The Sun in My Eyes

34 Flicker and Sway, Still Dancing on the Aftertaste

Thank you so much for your patience. Between the world imploding and general life stress, this chapter took me forever. I hope you like it!

**

Bobby awoke groggy, but optimistic. 

Lili still slept soundly, wrapped in his arms and he stroked the curves of her face. Even quiet in sleep, she filled him with wild, reckless emotion. He wanted to pull her close and never let her go. He wanted to wake her and make love. He wanted to tell her how much she meant to him over and over.

But he had work to do.

He'd never asked a girl to be exclusive in a straightforward way. He always chose to be cute and coy. "Maybe I kinda don't wanna date anyone else right now," sort of thing. Leaving plenty of room to backpedal if the girl wasn't interested. But Lili deserved something more than that, something honest and definitive.

He pulled himself out of bed, feeling the loss of her body like a missing limb. She'd been tossing and turning all night and the bedding was in disarray. He stopped to cover her feet with the blanket before making his way to the kitchen.

Magic cupcakes weren't the solution, but maybe a little sweetness could ease them into the conversation they needed to have. He sifted through his baking cupboard to see what he had to work with. The producers had restocked since the last time he'd baked. There were tins of fruit filling, small bottles of liqueur, a jar of lemon curd. Lots of chocolate. It was a bit like being on a cooking show where they gave you mystery ingredients and you had to turn them into something delicious.

Chocolate was definitely the way to Lili's smile. Working fast, he made fudgy chocolate cupcakes filled with pink champagne cream, topped with a shiny layer of ganache. Using the ganache as a flat canvas he meticulously piped the outline of two otters holding hands on each cupcake.

Smiling, he chose the one he'd piped the best and plated it, but it didn't seem quite enough. He looked around the kitchen. There was a floral arrangement on the table of hot pink daisies and dainty bubblegum pink roses. He picked out the least wilted hot pink daisy and some baby's breath. After washing them, he arranged them on the plate beside the cupcake. Perfect. He covered the plate and took it to the bedroom. Lili was still asleep even though everyone else was awake and shuffling around mostly conscious. He sat it on the bedside table and headed upstairs. He wanted to stay and see her reaction, but some part of him said it was a bad idea to linger. She deserved to enjoy it without the burden of his ego getting in the way.

After a long hot shower, he wrapped the towel around himself and headed downstairs. The bedroom was empty except for Lili, bent over the cubby, refolding his pile of shirts from the night before. The daisy he'd picked out was tucked haphazardly in her curls. His heart raced looking at it and he circled the bed and wrapped her in his arms.

Instinctively it seemed, she curled hers around his neck, "You're all wet."

"I'm giving you a pre-shower," he said.

"What if I'd already showered?"

"It would be a shower before your next shower. A post pre-shower...shower."

"You don't know how words work." She laughed as he rubbed his wet locs on her cheek.

"Too true." He ran his fingers over the petals of the daisy in her hair. "You look so beautiful in the mornings. If it weren't for the cupcakes, I would have stayed in bed with you all day."

She raised an eyebrow. "Bobby, I haven't showered, I'm still in my pyjamas and my hair is a frizzy mess."

"Doesn't matter. You're still gorgeous." He played with one of her messy curls. "So..."