His Marshmallow

Five

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” – Thich Nhat Hanh.

*

ALEXANDER LOOKED UP at me. “What?”

“Hmmm?”

“You said something.”

OMG! He heard me. It was embarrassing to me. I tried to speak but it was hard. So I decided to pretend I didn’t hear him, hoping he’d drop it but he didn’t.

“You said something. It sounded like another language,” he pointed out. “What does it mean?”

I held my hands together on my lap and stared at them, badly wishing I’d let my hair down today so that it could cover my face a little.

Hold up a second, this isn’t something to be embarrassed about, right? Most people would be proud of something like this.

So, I took a deep breath and answered, “It means ‘What did you say?’”

“Oh, I said, ‘You look nice by the way.’”

'You didn’t have to repeat that,' I thought.

“What?”

Oops! Did I say that out loud?

“Nothing. Thanks, I guess. You look nice too.”

Alex smiled. “Thank you. So, was that your mother tongue?”

I shook my head. “Oh no, definitely not.” I stopped there but when I looked at him, he looked like he was waiting for me to say more.

“I can only speak English fluently. That was Korean. I can’t speak it, that was just something I picked up from watching Korean Dramas.”

“Wow, that’s cool,” Alex commented, once again surprising me. Others would probably say that it’s lame but he said it was cool. This guy was full of surprises.

“I think Avery watches it too.”

“Korean dramas?”

“Yeah. She’s probably in love with all the male leads.” Alex chuckled and I smiled.

“Are you two friends?”

“Um… No, we’re not. We’re more like acquaintances.”

“You two should hang out and bond over your mutual love for Korean dramas.”

I forced a smile, nodding. “Yeah, we should. Let’s begin, shall we?”

“Yeah, sure.”

We started working on the assignment – discussing our thoughts, objections, and opinions and writing them down.

About 30 minutes into it, Alex pulled out a bag of marshmallows. I watched him as he opened it carefully as if any rough or sudden movement would crush the marshmallow and render it unfit for human consumption. He proceeded to pick one and put it into his mouth. He closed his eyes as he chewed it, making a sound in his throat. It felt like it was just him and his marshmallows that mattered. It was as if he was shooting a commercial for the marshmallow company. I watched him eat four more and it seemed like he had forgotten that I was seated in front of him.

When our eyes met, he froze and looked away. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked at me again.
“Um…” He held out the bag of marshmallows, his cheeks turning pink. “Would you like some?”

I almost laughed. Alex was blushing.

I tried to stop myself from smiling as I answered him. “No, thanks. I don’t like marshmallows.”