After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
*****
In the h...
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Going to see a movie in the middle of the day wasn't the best idea, especially while suffering the after-effects of kanak attack, because I found myself being woken up as the credits started rolling. Zachariah shook my shoulder while my face was pressed up against Katerina's arm.
"What time is it?" I croaked. I opened my mouth to yawn, the words coming out distorted. It took me a second to even gather where we were.
"Way too early for you to fall asleep on us," Zachariah answered at the same time that Katerina said "four thirty-eight."
I stretched like a cat on a lazy Sunday morning and surveyed the people around us, some of them taking their time while others filed out through the middle aisle.
"Is this a habit of yours or was today just one of those days?" Zachariah asked.
I suppressed a yawn before answering. "I think I ate too much food."
He smirked knowingly at my stomach protruding out more than usual and I fought the urge to cover it with my hands. Olds habits die hard.
"That's what happens when you take the last dumpling."
I scoffed. "I'm the reason why we got extra dumplings in the first place so I deserved it."
"Right," Zachariah drawled, "you keep telling yourself that. Especially when I eat all the pork belly and bulgogi when we get barbecue."
My head snapped toward him, eyes narrowed. "Those are fighting words."
"You should see her with her pork hash," Katerina piped up from the other side, leaning forward to look at Zachariah. "She once had Romi drop off a box with thirty dollars worth of it because she was on her period."
Romi was out of view but his laugh traveled over to us. "Only Alex can convince someone to do that for her."
Zachariah looked down at me with a renewed sense of appreciation. "Get you a girl that demands pork hash over chocolate."
"Get you a girl that does both."
"At the same time?"
I shrugged. "Who am I to argue with period cravings?"
Deciding we'd spent enough time lagging since the rest of the theater had cleared out by that point, Katerina and Romi stood up with the former taking my hand and tugging me alongside her.
"Come on, let's get some ice cream," she said as she pulled me into the aisle while Romi led the way and Zachariah followed behind.
Katerina was, in fact, dealing with period cravings right now, so I didn't argue with her. There wasn't much to do at Mililani Town Center except watch movies and eat food. Since the two of us had just eaten dim sum a few hours ago, we weren't hungry yet, but dessert would never be refused.
Katerina and I both practically had our noses pressed up against the freezer as we inspected our choices. Given the near-infinite number of choices available to us, narrowing any of them proved difficult and we had to let a few other customers pay in front of us because we couldn't decide.
