Her Bundles Of Joy

“What did you mean back at the bar?”

Nicole diverted her attention back to Evan, who was staring at her. She felt rather shy under his intense gaze and chose to sit down on the other loveseat. The blond man was still waiting for an answer. Nicole sighed. All too suddenly she’d started to feel less drunk and more on the sober end of the alcohol continuum.

“I…I don’t know why I said that. I was mad that you, uh, left me all alone. Yeah, that’s it. You left me all alone in this party full of strangers, and it pissed me off. I thought you wanted to spend the holiday with your best friends.” Nicole was impressed by how good she was at lying on the spot. Her father would have a heart attack if he could see her right now. Lying was definitely not something the pastor’s daughter should ever do.

“I’m sorry about that,” he sighed. “I didn’t mean to do that. I was drunk; in fact, I still am drunk. There’s this bench in the kitchen and I just kind of fell asleep on it.”

“Wait, what? You were asleep? I thought you had headed off with that girl.”

“Mildred? I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s still waiting for me downstairs. I told her I needed a glass of water, that’s why I was in the kitchen. Saw the bench, my body suddenly felt too heavy, and I decided to sleep it off. It did help with the dizziness, though.”

Nicole chuckled and they remained silent for a while. She couldn’t believe how extremely relieved her entire being felt right then. The heaviness in her heart was long gone, and she could finally breathe properly again. She exhaled deeply and shook her head at herself for being so dumb sometimes.

“We’re a minute and a half away from the new year…” Evan said softly. “If we’re drunk and in each other’s company during the turn of the year, does it mean we’ll spend lots of moments together and drunk in the new year?”

Nicole laughed. She was one of those ‘happy drunks’ who laughed at the simplest things. “What the hell?”

“You know what people say. Whatever it is that you do during the turn of the year, that’s what you’ll be doing for the rest of the year.”

“Is that so? Well, then I’ll go to work right now, in that case.”

“Don’t you work too much? I’ve never seen you taking time off…”

“Well, some of us can’t afford to take any time off.” Nicole sighed. “People downstairs sure are getting louder. Are we close to midnight yet?”

Evan checked his watch. “Fifteen seconds, actually. Come closer, let’s stand up. Can’t see the fireworks if you’re sitting.”

Nicole frowned bemusedly. “Sure can. They’ll literally be up in the sky, all I have to do is lift my head.”

“Sure thing, smartass.” Evan rolled his eyes. “I don’t bite, you can stand next to me, you know?”

A suspicious Nicole approached Evan. Her head was still spinning from all that drinking she’d done downstairs, only right now, standing so close to Evan, the dizziness was incredibly stronger. She had to onto the cold, metallic rail for balance. Noticing this, the blond man sneaked an arm around Nicole’s waist and held her close.

Ten.

“Be careful,” he whispered.

Nine.

His warm breath so close to Nicole’s face sent shivers down her body.

Eight.

“I don’t know if I said this earlier, but you look stunning…”

Seven.

God, Evan had finally noticed it. The somersaults her heart was doing were no joke.

Six.

“You call those girls models? They don’t even come close to how good you look.”

Five.

Nicole couldn’t tell if Evan was actually saying those words or if her mind was playing tricks on her…

Four.

“I think you’re perfect, Nicole. You’re prettier than any of those girls…”

Three.

He turned Nicole around to face him, leaning down to decrease the gap between their faces. If the fact that Nicole was able to smell the wine in Evan’s breath was any indication of the veracity of this moment, then it was definitely not a sick prank by her brain.

Two.

“I’ve tried to stop this but…”

One.

“…I need you.”

Nicole couldn’t tell if the fireworks were blasting in the sky or in her heart. At that moment, all she could hear was the sound of her fast heartbeat, all she could feel was the velvety sensation of Evan’s delicious lips against her own. At that moment, Nicole couldn’t tell whether she was dreaming or not, whether kissing her friend was a good or a bad thing, whether they’d regret this later or not…

She couldn’t care less about the consequences. All Nicole wanted was to kiss Evan all night long, and that’s what she was going to do.