Before You Leave Me

13. Friends, Lovers Or Nothing

The doorbell rings waking me up.

I battle my eyes and look around: it's completely dark.

"Shit" I mutter rubbing my eyes and walking to the door.

"Were you asleep?" Vic laughs when I open an eye to greet her, "oh, my God, Dan"

"I must have fallen asleep without noticing!" I defend myself, "I was watching TV for a while and..."

"It's almost 9pm" Vic chuckles, shaking her head.

"I was tired!" I say rolling my eyes and walking back to the sitting room.

"Are we alone?"

"Yes" I answer, "it's just the two of us"

"Okay" she answers taking off her jacket and flopping down on the couch; "the whole house to ourselves then"

"Hey, Missy" I say walking to her, "We should decide what we want to have for dinner. We're probably going to have to  go and buy it"

"You didn't buy dinner?" Vic asks looking at me.

I shrug my shoulders.

"I was asleep"

Vic scoffs shaking her head and stands up again.

"Fine" she says taking her jacket, "the sooner we go, the sooner we'll return"

I quickly walk to my room and put a pair of jeans on (I was wearing sweats) and tie my sneakers on the way out.

Ten minutes later, we're back in the flat with a couple of pizzas.

"Should I lay the table?" Vic asks, "Or...?"

"Do you want to watch a movie?"

"While we're having dinner?"

"Afterwards" I answer, "I've also got a bottle of tequila in the cupboard"

Vic raises an eyebrow.

"What are you suggesting, Daniel?"

"Let's have dinner" I say, "and then we can watch a movie and drink something"

"Drink tequila!" Vic jumps.

I shake my head.

"You're still a Goody Two-Shoes" I provoke her.

"Shut up" she hisses, walking to the kitchen.

After sharing a pizza and a half, I bring out the tequila bottle, a lime, some salt and a couple of glass shots.

"Let's do the first one just because" I say pouring the alcohol.

"What's the order?" Vic asks looking at the items on the table, "I've never drank tequila before"

"Really?" I can't help myself.

"I've never been that big of a drinker" Vic reminds me, "and when I drink, I'm a vodka girl"

I nod. Fair enough.

"Salt, tequila, lime"

Vic nods and sighs, mentally preparing herself.

"To us" she says, raising the glass.

"To us" I agree, clinking and following the instructions I've just given her.

After laughing at her face once she's drunk, I suggest we play Cheat (also called Bullshit) with poker dice.

It's a game Vic and I used to play when we were together, and she used to lose often; so a shot for every round you lose seems like a fair bet.

"Play the movie while we play" Vic says, "I don't want it ending extremely late"

"Aren't you as bossy as always" I tease her, choosing The Mist and taking the tray with the tequila to the coffee table between the couch and the TV.

"Really?" Vic says pulling a face and looking at me.

The Mist was the movie we watched when we had our first kiss.

"For the good old days" I say raising the glass and drinking another shot.

Vic shakes her head laughing and pours again.

"Oh!" I jump, "and if you get scared, there's a punishment shot"

"Do you want to get me drunk or what?" Vic laughs.

We start the game and after the first two rounds, Vic is losing and not at all happy with the way the game is going.

"Okay, I'm done with letting you win" she says.

And surprisingly, after that, she wins four rounds in a row.

Four shots and half an hour later into the movie, I win again.

"Yeah!" I jump, "Drink!"

Vic drinks up and turns to me.

"Do you want to carry on? Should we wait a bit to let our body process the alcohol?"

"I'm almost winning, so don't try to prevent the inevitable. Let's keep it going"

Vic rolls her eyes and pours once more.

An hour later and some more shots (to be honest, I've lost count of how many), Vic and I are laughing too much at something that's happened in the movie that's probably not that funny.

We turn to each other, tears of laughter streaming down our faces.

"Stop!" Vic begs, "My tummy hurts a lot!"

I hold my sides and try to stop laughing, breathing in and out slowly.

Vic does the same.

We look at each other and smile.

Then I kiss her.

Honestly, I don't know how we've gone from laughing our asses off, to crying of laughter, to calming down, to kissing passionately on the couch. And between that uncertainty, a clear thought steps in:

I'm kissing her, again.

After two years and a half, we're kissing again.

Her fingers run through my hair as I pull her closer to me, my hands down her back and the movie still going in the background; an awkward coincidence remind me how similar this situation is to the one where we had our first kiss ever, five years and a half ago.

I sit her on my lap as my fingers trace her back underneath her shirt. She knocks the bottle of tequila down with her foot but none of us seem to care a bit.

We stop for a second, our foreheads together, breathing heavily.

I don't know what to say.

"I..." I stutter.

"I want you" we both say in unison, a silly giggle escaping our lips afterwards before locking them again.

This time the kiss is more passionate, more consuming.

I take her in my arms, her legs around my hips as we make our way to my room.

We leave behind the sitting room, the movie still playing, half leftover pizza cold on the table and the tequila bottle half emptied on the plastic tray.

And as I lay Vic down in bed and get rid of her t-shirt as she unbuttons my jeans, a sober thought comes to mind:

I'm sure as hell I'm going to regret this in the morning.

But I don't want to stop.

So I don't.