This Heart of Mine

Ch. 26: A Kiss, A Memory and A Doughnut

"I mean, you're sober." He moved closer to her, kneeling against the bed, and intertwining his fingers with her own. "You want to kiss?"

Her heart felt like it'd explode any moment as he moved closer to her. This is really happening! "Sure, if you want to—"

Time slowed around her as his lips caressed her own. He placed feather-light ones against the corner of her mouth, sending shivers down the right side of her body. She had not expected his lips to be this soft.

He tasted like coffee, like the kind from Mary Mae's Bakery two stores down from the condos. Sugar frosting lingered in the corners of his lips.

There were also hints of passion. He pressed against her, until she'd fallen back on the bed and his hands were cupping each side of her face. Every now and then he'd bite one side of her lip, before kissing her again. He slowly tucked her hair behind her ear.

When he pulled away, all she could mutter was, "Woah."

He laughed, jiggling against her. "You don't know how long I've been wanting to do that."

"How long?"

"Since you walked in that first day we met."

"I was sweaty, tired and annoyed! How could you have wanted to kiss someone like that? Why would you be interested in me?" She exclaimed.

He shook his finger at her, as though disappointed in her put-down of herself. "No, you were beautiful, funny and you still smiled at Nic and me, despite being tired, sweaty and whatever. The real question is, how could anyone not be interested in you after that?"

"Was that why you came back at night? That's very clever of you then."

He frowned. "No, I really needed to get that photo of my mom. I don't have many of her. But, you didn't answer my question. Why would you think I wouldn't be interested in you?"

"With Lauren around..." she mumbled.

He flopped onto the bed, laid down next to her and kissed her right palm. A sear burned into the cells within, migrating deep into the tissues. "What about her?"

"She's taken away all the guys that came near me. I can't tell if it were intentional or not, because the moment the guys would see her, I could tell they'd lost interest in me."

"If you don't mind me asking, why do you guys not get along?"

She closed her eyes for a moment, running through past memories shelved away in her brain. Naina started speaking slowly, afraid that she'd ramble on too much.

They'd been close friends; Like the kind that would stay up all night, talking about guys and eating fast food. But some drastic changes happened.

Lauren became obsessed with finding a boyfriend in college. It would be the only thing she'd talk about. She went from someone who was focused on her studies to someone who would constantly gush about a guy who'd bought her food or who'd made out with her in a sexy way. Somehow she still managed to get straight A's and maintain her perfect four point zero, which pissed Naina off to the ends of the Earth who struggled to keep her GPA above a three.

Then, this Dork Boy came along during their senior year. Naina nicknamed him Dork because he had an unhealthy obsession with Star Wars and Game of Thrones. He was the perfect boyfriend. Lauren was dead sure of it; 'he's so perfect this' and 'he's so perfect that' was all she could say about the guy.

Dork Boy wanted to have sex with her a month into their relationship. She didn't want that back then and had asked him to wait a bit longer. Nothing unreasonable.

He didn't like that. He dumped her on the spot and soon after, reports came from their friend group that he'd found a freshman that was cute, sweet, and willing to bang him.

For the next several months, almost until the following spring, Lauren would cry whenever she was 'reminded' of the guy. She'd constantly run through the memories of her short-lived relationship with Naina. At first, Naina tried to comfort her, in the hopes that Lauren would move on. 

But it happened so often that eventually, Naina grew tired of it. It felt like Lauren didn't want to move on; she wanted to wallow in pity and have everyone feel bad for her, it seemed.

So one night, when Lauren was crying over being reminded of her failed relationship, Naina told her that if Lauren was truly over Dork Boy, she wouldn't be crying about him so much. Because Lauren always insisted that she'd gotten over the useless bastard.

That was it.

There had been a screaming match. Many nasty things were said one sidedly to Naina.

Lauren moved out that following week, after crying to the housing personnel, and moved in with a friend who was rushing into the same sorority she wanted to get into. Naina had been lucky to keep her place; Lauren had been very convincing about how horrible Naina had been.

Naina took a ragged breath and finished up her monologue. "I'm so used to pushing my feelings away, I didn't consider how much it'd hurt when reminded of someone you liked so much."

Ian broke the silence that settled in the room like fog on a cold day. "I mean, someone who cries for a that long over a barely month-long relationship...that's a little excessive."

"Still," Naina said. The word was swallowed up by guilt that filled her stomach like sand filling a bag. "If I hadn't said that, we'd still be friends."

"Maybe. Who knows? Seems to me like she wanted to end it, and she found a reason to."

Naina's breathing slowed down, returning to its normal pattern. He raised an eyebrow at her when she looked at him and laughed a little, forcing the breath out. "Maybe. I just felt so bad at the time and then the disappointment turned into anger."

He shrugged. "Nothing you can do about it now, right? You tried your best to be a good friend, I think, and she wanted someone to baby her. Thanks for telling me, by the way."

"Yeah, of course. Feel like you deserve to know, since your property almost got damaged because of it."

He rolled his eyes. "Again, that wasn't your fault. I've got something that might cheer you up."

He took her her hand and walked her to the kitchen.

There were a bunch of doughnuts from Mary Mae's Bakery on his table. The bakery had been around as long as the town had been and was featured in a food channel series so they were famous. Inside the box were a variety of pastries, including the elusive Cookies n' Dream donut, which featured Oreos sprinkled heavily on a chocolate donut. As she bit into the pastry, and savored the Oreo whipped cream, Ian grabbed a regular glazed.

"Hey Naina, can we talk about that sex dream you had? The one you mentioned last night? With me, um, in it."

She froze, half into a bite with a massive cookie chunk and almost choked. Again.

The grin on his face was way too smug and didn't match the innocent tone he'd asked it with. Even now, she could see his lips twitching, repressing unshed peals of laughter. Those beautiful hazel eyes of his glinted mischievously as they crinkled.

Oh, how she wished her first day of work would come faster.

~~~

Hehe...how was the end of the drunk arc? Hope you liked it (and to those of you that have kept up, thank you very much!!)

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