Love At Last

CAYDEN

“Get us a bottle of champagne, please,” I ordered.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

“I don’t usually drink alcohol. This is a breach of contract,” she stated jovially.

“Cut me some slack today, teach. I did pretty well today, didn’t I?” I was interrupted by the bartender who placed our order in front of us with two cocktail glasses.

“Thanks,”

“Enjoy your date night,” we immediately stared at each other in surprise. ‘Date night’? Hell no. it seemed the bartender misunderstood us completely, but we didn’t bother with clearing the confusion.

I popped the drink and poured as required, into our glasses. I drank mine hastily while Lily just stared at the glass in her hand.

“What’s wrong?” I noticed she had not even had the first glass when I just had my second glass.

“Nothing,” she gulped it down all at once and tried her very best to put her facial expressions in check, so as not to seem overly dramatic.

“How do you feel now? Alive?” I chuckled while she beckoned on me to refill her glass. I did exactly as my teacher wanted and refilled her glass.

She hastily gulped down the second glass to my greatest surprise. “Are you ok?” I giggled.” You don’t have to push it, okay?” I gulped down my third glass.

After we had a couple of glasses, I started feeling very tipsy. Reading the atmosphere, I decided it was the best time to ask her questions she wouldn’t answer on a normal day.

“What made you cry the other day?” I asked Lily who seemed completely knocked out.

“I cried? When?” she asked, acting all drunk. “Ohhhh!” she raised her head suddenly from the position she laid in briefly. “My… my… school mates…,” she rested her head again on the counter, as she spoke gibberish. It was completely obvious to me that she had very low tolerance when it came to alcohol. We had equal amount of glasses, and she was already out of it, while the alcohol was barely showing any effect on me.

She suddenly raised her head again and smiled, letting out chuckles. “What about you?” she pointed me, “why do you need a woman so badly and why do you always womanize?” she asked with a bit of sincerity notwithstanding the fact that she looked very dizzy.

I heaved a sigh as I pondered on her question. How I turned out that way was a story to be told some other time. “I wasn’t like this…,” I had not even finished my sentence when she laughed hysterically. She laughed so hard that I didn’t even realize that I was smiling in admiration.

‘She’s beautiful’, I thought. I’d never seen her laugh so hard before, I felt happy I was able to get her to drink with me. I made up my mind to do things like that on a more regular basis.

Seeing how knocked out she was, I decided not to have any more drinks so I’d be able to drive her home. I watched her lay on the counter and slowly fall asleep. For some reason, watching her sleep gave me a sense of joy and satisfaction. I laid my head beside hers and watched her breathe. I used my right index finger to gently adjust any strand of hair that got in the way of the beautiful view I savored – on her face. I knew Lily was pretty but I had not really taken my time to observe her perfect facial features.

I foot the bills, helped her up and took her to my car parked outside. I adjusted the passenger’s seat in a way she’d lay comfortably on it. I laid her gently on the passenger’s seat and tucked her in the seat belt. When I was sure everything was set, I hit the road.

My drives with Lily were always quiet but this time, she wasn’t just quiet, she was sound asleep. I struggled hard to keep my eyes focused on the direction I was headed, as I could not help but steal glances at the sleeping beauty laying beside me. In as much as I reminded myself over and over again of the relationship between myself and Lily, I could not also deny the fact that she looked hella pretty while sleeping.

My first stop was to be Lily’s house, I had to drop her off first. On getting to her house, I gently brought her out of the car, stood her up and laid her head on my shoulders, using my hand to support her waist. Where I parked wasn’t so far from the bakery. I managed to help Lily walk down while providing her full body support.

It was past 9:00pm, and of course the bakery was closed for the day. I didn’t know exactly how to find my way in. I tried opening the door but it was locked. I thought of looking through her bag to see if she had a spare key, I had left her bag inside the car and so I could not go to – and – fro with Lily in my arms like that. ‘I could wake her’, I thought even though she was completely knocked out and wouldn’t wake up unless there was an explosion. I looked around for anything that looked like a doorbell so as to alert the residents in the residence upstairs.

I finally saw one that looked like one and pressed it. About two minutes later, ‘nana’ opened the door and saw me. I could tell right away that she was shocked at the scene that met her eyes.

“Let me help you,” she took Lily in her own arms and helped her instead.

I looked inside the bakery and saw Jarod glaring at me. I was surprised. What was he doing there by that time of the night?

Apparently, nana had invited Jarod over to help him talk to Lily when she got back. The same Lily that returned completely knocked out in another man’s arms.

“Let me help you, nana,” Jarod takes Lily from nana’s arms and continues glaring at me.

“Why don’t you come in for dinner?” nana offered kindly.

“Nana, there’s no need for that. He’s on his way out,” Jarod cut in abruptly. “you’re on your way out’ right?” he asked me.

I felt annoyed by his behavior and had the feeling my stay there would cheese him off. So I replied, “no. Nana, I can stay for dinner,” I had nothing to lose anyway. I had no proper meal at home and I felt hungry. I get to eat something made by nana, so there was no reason to turn down the offer. This made Jarod very angry.

We all headed for the apartment upstairs.