MONA LISA ✩ chris sturniolo

20 | mermaid in another life

♫ god of the sunsets / seb ♫
☆
it's been sometime you've been on my mind, baby
i get too comfortable with you

🍊 🍊 🍊

| real life | social media |

real life

When I make my way into the coffee shop next door to the therapist's office an hour later, I immediately spot Chris in a booth in the corner, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as his fingers move rapidly against his laptop keyboard. A half-eaten muffin is sitting abandoned on a plate beside him and he occasionally reaches up to brush his hair out of his face, scowling in annoyance each time he does so.

Despite the dark cloud of vulnerability that is left hanging over me after therapy, a soft smile spreads across my face as I make my way towards Chris. I slide into the seat across from him, dropping my tote bag beside me as his eyes shoot up to meet mine. "Hi."

"Hey!" Chris greets, immediately closing his laptop. "How was therapy?"

I shrug lightly, dropping my hands onto the table in front of me to fiddle with my rings. "It was good, I think? Definitely hard at points, but the therapist is really nice and I think seeing her could be really beneficial for me."

"B, that's amazing," Chris smiles at me, reaching forward to loop his pinky through mine, and a warm feeling fills my chest. I would never admit it to him, but I love it when he links our pinkies. He always does it in quiet moments when people aren't really paying attention to us to remind me that he's by my side.

"How's your work going?" My gaze flickers to the abandoned muffin for a moment as my mouth rounds in a grin. "You seem pretty in the zone."

Chris groans, pulling his hand away from mine to open his laptop back up. "Yeah, just trying to work on some Fresh Love stuff. People are pretty pissed that their shipping is taking so long."

"I hate slow shipping," I tug my own laptop out of my bag and deposit it onto the table. "But hopefully everyone will be understanding."

"Yeah," Chris mumbles, his eyes flickering at a rapid pace across his screen. He sighs lowly before shutting his laptop again. "Can I get you lunch?"

"I can get my own lunch," I brush off Chris' offer, reaching to dig my wallet out of my bag.

Chris laughs as he stands up. "That's a funny joke. I told you we were celebrating your first therapy appointment. So what do you want?"

I shake my head in amusement, wanting to argue but knowing that Chris won't give in. "If they have avocado toast, I'll get that, please. And an iced coffee?"

"You got it," Chris grins and ruffles my hair before heading to the counter.

Chris and I spend the rest of the afternoon in the coffee shop. Due to both of us having a lot of work to do, we stay relatively on track and don't distract each other too terribly, minus the half an hour discussion we slipped into about what would happen if the ocean rose over high enough to cover all land, but humans grew gills so we could continue to survive.

When the setting sun starts to cast beams of gold through the cafe windows, Chris shuts his laptop and beams at me. "Let's go."

"Go where?" I question, but begin to pack up my stuff regardless. If I have to look at one more set of numbers today, I am going to gauge my eyeballs out with my bare hands.

"You'll see," Chris grins at me as he swings his backpack over his shoulder and reaches out to grab my hand. "Come on!"

"I'm coming!" I laugh, glancing over my shoulder to double check that nothing was left behind before lengthening my steps to catch up to Chris. "I told Nick we would be back in time for us all to get dinner together."