They smoked in silence for a couple of minutes. “What a wonderful feeling”, thought Carol. They enjoyed just looking at each other. Chris was fascinated by her smile. He has never seen such naturally red lips and white teeth. And the sound she makes every time she laughed was enough to make him feel excited. He tried to keep her laughing as much possible. Her big round eyes were looking at him with enthusiasm and he really enjoyed that look not to mention turning him on big time.
“Are you ok?” Chris asked gently after a while.
“I am great, man”, Carol laughed “G-R-E-A-T”, she repeated spelling out and playing with a lock of her hair.
“It is good stuff”, Chris said while blowing the smoke out. His eyes were narrowing and at that moment he looked even more attractive.
“Do you want to go and sit on the couch? I can put on a movie to watch”, Chris suggested innocently.
“Sure”, Carol got up and felt her stomach go up automatically.
“Fuck! Where is the bathroom? Fast!” she said.
Chris pointed to the right and she ran. She barely made it to the toilet, kneeled and started to throw up. “I shouldn’t have mixed alcohol and weed”, she thought. “I’m getting too old for this.”
Chris was standing on the other side of the bathroom door and knocked worriedly. “Carol? Is everything ok?”
In this condition all she could think about was how bad it would be for him to see her like this. But he came in and held her long hair while she continued to throw up. Carol felt better after a few minutes and got up.
“Feel better?” Chris asked and smiled at her so sweetly like to a little child who gets smudged while eating.
“Yeah, although you seeing me like this isn’t what I had wanted”, Carol answered ashamed of herself. But he was so cool about it, like it was the most normal thing in the world. He said, “Come into the kitchen and I will make you some coffee.” He made her coffee and she realized that it was already 4 am. It was obviously time for her to go home. He walked her out to her car.
“Will you be able to drive?” he asked gently, “you could sleep here until you feel better” Chris added.
“No I’m ok, I am already dreaming of my bed.” Carol hastily said still feeling embarrassed for throwing up in front of him and fled home.
Chapter 5: Next step
The next morning her cell started to ring and Carol while opening her eyes tried to realize what was going on. She felt like she was hit by a train. “Where is that fucking cell”, she thought.
“Hello” she said halfheartedly.
“Good morning! Am I talking to death on leave”, she heard Natalie’s cheerful voice.
“What?” mumbled Carol.
“So how did it go yesterday?” Natalie asked excitedly.
“Oh everything went great until I managed to puke all over his bathroom while he was holding my hair!” said Carol.
“No shit, really??!” Natalie said while laughing, “How did that happen?”
“Loooong story. I bet he will never call me again after this”, she told to Natalie.
But she was wrong. He did call the next day. He asked her to hang out again. Carol felt sure of herself again.
“He must like me too”, she thought. She was glad and she came. She guessed the right street the second time around, after all last time she drove behind him while tipsy. But she guessed the house right away, since it really wasn’t tough to miss the biggest house in the neighborhood. She parked at the driveway and checked her hair once more in the rearview mirror. She rang while his cell getting out of the car. The outer light automatically turned on and she could hear him coming down the stairs to open the door for her.
“Hey you” Chris said.
“Hey”, said Carol with a broad smile. It was nice to see his face again.
“My friend is here, he just surprised me. You’ve met him, John, from the cafe… remember?” he asked.
While she tried to remember “John, John, hmmm doesn’t ring the bell”, he already continued
“You don’t mind do you?”
Carol would have liked for them to be alone but she was cool about it “Of course I don’t mind.”
John obviously felt at home in Chris’s party house because he was standing behind the bar when Carol and Chris walked in and was serving him a drink.
“Hey little girl, I saw you coming when you parked in front of the house. I walked…yes, yes…fixed up your hair and make-up a little in the car so you didn’t notice me walking in the yard”, John smiled.
If he didn’t get on her nerves before, he certainly did now, she thought, because of that stupid hair comment in front of Chris. He didn’t have to hear that. Now he will know that she liked him. And what kind of joke was that to call her little girl? She continued to think. He was older than both of them (Chris was her age), but not that much older to call her little girl.