Chapter 5

• “Your dinner,” Mrs. Presley said and Tracy woke up from her reverie, she snatched her hand back from Nathan and smiled up at the older woman.
• “Thank you,” she said.
• “Anytime,” she replied and left.
• Nathan focused his eyes on the table, not daring to look up for he was afraid everyone in the dinner would see his emotion as clear as day in his eyes.
• “Um,” Tracy gulped when they were finally alone, “that’s very nice of you to say, Nathan, thank you, I really appreciate.”
• Nathan nodded, his eyes still on the table, “you are welcome.”
• “Phew, well, dinner is here, let’s dig in why it’s still hot,” she chuckled nervously and Nathan nodded without a saying a thing. He picked his cutlery and started eating. Tracy watched him as he silently ate, “is everything okay, Nathan?”
• He nodded, stuffing his mouth with his food.
• Tracy nodded and started eating as well. Their meal ended up passing in silence and when they were done, she paid the bills while Nathan went out to wait in the car. When she joined him, she started the car and reversed from the lot before pulling into the street. “So, I caught Gary cheating last week. He tried to pass it off that it’s not what it seem, but you can’t tell a woman that when she caught you red handed,” she rolled her eyes. “Anyways, there is this guy I met on Wednesday, his name is Joshua, he is quite tall actually and good looking and he has this amazing mouse tattoo. It’s really crazy but it’s beautiful.”
• “I’m thinking of getting a tattoo,” Nathan finally spoke.
• Tracy glanced at him sharply, “what?”
• “Yeah, maybe a heart with an arrow through it or just something,” he shrugged.
• “Why in the world would you want to get a tattoo?”
• “Because it’s nice and don’t tell me otherwise because you just said so yourself and also admiring a little mouse tattoo and let’s not forget, Gary has a tattoo of a Viking Lord and you always said it’s beautiful. So why can’t I get one?”
• “Because…because,” she sighed, “listen I don’t want you to get a tattoo okay.”
• “Why not? You praise guys who have one, so why can’t I?” Nathan looked at her.
• “I know, I mean, they already have them before I met them so I can’t possibly tell them no.”
• “Why would you even want to say no, what’s wrong with having a tattoo?”
• “Nathan, I don’t want you to have a tattoo, period.”
• “Well you are not the boss of me, you are not my mother,” he said, crossing his arms on his chest and looking out of the window.
• Tracy opened her mouth to say something but no words came out, she closed it and then focused on her driving. When they arrived at their street, she parked in her driveway and got down. Nathan followed her but she didn’t glance at him and just picked her backpack from the backseat and walked up to the porch. She searched for her house key and Nathan stood beside the car and watched her. When she unlocked the door, she just went in without bothering to know if he had went home or if he was still there.
• Nathan sighed and followed her still, he followed her to the kitchen where she dropped her backpack on the table and went to wash her hands on the tap. He hugged her from behind, surprising her that she gasped. “I’m sorry,” he whispered when she tried to free herself, “I didn’t mean it that way.”
• “No it’s okay, I’m not mad,” she said.
• Nathan chuckled, “that’s what you say when you are mad, really I’m sorry. And I won’t have a tattoo if you don’t want me to but I really want to know why you don’t want me to.”
• Tracy sighed, “fine,” she turned around to him and he took a step back to give her space, “what’s so fun about tattoos?”
• “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “but you make it sound like fun. I can still remember the things you said about Gary’s, and now this new guy’s own.”
• Tracy placed her hands on his shoulders, “Nathan-Boo, you already have a flawless skin, why taint it with tattoo? But if you really want a tattoo, wait till you get a lot older okay?”
• Nathan rolled his eyes with a smile, “whatever makes you happy.”
• “Thank you, now do you have anything to do at home or can you help me clean up?”
• “Well, mom is going to be late tonight so…I’m free.”
• “Wow, change of plan, how about we just clean up my room and make popcorn so that we can watch Netflix?”
• “I’m game and I call dips to choosing the movie,” Nathan shouted before running out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
• “Hey, no fair,” Tracy shouted behind him before running after him as well.
• ***
• Nathan opened his eyes and yawned, he felt a weight on his arm and looked down to see a sleeping beauty. Tracy was lying on his chest, her hair sprawling around on his arm and chest. He smiled softly and slowly wiped away the few strands of hair on her face. He placed his fingers under her chin and slowly lifted her face to face him. He traced her neatly carved brows and then down to her closed eye lids. His fingertips treaded softly to her full pink lips. He gulped as he traced her upper lip before her lower one then slowly licked his own lips. He glanced at her eyes, making sure she was still sleeping before leaning down to touch his lips on hers softly.
• He closed his eyes, imagining her returning the kiss, imagining her opening her lips and letting him thrust his tongue into her mouth. He imagined her tracing back his tongue with her own and her arms wrapping round his neck to pull him closer. He let out a soft moan and pressed his lips harder on her eyes, caressing her lips with his tongue. A soft moan escaped her lips and he took the advantage to thrust his tongue softly into her mouth. Just as he was seeking more entrance as his mind played her cooperating, she moved and he backed away immediately.
• Her brows creased in a frown but her eyes were still closed. He paused, holding his breath and praying she doesn’t wake up. After some seconds, she breathed heavily and went back to sleep. Nathan sighed and rested his head back on the pillow; he closed his eyes, licking his lips to savor her taste. He had started stealing kisses when she was asleep from last year. The first time he had tried it, he had spent the whole day wondering if she was aware but just pretending not to but when she said nothing and after a week, he concluded she doesn’t know. After all, she was a deep sleeper.
• He glanced at her once more, wondering when his imagination would finally come to pass, when she will finally kiss him back, when he doesn’t have to wait for her to sleep to steal a kiss and he found himself wondering if that day would ever come. Now she talked about a Joshua last night, how many more days before she brings him home to introduce as her boyfriend? What if this Joshua turns out different from the others and he really sees the beauty in her and decides to make her his wife? How is he going to live knowing she would belong to another man completely?
• Not liking the direction of his thought, he softly removed her head from his body and placed on the pillow. Slowly, he climbed out of the bed and walked into the bathroom. They had spent the whole night watching movies that he couldn’t remember when they both slept off. He had woken up to pee early in the morning when he turned off the television. Sighing, he ran his fingers through his platinum hair and stared at himself in the mirror. Her description about him last night flooded his mind and he smiled, “drop dead handsome huh?” he whispered and chuckled. “An older one, definitely,” he repeated her words when he had asked if she could date someone like him.
• He licked his lips, staring at himself in the mirror, he looked overgrown, like he was twenty and it was all thanks to his constant playing of basket ball and exercises. But even if he looked twenty, he was still younger than her. Just why does fate has to be so cruel, why make him love her when he can’t have her?
• Again not liking the direction of his thought, he sprinkled water on his face and took his toothbrush from the cup, he practically lives there because there was nothing he needed that he couldn’t find there. He has his toothbrush and his sponge, he didn’t bother about soap because loves her own, especially her coconut shampoo. He has some casual wears and his pajamas somewhere in her wardrobe. He can still remember the day he was bringing those over; he had felt happy hanging his clothes next to hers in the wardrobe, it almost felt like they were married and sharing a wardrobe.
• She had not been at home when he brought them over and so when she came back, he had followed her to see her reaction. She had been shocked seeing his clothes near hers but she had just closed the wardrobe back after getting what she wanted and made no comment about his clothes. He had to admit, it made him really happy, he took her silence an agreement and it made his day.
• He put the toothpaste on his brush and after brushing, he left the bathroom into the room. The alarm clearly shows 10 AM but she was still sleeping soundly. He chuckled. Not wanting to ruin her sleep nor stay around doing absolutely nothing but waiting for her to wake up, he decided to clean the house to pass the time. He first started with the bedroom, removing the bowl of unfinished popcorn, he couldn’t remember how many bowls she made, but he knew he stopped eating when he lost the taste in his mouth and his tongue felt like it was scraping. Leaving the bedroom, he went down the stairs to the kitchen, she has not been back for two weeks, the house was a little dusty and he knew he has a lot of work up his sleeves but he gladly started his work.