chapter 5
He was uncomfortable with this strange feeling of guilt he was experiencing. Uri couldn't shake the belief that he'd made Heather mad last night, and he felt bad about it. He actually wanted to apologize to her, and that was definitely a foreign emotion for him. Running his hand through his hair, he told himself to be patient. His task would be harder this time, for a multitude of reasons, the greatest of which was he still had no idea what he was doing with her.
Except he knew that something was different about this one. He'd felt something foreign stirring last night when she danced for him. It was as if the Boss had laid his hand over both of them and cast them together somehow. But that wasn't what the Boss did, and he'd never experienced the stirring that he'd felt last night. He didn't know anything, anymore, except that he was weary of all this. He hated to admit it, but he was tired. Uri had been doing this for so long, that he could almost predict each target's reaction to him. Now that he had something different to deal with, he didn't like it.
Uri knew Heather would be at the park to walk the thing that was known as a dog these days, so he was waiting for her in the rose garden when she strolled by. The tiny rat ran up to him, shaking spastically and wagging its entire body. He bent over and stroked his fur.
“Taco!” Heather walked over to the dog, but stopped short when she realized who was petting him. “Oh! Hi there.” Uri watched her guard go up at the recognition of him.
“Hello, Heaven.” He said to her, emphasizing the name, hoping she would give him her real name, even though he already knew it. He could smell her here, without all the other competing odors, and his nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled deeply of her aroma. Surprisingly, the odors of the night before didn't cling to her like they did to him. She smelled fresh and astonishingly pure, considering her profession. Uri had learned to trust his senses and tried to tell himself to not judge her.
“You live around here?” Her body was tense. She hadn’t come any closer, but he had felt her coming, and he could feel her still. His body buzzed with an intense awareness. The awareness was so powerful, his body felt as if it were almost aflame with the heat of her being near.
“Yes.” He answered vaguely. “Do you?”
“Yes.” She answered equally as noncommittally.
They stood there, awkwardly together, for a minute or two, when finally Heather said, “You aren’t going to preach to me any more, are you? Because if you are, I’m not going to invite you to walk with us.”
He laughed, “No more lectures. I promise. In fact, I want to apologize for last night. I didn't mean to anger you." He was hopeful, another strange emotion. He wondered what was going on with him. He suddenly felt so human around this woman, and he knew from experience that everything happened for a reason. He just hated being left in the dark.
“Okay. Apology accepted. Come on. This is the only exercise Taco gets, and he’s starting to put on a spare doughnut.” She started walking, and Uri walked next to her, inhaling her scent again. She smelled like clouds after a spring rain.
Looking around him, Uri said, “This park is beautiful. It’s the only really pretty thing I’ve found about this city.”
“There’s other pretty stuff here, but it’s all man made. Sculpture gardens, stuff like that. I like it here, because it seems more natural, even though it’s all man-made, too.”
“I agree. This is the closest to nature you’re going to get here, I’d imagine.”
“Well, there’s the bayou, but most of it is filled with garbage. Not very pretty. The closest to nature you’re liable to get is Clear Lake, and that’s almost an hour away.”
“I’ll have to check that out.” Uri mused. He would check it out. This place was depressing, with all of the highways and tall buildings.
“So, Uri. Where are you from?”
He shrugged, unwilling to answer her question yet. “I’ve lived all over. Sort of a rambling man. How about you?”
“I’ve lived here my whole life." As if she didn't want to talk about herself, she turned the topic back to him. "What’s your favorite place that you’ve lived?”
He thought for a while, walking next to her. “Have you read much Emerson?”
“As in Ralph Waldo?” She teased him.
“Yes. I lived for a brief time in Concord. Walden Pond is beautiful. It was probably my favorite.”
She looked at him, surprise registering in her exquisite green eyes, that looked like pools of molten jade, Uri decided. “You lived there?”
He looked at her squarely, hoping to draw out her trust. It would make this so much easier “Yes. It was lovely. Simple. Close to God.”
“So, you buy into the whole transcendental theory? I didn’t get that impression last night.”
“I don’t buy into the whole theory of transcendentalism, but Emerson had the right idea. I know that the closer to nature you are, the closer to God you are.”
Heather harrumphed at him.
“What?” he asked, innocently.
She stopped walking and turned to face him, her clear green eyes suddenly serious. “Look, Uri. You seem like a really nice guy. But I don’t date clients. So, I’m going to go home.”
For some reason, Uri felt disappointed. He could tell that she was leery of him, nervous around him, but he had thought that he was breaking through the veneer.
“I don’t want to date you. I just wanted to talk to you.” He said, instead of all that he was supposed to say. Not that he knew what he was supposed to say.
“Well, I’m sorry. We can’t do that either. It’s a club policy that we don’t have outside contact with clients, and it’s a good policy.” She said it with finality.
“Yes, it is, I suppose.” At least he knew now that she probably wouldn’t be seeing him outside of the club either.
Inside his head, he was screaming, “But I’m Uriel! I’m supposed to lead you to your destiny!”
Instead, he watched her walk away, a strange sadness gripping his heart.