I'm in Love with a Plumber

Chapter 9

Great. I just had to like the oddball in the crowd.

Wait... did she secretly admit in her mind that she liked him? Since when did she decided on that! She didn't remember anything about 'liking' him per se.

Hoeeeee! I am so, so screwed.

Sakura jabbed a forkful of cake and stuffed it into her mouth, hoping it would calm down the thoughts running through her head. Unfortunately, she forgot to do the math. Mix anxiety, nervous syndrome, denial, internal civil war, a mouthful of cake, rushed swallowing and no chewing together and she got one thing: choking.

"Are you okay?" Syaoran looked at her with concern.

She nodded after gulping down a glass of water. "Y-yeah."

Ohh... wonderful. Silence again.

"Pretty good cake, huh?" Sakura wanted to smack herself in the face so bad.

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Yup..."

Sakura, you are truly... positively... absolutely... pathetic.

"What were your plans?" he asked all of a sudden.

"W-what?"

"You seem dressed up," he said. "I know you didn't dress up like that to stalk me."

Sakura groaned. "For the last time, I wasn't stalking you."

"Whatever you say, babe."

"Stop calling me babe!" Sakura was letting the heat get to her head. "I was just walking around."

She was walking around until she decided to check out what he was up to, and then she ditched clubbing to enjoy a nice, relaxing dinner of chocolate cake with her roommate. So technically, she wasn't lying—she was only telling the partial truth. A little white lie was always good, right?

"How did you know that I was in the dressing room?" Sakura decided to ask, still puzzled as to how he even knew that it was her.

"Sakura, I'm not an idiot. I saw you under the table in the ice cream parlor," he answered with a chuckle. She knew that ice cream parlors were evil places—not only did they sell products that go straight for your waist and weight, they were bad hiding places also. "Then I saw you in the library," he continued. "And I saw you again in the coffee shop and all over the mall. At first I thought I must've gone crazy or something like that."

The girl quickly rolled her eyes. "So you went even crazier and threw a lingerie into the dressing room?"

He laughed. "I couldn't resist myself."

"What if it was another woman inside that room?"

He shrugged lightly and cut himself another slice of cake. "All the same, I'd just work my charms."

"So you'd push her into the dressing room and hold her, too?" Sakura hadn't realized that her words were full of bitterness and disappointment until they came out without a warning. She quickly got up and said, "I think I'm heading in for the night."

Before she could take a second step though, Syaoran grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her towards him. Sakura struggled to get free at first, but she realized that it was no use so she gave in. Her knees weakened almost immediately when she felt his hot breath against her own. The gap between them decreased with each second that passed by until she felt the imperceptible touch of his lips against hers—so soft, just like her dreams. Except that this was real, and he was actually kissing her.

Sakura's brain stopped functioning completely. She felt tingly by his kiss.

He pulled away and gently placed a chaste kiss on her forehead. "And you said you weren't an idiot," he said.