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By Your Side
Chapter 9
“Okay,” she let out with a breath, curling her hair behind her ear as she leafed through the cookbook that sat on her kitchen counter. “We have BLT… or… oh, hey. Tuna salad,” she giggled. “Is that ever going to be not funny?”
“One day,” he grinned ruefully, standing with one hand on his hip and the other on the counter as he stood next to her.
Taking his eyes away from her didn’t stand as an item of his things to do. He watched her look between him and the cookbook, the air around her filled with electricity that he picked up on every single time her cheeks grew pinker.
“BLT then? Seems easy enough, there’s a mayo sauce thing I can make.”
“Sure, sounds good. No lettuce or tomato for me though.”
She looked at him twice, the second time her lips were drawn into a circle and a noise came from the back of her throat. “So just a bacon sandwich?”
“And the mayo sauce thing you mentioned,” he pointed his finger to the page, tapping it as he stood closer to her, his hand on her shoulder. “On whole wheat if you have. I’m trying to watch what I eat.”
She raised her eyebrow as she turned toward him in the small space that stood between them. He didn’t care to move back, just smiled down to her and watched her shake her head and laugh. She touched his forearm and squeezed it, stepping to the side to open the refrigerator.
“I only have regular bread.”
“What kind?”
“So picky?”
“Just trying to get my taste buds prepared.”
“Because you’ve had every single kind of sliced bread?”
“I have. Something else you didn’t know about me. I’m a connoisseur of all things bread related.”
She stood with her hand on the refrigerator door and tilted her head as she held a package of bread. “Does Wonder bread meet your satisfactions, sir?”
“Hmm,” he hummed, moving toward her, lifting the half full bag in his hands. “Seems good, still has a good amount of squish.”
“Stop squeezing the bread,” she laughed, snatching it from his hands quickly. “Such a five year old.”
He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face as he watched her take out the rest of the ingredients for their lunch. And he couldn’t help himself from staring at her as she bent down to take a pan out of the cabinet below the sink. His eyes wouldn’t budge an inch as she laid bacon in the pan as she adjusted the flame.
Most of all, he couldn’t help walking up behind her, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her to him in a close, quiet effortless hug. The pads of her fingers pressed into his arm as it sat across the front of her shoulders.
He felt her inhale, touch his arm with the tip of her nose before turning in his arms to face him. She slowly raised her hand, brushing a piece of his hair from his forehead, grinning at him in a way that made all of his senses fly into overdrive.
Her expression slowly fell serious, her gaze lowering from his eyes slowly down his nose to his lips, her hand slowly following her line of vision. He’d never admit to anyone that his heart stopped in that moment as he felt the pads of her fingers pull him closer to her.
He leaned in slowly, his eyes closing, his arms tightening around her waist, her arms hanging around his neck. The way her nail scraped across the back of his neck sent a chill over his skin, raising goose pimples on his arm.
Centimeters from her lips, he heard her whisper, “I don’t want to ruin our friendship. You mean so much to me. We can’t ruin it.”
He shook his head, the ability to speak lost. He let out a breath, his nose bumping with hers, he closed his eyes, feeling the light brush of her lips against his, soft, smooth, gentle. It was over too quickly he thought, until she rested the palm of her hand on the back of his head, pulling him to her again. His hand slid over her back, feeling her shake slightly as she stood on the tips of her toes. They grinned with closed eyes between kisses, disbelieving sighed laughter joining the sounds of sizzling bacon.
When they finally did pull apart, the smile on her face and the tilt of her head were two of the most beautiful things he’d ever seen in his life.
*
“I can’t believe you burned the bacon,” he shook his head as he finished his sandwich.
“Are you complaining?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t hear you complaining before when you interrupted my cooking.”
“That was all you. I did nothing. I’m innocent,” he widened his eyes, lifting his hands in the air.
“Uh huh.”
“You’re really cute when you blush.”
“I am not blushing.”
“Oh. Okay, sure,” his tone stretched in disbelief.
She laughed, shrugging her shoulders. If she thought back to her proudest, happiest moment before that day, she would only find a handful of days. Yet, not one single one compared to the way she felt that afternoon, seated across from the one person who meant most to her.
“I learned something else about you today,” he gave, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“What?”
“You make the best burnt bacon and chili mayo sandwich anyone’s ever made.”
“Thanks,” she grinned for a moment before turning serious. “I hope you mean it because I’ll just keep making it for you. It’d be a shame to find out in like fifty years from now that you hated it every second you ate it.”
“Trust me. If in fifty years we’re still allowed to eat bacon and mayo, I’ll still expect you to make it.”
“Fair enough,” she nodded, standing to clear the table.
Before she took his plate, she leaned over and kissed him quickly on the lips, leaving him with a dazed expression as she walked away.
“I… I can…” he stuttered, “I can do the dishes.”
She caught herself and stopped her mouth from saying no, that she had it. Instead, she took a moment to enjoy the feel of his hand on her arm before handing him the sponge. “Thank you,” she spoke quietly, drying her hand with a towel.
“Hey, would you want to see a movie tonight?”
“Okay,” she agreed instantly.
“Cool,” he nodded, his head bent down, the veins in his arms moving as he washed and rinsed.
“What do you want to see?”
“What do you want to see?” he parroted. “Wait, let me guess.”
“Dreamgirls,” they said simultaneously.
“You do know me pretty well, huh,” she said, gazing at his smiling profile.
“Yep.”
She wound her arms around his waist, pressing her head into his arm. She could be absolutely sure that she had never felt such joy in her life.
Later that evening as they sat next to one another in the movie theater, she’d never felt more alive, safe and secure than when he put his arm around her shoulder and kissed her temple, his lips lingering there as they lights dimmed. They shared popcorn and whispered their thoughts to one another during the movie, holding in their laughter as best they could, ignoring the glare of the person in front of them.
She caught his lips with hers when he turned to her with a frightened expression, motioning his head to the seat in front of them once the person turned around.
They missed the end of the movie and caught the beginning of the next showing, neither wanting to part their joined lips.
The next night, he showed up at her apartment with a single rose, his arm bent for her to slip her hand through. They strolled through a nearby park, hand in hand, quietly walking, her head leaning on his arm.
He eyed his watch as it grew closer to midnight, and they stared at the sky, he standing behind her with his arms around her waist. Her gloved hands clung to his, and he kissed her forehead.
“Happy New Year,” he whispered low into her ear.
“We have another ten minutes,” she giggled, closing her eyes, trying to swallow the lump in her throat.
“I didn’t feel like waiting anymore.”
She had no seconds to question him as he moved to stand in front of her, cupping her cold cheeks with his hands, kissing her with more force than he had all the other times within those twenty four hours. She lost track of where she was, or who she was as she deepened their kiss. It seemed impossible to her that time flew so quickly when fireworks went off behind them, the sky lighting up in celebration of a new year.
*
The six weeks that followed, the six weeks that included more dinners, more movies, his staying around her apartment longer than he should have just to watch her work on her art show projects. They attended their coworker’s wedding together, arm in arm, dancing cheek to cheek, the rest of the room disappearing.
She never mentioned to him that the ideas that Phyllis used for her wedding were the same ones she was to use for her canceled wedding to Roy. She didn’t see the point in expressing it, though she noticed it, she let it roll off her shoulders the minute he placed his arm around her shoulder, silently letting her know that he was there for her, standing beside her.
He led her to her door that night, stopping himself from walking in, afraid to move things too fast. He caught her staring at him as if she had more to say to him many times during those six weeks. He chose not to bring it up, wanting things to go the way they were intended to on its own time.
He heard her words play over in his head; that she didn’t want to ever ruin their friendship. He didn’t intend to work on egg shells. The things he wanted could wait for her to be ready for them. They would well be worth the wait, he knew.
She couldn’t have been more delighted when he showed up at her apartment hours before her art show to take her to it. She laughed when he tried to see what she had hidden inside the big brown folder he carried to his car as her heals clicked a step behind him.
He held his hands behind his back most of the evening as gallery patrons walked passed her creations, in his mind, one better than the next. Bright blues, vivid reds, paintings that expressed something beyond his understanding caught the eye of each person, their kind words brightening her eyes.
One of his favorites caught the attention of several people, each asking the same question, “Whose eyes were those?”
Each time, she bowed her head and grinned, telling them they belonged to her boyfriend. His heart swelled with pride each time she said those words. He stood silently beside her, watching her and the person she’d become blossom before his eyes.
He helped her take them down once the accolades calmed, gingerly placing them back in the folder.
As they walked to her door, she invited him in – he accepted without hesitation. “These are so amazing,” he said for the tenth time since he’d gotten in the car. “I’m so proud of what you did.”
She turned to him as the door clicked closed, her smile and the hug she pulled him into all the thanks he needed, though she whispered the words shakily in his ear, “It wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for you standing beside me every step of the way. It meant so much to me that you were there, not just tonight. I…couldn’t have done it without you.”
He held her tighter, relishing the feeling of her in his arms.
She pulled back, glided her thumb across his bottom lip. “There’s something else you don’t know about me,” she said, her eyes glistening.
He quirked his eyebrow and tilted his head.
She held his eyes with hers, and he swallowed, focusing on her, not budging a muscle except for his heart.
“I love you, Jim.”
He grinned, lifted her in his arms and kissed her with a force that knocked her backward in his arms. She laughed as his lips covered hers.
He broke the kiss, his hands moving from her waist to her hair, her curls cascading down her shoulders. He shook his head in disbelief. “I love you,” was all he could say before his lips swept across hers once more in another kiss.
Neither had any idea what the future would bring – a job offer for him, a chance at something more in the art world for her in places other than Scranton.
Wherever they would go, they both made silent promises to themselves and one another to always stand by the other, never taking what they had for granted, remembering that the thing that made them best friends would always be their ability to laugh at the world together.
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Chapter End Notes:
Thanks so much for sticking with me. Special thanks to more awake and Sally for pushing me to continue this to completion. I really appreciate all of the kind words. I am on vacation but I do promise to reply to all reviews as soon as I can. Not sure what will be next. I'll sleep on it.
Xoxo
Xoxo
Deedldee is the author of 19 other stories.
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