pain, pleasure & eurovision ; Damiano David

KIWI

I try hard not to laugh. He reaches over with the hand the cig is in and I take a hit.

"I already know what we're gonna replace the kicker with."

"No Damiano, we can't have a ping-"

"A PING-PONG TABLE!"

I face-palm at that. Backstage at the ESC, we played it all the time and Damiano got really good. It was kind of obvious.

"You're the Rockstar, you pay!" I demand.

"Done!"

At home, we put the costumes neatly in a corner. It's already 5 pm and my belly starts grumbling.

"We have nothing to eat." Damiano says as he looks into the fridge.

I make my way there as well but instead look at what the freezer has to say.

"Doesn't look like nothing to me!" I pull out two buckets of ice cream and start portioning it into bowls.

We go sit on the balcony with the ice cream and glasses of wind and enjoy the last sunbeams. A light breeze runs through my hair. I feel his gaze resting on me and I stare back into his eyes.

"What's up?"

"Our ice cream is melting." he turns away.

I sigh and take my bowl. I'm not able to have a bite before Damiano already stops me.

"Tastes like feet." he recites the line from friends.

I grin.

"Due date 2020."

I put the bowl down without trying and now take the wine glass. We say cheers and take a sip.

"Much better." he looks quite happy even though we don't know what to eat.

The low sun tickles my skin. I close my eyes as I turn towards it.

"Y/n?"

"Hmm"

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." I say pretending, I know what he's talking about.

He chuckles. I open my eyes to see him face palm and I grin as well.

"I'm trying to have a moment here." he explains.

I look at him with raised eyebrows, a sign that he should continue.

"Thank you for not hating me."

I frown.

"Why should I?"

"You know why."

"I'm not in love with you Damia'!"

"Ouch" his hand moves to his chest and rests where his heart is.

I roll my eyes.

"But still thank you. All this time we were stuck here together but didn't hunt each other down."

"Yes, that's pretty great. I don't wanna know how many marriages failed during the lockdown."

"I know, ours wouldn't."

I smile. We sip our wine and have our last cigarette of the day. I show him the photos and videos I took at Eurovision and we have a few laughs and emotional moments.

"Alright, let's get inside, it's already dark out here." I propose.

He picks up the empty wine glasses and goes inside. I follow him, carrying the bowls with melted ice cream. He starts dancing through the living room over to the stereo.

I hear him rumble around a bit as I put away the dishes and refill our glasses.

"She worked her way through a cheap pack of cigarettes"

His voice halls louder through the room than Harry Styles himself. I watch him singing and dancing. He makes a few gestures with his arms and hands. His head and shoulders move to the beat. I join him and move to the music myself.

"She's driving me crazy." I hit the notes as clean as I can.

Damiano realises, I joined and jives over to me.

"But I'm into it, but I'm into it, I'm kinda into it."

I don't oversee him winking as he sings.

"It's getting crazy!"  it's my turn again.

"You should have become a singer."

"Yea right. You go be one yourself!"

He smiles bright and continues singing and dancing with closed eyes. I turn around and have a sip of wine.

Next I feel him take my hand. He pulls me roughly against him, our chests collide and my breath gets stuck in my throat for a moment.

He spins me around and I let out a little squeak of surprise. He laughs and continues pushing and pulling me around. I move my head from side to side.

"When she's alone, she goes home to a cactus
In a black dress, she's such an actress."

He points both index fingers at me. I gesture being taken aback playfully but rock on immediately.

We scream the lyrics in each other's faces. I spin him around and we dance a bit side by side. The neighbours must hate us because of things like these but we couldn't care less.

The song comes to an end. We drink up our wine glasses. I grab Damiano's phone and type in something on Spotify.

The first few soft guitar tabs of "Stairway to Heaven" are to be heard, one of his favourites by Led Zeppelin.

"Y/n!" He klicks with his tongue and steps over to me.

His left hand entangles with my right, the other one has a grip on my shoulder blade. I let my left arm rest on his, loosely. Our skins touch, his mouth is close to my ear now.

He hums along quietly as the singing starts. The scent of his cologne enters my nostrils because I'm so close to his neck.

We swing to the music. When there are faster parts we dance further apart and sing along. We always come back together, closely as it becomes softer.

Towards the end both Damiano's hands find it's way around my waist. My lower arms rest in his shoulders, calmly. We look each other in the eyes, our faces only inches apart.

The sound fades, our bodies slow down and finally come to a stand. The foreheads pressed together, I close my eyes.

His torso moves up and down against my chest which is connected to his without a gap.

"Choose your next move wisely." I whisper.

Damiano's arms wrapped tighter around my waist throughout the dance. I am much more aware of his cologne than usually when we are close to one another.

"I don't plan on moving, right now. You think of something..." he says quietly.

"I don't plan on thinking too much, you know?" I whisper.

Before I know what I'm doing, my hands touch his face and I connect my lips to his.

Again.

...................
jb