Fatal wounds

8

Theo

"Can I have another virgin piña colada?" The order coming from the woman beside me is the only order I've heard from her in the past hour.

She may claim it wasn't better than her mocktails but her repeatedly ordering it says otherwise.

"Don't give me that look!" She laughs seeing me raise a brow. If all I accomplished today was making her laugh and smile, I'd die a happy man.

She sips on her drink, each time she starts a new one her pupils slightly dilate with her first taste. Beside her, Brian is in a daze as Brooke laughs at something he said.

"So are you certain I don't win this challenge?"

She shakes her head with a sweet but teasing smile. "Well if you did win there'd be no reason to give you a second chance at it, is there?"

Despite the clear teasing, her taking back what she said makes me quickly retract. "You win. I'll have to try again next time."

"I always win." She winks. Winking, such a strange thing but she makes it look profoundly beautiful. The way her eye quickly closes while her other twinkles with mischief. I can't help but look at her the way she looked at me earlier.

I'm only human, and she's beyond gorgeous. She's wearing a red dress that outlines her upper body showcasing her curves, the lower part of the dress is less fitted but does nothing to hide the shape of her hips. The slit that runs up her leg has me looking away, it feels wrong to look at her exposed skin.

She's the one who put on the dress but maybe she doesn't want me to look so instead I look back at her face.

She nods to something Brian says. Strands of her brown hair that have fallen from her low bun and cover her face swinging along with her earrings that shine under the lights.

How can she make nodding seem so graceful? Her cheeks redden when she's sees me staring, "what?" She mumbles covering her mouth with her hand. "Do I have something?"

I shake my head, giving her a soft smile. "No, I just wanted to see if you were okay." The last time we were here, only a short month ago she had just lost her mother. How does someone heal from that?

"Okay?" She questions dropping her hand to her glass.

"Yes, I mean, you said you'll be okay last time we were here." Recognition flashes in her eyes and a small smile graces her face.

Her eyes briefly flicker to her drink before she looks at me. "The truth?"

"Always." I nod watching her visibly swallow.

"It's been hard." She laughs, the same bitter laugh I heard the night we met. "So hard. And I get that it hasn't been that long but some nights I want to hug her and talk to her then I remember that she's not a phone call away like before. I remember that I can't drive to her house and spend the night if I feel like it, it's just hard."

"But," she sighs, a small but genuine smile taking over, "there's times, like earlier, where I'm reminded about something she did or something we did and I'm so grateful we got the time we did."

"You don't realize how grateful you are for the little moments until they're gone." I tell her, letting her know that I understand what she means. "So what reminded you of her earlier?"

She lets out a small chuckle, "My mom took me to Jamaica when I was little. She had just graduated school and became a licensed therapist, and she wanted to celebrate so we went to Jamaica for the weekend. Just the two of us. She was ordering those fruity cocktails and they looked so good." Her expression is dazed as if she were reliving that very moment.