His second chance at a happy life

Romance

"I'll take those." He says, trying to take my clothes from my arms, but I move them from his grasp. The thought of him carrying my bra with him was nerve-racking.

"I'm fine I got it." Embarrassment filled my chest at the thought of him carrying my bra. I looked down at the floor feeling childish. He stares at me for a second, trying to look over my face, then smiles and turns to my side. We headed to the checkout area silently. I bit down on my lip trying to find something to talk about, but nothing came up. We wait for one person then head to a cashier. She smiles,

"Will this be all?" I nodded, giving a small smile back. She finishes scanning my things, telling me the total price. As I go into my bag to get my wallet, I hear a ding of the chip being approved. I looked up and saw Trevor buying a drink from the counter. I let out a sigh, quietly pulling my card out.

“Here you need some sugar, you’re looking a bit pale.” I smiled, waiting for my things to be bagged and thanked him. As I took a sip, my things were ready. I tried to quickly close the bottle, but he had already taken it in his hands.

“Thanks again for everything.” I managed,

“Well, what do we have here?” Ellie asked, crossing her arms with a grin when she spotted us coming out of the store. I flush a bit but don’t comment. Emilio, however, is sitting head in hands on one of the many chairs scattered around the mall. I scrunch my eyebrows at her as she loops her arm with mine, stirring us to the food court.

"So, what's wrong with Emilio?" I asked as we walked.

"He doesn't know her ring size so he is freaking out." She laughs. I shook my head at her,

"You are loving that? Aren't you?" She smiles at me wickedly with a shrug. She knows Avila, Emilio’s girlfriend's ring size.

"Whatever, what are we eating?" Says, looking at all the food places.

"I want...." I hmmm as I scanned over the food.

"Chinese food." Trevor hums, resting his head on my shoulder. I roll my eyes and shrug him off, but he puts it back from the corner of my eye, I see him smile. I almost smiled back but kept it hidden. "You love Chinese food, right?" This time the smile showed,

"I think I'll buy some pizza." I moved forward to the pizza stands. I hear him laugh, Ellie and I walk to a pizza stand, deciding to share a medium-sized half-and-half. We get our food then look around to find a table. We start chowing down moments later. The guys show up, one with Chinese food and the other with a sub. Trevor is the one with Chinese food. I can smell the delicious Generals Tso Chicken, stir-fried rice, egg rolls and crab Rangoon's. I take a bite of my cheesy, veggie, meaty pizza slice, trying to focus on that, but the Rangoon kind of called me and I end up taking one from his container.

"I thought you wanted pizza?" Trevor laughed as I placed it on my plate.

"What? You buy five of them, you don't eat five, you only eat three because it's too "creamy" for you. Hmm, which means I got two." I smiled and took the other one. He laughs again, picking up his fork,

"You two are something special." Ellie's eyes between the two of us grinning. I just rolled my eyes and ate the rest of my pizza slice. After eating, we headed to the jeweler to look at the rings again one last time,

“Okay, it’s been an hour. Ellie stop being so mean!” I elbow her as we watch Emilio have a mini panic attack in the shop Trevor is trying his best to help to no avail. She laughed with a sigh. “He’s your older brother.” I hiss, we were standing by the entrance whispering to make sure he couldn't hear me.

“Fine.” She huffs, then set off to help her brother. I shake my head,

“Angel blood my ass.” I muttered following she looked back at me with a smirk that was less than sweet.

“Mi harmono, her ring size is a 5. And this,” She scrolls through her messages with Avila, “this is her favorite style.” She holds up the phone. Both Emilio and the jeweler glanced at it. He gasped, pulling her into a big hug.

“Wait, when did you learn that?” He moved away, eyeing her with suspicion.

“While you were panicking I messaged her.” She shrugged with her wicked smile again, I roll my eyes, ‘Yeah, an hour and a half ago.’ I shook my head, moving to wonder around the shop as Emilio really started to get into the shopping. As I wonder a necklace catches my eyes, it is a short gold chain with a single diamond dangling from it.

“That is a beautiful piece, elegant.” Trevor's voice was suddenly in my left ear. I turned my head and was eye to eye with him. He was so close. I didn’t even hear him walk my way. I quickly looked back at the necklace. His breath tickles my neck as he speaks again, “It would look good on you.” I laugh, then he rests his chin on my shoulder, leaning on me slightly, his heat radiating from him. ‘What is he an oven.’ To regain my focus, I shrug him off and mutter,

“Yeah, right but it is lovely.” He doesn’t move, and it is intoxicating. I groan internally.

“If you want, I can...”

“No.” I cut him off before he could even finish. I looked over to see Emilio and Ellie looking at the rings set on the counter. Trevor moves from behind me and, to my side still close, I glance towards him from the corner of my eye, he is grinning.

“What?” I asked, not looking at him, scrunching my eyebrows.

“Nothing, your just cute.” I looked at him cheeks flushed red, his grin turned into a smile. I look away. ‘Don’t fall for it, Samantha.’ I told myself he was only bored.

“Could you not,” I muttered. I shuffle over to another case not really looking at anything. I glanced up at the sound of shuffling next to me. I moved my eyes to Ellie the second I saw Trevor moving as well, hoping I could get her attention. To no luck, she is engrossed with a male jeweler probably talking about the style of the ring, but she has an annoyed look on her face. I started to move towards her when Trevor took hold of my wrist gently,

“They’re fine, she is just talking about football.” He laughs, shaking his head. I look back at Ellie when she gets a bit loud saying something about her favorite team, but lowers her voice the second she notices she is getting loud. I smile that she can always talk to anyone about football to those who will listen and always get passionate about it. I go to another case staying away from that conversation, I can never keep up nor do I care too much about football to begin with, it was never my cup of tea.

“I’ll just look over here then.” I chuckle, continuing to walk along the cases slowly, “Her rants are always too intense.” As I walk, I can still feel his warmth seep through my hand and up my arm I try to slightly remove my hand, but his grip tightens a tad holding mine in place.

“So...” He started making a circular motion as he said that little of a gestor can be so harmless from anyone, but as he slowly moved his thumb over my knuckles, I felt like I was melting. Feeling embarrassed at my thoughts, I pulled away. This time he let it go without a fuss. I sighed internally then glanced at him, he was smiling at me. ‘If I did that to Derrick.’ She thought absently, ‘He would have either held on with a very tight grip with a glare at me, then when we were alone he would defiantly yell at me telling how ungrateful I was being ending with a smack across the face.’ I wince at the thought Trevor see it his face changes, I turn so he can’t see my face. “Samantha.”

Her name came out softly off his lips.

“Hmm?” She always gets a shiver of pleasure down her spine when he says her name. He is still close, his heat coming off him in waves, my stomach flips and my mouth goes dry, I lick my lips.

“Would you like to go walk around just the two of us?” I looked at him, his lips curved into a smile. “Come on.” He placed one hand on my waist, gently ushering me out to the entrance. A look back at Ellie, slightly panicked, she turned in our direction but, instead of what I was hoping, I got what I expected from her, a smile with a wave, and she mouthed ‘GO!’ Then turned back to her brother.

“So where are we going?” I asked, looking down at where his hand still rest. We didn’t pause in our step as he answered,

“Not a clue.” He looks around, “Where should we go?” He mutters to himself with a hmm. “That looks promising.” He grins, setting course for one of the places to our right, he gently takes hold of my hand. Moving it from my waist is a swift motion.

“The bookstore?” I asked. Looking at me, he nodded.

“They have the best drinks; coffee, tea smoothies, plus their pastries are amazing.” His face becomes soft, giving him child-like features. His grin is so infectious that I feel my lips curve into a grin to smile back. We walked through the bookstore to the small, almost invisible café in the back where we ordered and waited at the counter.

“This green tea really is good.” I said, setting my cup down after my first sip.

“I told you so.” He responds, resting his cup on the table, then lean back in his seat, we are in the back next to the windows of the shop further into the bookstore. “Try the cookie.” He says, gesturing with his hand to the giant ass chocolate chip cookie. It covers my entire plate. I tear a piece of it and pop it in my mouth. Eyes widen,

“Oh, my goodness, it just melted in my mouth.” I practically moaned, taking another bite.

“Maybe I should have bought two.” He laughed, taking a drink of his black chai tea. I laugh,

“There is no way I can eat this entire monster, here.” I held out a piece. He reaches out and, instead of taking the cookie, he takes hold of my wrist and inches it closer to his mouth. His lips brush the tips of my fingertips and my heart jumps out of my chest. My eyes locked on to his mouth over my fingers, he slipped his tongue between them as he did to move the piece into his mouth, causing my legs to go weak, and I heard a soft suck of a breath not quite sure which one of us it was, but the sensation was there in an instant like a shock of electric shooting up my arm. I quickly pulled my hand away. Our interaction were mere seconds, but it felt like hours under his touch time froze. I took my hand into the other one and hid it under the table. I inhale some of the cookie-scented air. My heart beat racing a mile per second. After I let a steady breath out, I reach and drink some of my tea. I pushed the plate into the middle of the table, cursing myself for not doing that from the start.

“What? I like you feeding me.” He chuckles, making me flush bright red,

“I wasn’t trying to, I was merely sharing, you know sharing is, caring all that jazz.” I rolled my eyes.

“You know I think you are amazing.” He says, resting his head on his fist.

“Mmm-hmm, just like you found all your girlfriends amazing.” I muttered before sipping my tea. “How many have you had this week?” I hummed I looked over my cup. I don’t know why I feel like bringing this up now. It just came out. I sigh, then silently curse Ellie for her spectacular friendship that has me think this and apparently saying them. I set my tea down, wanting to run away.

“Hm, what’s this? Jealous?” I rolled my eyes,

“Why would I be jealous? You are just a friend, more so Emilio’s friend.” I sipped some more tea.

“But I want to be more.” He stretches his hands out to mine midway to setting my cup down. Once the cup was down, he took both of mine in both of his and gently brought them to his lips, brushing them softly. My heart jumps. I slid them out of his grasp,

“No, you’re just bored.” I stood abruptly from my seat banging a knee on the table, spilling the rest of my drink. I stare down at the liquid flowing down the table. I sigh, reaching for a napkin from the container they have on every table. My hand collides with his as he also reaches for it.

“Why would you think that? Is that how you see me?” He was cleaning the mess before I could even start. I nod as he motions for me to have a seat again as he toasts the dirty napkins in the trash. I didn’t speak again until he sits again,

“That is how you portray yourself,” I cross my arms and sit straighter in my chair, “You are going to tell me that you have all these girls with you all the time, and it’s, what?” He straightens with what I think is confidence. I scrunch my eyebrows.

“This is not what you think. It’s not a romantic relationship with any of them. More like a sibling thing, we have all been together for a while.”

“Uh-huh.” He runs a hand though his hair, smoothing it out of his face, he needs a haircut.