,” he said. There was nothing in the way of a come on in
the statement. He meant it.
“I have a rule. I only date women who smoke.”
“Why ?” Marta asked, feeling as though she was rushing down a long tunnel
that she had been staring unmoving into for years. She trimmed, drew again,
nose exhaled.
He appreciated it, and she found herself almost loving him for it.
“I dated the same girl for three years in college. We graduated together, got
jobs here together, started talking about buying an house. Six months out of
University, I asked her to marry me. She said yes.”
“Gloria, right ?”
“You’ve heard this one ?” he asked, inhaling. He lifted his head to exhale,
showing off his strong neck.
“Bits and pieces.”
“Well, the day I asked her to marry me she told me she was quitting smoking.
Said that the day she started- when she was thirteen, mind you- she promised
herself that when she became a responsible adult- had a real job, got engaged
and all the rest, she was going to quit smoking. Said real adults gave up
their childish habits. I was crushed. I think you know that I enjoy watching a
beautiful woman smoke. I hear Vivian and Regina talking about it. Guess I
don’t hide it well.”
Marta watched his eyes bulge as she inhaled.
“No, you don’t,” she spoke through her exhale. “But I think it’s cute.”
“She tried to get me to quit. We started fighting about that, and then
fighting about the plans for the wedding and the house we wanted to buy, and
pretty soon, all we did was fight. We broke up about six weeks later. And the
ironic part is that she was so upset about the breakup that she started
smoking again.”
Marta finished the cigarette and lit another.
“Why didn’t you get back together ?”
He paused to light his own cigarette.
“It was too late. You know how it is. You fight, you say things you can’t
take back. She’s a republican. I’m a democrat. She’s a tightwad, I’m a
wastrel. It got tired. But I made myself a promise then and there. No more
dating unless it was with a woman who smoke.”
“It really does turn you on, doesn’t it ?”
“That’s part of it. But a big part. I’ll tell you this. I’m turned on right
now. Vivian and Regina are going to have to find some other eligible bachelour
to smoke with.”
“Is that your way of asking for a date ?” Marta said with a laugh.
She drew on her cigarette, combined a mouth and nose exhale.
“Actually, I was just going to kiss you right here.”
“Oh, were you ?” Marta asked, smoke trailing from her mouth.
He answered her without speaking.
The kiss was everything Marta had hoped.
Comfort met her mother at the door. It was after one, but she was still in
her pajamas. She was holding a cigarette in one hand and a mug of hot cider in
the other.
Marta drew on her cigarette and the took the cider.
“Thanks, honey. How are you girls doing ?”
Comfort smiled and pushed smoke through her nose.
“Great. We’re playing scrabble and watching soaps.”
“Cool. Can your old mom join you ?”
“Sure,” Comfort answered, with a cheeriness she doubted would have been there
twenty fours ago. “But first, you’d better go upstairs and fix your clothes.”
“What do you mean ?” Marta asked.
“Your shirt’s on inside out, Mom.”
They shared a good laugh- and then Marta darted up the stairs.
Comfort watched her go, shaking her head as she blew smoke into the hallway.
Hopefully that bowleggedness would go away.