Are You Mine?

iii.

"Could you pass the popcorn?" asked Felicia, nudging my knee with her foot. "Hey, Leah? It's on your side, you know. And the movie's about to get good."

Yawning, I stretched languidly underneath the doona and blinked at the screen as the hero leaned in close to the screen. It took me a few moments to compute Felicia's request. By then, she had nudged him again. The second time, a little more aggressively.

I reached out, my hand landing in the bowl of popcorn, and grabbed it from the table. Felicia threw me a disgusted look as I popped two bits of popcorn into my mouth and licked off some of the buttery goodness on my fingers before I presented her the bowl.

With a sigh, she grabbed the bowl and started shovelling mouthfuls of the kernels into her mouth, her gaze fixed on the screen just as the climax of the scene came to a head. I closed my eyes. No matter how hard I tried, romantic comedies were always so tedious, their contrived plots a repeat of tired old tropes and cliches.

Suspense thrillers, on the other hand, always had me on the edge of my seat. Horror, too. There was just something so visceral about those films. Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping through my veins, the triggering of my fight or flight responses...

Whatever the reason, I was looking forward to the next time we could sit together for a few hours to enjoy a film.

Movie nights with just the two of us were rare and few between. But, given that game night had been cancelled and I had the streaming service with a film Felicia wanted to watch, she had taken the train all to the way to my stop. It was unfortunate, really, that Damien's son had come down with a fever. I had been looking forward to finally nabbing the title of King Gamer.

Still, maybe taking a break for a week was a good thing. I could refine my strategy and maybe – I risked a glance over at Felicia – spend some more quality time with my best friend. It was nice to enjoy her company when it wasn't all about victory.

For far too long, we'd busied ourselves with daily routines: eat, sleep and go to work. If not for the weekly game nights, I doubted I would have been able to see Felicia as often as I did. Given her occupation, it made sense. As someone with plans to make a partner at her law firm, she was constantly working overtime.

When it wasn't work, Felicia preoccupied herself with dance, Pilates and cosplay. How she managed to fit all of that into a week boggled my mind.

I, on the other hand, worked odd jobs to keep a roof over my head. Ever since I graduated university with an art degree, I'd struggled to make ends meet. My resume was a veritable gamut of retail and hospitality jobs. Unfortunately, I'd never kept them for long.

Desperate, I'd gone back to university and got a degree in business, hoping it would turn my life around.

It didn't.

Until I'd landed that interview with the consultancy firm. I'd still not heard back from them. After checking my emails for the twentieth time on Wednesday night, I finally received a generic update from their HR department. There hadn't been much in it that I didn't already know. There had been a lot of applications. They were striving to get through it all and arrive at a decision as soon as possible.

Suffice it to say, it hadn't soothed my nerves.

Maybe that was the reason why I had accepted the offer to watch a rom-com, of all things, with the person that I liked rather than the butterflies in my stomach every time I heard her voice or saw her face.

I glanced over at Felicia as she crammed another handful of popcorn into her mouth.

God. How had I been so blind before? She was absolutely perfect and I had squandered my first and only chance with her so many years ago.

"Hey, so I know this question is out of the blue, but are you still seeing Lauren?" I asked as the credits finally began to roll.

Felicia kept her gaze fixed on the names of the actors. "Her name was Laura. But, um, no. We broke up last month over differences in how we wanted our relationship to go."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Fe. I didn't know."

She dabbed at the corner of her eyes. "That's how it goes, you know? What about you? Had any luck in the romance department?"

I knew she was trying to deflect. It made my heart ache to see the heartbreak she was still going through. In what was possibly the most unsubtle way possible, I scootched over on the couch and wrapped her in a warm embrace. She leaned in and I could smell the Pantene shampoo she used for her hair.

"Me? You already know how it is. I just can't seem to find the one person that I can commit to. Honestly, I'm probably destined to forever be a lone wolf. Always on the outside looking in."

Felicia snorted. "You are such a bullshitter, Leah. But I love you anyways. I don't think I could have asked for a better best friend than you."

"Honestly, that just goes to show what shit taste you have when it comes to friends," I teased.

"Leah!" Felicia twisted around to look up at me. The very picture of scandalous indignation and affront. I couldn't tell if it was real or not. And yet it was also so touching.

God. She was just so beautiful and cute.

Plucking up what courage I had, I kissed her on the cheek. "Didn't say that it was a bad thing," I said before grabbing the remote control of the TV. "Okay. Now that the boring romcom is over, may I suggest a much better movie that's packed with action? I promise it won't be overly long. That or we could watch this equally amazing film that the critics have raved about. It's a little bit on the long side but you know you're always welcome to crash here."