Nothing Less

Chapter Two.

Songs for this chapter are:

TiO- Zayn

Not Like the Movies- Katy Perry

Acquainted- The Weeknd

                   

...

"We have so much cake left," Nora says, lifting a plastic fork to her mouth. We are sitting at my kitchen table now, sharing the leftover cake.

Small crumbs of white cake and green icing fall onto the table between us. Turns out, Ellen doesn't really like sweets. She doesn't like flowers, being a teenager, or cake. I don't know what kind of devil she is, but I'll gladly eat the cake for her.

Despite hating most things, she did enjoy our company. Though she tried to fight the smile on her face, she failed, and the three of us had a good time. Nora turned the shop's OPEN sign to CLOSED and we sang Happy Birthday. We discovered that I'm a terrible singer. Even without our candles, we made sure she knew we cared that it was her birthday.

Nora played pop radio on her phone and Ellen talked to her more than she ever has me. Our makeshift party only lasted about a half hour. Ellen was getting anxious about the shop being closed and I got the feeling she was tired of talking about herself. To me, the people who don't like to talk about themselves are the ones I want to talk to the most.

"More for us," I say and grab another fork from the counter and dig into the corner of the cake. Nora's sitting in the chair next to me with one knee propped up on the seat. The little pizza slices on her socks are equal parts quirky and adorable. I reach my hand out and poke at the top of her foot.

"What's with these?" I ask her.

She licks her lips. "Life's too short to wear boring socks," she shrugs her shoulders and brings a forkful of cake to her lips.

I look down at my own socks, white with gray on the heels and toes. Yikes. These are boring. And tube socks. No one wears tube socks anymore.

"Is that your life motto?"

She nods at my question. "One of them," she says with her mouth full.

There's icing on the rim of her mouth and I wish we were in a romantic comedy movie so I could reach over and wipe it off with my finger. She would get all mushy and butterflies would swarm both of our stomachs and she would lean into me.

"You have icing on your lips," I tell her, doing the exact opposite of a romantic gesture.

She swipes at her mouth with her thumb, missing the spot.

"You're not going to wipe it off for me? It's the perfect set-up for a kiss in the movies."

Her mind is in the same place as mine. I like the comfort of that for some reason.

"I was just thinking that. If this were a movie, I would lean over and wipe it for you," I say with a smile.

Nora grins, icing still messy on her lips. "You would lick it off your finger and I would watch your lips, the way they part."

"I would look at you while I did," I say.

"I would sigh as you licked your finger clean. Never breaking eye contact," she adds to my movie scene.

My stomach flutters. "You would have butterflies in your stomach,"

"The wild, angry kind that make me feel like I'm going crazy," Nora's eyes meet mine. She's smiling and she's just so pretty.

I continue, "I would tell you that you missed a spot and lean over again. Your heart would be beating so fast,"

"So fast that you could hear it."