Hiding With Scarlet in the Ladies' Room

“Where can we go without being seen?” I ask. “We can’t lock any of the rooms around here.”

“There is an exception,” Scarlet says. She’s pointing at the bathroom just down the hall. It’s a female one. “Hurry, we need to move fast. I gave my guards the slip downstairs, and no doubt they’re trying to find me now.”

Scarlet checks the bathroom first. She heads inside, and a couple seconds later, pokes her head out, giving me the all clear. I head into the ladies room after her.

“Get into the stall,” she says, pointing at the last one out of the row.

I give her a questioning look, but pull open the door to the stall. Scarlet follows me in and locks the door. The space is a little cramped for two people to stand, and I realise that something’s off.

“There’s a gap beneath the stall doors,” I say. “Somebody could see us.”

“Sit on the toilet lid,” Scarlet whispers. There’s a harsh urgency to her words, so I follow her order, despite not understanding how it will solve the situation. A second after I’ve seated myself, she straddles my lap, facing me with her legs against the wall.

Ah. Now it looks like there is just one person using the stall, and I try to keep my thoughts focused on that, instead of the fact that my crotch is now pressed up against hers, or the fact that her lovely face is only inches away from mine…

“You said you wanted to talk,” she whispers.

“I did. What took you so long, getting here? We were supposed to go over the hearing before it happened, not during it!” I whisper back. It’s a bit of a loud whisper, admittedly, fuelled by my annoyance at her.

“I thought I’d be able to ditch my bodyguards at the court’s entrance,” Scarlet says. “I had to orchestrate a… disturbance downstairs to get away from them.”

She opens her mouth to say something more, but the bathroom door sighs open just then, and we both immediately fall deadly still. The characteristic clack of heels on marble sounds, and I stare into my step-sister’s face as we listen to some lady enter a stall and tinkle into a toilet. Despite myself, my face twitches into a smile—girls really do pee! Scarlet’s still got the same serious expression that she had in the courtroom, her dark brown eyes playing across my face, darkening a little when she notices my smile.

That’s when I hear the first plop. I am cooped up in a cramped little restroom, my sister’s straddling my lap, and we’re listening to some woman shit herself in Manhattan’s Appellate court. Something about the situation is just so surreal and so funny, and unwittingly, my smile morphs into a snort.

Horror flashes across Scarlet’s face, her eyes widening. My snort sounds masculine, and my pants and shoes, visible under the stall—not to mention my shoe size—must arouse suspicion. I seal my mouth shut, trying to lose myself in Scarlet’s beautiful eyes, when the second plop echoes through the room, followed by a feminine grunt.

The beginnings of a full-bellied laugh racks through my body, my stomach and my shoulders shaking, and Scarlet knows that it’s going to happen, that the sound is going to escape from my mouth at any second now and give us both away, and she does the only thing she can to shut me up then.

She presses her red, red lips against mine.

It’s my turn for my eyes to widen. It’s a full kiss, it’s a deep kiss, her lips are so soft, and as quickly as my eyes widened, they flutter shut, my arms wrapped tight around her waist. Laughter continues to bubble down at the base of my stomach, I’m shaking a little, but I’m also lost in the kiss, the sensation of her lips pressed against mine.

She angles her face then, to kiss me deeper. My mouth opens on instinct, wanting to French her. She must think I’m on the brink of laughing aloud, and a second later, I feel her tongue in my mouth, sliding up against mine. We kiss hard, for God knows how long, until we hear the lock on the other stall slide open.

Scarlet leans back then, quietly gulping for air. We stare at each other with wide eyes, and then she looks off to the side. I can’t read the expression on her lips, which are pursed together now. I loosen my grip around her waist just as her legs tighten around mine; the minor shift causes my semi to stiffen a little more.

Finally, after the woman-who-was-once-shitting is done washing her hands and humming Happy Birthday and its seventeen damn verses, letting the door swing shut behind her, I let a stupid grin slide across my face again.

“Father is on to you,” Scarlet says, her face all business.

Are we not… not going to talk about what just happened? Was that just business, too?

“Neither Jessica nor I are going to leak, but he called her in for dinner yesterday, and I’m up for it today,” she says. “The monthly family dinner’s happening in a couple days. Something is going to slip eventually, and he’s going to follow up on it, and then whatever you’re planning, it’s all going to be over. Get out while you can.”

“That’s what I’m planning to do,” I tell her.

“Where to? And what are you playing at?” She asks the last question with genuine curiosity, and oh, if only I could tell her.

“You said it yourself,” I say. “If I tell you anything, there’s a chance Father pieces it together. It’s best if I keep it a secret.”

Scarlet sighs, but she nods, conceding the logic. It’s her own, after all.

“Is there anything else you wanted to talk to me about?” she asks me.

I think of all the things I could say. I shake my head. None of them are critical, and my feelings are getting a little jumbled up, following that kiss. Best to say nothing, and make no mistakes.

She gets off my lap. I miss the weight as soon as its gone. Scarlet unlocks the stall door and I follow her out of the bathroom after she pokes her head out to check that the coast is clear once more.

We’re standing alone in a grand hallway. Several meters away, a court of law has just determined that I am no longer a Najbreit. It’s funny, the things I’m doing to get back my family.

“I suppose this is where we part ways then,” I say. I start to walk away.

“You haven’t told me what your new name is,” Scarlet says, grabbing a hold of my arm.

I turn to face her. She’s looking at me expectantly. In the distance, I can hear heavy footsteps growing louder.

“And I won’t. Not today.”

Scarlet regards me for a second. Something plays across her face, and then she releases my arm.

We go our separate ways.