Maine lifts her now warmed coffee to her mouth and drinks it. Her eyes travels down to the scar on her left hand and smiles at the memory. After that day, everything felt like a dream.
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College life was – Maine would always make this her Facebook status – a pain in the ass. Lesser time for fun and more times spent on books. So with the help of Alden, Maine decided that twice a week, they would meet up in the coffee shop near their house since she thought there wasn't any other public place as quiet as the library as the coffee shop in their neighborhood. There, they would enjoy each other's company in the sweetness of the pastry and bitterness of coffee as he helped her with her studies, especially those that were math-related.
It was in those times that Alden and Maine finally realized that wow, they'd matured.
He noticed that Maine started putting on light make-up to conceal the heavy eye bags from all that studying. Her hair perfectly accentuated her heart-shaped face. She noticed that he was gaining some muscles in all the right places of his body. The tiny stubble on his jaw also made him look manlier.
They would meet each other's gaze for short, lingering moments. Then they would turn away, blushing as they pretended to read their books. Too much looking was actually a bit dangerous, it made their hearts beat faster than normal.
Whenever he talked about how crappy his day was, she would occasionally burst into giggles and Alden didn't know why, but it made him smile however irritating it may be. He would never admit it to Maine's face, though. It would just give her another reason to taunt him.
"Oh, my gosh, this is so delicious! I want to have a child with the baker..." she uttered after tasting the slice of red velvet cake.
That snapped Alden out of his trance. "Maine Mendoza, where in the world did those words come from?! Have a child with the baker? Do you know how old the baker here is?"
Maine rolled her eyes at his dramatics. "It's just an expression. Don't get all worked up about it."
Alden frowned. "Worked up about it? A woman shouldn't say such words!"
Maine laughed incredulously and leaned forward to pinch his cheeks, which he immediately shook off.
"You're really cute, you know that?" She teased and sat back down . "But thanks for caring."
Alden nodded stiffly then quickly shook his head. "J-just concentrate on your work," he half-yelled, pointing at her book, as his face went crimson.
For a minute, they were both silent. Then Maine suddenly talked.
"How do you know that you've fallen in-love with someone?" She asked meekly, her eyes focused on her book so he wouldn't see her blushing terribly.
Alden raised his eyebrows, but took a while to think the question through.
"I don't know about you, but I know that I'm in-love if I don't have the courage to fart in front of her."
As though right on cue, the sweet potato he ate for breakfast decided that it was time to make an announcement... so he farted. Really, really loud.
Maine looked up at him, her face contorted into an odd combination of disgust and amusement... so does the other customers in the coffee shop.
"Eww." She finally said, flapping her hand in front of her. "Get out of here! Go fart on a plant!"
He snickered at the stupidity of what he'd done but at the back of his mind, he thought - Damn it, how he wanted to turn back the time and excuse himself out of the shop to fart outside.
