Warm

27

Being friends came naturally to us.

Keanu started coming into my office when I'm alone and we talk, laugh, and joke just as friends would. I find comfort in his friendship. I even find myself glancing at the door, hopefully expecting it to be Keanu.

"Wait so then what happened to Xu Xian and the white snake?" I ask. Keanu and I sit in my office, sharing a bowl of cut fruit, as he tells me a story about a white snake turning into a woman and falling in love with a scholar named Xu Xian. But an evil man tries to seperate them by poisoning her to reveal her true nature to Xu Xian, who dies of shock when he discovers the woman is actually a snake.

"So then the white snake gets a herb that brings Xu Xian back to life. And they go through many more obstacles like her kidnapping, her pregnancy, and separation but at the end, Xu Xian saves her from the kidnapping and they live happily ever after." Keanu takes a bite out of a cubed watermelon. "Pretty sad story right?"

"Sad, how?" I ask.

"Well, they had to go through all of these things just to be together. He let her get kidnapped, so Xu Xian probably feels like he didn't deserve her. It's sad."

I chew on a slice of cucumber. "That's dumb." His moss-green eyes watch me attentively as I speak. "It's not sad. They lived happily ever after right?" He nods. "Then they probably don't even remember the whole transforming snake thing, the dying, the kidnapping. If they're happy, it's because the bad has already passed."

He sits silently munching on his fruit, pensive as he twirls it around his fork. It takes me a moment to realize why. It's the difference in who we are now. 5 years ago if he would've told me this story, I'd have been the one to find it sad and not very fulfilling but he would've said I was dumb. We've switched positions. There's a small ache in my chest when I think about it. Having similar thoughts to the ones I had 5 years ago is not something I want Keanu to have. My mind was not a pretty place back then.

The phone ringing makes both of us jump. It's the Brothers. I reject the call.

"Who was that? Your boyfriend?"

I scoff. "Yeah right."

"You and Mateo seemed pretty close that one day," Keanu says cautiously, picking at fruit.

My words jumbled together. "Psshhh, w-what? That was- it was- no." Clearing my throat I continue, "It was the Brothers. You know them right?"

He scowls at their name. "Why are they calling here?"

"They keep wanting to get their so-called art displayed here. I've already declined their offer like 3 times but they keep calling so I just reject them."

Keanu pauses. "Be careful with them. They're very .... sketchy."

"Okay, mom, anything else?"

His lop-sided smile makes an appearance. "Oh right, I forgot I was talking to the most sarcastic person I know."

I frown, wrapping my arms around the bowl of fruit. We've almost finished most of it. "Give me back my fruit."

Keanu clamps his hands down on the bowl, pulling for it. We tug-o-war with the fruit before I let go of my grip, the fruit splashing all over him. A piece of pineapple gets stuck in his hair.

I try to stifle the bubbling chuckle. But Keanu's uncontainable smile makes me burst out in laughter.

"You're the worst," he chuckles. He picks off the fruit on him but misses the pineapple tangled in his hair.

"Come here," I say. Keanu leans over, lowering his head so I can get it. I pluck it from his hair and he raises his head again. 

I imagine that at this moment, if someone saw us from the side like this, they'd think we were puzzle pieces. Because when his forehead dips slightly to meet the start of his nose, my head fills it in. Where his features dip, mine fill them and vice versa. Perfectly fitting puzzle pieces. And our lips would be where the two-pieces slide together, clicking to complete a piece.