𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜. - 𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚢 𝚜𝚊𝚖𝚋𝚎𝚛𝚐

you can have it.

Teri looks excited. She has been going out with this Chad and she can't stop talking about him. Her skin glows and her smile shines so bright that sometimes I envy her. Having friends, family, love, job, and leisure like she has made life seems so easy. But I believe my life is following the same path as her's.

She's wearing those beautiful white high heels she bought back in Berkeley and red lipstick. Someone's got a date tonight. It's been days since Andy told me he was in love with me and I didn't tell her yet. I don't want to involve her on something that is not even a real thing. I don't even know if something will happen between us: even if he actually is in life with me, he loves Joanna too. I don't know if I would be able to be with him knowing that he loves another one too.

"Will you be okay?" she asks me, grabbing the car keys.

I nod. The loud noise of her hills shows me she's already at the door. She bangs the door and scares me for a moment. After some seconds, the door is knocked. She must have forgotten something.

"Did you forget something?" I asked walking towards the door. I open it, revealing Andy in a black leather jacket. She opens a small smile when he sees my surprise face.

"Hi," he says, a bit shy.

"Hey," I say, stepping back so he can get in.

"I would have called you but my phone is dead." he walks toward the couch and turns to me.

"That's a pleasant surprise." I instantly regret it.

He holds a bag but I can't tell what's in it. He sees that I keep looking at it and decided to explain. "Well, I wanted to cook something, you know, homemade food. Joanna hates to cook with me or without so I thought you would like to do it with me."

"Of course. By the way, I'm starving so we are better to get started."

He opens up a huge smile and goes to the kitchen quickly. "That's what I thought."

He puts the bag on the counter. He gets the package of pasta, buttermilk biscuits and a bottle of wine. I see that he's wearing his ring and for a moment my face shows sadness. For some seconds, I remember that he's in a relationship, with a woman who's not me.

"Do you want to cook the spaghetti?" he asks, but my attention is in his ring.

He realizes that my focus is not on him and he slides the ring off his finger. He lifts the ring and puts inside his pocket. I open a small smile.

"I won't be let this be between us," he says coming closer to me.

"What are we doing? You're engaged... I don't think we should be doing things like this."

"I promise you I will make it up to you."

He puts his hands on my hips and pulls me closer to him. He looks at my lips and licks his lips.

"You don't know how much I wanna kiss you right now," he whispers.

I breathe heavily. "Andy," I whisper back, leaning even forward. My body gets weaker to his touch and he opens a malicious smile.

"Stop it. Let's cook, shall we?" the space between us now is bigger because I step back, leaning towards the food.

...

"That's really good," I say with a mouth full of pasta, salad and chicken breast.

"I'm actually proud of myself," he says, lifting his eyebrows.

"I didn't know you cook."

"I had to learn weeks after I arrived here. We tried to live here eating just fast food and pizza. But I'm no chef."

"Sometimes we miss homemade food." I complete his sentence.

"Yep."

He eats his biscuit and I gaze at him. The way he looks today is different, free and hopeful. He realizes that I'm staring at him and opens a side smile. I blush.

After a while eating, I remember the big slice of strawberry shortcake in the fridge. Andy looks satisfied. I get to the fridge and I look for the cake for some seconds and then I grab it, taking care to not mess up. He looks at me and to the piece on the plate. I put it on the table.

"There's just this piece, you can have it," I say, sliding the plate through the table to his side.

He holds me back of my hand. " I was thinking of sharing the piece with you."

I nod, going to the counter to get us spoons. He keeps looking at the white frosting and the pieces of strawberry on the top.

I sit next to him, giving the spoon on my hand. He looks at me, like a kid seeing a milkshake and I try not kissing him.

"This cake reminds me of the old strawberry cake you used to have at every birthday party."

"It's still my favorite."

"What did you do for your birthday this year?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing at all?"

My birthday is at the beginning of August, weeks before his, and we were not seeing each other. No contact.

"I wish I was here with you." He says, leaving the spoon on the corner of the plate.

"It's not your fault." I say, a bit sad.

He looks at me and seconds later, I stare back at him. His eyes focus on my lips and I get kinda turned on (I'm not gonna lie!). He leans his right arm on the chair back and gets closer to my body. He looks nervous, so I get too. His warm forehead touches mine and I whisper. "Andy, we can't."

"I can't help it." He whispers back.

His breathe and mine are in sync but his mouth looks for mine with his eyes closed. I hesitate, going backward and forward. His upper lip touches mine accidentally and I shiver. His thumb caresses my check, asking permission to get a kiss.

Should I do this?