This Heart of Mine

Ch. 6: Chilis In Her Cheeks

No more like I'm a hoe that hates helping out my roommate. Naina was sure that Lauren had heard the door; if she'd known Dominic had been there, she would've run to open it.

He shrugged. "You doing anything tonight?"

"No. You?"

"Café stuff. Was wondering if you'd keep me company?"

Her face brightened so much, Naina wished she'd brought sunglasses with her. Granted, she wouldn't be able to wear it over her own glasses, but it'd block the excitement that Lauren was radiating. "Let me get ready!" she exclaimed.

He laughed a little while she scampered to her room. Shaking his head, he looked at Naina. "She doesn't need to get ready for this does she?" he asked.

Naina didn't speak. She didn't trust herself to say something nice about her former friend and settled for shrugging.

As she put the appetizers and cakes into bags, she heard the door open and close, signaling the others left. Silence filled the apartment as she crossed it and locked the door.

In the fridge, her marinating chicken sat front and center.

She'd completely forgotten about wanting to make Chili chicken. The now completely red meat beckoned to her. She'd already bought all the ingredients too: soy sauce, green onions, green and dried red chilis as well as bell peppers.

It'd take a couple of hours just to get the chicken fried and good to go.

And then there was the whole ordeal of waiting for it to cool down and package it away.

She could handle it; she had a day off tomorrow.

After changing into a tank top and her loose polar bear pajama pants she got to cutting the onions, bell peppers and chilis.

She blasted her favorite song on her headphones. Murmuring out the lyrics, she danced (more like swung her hips from side to side), and soon, the kitchen was filled with delicious scents of frying chicken, smells of chilis, onions and bell peppers sautéing, and her mouth was full of sweet, bit-size red velvet cake.

As she backed towards the sink, she collided with a wall that hadn't been there before.

A very warm wall.

Her heart rate skyrocketed through the ceiling into the darkening sky. Breathing hard, she turned around. The door had been locked; she'd made sure of that when the other two had left.

She grabbed the spatula in front of her and whirled on the intruder.

Ian grabbed her hand, stopping her an inch before the cooking instrument would've hit him right on the chest. A small smile played on his face.

Lauren and Dominic were laughing in the living room. Naina wished she could've crawled through the tile floor into the dirt below. She ripped the headphones off of her ears and turned back to the chicken. The curry was almost done; after the chicken soaked up the soy sauce and the bell peppers caramelized a bit, she'd turn it off.

The other two were still giggling. Sighing, Naina turned the curry from bottom to top. Leave it to Lauren to let Naina do something as stupid as dancing in front of two good looking guys.

"You got good moves," Ian murmured.

"Shut up," she whispered. The laughs in the living room were still so loud, they sounded like gongs going off in her brain.

"No really." He turned away from her and she heard him say, "Shut it! Why the hell are you two laughing that much? It's not that funny, you know?"

The others immediately shut up. She heard murmuring and then a door slam.

"Are they still there?" she asked softly.

Ian moved away from her and shook his head. "Nope. Went to her room."

"Good." She switched off the stove and spooned a few pieces into a bowl.

"Need help?"

She sighed raggedly, holding back some tears. "Yeah, find the biggest shovel you can, so I can dig my grave. I want Deme to make a speech at my funeral. Don't invite Lauren to it," she growled.

"Funeral? Why?"

When she glanced at him, he had an amused look on his face.

"You tell me. I thought they wouldn't be back till late and started cooking. Then the whole dancing thing and me hitting you. Why were you even standing there?"

His smirk faded, replaced with something that looked a bit sheepish. He fiddled with his fingers. "She told me to, said it'd be funny," he muttered.

"And you take orders from Lauren..." she mumbled. Figures. Men listened to Lauren easily.

"I'm sorry, if I'd known you would've been embarrassed, or that those two boneheads would've laughed that much, I wouldn't have done that. You seriously can dance well."

She didn't know whether to trust him or not.

~~~

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