you got the same eyes as your father, and you carry the same kind of tempter too

Chapter 2 - Amaryllis

He woke up slowly, blinking out the grime from his eyes. His mouth felt as dry as his love life, his hand flailing to the side to try and grab the water bottle he kept next to his bed. Instead, he hit something soft and warm, which resulted in a small groan next to his ear. He turned his head to see Robyn, face lax in sleep and somehow holding onto his shirt even while passed out. Looking down, Julian saw they were both rid of most of their clothes, with only their underwear and Robyn's tragically complicated crop top still on.

Grabbing his phone, he squinted at the screen and decided not to bother getting up, seeing as it was his one day off in the week. He threw his phone back onto the nightstand and went back to sleep, turning on his side to let Robyn spoon him.

The aroma of coffee was too tempting not to open his eyes, even if he knew the fate that awaited him. He somehow made his way to the kitchen, grabbing two hoodies as he left his bedroom. His roommate sat slumped at the kitchen counter, fiddling on her phone and with her own half-empty cup of coffee by her head. Her cup was ugly and chipped, with an atrocious cartoon drawing of a dog, visibly held together by crazy glue and faith only. Julian unzipped and untied her shirt as he passed behind her, throwing her the second hoodie as she sighed in happiness.

He filled his own (spotless, expensive, gaudy) mug and sat down on the ridiculous yellow counter stools she'd made him buy at IKEA. As he sipped his coffee, he wondered whether he should try detangling the knot in her hair or leave her to suffer it alone.

"Yeah, I think it's gonna be over for a while, this time."

He hummed, raising an eyebrow. Robyn was usually more optimistic, especially after a night out like they'd had. Her foolish romantic heart held on hope harder than his own mother held hope he'd take over the company. And his mother had threatened to sue.

"Elliot texted me Dami's moving away."

He choked on his sip of coffee, coughing wetly as Robyn raised a hand to thump on his back.

"What the fuck?"

"Yeah, that's what I said, too," she sighed. "He said something about needing to find himself

when we last talked. I guess I hadn't expected he'd like, leave and travel the world."

"Is that what he's doing?"

"Fuck if I know." She passed a clumsily manicured hand through her hair, wincing when her fingers got caught in the knot. "Elliot didn't say. He did tell me he'd cut holes in all of Dami's underwear for me, though."

"That's something. I could call someone and put him on the no-fly list."

The brunette chuckled, slumping back onto the counter. "That's nice. But no. He doesn't deserve that."

"He doesn't deserve you," Julian muttered.

"Yeah, I'm too good for him."

—-----------------------------

"You know, I really think I'm in love with him. Like, I'd spend my whole life with him if I could."

Julian looked up from his textbook. "But?"

"I'm not gonna wait for him. If he doesn't want to settle down, that's his problem. I'll be there when he wants to, but I'm not going to stay celibate or single in the meantime. And if I'm unavailable when he comes back, tough shit, you lost your chance."

He set down his pen to look at Robyn, who'd been laying on the couch upside down, pretending to study her flashcards.

"That's fair." She grinned at him and abandoned the card in her hand to grab her phone, take a quick selfie and shoot a text. "There we go, he knows my terms."

"Bet you dinner tonight he's going to sulk and not answer for at least a week."

"Oops, he just sent me back a voice message, you lose, idiot."

"Damn." He waited patiently as she raised her phone to her ear and listened to whatever her weird ex-boyfriend-slash-true love-slash-fuck friend had sent her.

"He just said he understands and wishes me happiness. Don't know why he couldn't have texted me that."

"He's weird."

She sighed fondly. "Yeah, he is."

—-------------------------------

He stared dead-on at the shocked barista as he rattled off his order, pulling out his card to pay for the espresso and sugar atrocities he'd asked for. Robyn was half-hanging onto his shoulder, peering at the pastry display and giggling at the weird names the wanna-be eccentric coffee shop they were in had given their muffins. She seemed lighter, happier than she'd been since Damian had left to go "soul-searching". Julian could pinpoint some of the reasons, including getting a positive review for her internship demand and petting a dog that morning, but also felt that it might be attributed to the simple fact that she'd gotten good action the night before.

She'd gone out with friends from her class, promising to text Julian updates, and come back around 8 the next morning, grinning and sporting bruises and stolen sunglasses. She'd convinced Julian to go out for coffee at a new location, one of their favorite past-times, saying she needed coffee to tell him everything, and the in-house coffee they had just wouldn't do.

She skipped up to the counter when the barista called out their order, grabbing her coffee-lacking, pink, red and orange whipped cream and sugar monstrosity and taking a large sip of it. She also swiped Julian's black, one shot of vanilla and seven shots of espresso coffee, pushing it towards him in disgust, as if he was the crazy one between the two of them.

By the time he'd drunk half his coffee, she'd told him about three of the makeout sessions she had, waved off two different bewildered strangers, and regaled him with the story of who she'd followed home. She'd laughed at Julian's face when she said the guy had a mattress bare on the floor, saying that his skills more than made up for it. Robyn tried to explain the thing he'd done with his tongue, but couldn't quite grasp the logistics of it, and settled for going into details about how she'd almost broken the poor fool's nose sitting on it. The guy was apparently into it, but hadn't stopped her from wiping off the blood before getting back to work.

Julian was both horrified and fascinated, pushing aside the judgmental voice sounding like his mother to the back of his mind. He preferred looking at his friend's bright smile and enjoyed how easily she made him relax. Her words from a few weeks before returned to him, and he mused to himself that he wouldn't mind spending his life with her, either.