My Place- Randall Carpio Love Story

Rose-colored

Randall always heard the term 'rose-colored lens' and assumed it was used to describe the naïve and hopeful, but as he sat at the bar and watched Remi pour her tenth pitcher of beer for some drunken, ogling college boys, he understood that anyone can view the world through rose-colored glasses. Hell, he couldn't fight the growing smile that seemed to want to permanently plant itself along his lips. The very same lips that had a lasting tingle from Remi's touch.

Remi told him she loved him. He could still hear the breathless words as she held him close, and afterwards, when she was too exhausted to lift her head from his chest she said them again, as if to reassure him that he hadn't dreamt the whole thing.

She loved him, and he wasn't sure how he had ever gotten to a place where a girl like her could feel anything for a guy like him. She was the epitome of beauty, and while she was less than graceful, she had an unmatched sense of humor and a fierce loyalty that made her even more lethal than most.

So sure, he may have metaphorically placed a pair of cute rose-colored glasses over his eyes, but who wouldn't after Remi Praisley said that she wanted to settle down with them? The girl who kept her clothes packed in her bag for an entire semester, would want to settle down with him!

"What's wrong with you?" Hamish asked as he picked through the nachos Remi had set in front of them. "You have this crazy smile. I'm almost scared to ask what you're daydreaming about."

Randall blinked, and moved his eyes from the draft beer to Remi, who stood behind the register as she exchanged a twenty for some smaller bills.

"Oh," Hamish nodded his head. "So... it finally happened then?"

Randall's eyes zipped over to Hamish dangerously. "What?" He cleared his throat and sat up straighter as he folded his forearms along the edge of the bar. "What finally happened?"

The start of a smirk pulled against Hamish's lips as he pointed from Randall to Remi, who threw her head back in uncontrollable laughter. Randall thought he was the only one sporting the love-lenses, but from the looks of it, Remi was too.

"I- we-" Randall choked on his own spit and raised his fist to beat against his chest as he coughed uncomfortably.

The coughing caught Remi's attention, who parted from her co-workers as she made her way over to them. As she approached, Hamish's smirk widened as Randall fought through his coughing.

"God, what's wrong?" Remi asked as she took a chip with nothing but a jalapeno on it. She stuck it in her mouth and loudly crunched as she watched Randall with pinched brows. "Did you start laughing at your own joke again?" A smile pulled back on her plump pink lips and made a sparkle of mischief fill her golden eyes. She looked towards Hamish with the same devious expression. "You know how often he does this?" She jutted her chin towards him. "He is his own biggest fan. I swear I don't even have to laugh at his jokes. He wouldn't hear me over his own howls-" she snuck a glance towards Randall at her pun.

Randall stopped and waved his hand through the air as a form of apology. "No- no-" he croaked, then grabbed his beer and chugged half of it in a single gulp to help alleviate the building tension in his chest. "That's not-" he stopped himself as a trickle of beer slipped down his chin.

Remi giggled and grabbed a napkin to hand towards him.

"Thanks-" he flashed an appreciative smile as he accepted the napkin and dabbed at his chin. He looked up at her, admiring the easy sway of her lips and the way her unruly short curls coiled around her face. She hated her short hair, but to him it made her look more wild. Her hair matched the crazed look to her eyes, and he found it all the more alluring. "Hamish- he-" Randall looked towards Hamish to explain the out burst.