“You did. You swore and shouted and everything.”
“Well, he was annoying me and stopping us from talking and—”
“It was fucking awesome,” Mina says with steady eyes on mine.
“Pardon?”
“It was brilliant to see you… I don’t know, be a little less like a ray of sunshine and a bit more like a rumbling cloud of thunder.”
I consider her words and find myself feeling brave. “You mean like you?”
Mina snaps her mouth shut. “Touché.”
“Well, they were annoying me. They were stopping me from responding to your comment.”
Mina’s brow rumples in confusion. “What comment?”
“You said you were sorry, if the kiss was too much. I wanted you to know that, no, it wasn’t too much,” I say quickly. “In fact, it was… it was really rather lovely.”
“Really rather lovely? Could you sound anymore middle-class white boy?” She props a hand on her hip.
I frown at her. “Surely a middle-class white boy would simply say ‘great kiss, babe’ or something equally unimaginative.”
“I don’t know. That was literally my first time kissing a middle-class white boy in over ten years.”
I pull my head back in surprise. “Now I don’t know whether to be incredibly flattered or a little bit worried.”
“Worried? Why worried?”
“Well, because maybe you’ll never want to kiss a middle-class white boy again.”
Mina’s eyes seem to grow bigger as she pauses before replying, “And why would that worry you?”
I decide to not mince my words. Admittedly, it’s not an option in life I typically choose but, on this occasion, it feels pressing that I simply cut to the chase.
I step closer to Mina, closing the gap she created against my wishes. I make sure her eyes are on mine before I speak.
“I want to kiss you more. Away from here. Away from all this noise and my mother’s eyes and my brother’s obnoxious hair.”
“You want to kiss… me?”
“Yes,” I say and I know I should keep my voice low, maybe even try to adopt a huskier voice but I’m in unchartered territory here, coming on to a woman, so I decide to navigate it with honesty rather than forced allure. “And this time, with tongues.”
I am rewarded with exactly the response I want as Mina leans forwards and starts giggling, her forehead resting on my shoulder. It’s almost enough, that contact, the vibrations of her laughter travelling through my body, but it’s still thoroughly inadequate.
I find her hand in mine. “Come with me,” I say and lead her out of the room.
*****
“I thought the whole point was for your mum to see us being… intimate,” Mina says from behind me as we walk, possibly at quite a speedy pace.
“And we have ticked that box. Now it’s time to tick some other boxes.”
“Is that… a euphemism?” Mina asks as we step into the corridor leading off the function room.
I turn abruptly, so abruptly Mina is unable to stop and she bundles into my chest before taking a step back.
“Wait, do you want to… do more?” I ask and it feels like the most important question I’ve asked in a long time.
