Thankfully, she rolled off of him, and he was able to stand.
“Uh, yeah, I didn’t like that,” he said to her.
“Oh, Desiderio, I missed your snark,” she sighed dreamily. He rolled his eyes. Feeling very much like a voyeur, I stepped away from the back-room door and went to them.
I put my hands in the pocket of my hoodie and rocked on my sneakers. “Hey!” I greeted.
“Hey, you.” He hurried over to me and put his arms around me. “Long time no see.” Before I could stop him, he bent down and kissed me. My eyes went wide, and I pulled away quickly. I glanced over at Aleida, who was staring at us with her mouth open and her eyebrows high on her forehead.
“Um,” I coughed. “Desi, we shouldn’t—”
He waved his hand dismissively at Aleida. “Yeah, I don’t care anymore. I don’t care about my curse. If being with you means never breaking my curse, then so be it.”
While he was looking at me while he said it, I couldn’t help but feel like it was to her that he was directing his words.
Desi returned on a busy night, so we were both helping the other two employees. We took the counters, sending Aleida and Una to usher. When Desi went for a small break to get a drink, Aleida came up to cover him.
We had a slight lull, and she took the chance to come shimmy up to me. I instantly tensed.
“So when did you and Desi—start?” she asked. I admired her for getting to the point. She crossed her arms and glared at me. I looked her dead in the eye and answered her.
“Before you even got here.”
“And you’re okay with what we did?” She smirked. I sighed, and as if knowing that I’d been ambushed, Desi came from the back room. I swiveled my head to him and shouted to him.
“Hey Loser, did you let Aleida blow you in your office?” My loud voice didn’t even phase him. He kept coming toward us, unwrapping a candy, and popping it into his mouth.
“Nope. Just you in the break room.” He came around the corner and kissed me again. I inhaled the faint smell of his candy. It was beginning to be a point of comfort for me. Cinnamon meant he was near, and I liked him close.
I looked at Aleida. She was studying us with intense eyes. She shook her head and smirked. “You’re both stupid. Maybe you shouldn’t break that curse, Desiderio. Because when you do, you’re fucked.”
She spun around and stalked away, heading off toward a theater to check-in.
“Ignore her. She’s nothing to me,” he murmured from behind me. He embraced me, but I shrugged him off of me. “What? Seriously, she’s just jealous. Don’t let her get to you.”
I turned to him and shook my head. “No, it’s not that. I just don’t like the whole fighting over a guy thing. It’s so—outdated.” I stuck my tongue out. “Like, I wonder if we’d be friends if it wasn’t for you, you know?”
He chuckled. “You two are so different. I struggle to imagine you as BFFs. Hey.” He raised his hands up. “If you want to go to the mall and talk about buff guys and expensive shit all night, by all means, don’t let me stop you. I don’t think you need all the make-up and hair shit she uses, but that’s just a personal preference. Which, by the way. I didn’t notice your hair until this morning.” He laughed.
I squinted suspiciously at him. He was trying way too hard to distract me. Reflexively, I reached for my hair. While he was gone, I had stopped dying it red. My interest in maintaining the bright color had waned, just like my mood each day he was gone. I bought a box of dye that was closest to my natural dark brown hair color and went back to brunette.
“Aw, you’re too sweet. You’d think you would have noticed when you had your fists deep in it last night.”
His eyes darkened, and the smile that slipped onto his face was downright devilish. “You bouncing on my cock like a fucking pogo stick was a bit distracting. Forgive me.”
I smacked his shoulder playfully, and he pretended it hurt. “Hey! I like it. The red was fun, but the black is more- you.”
“Well, duh. That’s because it is me.” I smirked. “Speaking of going back to normal, how’s your stomach?”
Without missing a beat, he lifted up his Iron Maiden shirt and showed off his spectacular set of abs, scratch-free. He flashed a cheesy smile, his fangs sticking out quite adorably. “See? I’m fine.”
Another wave of patrons came, and we grew busy selling tickets and filling popcorn buckets.
By the time our shift ended, I was exhausted. I invited Desi to my place afterward, and he was there before I was. I laughed at his eagerness.
I showered and was ready for bed. My legs were killing me. He offered to massage my feet. He sat up on the bed with his legs crossed and reached for my foot. He began working the muscles and deep tissue, relaxing them.
“Ugh, you’re the best.” I groaned.
