LOVE BUG

CHAPTER 38: PICTURE PERFECT

Anastasia's gaze slides on the marriage's principles inked in silver letters on the white cardboard. Last time, she hasn't noticed them, but now, they are catching her eyes and her breath. Honesty, commitment, communication, faithfulness...

"He is really charming!"

The image of Nathaniel's charming smile appearing in her mind upon her mom's words pulls her out of her conflicting reflection, though she doesn't find more breath.

"Uh... what?"

"Fergus, I was telling you he is charming." 

Coming from their mom, this is something that would reassure any bride-to-be, yet it is only strengthening the uneasiness invading Anastasia's lungs today.

"I mean I've already found him charming before, but I'd only seen him for about five minutes," she adds in front of her daughter's wide stare.

'Charming', that's what Anastasia has found Fergus the first time she has met him; however, with time, the charms seem to dispel more and more. Now, 'charming' only brings her mind back to someone else's spellbinding smile and magnetic dark eyes.

She nods and forces a smile anyway, focusing on removing the pastries from the box, and at the sight of the small, round cakes covered in shiny orange icing and sprinkled with a few flakes of gold, her smile becomes easy and natural. 

She can still feel the sweet cream on the tip of her tongue, and her mouth is watering for something else: a unique taste and smooth, taut texture. The heat rushes to her cheeks as the memories flash in her mind. Luckily her mom is concentrated on the dishes she is putting in the dishwasher, so she doesn't notice her daughter getting flustered in front of little cakes.

Though her cheeks might still be warm when her mom comes back in front of her with a stack of dessert plates in her hands.

"Do you need help?" 

"No, I've finished." Anastasia shakes her head, putting the last piece of cake on the white angular plate, which is now covered with dots of orangey, and as the silhouette of her multi-tasking mom is already exiting the kitchen, she discreetly pulls out her phone and snaps a pic.

She clicks 'send', as she doesn't have time to write a proper message, and the pastries don't need it; they are already perfect, even though the 3D image cannot convey their delicious sugary scent.

It isn't the colorful photo she is staring at anyway; her gaze is on the long list of texts already exchanged with this recipient. She really has to delete them, but she can't bring herself to. They're nothing special, just small and casual talks; however, they could become dangerous pieces of evidence.

She hasn't seen Nathaniel since all his revelations yesterday. Yet they have kept in contact almost non-stop through their phones. He has called her last night to make sure she has got home safely and that she has been alright after everything she has discovered. 'Alright' may not be the best word to describe how she is feeling since then, but hearing his voice has felt right in all of this. 

He has seemed surprised when she has first answered the phone, his voice wavering through a sigh of relief as if he had been expecting he would never hear her accent again. From then, they have texted almost every hour, keeping it very light and avoiding cautiously the serious matters weighing on their stomachs. 

He has been answering each of her texts immediately, and now, she is fixing the screen, waiting for the typical vibration of her phone, while the emptiness is sinking in.

She puts her phone back in her pocket and follows her mom before thinking too much, or making others think too much of her delay to bring the desserts.

Though as she passes the dining-room door, she feels the faint vibration on her thigh, traveling throughout her whole body and almost making her trip over her own feet and drop the plate full of pastries, and her heart really does stumble on its own beats in curiosity.