The rest of the fourth day was filled with an awkward atmosphere. Not even Hawk wanted to do anything about what happened earlier. If anything, he was the one who wanted to keep it quiet, which was unheard of.

Nighttime came and went and the rooftop mates were up and about again. Their conversation was invigorating, if their chuckles were anything to go by.

The comfort they felt close to one another grew by the day and by now, they felt like they could talk about anything without fear.

This was the impression the redhead had of what they had going. So after letting the silence settle in, she swallows.

“I don’t think we talked about exes yet, did we?”

He looks at her. “Nope.” He then raises an eyebrow. “I don’t think you’re one to talk about cheesy stuff like exes.”

“Yep.” She mimics him with a small smile. “But I figured the opportunity called for it.”

“Because of yesterday?”

“And the day before, yeah.”

Since he was standing up, the male of the two kicks nothing carefreely. “Jane always had this obsession with being in a relationship. I guess she wanted to prove something, I don’t know.”

“You not knowing something about her?” She looks at him, almost baffled. “Now, that’s something.”

“You’d be surprised about the amount of things I don’t actually know.” He looks back at her, a toothy, somewhat embarrassed grin. “I’m not good at that.”

“Must be a man thing.” Her visage becomes melancholic as the memories come back.

A minute passes where they don’t say anything, probably thinking of what to say next. Samuel takes the lead.

“I had two girlfriends before.”

“Two?” Truth be told, Crimson wasn’t exactly sure of what she should expect from someone like Samuel. He felt predictable but he proved her he wasn’t what she expected of him more times than one.

“Long and boring story short, the first one was from my teen days.” He rubs the back of his head while struggling to say his next words. “We… kind of met online.”

The woman in pajamas can’t help but snort slightly. She didn’t want to make him feel even more embarrassed but she couldn’t help it. Hearing him act that way didn’t help either.

“...and it turns out she already had a boyfriend anyway. That’s a year I spent chasing nothing.”

“What did J have to say?”

“Nothing.” He shrugs. “This happened before I met her.”

She stares him down, waiting for him to spill the beans. He can’t resist and sighs. “Ok, fine. When I told her, she laughed at me for a whole minute and kept making fun of me over it for two years.”

“See, it wasn’t that tough.” She hits his leg playfully. “What about the other one?”

“She was for real.” He sighs gloomily. “But real talk, I wish she wasn’t. If it was online, at least I could have just blocked her.”

“That sounds worrying.”

“Get this.” He grimaces a bit. “This random girl walked up to me when I was sitting at a bar, y’know, scouting for loot. She just sat on my table and started talking to me as if we were buddy buddies. And I didn’t want to be rude so I just kept the conversation going.”

“I really don’t know how people have the guts to do something like that.” The redhead wonders. “Just, walk up to someone and start talking.”

“Yeah. And I wish that wasn’t the case.” The man in black pajamas shudders. “At the end of our talk, she asked if she could give me a blowjob.”

Stunned by this, Crimson blinks a few times. “What?”

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“Don’t ask me.” He shrugs. “I said no but she kept insisting, going as far as to rub herself on me. Then I was like ‘get lost’ but she was like ‘only if it’s with you’ and by that point, I got so upset that I was about to leave the place.”

A deep sigh is what accompanies Samuel’s gaze into the horizon. “She said some things. Doubted my masculinity and sexuality. Attacked my pride. So one short night together later, the next thing I know, she has daddy issues and clings onto me like hot glue.”

“Wow…” Crimson is at loss for words. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He looks at her with a weak smile. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Seeing her instead of the face of the woman that almost ruined his emotional life actually brightens his smile, perking him up a lot.

He catches himself staring for a bit too long so he forces a cough and looks ahead.

Crimson giggles, which warms him inside

“What happened after?” An eager Crimson asks, wanting more of the story.

“Oh, right. She would do absolutely everything in her power to stay with me. She went from ‘perfect wife material’ to threatening to hurt me if I left her. When she realized that wouldn’t work, she threatened to hurt herself.” He rubs the top of his head. “And our time together was a vicious cycle of her using me to feel better and me using her to feel good. It was addicting.”

“Like crack.” She points out the comparison, to which the male of the two nods.

“Yeah, like crack.”

“How did you two break up though?”

His weak smile comes back but not as melancholic. “She met J. After that, I never heard from her again.”

A dark thought occurs to the redhead. “You don’t think…”

“I’m not sure. She never told me. Said it wasn’t important and that I only had to worry about not having to see her ever again.”

“And you just took it?” The woman in pajamas queries. The man in pajamas sighs.

“It meant not having to worry about her anymore. I just took what she gave me. A lie or not.”

Both continue looking forward, not saying anything for a while.

The silence between them was comfortable in a way they didn’t expect but wholeheartedly enjoyed.

“What about you?” He asks her. She shudders.

“Can I not talk about him?”

He pouts in disappointment. “No, I wanna know.”

“But I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Well, I also didn’t want to talk about my exes.” He points out. “C’mon, whatever happened is in the past.”

“And I wanna keep it there, ok?” She was slowly raising her voice in mild annoyance, which makes him sigh disappointingly.

Opting to not say anything, he keeps looking forward. The silence wasn’t as comfortable this time.

But after two or so minutes, she opens her mouth. “He promised me the world then dumped me for some pretty face from a rich kids high school.”

The words sting his heart in a way he wasn’t expecting. “Low move from him.”

“Turns out I dated a pedophile, who would have thought?” She embraces herself and looks down. “Good finger I have for men.”

Wanting to comfort her, he sits down close to her. “Well, in your defense, it was just once, right?”

Still not looking up, she continues her self pitying. “Yeah but I’ve been waiting for so long. I was just being an idiot.”

He sighs. “Falling in love is not something an idiot does.”

She finally looks up at him. He was right by her side and if they were like this three or so days ago, she would have pushed him out the rooftops.

But looking at him from this close made her skip a heartbeat.

“I guess…”

She doesn’t break eye contact, despite the nervousness.

Neither does he, despite the nervousness.

And without warning, both of them come closer to one another, giving each other a gentle kiss. Which soon turns into one full of passion and repressed feelings finally being let go of.

Once they break out of it, they look at each other’s eyes again, trying to guess what the other thought of what they just did.

Their breathing was uneven and accelerated and both had weird smiles on their faces.

“Yeah?” She asks.

“Yeah.” He answers.

“Your lips are so pretty.” She comments.

“Your freckles are so cute.” He comments.

They both smile cutely, giving each other another kiss.

They go back to looking straight ahead but this time, their hands were interlocked.

…

“More.”

“Ma’am, everyone is going home now.” The bartender comments to the blonde girl sitting on the counter.

She groans. “More. I’m paying you to give me wine, not a moral lesson.”

The older man sighs, doing as he’s told to. He was, after all, being paid to pour, not give moral lessons.

He had seen broken people before but none as fierce drinkers as this one, especially when given the size.

This opinion was shared by the new face sitting not too far from the short woman. A man wearing a suit, gray like his hair, that made a nice contrast with his green eyes. If he had a briefcase, one could take him for a businessman.

The cup of coffee he was having didn’t do much to shoo the tiredness nor the stress from his eyes. He wanted this to get over more quickly so a thought occurs to him as he decides to finally approach her.