And so, I went to her house right after I had my breakfast. Turns out she had found an old present I’d given her ages ago.
She literally dragged me into her parents’ bedroom. I had already been there during her sister’s wedding, and nothing had changed much, except that they now had a TV in the room.
‘Remember this?’ she asked, picking up a little photo frame from her mother’s shelf. It was something I had made with four ice cream sticks. I took it from her and checked it out. It was old and worn out. The sticks had been painted red, with little white hearts in the corners.
‘You gave this to me on my 6th birthday… or was it my 7th?’ she said, trying hard to remember.
She had stuck a picture of us as kids in the frame.
I smiled at her innocence. She looked at me and smiled back. ‘I found it when I was cleaning my room this morning.’ She walked over to my side. ‘Mummy thinks it’s cute. So I gave it to her.’
‘I can’t believe we were that little,’ I said, looking closely at the picture.
‘Time flies, huh?’ she said, taking my arm in hers and resting her head on my shoulder.
‘I know,’ I said and kissed her on her head.
‘Wait,’ she abruptly broke away from me. ‘Let me get you something to drink.’ She rushed out of the room.
She came back with two glasses of ice-cold lemonade. It was a very hot day and I welcomed the gesture.
‘Thanks,’ I said, picking up a glass. ‘We could have shared the same glass… but whatever,’ I added, smiling at her.
She looked at me pretending to be angry, but laughed immediately after.
She switched on the fan as I settled myself on the large double bed. Leaning on the headboard, I motioned for her to get the TV remote. She came to the bed, rested her head on my chest, and flicked the TV on. She kept changing channels, trying to find something good to watch, but there was nothing.
We just let the TV blare out random images and weird noises as we got to talking. I removed the little hair clip she was wearing and put it on a nearby side table. She snuggled closer to me and I put my hand over hers reassuringly. It felt good having the woman I love by my side. There wasn’t any particular topic
we chose to talk about. We just chatted casually, hopping from one thing to another.
‘Let me take that,’ she said, taking my empty glass and placing it on the nearby table along with hers.
‘You know, this reminds me,’ I said as she came back to bed. She looked up at me with longing eyes. ‘We used to play “house house” when we were little.’ I looked at her, gently embracing her waist.
‘Mmm hmm,’ she said, resting her head on my chest and nodding for me to continue.
‘I was the husband, you were my wife…’
‘That was fun, wasn’t it?’ Her face lit up at the mention of us being a married couple.
‘Wait. This was our “house”,’ she said, indicating the room we were in. ‘You would go to your “office” in the balcony, and I would stay at “home” tidying things up until you returned from “work”…’
‘You made a pretty good wife,’ I said and kissed her on her forehead, holding her closer.
‘Pretty good? Not the best?’ she turned back to look at me, pretending to be offended.
‘Yeah. I mean, you used to feed me with empty plates and water for breakfast, lunch, and dinner,’ I teased.
‘Oh!’ she cried. ‘I have to go make lunch!’ She tried to get off me.
‘Let’s just go out for lunch,’ I said, gripping her tighter, not wanting to let her go.
‘And what kind of a wife would I be if I don’t cook for my husband? Hmm?’ she asked, turning towards me.
‘A very pretty one,’ I said, brushing her hair off her ears. She blushed.
‘And what do you propose we do instead?’ she asked in mock seriousness.
I shrugged and moved closer to her. ‘I don’t know,’ I said, sliding my hand behind her neck, ‘just talk.’ And I gently kissed her on her lips. I could taste traces of lemonade on her lips and continued to kiss her until she pulled away.
‘Is this how they “just talk” where you come from?’ she whispered, breathing heavily on my wet lips.
‘Only with the woman they love,’ I said and pulled her closer, starting to kiss her more passionately.
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