Flowers

39

"Thank you for dinner," I let my arm hug his as we stepped outside into the cold night.

"No problem," he murmured while slipping his wallet back into his pocket, "you wanna stay the night at mine?"

"Oh, I... I don't have any spare clothes or necessities with me..." I hesitated, really, really wanting to but on the other hand not wanting anything to ruin this again.

"There's a lot of your stuff at mine," Michael reminded me, "we don't have to do anything. Just would be nice to sleep in the same bed."

I knew exactly what he was insinuating, and it ached my heart. I had had troubles sleeping as well, and had resulted into taking melatonins. I felt sad that he'd been going through the same, so I agreed.

"Of course," I glanced up at him with a smile, keeping my body as close to his as possible as we walked toward his car since it was rather cold outside.

"You wanna order a pizza with me?" He wondered after a moment rather randomly, making me laugh.

"A pizza? Why on Earth?"

Michael shrugged with a light grin, "those portions are so tiny. I'm still hungry."

"I suppose you're right," I agreed, still rather amused, "or we could stop by a store to get Ben and Jerry's and finish the Notebook?"

He was quiet for a second, before surprising me by agreeing, "that sounds pretty dope."

"Fantastic!" We arrived at his car and I jumped up to hug him tightly. He chuckled and hugged me back.

It felt so normal and comfortable to be with him again. I still did have some mental work to go through to come to terms with his previous profession, but other than that everything seemed fine as long as we would stick to the ground rules.

"I've really missed you, Michael," I calmed down and told him quietly, still hugging him.

His arms tightened around my waist a little and he agreed with a murmur.

_

After having bought two tubs of my favourite Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Michael had driven us back to his apartment.

"I should've cleaned up," he muttered to himself while picking up a few bottles of beer from his coffee table.

I went to get spoons for our ice creams and then sat myself down on one of the couches facing his tv.

"It smells nice in here," I had to tell him, the cigarette smoke I remembered from last time fully gone even from his furniture.

"Yeah, I'm tryna quit," he told me before bringing the empty bottles of beer into the kitchen.

"Really?" I shifted on the couch to be able to look back over at where he would soon come back from.

"Yeah," Michael emerged into my line of view, scratching the side of his neck while taking in my expression.

"That's so great, Michael! I'm so proud of you!" I couldn't contain my happiness, but did resist the urge to go squeeze the life out of him and kiss him.

We hadn't kissed yet. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate, as we had only reunited just a few hours ago. I also knew that we'd continue talking things through either tonight or tomorrow, as now we both seemed to be happy to just be together again.

"Sure," he chuckled and made his way to sit next to me, seeming almost uncomfortable at first.

I handed him his tub of ice cream and a spoon, before also taking mine onto my lap. While he opened up Netflix on the tv and searched for the Notebook, I tried lessening his tension by scooting to sit right next to him and basically cuddle his side.