Tulip's Destiny

XX - Lettuce

"I don't understand..." Mikhail scroffed, massaging his temples in frustration.

"Hmm? Well uh..." Manuel started, loosening the tie of his suit to his convenience. "Basically they were explaining the operational cost to net sales ratio. The operating costs are going up relative to revenue and the board is insisting to force-implement cost control measures to improve the shortcomings..."

"Why?!" Mikhail gritted, standing up to look over the cityscapes in front of his office.

"According to the trend, it was the material and maintenance costs..."

"I just don't understand..." Mikhail said. "Wait a minute! Are we talking about the same thing?" Manuel stopped, walking behind him.

"Maybe I kissed her wrong? What if I'm a bad kisser and she was turned off?" Mikhail blurted in panic, turning to face his friend. "Woahhh... WAIT! You kissed Raine?" Manuel cheered on with a glint of excitement in his eyes. "How did it go? How was it?"

"I don't know!!!" Mikhail groaned, messing the back of his hair in distress.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"I feel like she's ignoring me..."

"Maybe you kissed her wrong? Used a lot of tongues? And it was messy?" Manuel snorted. "WAIT! Don't tell me that's your first kiss!"

"Manuel... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! OF COURSE IT WAS!"

"Maybe that's why!"

"You think so?"

"Nah!!! You're overthinking it. Maybe she's just busy." Manuel shrugged, walking away at ease.

"Maybe..." Mikhail breathed as his mind went back in time to the clearing in the tulip fields. He could still remember the glorious sights of that day. How vibrant the bulbs of each tulip were under the golden radiance of the sun. How wide her smile was. The smell of the fresh green grass and vapor of the stream. The calming silence accompanied by chirping birds in the background. The way his arms wrapped around her felt right. The sensations of their kiss as if in synchronization. The taste of her delicate lips...

He wasn't sure what he had allowed himself to feel. But their kissing that day was not within his control, he was pulled into it. A sense of beginning, middle, and end. A kiss with a heavy context; one that wasn't planned but happened like it was already written in stone. One that emanated from the warmth in their lips but felt as if from everywhere in his bitterly cold being. A kiss enough to take away years of nurtured numbness in his pain and loneliness.

Everything has changed. He knew everything would change from this point on.

***

Raine stood up from the pile of takeouts, noticing sweats beading up on her forehead. She headed straight to the kitchen and ran her hands under the running water. "You're fine. You're fine. Raine you're fine." Her voice broke, clenching her chest with both her hands.

Until her knees gave out and she slid down on the kitchen floor. Raine gripped the side of her hair furiously burying her face between her knees to make it dark. "This is not real. I'm in control. I'm in control." Raine countered, feeling a sense of impending doom.

"Raine!" Lara shouted. "Raine, what happened?"

"I don't know... it's back. It's back." Raine replied trembling in rapid breathing.

"You're fine. You're in control, Raine." Lara affirmed, grabbing both of her hands. "You're in control..."

"I am." Raine echoed.