Engaged At The Moment ✔️

21: Is that another way of saying she lives in your heart?

“Not again,” he groaned in mock exasperation. 

Immersed in the important task at hand, I could only offer a placating: “this is really the last time.”

And with that said, I continued with adjusting my hair, closely examining my reflection in the rearview mirror soon after.

But it took a few good seconds for me to declare, “ok, it’s all good now.” And a moment later, I was stepping out of the car, leaving Aiden to draw out a breath. 

On seeing me get out of the car, he stopped from leaning against it, breathing out an exaggerated: “finally.” 

I chuckled at his dramatics – a sound that reached an abrupt halt when I caught sight of…

Oh no, how could this happen?

Sparing no further thought, I spun around, hurrying back to the car. I’d barely made it inside before I was peering into the rearview mirror, one hand desperately wiping at the corner of my eye.

“How did I not notice this smudge until now?”

‘Maybe because it’s so tiny, that it’s nearly non-existent?’

But I ignored the silly voice of reason in my head. Non-existent? Yeah, right! It would have definitely been existent had I gone in without realizing it was there.

Even in my current state of mind, I couldn’t help admitting that made no sense. But whatever. The most important thing was that I’d been able to avert the crisis that would have occurred had I gone in with that midget mascara smudge on my face. 

Talking about averting a crisis, why did it feel like my lips were in desperate need of more lipgloss? 

But right as I was about to reach for my lipgloss, I felt myself being pulled away, tracing the source to…

“I think that’s enough for now.”

“But this is really the last time,” I whined, determinedly clutching on to the edge of the seat in the manner of a kid hogging their favorite toy to prevent having it taken away. The only difference though, was that I was an adult fighting to apply lip gloss on her already glossy lips. “After this one, I’m really done.”

Fun fact – I’d said those exact words about…wait, how many times had I uttered those words in the past twenty minutes? 

Well, let me see – there was the time when I went back to the car to check on my eyebrows, then later to powder my face, and yet later, to remove some of the powder so that even though I had it on, it’ll give the impression I didn’t. And then soon after, to check on my forehead. And yet after, to…

Oh my god! Since arriving here, I can’t even keep count of how many times I’d run back to the car to retouch, adjust, check, crosscheck, and double crosscheck one thing or the other. 

And now, here I was, desperately clutching to the car seat, struggling to resist Aiden. Seriously, what was wrong with me? 

Well, I guess what I needed to do was pretty clear now. And so, I clung even tighter to the seat, crying out: “why won’t you believe me? This is really the last thing; after this, I’m done.”

“Is it the same way you were done with the hundred other ‘last things?’” He quipped. 

“Well, I…” But that was how far my protests went, as he was now lifting me out of the car with one hand, the other shutting the door after him. 

“So that was fun,” he sallied, earning a glare from me which left him chortling – something which was soon to transform into mock cries when I hit his arm.