Scarlett Gorman's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

The older man stayed at her booth through three more trays. He told her his name and asked questions while she chewed. He did not flinch when she burped into her napkin. When the servers cleared the last plate, Scarlett felt the press of food high in her chest and the trapped gas behind it. She set her hand on the top of her belly and pushed. Nothing came. She looked at the man across the booth and decided to test him before the night ended. She asked if he would come home with her and rub the air out of her belly. He stood up before she finished the sentence. He walked her along the river road to her own front porch. Her bungalow sat back from the path, red door under a low roof, two lamps already lit. She let him in. He did not look at the cabinet of portraits in the front room. He looked at her belly and at the kitchen behind her. She led him to the back porch where she kept a low couch and a wide table. She brought out a bowl of fruit and four tall bottles of soda and set them between them. Grapes, pears, sliced orange, a heap of berries. He pulled a small bottle from his coat and set it next to the soda. The label read gentle appetite aid. He told her it would keep her stomach soft so she could keep going. She uncorked it, sniffed, and drank half in one pull. The warmth spread under her ribs. The tightness loosened. She lay back on the couch with her belly bare between the crop top and shorts. He sat by her hip and put both hands flat on the curve. He rubbed in slow circles, up the side, across the top, down to the navel. She bit a pear. She drank from the first bottle in long swallows. The first burp came up easy and loud. He laughed and kept rubbing. She patted the side of her belly and grinned. She ate her way through the bowl. Grapes by the handful. Orange slices folded into her mouth. Two more bottles drained. The burps came in a steady run, each one longer than the last, and he praised every one. He pressed under her ribs when one stuck and it broke free against the ceiling. She laughed with her mouth full and reached for the fourth bottle. Her stomach did not tighten the way it did with the almost-keeper. It stayed loose under his hands. When the bowl was empty she lay flat and breathed. He kept one hand on her belly and asked if he could come back tomorrow. She said yes. She did not reach for the camera pendant on the shelf. She did not need the footage. She had found a man who stayed through the burps and asked to come back for more.