Beer, Spaghetti, and Pharmaceuticals ||COMPLETED||

Twenty Two Part Two

Alice's heart thumped in her chest as raced around her house, discarding any loose pieces of trash that were scattered throughout her house. It wasn't the first time she and Isaac were alone in her house, but for some reason, she felt as if she was stepping into virgin territory.

"Um, make yourself at home," she squeaked, cringing at her attempt to be a good hostess.

"I always do," he said, taking a seat at her round kitchen table, absentmindedly sifting through an old newspaper she left out.

When Alice opened her refrigerator to grab the beer, her phone vibrated again and she cringed.

"Still hoping you're having a relaxing night babe but I would love it if we could talk sometime tonight. I would love to take you to the Christmas party tomorrow xoxoxo."

She swallowed the urge to throw up. It was unclear whether her sudden nausea came from the thought of enduring an entire night with Mark at a formal event that Isaac was also attending, or if it was because the guilt was slowly eating away at her stomach as she knew she was willingly entering a very uncharacteristic and adulterous zone with Isaac. She ignored the phone, grabbed two beers, handed one to Isaac, and took a seat across from him at the table.

She smiled pleasantly at Isaac despite the fact that beads of sweat were quickly growing on the back of her neck, and her knee would not stop jittering, bobbing up and down so much that the beer bottles rattled from her hitting the bottom of the table.

"Cheers," Isaac said, seemingly unaware of Alice's sudden shift in neuroticism, and clinked his bottle against hers.

"Cheers," she replied. "So, you're bringing Fiona to the Christmas party, right?"

"Yeah, she's pretty excited," Isaac said. "Nothing she loves more than dressing up for an event."

"Well, I suppose that'll happen when you're a model."

"Yeah, that's true," he said. "You should see how long it takes that woman to get ready in the morning. At least two hours, and in my opinion, she looks basically the same as she did before getting ready!"

"Well, that means she's doing makeup right," Alice said. "The goal is to look effortlessly natural as if you wake up looking that way."

"Then what's the point of wearing it at all?" Isaac asked, completely dumbfounded. "Why not just...wake up and continue and continue your day looking actually natural?"

"You say that now, Isaac," she said, "but trust me, you would definitely notice and be very disappointed if every girl in the world stopped wearing makeup."

"Yeah, you're probably right," he said and chuckled. "How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?"

"Ummm," she pondered, tapping her lips with her finger. "Anywhere between five minutes and sixty minutes, depending on how pretty I want to feel that day."

"If it makes you feel better," he said and slid his elbows on the table so he was a little closer to her, "I think you look great regardless of how much time you spend."

She felt her cheeks turn crimson as she admired Isaac's sincere eyes, the way he seemed to be unable contain his smile every time he looked at her, the fact that even though they sat on opposite sides of the table he seemed to be inching closer and closer.

            He wants you so bad, Alice.

Her heart began beating even faster as she realized the reality that she was stepping into.

"I need to smoke," she blurted out without thinking and jumped from the table to grab the spare cigarettes she hid behind her tin of coffee.

She also made sure to grab a breath mint.