Two Miles to Heaven

-Chapter 18- «Women in Prison»

The bedtime clock stressfully ticked the minutes of a long 5 am and I simply couldn't get any sleep, no matter how many times I squeezed my eyelids.

It's quite astonishing how a simple 2 seconds kiss can leave you hours thinking about it.

Just the feeling of a first sensual contact with the woman who's been haunting roughly two-thirds of my thoughts gave me butterflies in my stomach that left me turning nervously on my sides on the bed, trying to calm myself and drift off to sleep.

What was she thinking? Is she trying to intentionally give me false ideas? Or is she feeling the same thing as I do?

So many questions that were left unanswered and it's seriously starting to piss me off.

Maybe it's a message from the universe to urge me into making the first step in order to have a clear conscience, once and for all.

I desperately wanted to grab my phone, call her and curse the hell out of her so she could understand that playing with someone's emotions is not cool, even if it's unintentional.

What a disappointment it would be if I made up all those scenarios in my head when in fact, she did it only out of a stupid Christmas tradition.

The sun slowly took a peek at New York's horizon from my bedroom's bay window, declaring that a new day began with a not-so-very cold morning.

There was no point of trying to get some rest anymore so I went to the kitchen to make some cherry tea and light a cigarette in order to reduce the stress.

What is Kendall doing at the actual moment? Burning a toast? Putting some makeup on? Thinking about the kiss like I was?

Let's not forget that she drank a lot of Rosé, last night. It may have been an unconscious move on her part.

They say that people tend to be honest when they're drunk so I can only hope that this statement is true, after all.

-"Rise and shine, beautiful residents of the city that never sleeps!" the vintage radio's presenter exclaimed. "Start brewing your coffee beans and mixing your waffle dough because today promises to be a wonderfully sunny day, on this very chilly December..."

I rolled my eyes at her cheerful mood, not feeling it at all, stealth smoking. No text messages on my phone from her.

Either she's still sleeping or I am dramatizing on my own over a meaningless peck because I really doubt that she'd have the nerve to do that, then act like it never happened.

Or... Maybe she's avoiding me because she didn't want to do it first, fearing that I'd reject her?

"Okay, you need to shut it, Miles. You will ruin a beautiful day if you have the intention to spend it trying to seek for a satisfying answer to your never-ending questions. So, you better do something productive about it or simply go back to bed." My brain suddenly woke my senses up, winning the battle over my heart.

The only thing that would distract me is bulky work so I instantly thought about Patricia and her husband.

Did they ever have a conversation after that terrible encounter that I had with Eric, yesterday?

I'm pretty sure that he paid her a visit to get answers.

My phone rang, it was a message. "Thank you for the party. It was amazing. I really had fun spending Xmas with you. –Kenny".

I momentarily threw my phone back on the kitchen counter after reading her text.

Why do you keep doing this, Ken? Why do you keep giving me false hopes that I desperately want to get rid of?