BLEACHED

12: is he flirting?

The moment Domen takes in his last piece of the hotdog, he looks up and notices Lavender already rushing back to the table with two small bowls of ice cream, as though the large filled hotdog isn't enough to fill their stomachs.

He raises a brow as she takes a seat and shoves the extra small bowl of icecream towards him as he wipes off the bits of sauce around his mouth.

He drops his gaze to the frozen dessert in front of him before slowly raising them to meet her eyes, only to notice she is smiling expectedly at him.

"I know you want me to start complaining." He says, getting her to laugh out as she shrugs her shoulders and shoves her spoon into her icecream. "Well, I'll just let you explain yourself."

"Since you whined about not being fancy enough, fancy people like desserts after their meal right? So, this is the dessert." She says as she gathers some black berries on her spoon before taking it into her mouth. "It even has really expensive fruit."

"You've never been in a fancy restaurant before, have you?" He asks as he takes a spoon into the cold icecream. "They don't just serve casual icecream."

"Well, it's too expensive to go there." She shrugs her shoulders as she takes another spoon full into her mouth before sighing and leaning against the table. "Not everyone can afford expensive meals the size of a lady bug."

"I've promised you more money than anyone could imagine. Yet you still want to eat here, at a food truck." He says with raised brows as she shrugs her shoulders and eats more. "Or is this your way of saying goodbye to this world of cheap greasy food?"

"I like it here. Being around people who won't look your way and judge your dress." She says with a small smile as he slightly frowns a bit. "They won't judge how chubby I look in my clothes, whether I'm in designer dresses or if I got my hair done at a professional... The fancy world feels too depressing for me, I don't have enough self-confidence to live in that realm. The normal world isn't good either, but I can live in it."

Domen slowly lowers his eyes down to her shoulders, taking in her entire physique even though he can only see her top half.

Her arms are round and only slightly edgy, exposing how she carries extra meat from her best friend who has very bony shoulders and a well-defined collar bone. Just like he suspects, the large breasts underneath the fabric of the dress almost fail to keep themselves held behind the dress, making it seem she is purposely trying to make them peep out when he knows it's just because the chest size of the dress is a little small.

He drops his gaze down to his icecream when he knows she is probably accusing him of insulting her about her weight earlier.

He didn't think it was wrong to point out the obvious. But no one has ever felt bad about what he says.

Either that or he never cared about what they thought.

"If you want to point fingers at me, just do it." He says as he glares at her when she looks up to meet his eyes. "I know because I told you."

"It really did hurt, but it did in that moment." She nods her head as she sighs out but suddenly pulls on a smile. "But since I consider you a friend, I forgave you. Plus I've been compared to Evette so much that I can't hold grudges for too long." She shrugs her shoulders and chuckles as she leans onto the table and takes another bite. "Plus she's really beautiful, I can't say no if people say that to me. I know she's beautiful, it's an obvious fact."

Domen raises his brows as he stares at her while she eats, a bit confused at why she could be so casual about being insulted.

He frowns more when he can now see how he's just as everyone around her, poking needles in places that hurt her the most and not caring if she is hurt by it. Even though Evette is more eye-catching than Lavender, Domen knows that she shouldn't just accept people pinning her down.

"You're not so bad to look at yourself, you know?" He says as he folds his arms to his chest and stares at her. "You might not be Evette but as you are, yourself right here, you might be the most beautiful person in this odd food truck restaurant."

Lavender pauses and slowly looks around, knowing earlier she had only seen a few men and boys around, thinking he just wants to tease her when she finally spots a few women here and there either with their dates or sitting alone and talking over the phone.

A small smile stretches onto her lips as she glances back to Domen who now has his eyes on the icecream he is eating.

"If you said that to make me feel better... thanks." She says in a low voice as she holds back a chuckle while tucking her hair behind her ear.

"I'm not saying it to make you feel better." He shrugs his shoulders. "Besides, I was a little off saying you're beautiful, now that I think about it, you're more pretty than beautiful. You have such girly childish features, it makes you pretty instead." He says as he finishes off his desert and sighs out as he finally raises his eyes to meet hers, only to have her drop her gaze immediately, though he doesn't ask why. "I can't compare you to Evette, because beautiful and pretty are two different things, I should have noticed that but I didn't care at the time."

"So in a way you mean you care now, huh?" She asks with a chuckle, finally meeting his gaze. "Sounds suspicious to me."

"Hm, I guess you'd take it like that." He pulls on a smile as he leaves his eyes on her. "Don't get me wrong, you're not my type, but you're still pretty, the more I look at you."

She clears her throat as she looks around, feeling her cheeks turn red even though she knows he isn't trying to be romantic in any way, he only meant it to be nice to her.

She bites down to her lower lip as she straightens her back and glances at the other people, trying to still convince herself that he wasn't saying it to flirt with her.

"Thanks, I guess." She sighs out as she glances back at him, only to notice he is smiling almost a little too much from what she is used to. "Why are you smiling like that? Stop it."

"I'm just wondering why someone telling you the truth flutters you." He chuckles as he raises a brow at her. "You look like you don't know and I'm surprising you."

"Well, people don't say it often... so I'm sorry if I'm obviously being flattered by you telling me I'm pretty, okay?" She rolls her eyes playfully, getting him to sigh with the lingering grin on his face. "After being insulted, it's nice to get complimented once in a while."

"Hm." He nods his head as he runs his thumb against his lower lip to wipe off the remaining icecream he might have missed as he glances to a couple seemingly angry at each other.

Lavender notices this and can't help to admire how attractive he is, though she knows even if he wasn't engaged to Evette, there is no way he would turn his gaze to her. But to simply admire him from afar is enough for her.