It happened over whiskey

Chapter 10

Just then I heard a voice on the other side. It was my dad.

“Hey dad. Happy Thanksgiving Day”, I said while scratching my forehead with my index finger. I could see the excitement in his voice when he heard that it was me on the call.

Hell, he even asked me if he was dreaming. It pained me to see how big of a void I left in their lives by maintaining this distance between us just because Khloe wanted me to.

He was relieved to hear that I was in the pink of health and was doing good in my business as well and with that he passed the phone to my mom. I heard her sniffling on the call and when she said that I made her day I felt tears coming from my eyes.

She asked me if I will come visit them soon and to that I replied in the affirmative. With a broad smile on my face I hung up the call.

“See, it was so easy”, Amber said while shoving the phone in her pocket. I couldn’t even figure out how she made things look so easy that too so effortlessly.

I felt like calling my parents so many times before but I could never muster the strength to be the disappointing son who called them after years just because he was facing a downward spiral in his life. More tears spilled down my cheek realizing how much I have hurt them and how I am the reason for them spending their Thanksgiving alone.

In an instant, I hugged Amber who just sat there not knowing what to do. I tightened my hold around her waist and after a few moments she returned my affection by wrapping her arms around my neck.

She slowly caressed my hair and I swear I could just stay like that for the rest of my life. “Hey! It’s all fine. They love you and they are so proud of you. Just stay in touch with them and I promise you things will soon be back to normal”, she said while I was still holding her in my arms tightly, afraid that if I loosen my hold on her she will fly away with the wind.

We stayed like that for a few minutes before she finally pulled apart from me but yet she was so close to me. She bit her lower lip and I could see that even she could feel the nervousness in the air.

I grazed her cheek with my thumb and looked at her plump red lips that were stuck between her teeth. Oh god! I wanted to kiss her at that moment.

I wanted to get close to her in a way I never felt for anyone except Khloe. This shouldn’t be happening.

I love Khloe and only her. I suddenly pulled away from her and got up from my seat in a hush.

I could sense how awkward it was getting for the both of us and so I decided to end it there. “Do you mind joining us for dinner?”, she asked me as we made our way towards my car.

I thought about her proposal for a minute and after realizing that we won’t be alone made me think that it would be safe. As soon as we reached my car, she stood there looking at my Land Rover and touched the bonnet with her soft fingers as if it were a fragile bird.

I looked at her while shoving my hands in my pockets basically surprised at her adoration towards a car. She then looked at me nervously before asking, “Can I drive it?”

I walked to the passenger seat and threw the key towards her. She looked as if she couldn’t believe me but was fast enough to catch the key before it knocked the ground.

I explained her all the basic functions briefly but she was just too excited and was just relishing the feel of being in the driver’s seat. Her reaction brought a small smile on my face.

When she was fidgeting with the seat belt, I leaned forward to get hold of the belt before fastening it in the bolt beside her. I couldn’t help but notice that she smelled like lavender flowers and how she hissed when my hand touched her waist.

She filled me in as how her best friend, Ethan and her spend every holiday together at his place. I could see the love in her eyes when she mentioned that Ethan was her only family apart from his father who lives in Buffalo. 

I wanted to ask her about her mother but before I could even mutter those words she informed me that her mom passed away a year ago from breast cancer. She seemed sad that she couldn’t meet her father because of her busy schedule and I knew that her manager was a cunt and he would surely not even give these guys a day off to cherish their family and friends.

We stopped on our way to Ethan’s house to get some banana bread which was Ethan’s favourite as she informed me and also that she couldn’t make it at home this year because of some college assignments that she was working on and also the fact that the pub arranged for karaoke for the first time this year so they had to make all the necessary arrangements. She further told me that her dad worked as a financial advisor for most of his life but retired two years back and so she moved here to make her career as a designer and also to work her ass off so that she could maintain her standard of living without having to ask for money from her dad.

I asked her if she liked her job and it surprised me to hear that she absolutely loved it. She further added that it was the best time of her day when she could just listen to people trusting her with the problems of their life.

She said that it made her feel powerful to help those poor guys just by listening to them pouring their heart out over a glass of alcohol. She felt blessed to have made some wonderful friends while working at the bar.

I asked her if she ever had to face some creep who wanted his tongue down her throat to which she just laughed and said that she tells such assholes that she isn’t interested in boys. I laughed until I could no longer feel any air in my lungs at her reply.

She just set her lips in a straight line, probably embarrassed that she shared her top secret with me. When I looked at her with doubt plastered all over my face at the revelation of her secret, she poked me in the rib and said while shaking her head that she was perfectly straight and even had a boyfriend in high school.

I understood one thing about her that day while sitting in the car listening to her favourite songs while having some light conversation and it was that Amber was a baby in the body of an adult. She was happy about the most smallest things in her life and it just made me realize how lucky the guy would be to have a girl like Amber.

The way she scrunched her nose slightly while smiling, the way she licked her lower lip ever now and then and the way she curls her finger into her hair were the smallest details about her that I got to know in that short time that I spent with her. And I would be the biggest liar if I claimed that she didn’t have an effect on me.

She was oh so unintentionally making her way into my heart and the biggest irony is I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to stop her from making a home in my heart.

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