Bouquets of Chocolate (manxman)

Nine

"Kiss!"

I look at my sister incredulously. For a change, I don't even have any snarky remark ready.

She's not even made it into my flat yet, standing in the open doorway with her arms crossed and staring at me and my boyfriend as if she just asked us the most mundane thing in the world.

"Kiss!" she demands again, raising her eyebrows impatiently.

"What? No, are you insane?" I finally say. Not very snarky, but it'll do. She only scoffs.

"As if I'd believe you two are going out without some proof."

Now she's even tapping her foot just to make a point. At her feet, my new housemate is sniffing at her ankles, rubbing her sides against my sister's legs, and purring as if agreeing with that ridiculous demand.

"Look," Jordie laughs from right behind me, having bent down to hold the cat up to keep her from escaping, "why don't you come in so you can let my boyfriend close his front door."

I elbow him in the gut, making him only laugh louder. The last thing I need is these two teaming up on me. At the very least though, it gets Veronica into the flat.

But of course, the moment I close the door and we walk into the living room, she gets straight back to it.

"Now kiss."

"Fucking hell, Nic, as if I'd lie to you about that. You know damn well it's true, you're just taking the piss."

She actually has the audacity to shrug.

"Not the point. Kiss."

I face palm and sigh, having half a mind to just ignore her and go read a book in my room or something. But of course Jordie finds all of this incredibly entertaining and because he knows me too well, his arms trap me against him before I even take the first step.

I fight the urge to wrestle away from him and instead lean back against him, secretly enjoying his back hugs. In the meantime, my sister seems to have noticed the cat, as she is kneeling down, spoiling her with cuddles and belly scratches and I'm hoping that she's finally distracted enough to forget about her stupid demand.

"See? This'll do right?" I say in my sister's direction.

"Don't even try me. The two of you have literally been stuck together by the hip before you could even speak. As if a little back hug proves anything."

I'm getting really aggravated and again, I'm fairly sure Jordie can tell and he takes a little pity on me.

"I sent you the photo, didn't I V?" Of course he did.

"Doesn't count, you clearly ambushed him. Wouldn't put it past you just to rile him up." She shrugs again. If only she knew. I mentally chuckle remembering when Jordie confessed and stopped short from kissing me because he wasn't sure I was okay with it.

Not that that is helpful right now. I really just want to do literally anything else but be here.

"Hey V? I've got that thing I told you about in my flat. Can you go get it for me real quick?" Jordie tries again from behind me.

For a moment, Nic just stares at him, then there's a giant smile on her face and she nods excitedly, running around the corner and a second later I hear my front door open and close again.

"What the hell was that?" I ask confused, slightly turning towards him. My eyes are just about level with his chin, so when we're this close I have to look up just a little bit.

"Oh, it's nothing big, just haven't been over there much so I forgot to bring it."

He's not wrong. He's always been here a lot, but in recent weeks he's spent even more time over here. It's probably the fact that I tend to cook more at home. Lately, he often doesn't feel like cooking anymore after working so much, particularly pastry, so we're usually here rather than his place.