It happened over whiskey

Chapter 12

Amber's POV:

“Babe, can you please pick these from the supermarket?”, Ethan asked me while passing me a list of items while we both sat in his kitchen. “You again want peanut butter? What is wrong with you? I just bought one along when I came here two days back, remember?”, I said while looking at the list with a pen stuck between my teeth.

He rested his hands on his hips before turning to look at me and replied, “Did you forget eating those crackers stuffed with peanut butter and marshmallows just before thanksgiving and what about the peanut butter cookies that you baked an hour ago?” I looked at him like a deer caught in headlights and slapped my forehead for my lack of memory.

“Okay okay! My bad. And why have you mentioned in the end that ‘All the ingredients of banana bread’? I just brought a loaf for you yesterday while coming home with Ryan”, I said but bit my tongue as soon as his name escaped my mouth. When he left me yesterday standing on the balcony alone with my thoughts, I had pledged to myself that I won’t ever think or talk about him.

He was a chapter in my life that I will always cherish but I know it isn’t healthy for my peace of mind and there is absolutely nothing that is ever going to happen between us. But I guess, I was failing to keep my resolution intact on the very first day.

Even while reading the morning newspaper, I saw his picture with my college alumni with the headline ‘Ryan Parker in designer college to share his success recipe’ and how I just stared at it for a few minutes probably thinking that it will speak to me. Just then Ethan tapped me on the forehead with a spatula to bring me back from my bizarre thoughts.

“Ouch!”, I said before rubbing my forehead and then kicking him to earn a similar groan on his part. “Again in the thoughts of Mr. Sexy pants?”, he asked me while folding his hands on the kitchen counter and looking at me intently, expecting a reply.

But I just ignored his question while focusing on the list in my hand. He took the list from my hand and when I tried to snatch it back from him, he just tore it into pieces and dropped them in the dustbin.

I raised my eyebrows at him, questioning his action because it nearly took him an hour to note those items after checking the pantry. He shrugged before saying, “I have a copy with me. Now, if you are done talking about everything else, start spilling.”

I looked at him before covering my face with my hands and continued, “I am just sad that he won’t be coming to the bar from today onwards. I feel stupid for even considering the idea of singing karaoke with him. My one moment of happiness has caused me months or maybe an entire life of not seeing him again.” Ethan took my hands in his before adjusting my hair behind my ear and said, “You like him, don’t you?”

I shook my head denoting a clear no but I knew my secret would soon be out in the open especially when Ethan was the one investigating me. “I know you since we both were kids, Amber. I know you like him or maybe there is something more than that and I also know you will see me as a cockblocker after my next statement but baby, Ryan is off limits. Even if we consider the slightest possibility that he likes you too, what will you do of the fact that he is married? And if we were to believe those magazines and the daily news broadcast, than they clearly indicate that he is quite happy with his wife. It’s honestly good for you that he took a step back otherwise this liking towards him that you are slowly developing would have taken no time to turn into something so big that there would be no stepping back from it. Fight or flight, this would be the only option left then”, he said before pulling me into a bear hug.

I knew he was right but I never knew that it would pain me so much to lose someone who wasn’t even a part of my life yet. I wiped the few tears that kept lingering on my cheek before kissing him on the cheek.