5

Chloe Mintz

We reached the restaurant at around 8:30pm. Before I could open the door and step out, he was already out and held a hand for me to hold.

He walked me inside where he said waitress about our booked table and she took us to the table. The place is pretty expensive.

On the table, there was a wine bottle with a ribbon tied to it's neck, and two glasses either side of it awaiting us. He pulls out a chair for me to sit, and the close proximity –which wasn't that close– made his scent fill my nostrils. He smelled like papers, aftershave and some strong men's perfume. God! I feel like I'm in heaven.

I don't have much knowledge about men's perfumes but the one he's wearing is definitely attractive. He sits in his seat across from me, pours down glass of red wine for each of us and a waitress arrives at our table to attend us. We ordered our food, obviously because we came to restaurant for food, it's secondary that we're on a date, for now, infront of food.

"I like clothes by your company. I love them actually, they have my heart" I say. "Really? I'm not much into designing garments so I have no idea about them." he replies, closes his eyes for a brief second and opens them and takes a sip of water. But this might be the very first time he spoke a whole sentence having more than ten words.

Second date, and you've progressed, Chloe. Keep going baby.

I compliment myself in my head and grin for just a second then pull on my serious, straight face. I'm actually good at it though. I look at him as he takes a spoonful of his food, his eyes catch mine. And I might have blushed because my cheeks heated up and I hear a chuckle from him, I might have mistaken it, my ears might have ringed but his expression doesn't seem as if he just chuckled.

"Then what are you interested in?" I ask.

"Graphic designing." He replies.

"Aren't you in fashion designing?"

"Yes."

I expect him to explain me why he was in the field other than the one he likes but he doesn't respond after that so I get the clue that Mr. Ashbluff is back to being Mr. One-word-conversation. We eat in silence for a couple or minutes until it's him who breaks the silence.

"You own a café, right?" He asks.

"Yep" I reply by emphasizing the letter 'p' in it.

"What's the name?"

"Mintzone."

"What does that mean? Dad said that you and your mother don't do anything without having a meaning behind it."

"Yeah, that's right. The meaning behind the name is quite simple. But it has two different meanings though. Which one would you want to know, the real one or the theory-based-made by people?"

"The theory one"

"Since it's me who own the café, and no one from my family works there, it can mean that one person from the Mintz family own the café or works there."

"And the real one?" He asks which makes me smile.

"My café is Mint themed, so it's Mint-zone"

"That's very interesting name"

"Thank you"

We order some caramel icecream, I wanted that, and started to head back home.

The drive back was silent, the only sound which acted as our companion was the faint sound of the engine. I got a text from the girls' group we –me, Layla and the sisters– made. I clicked opened the chat to see a text from Layla.

Layla: The guy, Rome, dropped us at an amusement park instead of anyone of our home –_–.

She sent two attachments, one of Sarah wearing pink bunny ears on her hijab and other one of Mahin, she wore devil horns over her hijab and smirked as a devil, atleast she tried to. They are literally dresses as their opposites, Sarah is good, but she's not too good as Mahin is, she's having a bitchy personality and all of us love it. She's straight forward person who says your flaws on your face, the flaws part is the one I dislike, but don't tell it to her. And Mahin is a sweetheart of the group, she's like an angel, outgoing, extrovert, and is filled with positivity in her as if negativity doesn't exist in this world. She sees the world through eyes of a child, beautiful. And there comes Layla, who's both, good and bad, angel and evil, introvert, sassy, and honestly I like her personality which says 'i won't mess up with your life, but if you do with mine, you've gotta say the world bye'.

I let out a small snort and start typing my response.

Me: It's funny to see them wearing this and trying to look cute and evil, like their opposites >.<

Sarah: Oh, there's more of it, not only these pics of us she sent here.

Sarah: let me send hers to you real quick.

And there's comes another picture, of Layla in nothing but a red set of underwear and bra, cover with fishnets and a tail starting from her butt, devil horns on her head. She was sipping a drink, which I assume was orange juice because she's obsessed with it, while adjusting her horns looking into mirror. The background is similar to Sarah and Mahin's home. I guess they all are in their home.

Me: Is it some sort of Halloween today which I'm not meant to know about or what?

Sarah: Nope, I assure you.

Layla: WTF Sarah, when I asked you why you're laughing, you said it's some random guy on a dating app and also said that you're NOT taking any picture of anyone.

Mahin: You have a profile in dating app?

Mahin: you betrayed sissy, you didn't share something so serious with me, I'm disappointed asf. ಠ⁠﹏⁠ಠ

Me: Seriously guys?!?! She lied and you believed? She doesn't have any dating app.

Me: And besides, she doesn't seem to have interest in any 'guys' these days.

Sarah: Excuse me miss, I broke up with my sixth boyfriend a couple of month ago and you want me to say at early ade of twenty three? And moreover, knowing that I cannot move on easily, you want me to be interested in another guy? ಥ⁠‿⁠ಥ

Sarah: That's hilarious tho ┐⁠(⁠ ⁠∵⁠ ⁠)⁠┌

My brain reminds me that I'm still in Allan's car.

Me: uhh, I'll text you guys when I get back home, we're still on our way back.

Layla: Okay, no worries, you can text us an eternity later, we will be waiting, atleast our skeletons will do.

Layla: Good luck getting laid ;)

Me: No, not today, I'm on my periods.

Sarah: You should try that too once yk, heard it's good.

Mahin: Eww, sis, you're gross.

Sarah: Nah babe, I ain't gross.

Layla: Haha, she isn't, I tried it once, it was good and fun except the extra pain part....

Sarah:...what?

Mahin: I think I'm in a wrong gc.

Me: The thought of it is gross for me, at the very least.

Me: Okay, bye, take care you guys. I love you idiots <3

Layla: Love you too.

Mahin: You too, take care and ilysm.

Sarah: yeah, I love you more than anyone, everyone is aware. But Allan will take care of you for tonight I'm sure of it. :⁠-⁠D

Me: yeah whatever, bye!

These shitheads, I love them for being weird. And I'm pretty proud that we are the only people infront of whom Layla isn't shy at all.

I lock my phone and in the reflection on the screen, I catch a glimpse of Allan. His eyes were here but soon took over to the path infront of as he realised I caught him. I kept the phone back in my purse and he stops the car. "We're here" he says when I lift my face up to check my surroundings. I open my seatbelt and then the door, but Allan was again fast enough to stand beside the door to help me out. Man must have some kind of superpower. I have to talk with Sarah to know about these powers.

I stand infront of him. "Today's dinner was nice" he says.

"I loved it too." I reply.

"I guess I should get going now." He says but doesn't move from the spot even when I reply with a nod.

We keep staring at each other in our eyes. And throwing few glimpses on our lips. Tempted to kiss them, I had to hold myself back from it to remain sane. His perfectly thin, cherry lips luring me towards them. I was caught off-guard when he said "I would like to visit your café once", not breaking the eye contact at all, as if we're on a competition who will break the contact first.

"Yeah, you should" I reply.

Unable to hold back each other, "Fuck the shit" we both mutter and crash our lips onto each other. His lips enveloping mine in a possesive manner. He tasted like the wine we had at dinner and the icecream we ate, the taste which I would never want to remove from my mouth even if it would cost my dear life. The sensation was something different. I have kissed many men ago, but no one kissed like he's doing, it's as if my lips were meant to mould with his, they perfectly fitted on each other.

The kiss –this is something I'm gonna be obsessed with for a whole week so deal with my ass– was filled with ecstasy and something I couldn't name, passion? Maybe. Love? We're not at that point, yet. Hate? I'm positive it isn't that.

We had to break the kiss because a familiar voice interrupted is which had followed a throat clearance. "Look who's here" it was my mom's voice. I didn't even notice that they're here already. Hell, I didn't even notice that my hands were around his neck and his were around my waist.

What a nice timing, mom.

Without saying a word, unsure of what to say actually, we stood in each other's embrace.

"Are you free this weekend?" I ask him.

"Depends on what you're planning" he replies.

"So, Sunday, let's go to the newly opened club, it's just down the street near my café." I suggest.

"Sounds good. Why time?"

"At around 9pm? I heard that the drinks they have hit hard, but only the ones which are sold after 9 or something."

"Okay. I'll clear my schedule of this weekend."

We stood still again, in each other's arms and staring into our eyes. But the moment we gone because his phone rang, we withdrew our hands "This Sunday then" he says.

"Yep." I reply.

"Bye, for now" we say and he's gone after a few seconds.