After hours

Chapter Thirty-Nine

                “Listen,” I took another large gulp of my drink. “Daniel, I’m sorry about everything.”

                He nodded. “Me too.” He put his hand on top of mine. “I was a real jerk.” We both laughed, it was true. “I’m glad after everything we’ve been through that we can still be friends.” He said earnestly.

                I smiled but it felt forced. “Me too.” I meant it when I said it, but something inside of me fought the words as they came out. I chalked it up quickly to the alcohol and a very, very long day.

                “So.” I let the words linger in the air for a moment before continuing. “How are you and Victoria?”

                “Good, good. And you and Miguel?” He pulled his hand away and cradled his cup with both of them.

                “Very well thank you.”

                We fell into an uncomfortable silence. We drank our drinks awkwardly to appear busy at that moment. He picked at something on his shoe and I flattened my dress.

                “Ryan!” He groaned abruptly and threw his head back. “I lied.” He whined loudly.

                “I-I’m sorry?”

                “It’s not good, good. It’s not even good. It’s horrible. The whole relationship, it’s horrible. Everything is ruined. All we do is fight, she said she doesn’t want to know who it was but every time I get a call, or a message, or even just walking down the street she accuses me of sleeping with every girl we see. She doesn’t do anything anymore. She just lays around in her pajamas with ice cream in her hair and chocolate in her teeth. She snaps every time I try to talk to her but cries if I don’t! I just can’t even stand it!” He blabbered on quickly and frantically waving his hands vividly through the air as he spoke. I suspected this was the start of a serious mental breakdown. A breakdown that had been a long time coming.

                He was still rambling on about some horrible flannel night gown she refused to take off when I grabbed his hand. He stopped abruptly. “It’s okay Daniel, just calm down.” I said as gently as I could through my utterly shocked voice.

                He looked down to my hand and then back up to me. And suddenly he’d leaned forward breaking the invisible barrier that had kept us separated. We had already been sitting close together so he didn’t have far to go. He cupped my face in either an act of passion and need, or reassurance that I couldn’t pull away from him.

                He kissed me and everything I knew disintegrated. The only thing I knew in this moment. His lips on top of mine. The familiar way his lips burned when wetted by scotch. The way he let out a soft ‘mmph’ when our lips connected as he always did when he wanted me badly. The way he brought his tongue across my lips into the kiss begging for admittance. He had kissed me first and in return I had pushed off my chair so fast to meet him on his own that my chair fell from the momentum and crashed to the ground. I broke the kiss when I felt my lap was sopping wet. We’d knocked out drinks over as well.

                I gasped and jumped off of his lap. “Oh my God!” I looked down to my dress with wide eyes. “This is never going to come out. Oh, why did I wear white today?”

                Daniel stood to meet me. “It’s alright Ryan. Calm down.” He glanced around the room, everyone was staring at us. How could they not be? The chair had drawn everyone’s attention and my loud cursing was keeping it. “Let’s get out of here?” He suggested in a light but strained tone.