No Strings Attached

Part 7 : No Strings Attached

I could no longer hold in the tears that threatened to burst out from me. What was wrong with me? I was absolutely pathetic. A man kisses you once Kimberley and you are completely enthralled? But it was Riccardo Alonso, I'd been infatuated since the moment I laid eyes on him.

"Kim? What's up, hun? Come in, come in!" she grabbed my shoulders, pulling me inside her 1 bedroom flat and upstairs into her room. She rummaged through her chest of drawers and pulled out a pair of pajamas.

"Here, stick these on, you left them here last time you stayed. This is a girl's crisis and that calls for only one thing. A two litre tub of Ben and Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream."

I sobbed, unable to get myself together, or get my mind off anything other than Riccardo Alonso's lips on mine. 

"T-t-thanks Sep." I eventually managed to stutter out

September, my trustworthy and never-failing best friend took one final look at me, and immediately turned on her heel, running downstairs.

She returned five minutes later with a cornucopia of sweet treats. Tubs of ice cream, bars of chocolate, packets of chips, sugar ring donuts and my biggest weakness: Turkish Delight. Her arms practically full to the brim, she flopped onto the bed, letting out an immense sigh.

But no sooner had she done so, was she tucking in to our bounty with renewed vigour. 

"So tell me," she said, stuffing a donut into her mouth, "What's up Kim?"

I shook my head in disbelief, prodding her non-existent stomach, "How do you eat so much and stay so thin?"

"You can talk Miss Size 2," she laughed, "Anyway, that's not the point. I can see it written all over your face. It's a guy, right? So who is it this time? Is it the guy you met in the jewelry store? What was his name...Cain? Or was it that hottie Tom you met on the subway?"

I dabbed at my eyes with a tissue, "Neither of them. You know I've not done anything but kiss those guys. That's it."

"Then who, Kim?" she asked. I could tell she was trying to squeeze the information out of me, one eyebrow arched so high it could have touched her hairline. 

I couldn't help myself. Just one thought of the way he looked at me across the room tonight, or the way he held me in his arms had me in fresh floods of tears. What the hell was wrong with me and my obsession with this man?

"Riccardo Alonso." I replied, in between sobs.

She choked on her doughnut spitting the gooey pastry out onto the floor. She grabbed a tissue, shaking and picked up the half-eaten doughnut placing it in the waste-paper bin by her bedroom door.

"You mean the Riccardo Alonso?" she said, once she had regained her breath, "As in sexier than sin, world's biggest womanizer, most desired bachelor, power-hungry Riccardo Alonso?"

"Yep."

Her jaw hit the floor, "You dirty-"

I furiously shook my head, "That's not how it happened Sep. It was just a kiss, I swear."

She shrugged her shoulders, "A kiss is a kiss but with Riccardo Alonso? You are so lucky."

I'd be lying if I said her words didn't give me pause for thought. Sure, I was lucky. Lucky to have kissed Riccardo Alonso, lucky for him to want me, lucky for him to even look my way. But how many women would get the pleasure of saying they were lucky enough to have Rick's attention? Was he simply looking at me as his next in line?

"He's a pig," I said bluntly, "If you knew him you'd think the same. He kissed me then started getting off with some red-head."

September gasped, her bright eyes widening in shock, almost as if all that stuff she'd mentioned about him being a womanizer suddenly failed to apply, "He didn't!"