Maeve
He’s flirting. He definitely is.
So much has changed from the man in New York to the man here. Seemingly free from the constraints of his obviously high position. Douchebag turned hero under the power of the sun.Or clouds, I think, glancing into the sky. The sun has disappeared, making the oncoming rain palpable in the air.
I noticed the change in Ezra after the hug. I mean, a hug can do that to a person, but I thought I was on the receiving end of it. But looks like the magic power of a hug works both ways.
I can sit and complain all I want about his mood swings and the whiplash I’m getting from them. Or I can sit and ride along with them. There’s literally nothing I can do to change him. We’re not close friends. We’re not friends at all. In fact, we’re pretty much enemies if one wants to get technical.
I doubt my reprimanding will do him any good other than making him even angrier. He probably has his reasons for being the way he is. I mean the man hasn’t seen the sun in years, maybe it’s the lack of vitamin D. The island seems to be healing him from the sicknesses he didn’t even know he had. The more D he gets, the better his mood will become.
Speaking of D. I’ve seen his. I just peeked.Accidentally, alright!But it’s a very hard thing not to notice. Veryhard. When he climbed that palm tree? He excited the bejesus out of me. So I justhadto throw a stick at him. Plus, I had to pay for his dickheadedness in New York. Our score now is even, and I can move on with being nice.
I shake my head, trying to get rid of thehardpicture from my mind. I felt it too, under my butt cheeks. I felt everything. And how nice it was to be squashed to a body like his. I’ve never had a large boyfriend. I mean, I’ve had very fit guys, but Ezra is not just fit. He’s huge. Everything about him is giant, including his presence. He’s the quietest person I’ve ever met, and yet I always know where he is. He’s that type of a human who naturally takes a large amount of space, and I don’t mind it one bit.
“What are you thinking about?” His voice suddenly bursts into the middle of my wild imagination.
“What?” I ask, blinking away the thoughts I’m not planning to share with anyone.
“That thing you do with your face,” he says with a smile in his voice.
“What thing?”
“This.” He brings his hand to my face, grazing my cheek with the back of his fingers. “When you show all your emotions running through your head.” His touch stays on my skin a moment longer than necessary.
“I do that?” I smack my hands on my cheeks in horror, secretly trying to erase the feel of his gentle touch away.
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “All the time. I saw it at the coffee shop when you would shoot daggers at me.”
I shoot him one right now too. “You deserved it.”
“Maybe.” He smiles.
“Maybe?” I plant my hands on my hips. “You were a dickhead.”
“Maybe.” He laughs this time. “You were too.”
“I was not!” I cry out outrageously.
“You were.” He nods a few times. “You were spiking my coffee with salt.”
“One time!” I lift one finger in the air. The middle one. “I did it one time! And you deserved it.”
“I did not,” he contradicts with a mischievous smile.
“You did too.” I stop and squash my index finger into his chest. “You made me pay for your coffee.”
“Your boss did.” He looks so full of himself. “And to be fair, you spilled a hot-ass coffee on me.”
“I was having a bad morning!” I cry out, throwing my hands in the air. “A really bad morning. And you weren’t helping with your stupid attitude.”
He cackles while moving the palm leaves away from our path. “What happened with your morning?”
Suddenly, I don’t feel so chatty. I recall the reprimanding I got from Jerome and the pay cut, when my pay was already small to begin with because I was working for cash, and it instantly dims my brightness. The fight leaves my body as I feel my shoulders sagging down. A moment of silence is heavy in the air.
“We can get those vines as decorations,” he says, changing the topic and pointing at the trees ten feet away from us.
I follow his finger and discover dozens of green vines hanging from the trees. “As garlands? Over the entryway?” I exhale in awe, feeling a bit better. “That’d be so cool!”
