Unexpected Encounters

Chapter 44

"You want to try them right now?" Whitney asked as she watched me walk towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, why not?" I asked.

"Okay," she said as she stood up, "let's do it."

I brought the box over to the kitchen and began to lay everything out on the counter.

"Looks like there's three different drinks, which one should we try first?" I asked.

"Oh we're going for all of them tonight, huh?" She asked me.

"Well yeah if you're up for it," I said, "you bought them I want you to try them all."

"Alright," Whitney grinned, "if you insist, let's make the gin and tonic first."

I started to get everything out that we would need, and Whitney read the instructions.

"How good of a bartender do you think you're going to be?" She asked me.

"Oh I think I'll be great," I said with a smirk.

I knew that there was a lot that her and I should probably be talking about that didn't involve drinks, but I didn't want to push anything.

Maybe we could just forget that all of that shit happened and start over, I didn't exactly want to discuss it again.

Whitney started to read the instructions to me, pulling me out of my thoughts. I followed along and we had our first drink a few minutes later.

"Here goes nothing," I said as I held out a glass.

We both cautiously took a sip as we looked at each other. You wouldn't think that a gin and tonic would be too complicated to make, but I was still a little worried that I'd mess it up.

"Not bad," Whitney said as she nodded.

"That's all I get is a not bad?" I asked.

"Yup," she said, "you haven't earned anything better yet."

"Ohh okay," I grinned, "I see how this is going to go."

She shrugged at me and smiled as we both took another drink.

"Isn't this supposed to make three servings?" She asked.

"Yeah...but there's only two of us," I said, "I think we can handle it."

"Dangerous...but true," she responded.

We continued to talk as we finished our first drink, and thankfully the conversation continued to stay light.

As we started to make the next drink, Whitney asked me a question that caught me off guard.

"So what now?"

"What now?" I asked as I looked over at her, "with um, with what?"

"I mean now that you guys are all graduated, what now?" She asked again.

"Oh, right, that," I said, "well we'll all still be around here so thankfully we can keep the apartment and keep living together."

"Oh really?" Whitney asked.

"Yup," I nodded, "Kaia and I both have jobs in the area and Gabbie is staying here for grad school."

"Wow," she said, "that worked out well for you guys."

"Yeah I know, we're pretty excited," I responded, "I wasn't ready to get rid of them quite yet."

Whitney laughed as she sipped on her drink.

"So when I asked you how you'd been last night," I said, "you didn't sound too thrilled...was it a bad semester or something?"

"Oh, I just um, no, it wasn't bad," she said awkwardly.

"That's good I guess," I said as I ran my finger around the rim of my glass, "I was just curious."

"My TA wasn't quite as exciting," she said.

She looked at me over the top of her glass as she took a drink, and I could feel the heat flushing to my cheeks. I nearly choked on the sip that I'd been taking as I tried to keep my composure.

"That's uh - that's too bad," I said, "I am a pretty hard act to follow."

"Something like that," Whitney said as she kept her gaze on me.

I hoped I wasn't reading this the wrong way, but it definitely seemed like she was flirting with me.

"Well I think - we uh, we only have one more drink to make," I stammered.

She had me flustered.

"Right," she nodded, "the old fashioned, we can only make this one if you have cherries though."

"Yeah um, yeah I have those," I said as I cleared my throat.

I quietly took a deep breath as I went over to the fridge and pulled out the jar of maraschino cherries.

There was a part of me that just wanted to go for it with Whitney with the way she was acting, but I wanted to let her make the first move. She was the one that decided not to continue whatever we had between us, she knew what I wanted.

I set the jar down on the counter and started to make our last drink as she watched me.

"Looks pretty good," Whitney said as she came over and stood next to me.

My hands were resting on the counter, and I looked down as she put hers right next to mine.

I quickly glanced over at her before I went back to concentrating on the drink.

"Can I tell you something?" She asked quietly.

I nodded and looked back towards her again.

"I've um, I've really missed you," she said.

I felt my pulse quicken rapidly as she ran her pinky finger over the edge of my hand. She had no idea how much I'd been wanting to hear that.

"I've missed you too," I said, "like a lot."

"Good," she said as she let out a sigh of relief, "this could've been really awkward if you hadn't."

"Did you really think I was going to say no?" I asked with a laugh.

"I wasn't sure honestly," she shrugged, "you could've moved on by now."

"Definitely haven't," I said as I handed her the old fashioned.

"After all of that and you still forgot the cherries," Whitney said as she grinned at me.

"Excuse me if I was a little distracted," I said as I raised my eyebrows at her.

She reached around me and grabbed the jar off of the counter, getting close enough for me to realize how amazing she smelled.

She took three cherries out and slowly dropped one in each of our drinks, but she held on to the last one.

"Open up," she smirked.

I grinned back at her before I gladly obliged, opening my mouth and holding my tongue out.

She took a step closer to me and set the cherry on my tongue. I quickly ate it as I watched her hand linger near my face.

She rested it on the side of my neck as her thumb slowly trailed along my jaw.

"Close your eyes," she said quietly.

"Close my eyes?" I questioned.

She nodded as she kept her gaze locked on mine.

"I have one more thing for you," she said, still speaking barely above a whisper.

I reluctantly closed them as I stood there and waited with anticipation. I could still feel Whitney's hand on me, and I could tell that she had gotten even closer.

My heart pounded against my chest as I waited for what seemed like forever.

I felt her hand move around to the back of my neck as she pulled me closer and pressed her lips against mine.

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