Phool Chumiya (Trans: flowers and kisses)

Alex looked startled, confused and slightly guilty before he smiled. “What are you doing here” he asked, walking towards me

“I...I’m here to get some flowers” I said, almost stammering and wanting to kick myself for it

I saw Alex’s body tense and when he spoke his voice was deeper “flowers? For who?”

I almost started laughing at his obvious jealousy and that made me feel a ton better so I could actually talk again. “Someone” I said deciding to tease him a little and have some fun

“Who” he repeated, looking a little bit angry now

I thought of keeping the pretense of someone else going but I didn’t want to hurt him so I just laughed and said “you”

“What!?” he said going back to the confused look

I just laughed and gave him a hug. At first he didn’t hug me back and I was about to step away and ask him what was wrong when his arms came around, suddenly in a bone crushing hug.

“Don’t do that” he whispered in my ear “don’t make me think there is someone else”

I had been about to say something sarcastic but I smiled and laid my head against his shoulder and said nothing.  I don’t know how long we stood there like that but we only broke apart when I heard the florist says “um…miss. Excuse me. I don’t want to interrupt but both of your flowers are ready”

As we stepped back, I felt my face flush as I looked at the knowing look on the florists face. Alex looked questioningly at me and then turned to the florist “Thank you. How much do we owe you?”
The florist handed him a bill and Alex looked at in surprise before turning to the florist and asking her “how did you know that we’d be paying together?”

She laughed and said “if you two had been holding each other any tighter, you would have become one body”

I felt the blush on my face turn even deeper as I stepped slightly behind Alex and buried my face into his back. A moment later the florist handed Alex both the bouquets and we headed outside.

“Do you need to get anything else?” he asked as we stood outside the flower shop

I was about to answer no when I remembered the food that Maria probably had ready by now and that fact that the cabbie was still waiting for me.

“Yes, I do” I answered “I need to pick up our food from Maria’s and then I have a cab, Sulkhan uncle, waiting for me in the front”

Alex grabbed my hand with his free one and we headed towards Maria’s. “What were you planning on doing?” he asked

“I was going to go to your office and kidnap you for a picnic lunch and then try and talk you into not going back” I said laughing as we came within seeing distance of Maria’s.

“It wouldn’t have taken a lot to talk me into not going back” he said, laughing “I haven’t been able to concentrate today at all”

A moment later we walked into Maria’s and saw Maria at the counter with Clara. They glanced up at the bell and Clara gave me yelp and ran and jumped into Alex’s arms. He let go of my hand barely in time to grab Clara before she fell and swung her around. She started talking excitedly to him and only stopped when her mom, Maria, literally pulled her off of him and gave Alex a hug before she started lecturing him about not coming in more often and how skinny he looked.

Alex just laughed and said “I know, Zia Maria. I’ll try and come in more often I promise”

She smiled and kissed his check and said “good. We need to fatten you up a little. Especially if you want to have a girlfriend again”

 Alex blushed and I was just about to tease him about that when Clara suddenly looked at me. “Wait a minute” she said “did I see you two holding hand when you walked in just now?”

“WHAT!?” Maria asked, startled. Then smiling she said “Please tell me it’s true”

I felt my face start to burn again and turned to bury my head into Alex’s shoulder. A glance at his face showed a lot of red as well, as both of us tried, unsuccessfully it seemed, to get over our embarrassment and speak.

Maria and Clara took our blushes and silence as confirmation and we were both suddenly over whelmed with hugs and kisses. When Clara leaned over to kiss Alex, she paused a moment before she touched his lips and grinning turned to me “I guess you don’t me to do that anymore do you?”

I laughed and feeling the rush of embarrassment die down a little, I said laughingly “Your right. I don’t want you to do that anymore. But that’s never stopped your before”

Clara laughed and brushed Alex’s lips in a quick kiss and stepped back. “How was that?” she asked, smiling

‘Hah. You call that a kiss?” I said teasingly “that wasn’t a kiss. That was a brushing of lips. This is what a really kiss looks like” and I turned to Alex and reaching up touched my lips to his in a soft caress at first and then a little bit harder. Before I could do anything else, Alex’s arms came around me as he crushed me to him and deepened the kiss.

As my arms wound around him, I felt his tongue seeking entrance to my mouth and I opened my lips. The kiss seemed to go on and on and the whole world seemed to stop. Nothing seemed to moving anymore and nothing else seemed to matter at all anymore. I knew that Maria, Clara and the others were watching us but something that would have normally made very uncomfortable, didn’t embarrass me at all.

When we finally broke apart both of us were slightly out of breath. I looked at Alex and he had a stunned look on his face that I’m 100% sure my face mirrored…