Living in Sin (On Hold)

Thirty Two _ Little Things.

This was the rest of the original chapter I last posted, and some more.

And sorry for this chap. This is just to bridge the earlier chaps and the coming one. In other words, nothing really happens. The coming chaps are kinda important to the story, though.

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Rina

“Yes. No, I’m good. Really, I’m fine.”

I could already see a frown on her face when I heard, “I still don’t’ trust you.”  

“Well, see for yourself this Friday.”

“Friday. Hmm, I am off from here at about midnight so with the time difference… yeah, should be there in the evening.”

“Cool. I’m picking you up.”

“Of course, you are. Come with that boy Steve.”

“I think I could manage that on my own.”

“It’s not becau…”

“Alright, alright. I’ll bring Liz along.”

“Alright,” came, with the audible sigh of satisfaction.

“Umm, Jen. A sec.”

I sealed the speaker with one hand and tried to catch her eye.

“Liz, maybe you should go ahead and wait there.”

“Nah, I’m fine. The bell hasn’t even rung yet. Just do you thing.”

She said and went back to her staring into the window and I went back to the conversation with Jen. It was some minutes into recess when she finally hung up. I looked around to find Liz still busy in a world of her own.

“Hey, what are you,… on Mars?” With an amused query, I linked arms with her and headed for the cafeteria.

“Just ……thinking thoughts.”

“Must really be some breakthrough for that brain!”

My amused grin took a halt when the expected reaction didn’t come. Instead she asked, “Who’s this Kim?”

And the good mood given by Jen was somewhat lost. I couldn’t have been any more sincere when I said to Kim that I was ready. But I got so hesitant when Liz asked.

And I know why. ‘cause I think, no, I  know that once she knows about that part of my life, she’d …

“Well?”

“We ran into each other this morning. We kinda just hit it off.” I added a shrug to make it convincing. It even surprised me a little how good my acting skills have improved over time when she seemed to have actually bought it. “Was wondering when you’d ask.”

“Well, you haven’t seemed yourself since this morning till now. No kidding you hit it off. Her blood’s all over you. I also heard this guy chanting gay words when he came out of the office.”

“Yeah, he called us… her one of those. And it started a fight.”

“And ended with a smashed face. I have no idea what’s wrong with people like him. And that Kim, I didn’t figure her for a baddie. How did you come to get between that, anyway?”

That I could tell her all about. With some white lies here and there in between, of course.

The debriefing finished as we stepped into the stuffy atmosphere of the cafeteria.