In the Rain (Prequel to Rain Again)

Chapter Five: A step to the future

"So you're saying you didn't see his face?" A thunderstruck Neil continued the interrogation, his wavy long hair a bird's nest on his head. His eyes still had hints of sleep, his face a bit swollen with soft creases in some places.

"No," Kate shook her head, still panicking.

But Neil habitually panicked more than her. "How could you do this, Kate, how could you? You went to get a job and came back after getting kissed by somebody! And you even kissed him back!"

"It was just a peck," she meekly interrupted. "A few of them actually."

A few splendid ones.

And they still burned on her skin-splendidly.

"Holy shit! What will happen now? What if he's from your office? What if he's a member of the parliament? Or the heir of an arms manufacturer? That freaking party was full of powerful people. Who was he? Tell me, who was he? Who do I need to kill?"

"For the hundredth time, Neil, I don't know!" Kate threw up her hands, exasperated.

"Wait! Did he force you? Are you hurt?" Neil was suddenly checking for injuries on Kate. He was so caring like that always.

"No! Nothing like that happened." Kate shook her head in negative and stopped him. Sighing, she smiled, touched by his worries and concern. This was why she had come straight to Neil after running out of the party, climbed up his bedroom window, scared the living daylight out of him, and then told him the entire balcony incident.

A life without Neil was unimaginable.

With her face turning hot, she decided to reveal some more-it was the most scandalous part of the entire scene. "It was a very different kind of feeling, I became so nervous, and my limbs were shaking, and my heart was stuck for a second before the beats in it went crazy. Everything was so surreal."

A smile of surprise appeared on his face. "Now, that's scandalous, moonshine."

"I was so scared by my own reaction, I had to just get out of there." She rolled her thumbs around one another.

Neil jumped up from the bed and started pacing in the middle of the room. "Try to remember everything about him, girl. Any minor details can help."

Kate thought hard. And her eyes turned dreamy, her mind traveling back to the most delectable moments of her life.

"It was so dark that I could only see his silhouette, nothing more. All that could be figured out was that he was tall, in a smooth suit," Kate put her chin on a hand as she thought about those couple of minutes spent with the stranger. "His face was clean-shaven. The perfume he used was so intoxicating. His hands were quite large." She could still feel those hands on her.

"Oi," Neil let out a surprised chuckle. "We're here, in my bedroom, remember?"

Kate fell back on Neil's bed with her hands spread as if in surrender. "Oh, Neil," she sighed with a dreamy look on her face. "Is this love?"

And the instant she asked that she knew that she was a fool-a fool to consider that such a strong emotion could occur in such a short-incredibly short period of time.

"I don't know, moonshine, I don't know. I've never been in love, so I don't know what it is like. But don't you think it's too ridiculous to fall in love from just a peck?" Neil crossed his arms on his chest, totally unconvinced and ridiculed. "I mean, he may turn out to be a douchebag if ever found, and I may have to kill him in the end."

But his words of murder could not bring her down from the high. She closed her eyes with a dreamy smile anyways. She was a dreamy, happy fool.

Are there any rules to be followed in matters of the heart?