new york city

2 | chocolate marmalade

"IT'S BEEN FOREVER."

    Anne looked up from her coffee at Oliver's voice. It was deep and manly, the testosterone seeping through his voice making her nervous. She took a sip of her coffee, tasting the rich drink before responding.

   "I suppose so, yes."

   Oliver laughed, it was loud and just as deep as his voice, if not deeper. His white teeth shone through his smile and his brown eyes disappeared behind his lids when his face crinkled. Unbeknownst him, a smile grew on Anne's face as she watched him laugh.

   "Why are you talking like we're in the 18th century? We knew each other before, very well in fact." Anne tensed at the last part, forcing a light laugh.

   "Let's not talk about that," she muttered tensely, her teeth gritted uncomfortably. Oliver smirked at her discomfort, and she wanted to smack him oh, so badly. He leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms behind his head. His smirk grew when he saw the waitress blush as she stared at his biceps, and Anne followed his gaze to the girl at the counter.

   Rolling her eyes, she muttered, "Same as always, I see."

   Oliver's eyes flashed to her, and his smile grew. "What can I say, the ladies love me." He shrugged indifferently. Anne scoffed, starting to worry that her eyeballs would fall out of her face due to how much she was rolling them today.

   "Alright, alright, I'll stop. How are you? I can tell you've been busy." He leaned forward on the table, his hands clasped together and his eyes focused on hers. Anne sat back, avoiding his brown eyes and crossing her arms over her chest.

   "I mean, recording's been fun and working with other people is great-"

   "I asked how you were. Not how your job was doing. Are you happy?" he cut in, and Anne nearly reprimanded him for talking over her. Just like old times. She opened her mouth to talk then closed it again, breathing heavily.

   "I guess I'm good... I've been, as you said, pretty busy, but lately it's been pretty tiring. More than usual. I can handle it though." He smiled at her fondly and Anne fought off the childish blush threatening to spread across her cheeks.

   'I can't do this. Not again,' she thought, mentally scolding herself for even thinking it could actually happen. Oliver smirked again, and Anne tensed, wondering if she had been caught.

  "Of course you can. I mean you were able to handle my-" This time, Oliver was cut off by Anne hand slapping over his mouth, restricting any sound from leaving his mouth. Her mouth was agape in disbelief and her face was flushed in embarrassment. Oliver laughed against her small hand, and she shushed him loudly, attracting the eyes of many other customers.

   "What are you talking about?!" she hissed, her face still flushed. She had sat back down, and Oliver's mouth was no longer covered, so he was free to laugh as loudly as he pleased. "We never - I - what?!"

   "My attitude, my attitude. My, my, in the years we spent apart, you've truly landed your head in the gutter." Anne huffed in disbelief, watching his chuckling face in annoyance. He was so handsome. Oliver finally started to calm down and gestured to the waitress for the check.

   "As entertaining as your dirty mind is," He smirked at Anne who felt a light blush tint her cheeks again but forced it down, trying to calm her beating heart. "I have to go. My mom's getting married in like, 10 minutes."

   "You don't seem too worried about being late," she said, watching him sign the small receipt and hand the waitress his card. He smiled bitterly, catching Anne off-guard and laughed lightly. "I'm not."

   Anne stood after him, pulling on her leather jacket and grabbing her purse from the vacant chair beside hers. She followed him to the door and they waited at the counter for a brief moment before he left, paparazzi flashing picture of the "SINGER/ACTRESS ANNE LEE'S NEW BOYFRIEND" 

   "Why not?" she asked as they walked through the crowd. She put on her sunglasses, the bright flashes hurting her eyes. He suddenly grabbed her hand, making her gasp lightly. How cliche. She looked up at him and he avoided her gaze as he walked her to her car. He opened the door, and she stepped in, still watching him nervously.

   "Cause it's her eighth one."

  That's the last she heard from him before the door closed and flashing lights surrounded her.

  "So how was it?"

   Anne looked up at Ava over her bowl of pesto before shrugging. After the "date" she had started to feel strange. Nervous? No. Period? No. Butterflies? Maybe.

  "I mean, the pictures online made you two seem very cosy," Ava said, not looking up from her phone. Anne hummed and jumped when Ava's fork hit her bowl loudly. "What's gotten into you today? You're always so loud and-and uh.."

  "Annoying?"

  "Yeah! Wait no. Uh, rambunctious! Yeah."

  Anne laughed at her before shaking her head. "I'm fine. Just tired. The paps are getting really bad lately."

   "Probably cause your management leaked your location to them." Anne looked up at Ava who just shrugged. "Come on, I work at the local newspaper. Did you think we wouldn't get the message?"

   "I didn't think they would go that far to get attention on me," Anne muttered. She looked down, feeling something nudging her leg. 

   "Hey Cher," she greeted the chocolate brown pitbull. The dog smiled at her and Anne rubbed it's forehead before washing the dishes, letting Cher go off on her own. Cher's fur color reminded her of Oliver's eyes.

  'Dammit. I can't do this again. Why am I like this?' she thought angrily, scrubbing the pesto off of the bowls with gusto. 'He did this before, and I promised I wouldn't fall for it again.'

   "Oh yeah, Anne!" Ava jogged into the kitchen, standing next to Anne at a distance, dodging the stray bubbles and water. "Mark and Liam invited us over for dinner tomorrow, so you don't need to worry about cooking."

  "Oh okay. Thank God, I was wondering if I needed to go the store tomorrow."

   Heading up to her room, Anne realized she was just too exhausted to write today, so she immediately headed to her bed, but had a start when she saw Cher and Marmalade cuddled up beside each other on her bed.

  'Chocolate Marmalade,' she thought tiredly, her brain fuzzy. Tapping Cher's butt, she laid down and hummed when Bucky curled into her side. She vaguely heard Cher leaving the room, probably heading towards Ava's room or the couch. Marmalade fumbled her way over to Bucky and Anne, before laying down beside them as well.

   Warm and content, they fell asleep.

  ~Sarah