Second Lanark

Togetherness - Part 19

"Hey," I said to Rob as he slowed to a stop in front of me. "What's up?" I smiled at him, trying to figure out our status now that we weren't drinking. Play it cool or turn up the heat?

      "Have you eaten?" Rob asked.

      I frowned, thinking about our frantic rush to get out the door and down to Mishti's for our meeting. "No, not yet. Caf or Oasis or...?" I trailed off, watching his face closely.

      "The O?" He suggested.

      "Sure," I said, turning towards the stairs, but he reached out and grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together.

      "Wouldn't want you to get lost," he said. His eyes shone back at me, and I knew we were going to be okay.

      I squeezed his hand, following him down the stairs to the tunnels. "So, about last night..." I trailed off, not really sure where to start. "About what Tricia said..."

      His brown eyes looked a little sad when he met mine. "I saw you snogging that other bloke," Rob said and then averted his gaze.

      I stopped walking, the weight of his admission settling in my stomach. "You only kissed me because Tim kissed me? That's kinda screwed up."

      "Never said that," he said, dropping my hand and shaking his head. "I wanted to be with you, but I left England because of a girl. I don't want to go back heartbroken over another. I can't stay here."

A frustrated breath escaped me and I realized that I was still a little wound up from the meeting with Mishti. Cards kept getting laid on the table, so I might as well continue with Rob. I couldn't take the roller coaster anymore, not if the rest of my life was also going to blow up.

"So, are we doing this or what? I just want to agree that we're going to see where it goes or just forget about it and avoid each other. I can't take the back and forth between me and Rachel," I said.

      "Between you and Rachel? What are you on about?"

      "Oh please. I saw her kiss you at Oliver's weeks ago. I'm assuming that's not the only time it's happened."

      "Tis actually. Rachel comes round my room – true. But, I come round yours." He looked at me expectantly.

      "What are you saying? English please," I said, teasingly.

      He grinned and put a hand around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "I'm saying, my dear Liz, that there is no back and forth. There's just you."

      He wound his free hand around my neck; his hand caught on my ponytail and then we were kissing again. Pushing up on my tiptoes, I pressed myself closer to him and wound my arms around his body, deepening the kiss. When he pulled back, I reached up again and gave him another quick kiss.

      When my feet were back on firm ground, I said, "So, are we doing this?"

      "I don't want to go back to uni in England and wonder 'what if' about anything in Canada. I talked to Tom cause he's seeing Jill and you know his 'you only live once' philosophy, so he was all for it and he reminded me of something we'd said. We agreed when we came that we were going to do everything we could to make this year superb." He looked down into my eyes and his brown depths were inked with sincerity. "You're my superb. I'd be a fool to let you get away."

      My stomach was rolling like a sailor without sea legs and my breath hitched at his admission. Would there be another moment in my life where someone called me superb? I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him down for another kiss. I pushed myself closer to him, wishing I could drag him back to my room and show him what superb really looked like.