Even If You Beg

Chapter 24

Tin's POV

It must have been the hundredth time that I had asked Pete if Can was coming to the beach get together at all.

Pete sighed, "I'm sure he will. He had assured Ae last night that he was coming."

"Then why is he not yet here? Everyone is here already. It's just him and Good who are missing." I said, trying not to sound too anxious.

"Perhaps Good is slowing him down. You know what a slowpoke Good is," said Pete.

Okay, so I was prepared to wait for just a few minutes more, and then I swear to god I was just going to slowly lose my mind.

My heart jumped when I saw Can's cobalt blue Ford Focus approaching. I felt like a cricket prancing around, not knowing how to react. Was I going to greet him, was I going to ignore him? I rubbed my palms together nervously.

In the end I decided to just sit quietly, looking down on my folded hands resting on my lap. I could not even meet his eyes. Get a grip on yourself, Tin, I told myself.

Good was indeed in the company of Can. Can must have picked him up from his house and that must have caused the delay.

I saw one of the Engineering team members approach Can, with two ladies following behind him. I would have to admit that the Engineering guy was tall and good looking, and the two young ladies with him were very pretty. I wondered who they were. I would have to ask Ae later.

The Engineering guy took the load from Can's hands and placed them on the elongated table inside our beach shed that we had rented.

Then he turned to the two ladies and started to introduce them to Can one by one. I saw Can holding out his hand and they took it. Shit, the bastard was all smiles, and was particularly smiling for a longer time than usual with the first young lady who was introduced to him. He even started a conversation with her.

Should I go and interrupt their conversation? Hold your horses, Tin, I told myself.

What would be my excuse to approach them?

I noticed that while they were talking, Can had taken a bottled water from the crate and had twisted the lid to open it, and then took a swig. And then he offered it to that witch!!! That was what we all know as an indirect kiss!

Okay, this was too much for me to take. I jumped up from where I was seated. Pete grabbed my wrist.

"Tin, the others are hungry already. Let's open the boxes of the grilled jumbo shrimps and the assorted meat kebabs. Come, help me and Ae," said Pete.

Pete must be heaven sent. If he had not intervened, who knows what crazy stuff I would have done that I would regret later on.

I helped Pete and Ae to sort out the different dishes that I had ordered in advance from the Mediterranean food booth at the mall.

Then we laid them out in several disposable platters and invited everyone to dig in.

I saw Can looking at the platter of jumbo grilled shrimp. He approached it with a plate and fork in his hand.

As soon as he put out his fork to take a shrimp, I grabbed his wrist.

"I bought all these stuff on the table," I said, "Before you can take one, you have to pay me with a kiss."

Can looked at me wide eyed. "You've got to be kidding me," he said.

"I have never been more serious in my life," I said.

He turned away. "I'd rather starve," he said.

I grabbed his wrist.

"What now?" he asked, looking really annoyed.

While his mouth was still open as he asked his question, I jabbed at a shrimp with a fork and stuffed the shrimp into his mouth.

"Oh, so, we're doing this again, huh?" he said, between chewing on the shrimp. "Well, I'm most certainly up to the challenge."

He jabbed his fork into a shrimp and placed it against my mouth.

"Open up," he ordered me.

I took his hand that was holding  the shrimp and slowly moved my mouth forward, taking my sweet time to stuff the shrimp in my mouth, gazing deeply into his eyes.

A loud cheer erupted from the onlookers.

"Shit!" Can exclaimed, and withdrew his hand quickly from my grasp, looking more annoyed than ever.

He had noticed the lady that he was interested in looking at him with a puzzled look.

Yes, he is mine, you witch, stay away from him, I wanted to say to her.