This Heart of Mine

Ch. 6: Chilis In Her Cheeks

He'd been such a gentleman, Naina wondered if his grouch persona was just like a resting bitch face.

Maybe he had resting grouch face syndrome.

Her black eye's swollenness had decreased, but it was still a brilliant purple. She resembled a half panda.

"Naina! We got a problem with the caterers," Dexter, her assistant, said, breaking up her thoughts about Ian's face.

She suppressed a groan. Events weren't considered a proper one without problems. She hurried over to fix it.

The Tri-Cities Ladies Luncheon was just one huge gathering place for older, wealthy Caucasian ladies. Sometimes Naina would see a few Latino or Black women, but a majority of the ladies there seemed to be high-flying socialites.

The caterers seemed to have forgotten that they were working with older, white ladies and did not bring an abundance of bland finger foods. Hurriedly, Naina, Dexter and the rest of the staff made sandwiches, all while her other workers gave routine updates on what was happening outside.

When it finally ended, the caterers gave her the leftover food.

"Old hags didn't want them. 'It's too spicy, are you trying to kill us?'," the guy said in a very bad falsetto. "If you'd like, you guys can have them."

Naina and the rest of her team looked through the food. There were so many yummy finger foods, she'd need an extra freezer just to keep some of it.

There were jalapeno poppers and tandoori kebabs, delicate cookies and bite-size cakes, yummy hummus dips and chips.

Laden with food, she wobbled back to her car, gently put them in and sat down, tired from the weekend.

When she got home, it took quite a bit of piling and balancing, but she managed to get everything into one huge stack. She waddled up the steps while penguin walking to make sure nothing tipped or fell over

Now the hard part: how to get her keys out?

"Shit Naina, need help?" a guy said.

Dominic Mariani stood across from her, his own key in his hands. He knocked on her door without waiting for her response.

His hair had been cut short, but still a little long on top. The evening sun, painting brilliant flashes of pink and orange across the sky, lit up his eyes and freckles.

"So...can I ask how you got so much food?" he asked. No weird, crawling drawl with Dominic. She wondered why Ian only had it.

She wiggled a little; the tray of poppers were threatening to tumble. "Caterers gave me and my team the rest of the food, so we split it up."

Lauren still didn't come to the door. Dominic shrugged and turned to Naina. "You got your keys?" he asked.

"Front pocket of my pant." She turned towards him and lifted her hip.

In a heartbeat, he reached and pulled out the key, and opened the door.

Lauren was sitting on the couch. Loud music hissed from her headphones and she looked up at them in complete and utter surprise.

She didn't have her makeup on, and her hair was a huge mess. To say she was surprised was an understatement; if she'd been any older, Naina thought that Lauren would've died from a heart attack, considering the look on her face.

Without saying hi, Naina hurried away to the kitchen to put away the food.

And so she could hear the conversation play out.

"Hey Lauren," he said, sounding a little odd. "You didn't hear the door?"

She sounded like she was whimpering. "Sorry, my music was really loud."