6. Newt
6
NEWT
D ecember 5th
Naomi had her entire wedding party and Mom and Dad all waiting, refusing to allow anyone to even think about tasting cake samples until Amber arrived. It was snowing lightly with a few inches forecast, but I hardly believed that was the reason for her twenty-minute delay. When I sent her a message, she didn’t respond, so I assumed she was driving. The cake testers parked in my parents' living room would just have to wait.
They chatted about the snowfall and how a snowball fight was in order when the cake testing was done, while Mom worked on a crossword puzzle and Dad read the news from an app on his phone. I listened to Naomi's tale of being younger and having a snowball fight with Amber at the park when a group of teenage boys joined in and slaughtered them. The group laughed and chimed in, but I saw lights flash across the mirror hanging on the wall and went to the front door.
Amber arrived twenty-five minutes late and dusted in snow with a crimson smile beneath rosy cheeks. I opened the door for her and she brushed the snow off her dark hair, tied into a messy bun, and the shoulders of her pink puffer coat.
"Hey, I texted you. Nomie's being a czar when it comes to cake samples. We need you." I stepped aside so she could enter, and she stomped her feet on the mat outside before stepping in and unzipping her coat as I shut the door.
"Yeah, sorry. I didn’t mean to lose track of time." She shrugged the coat off, and I took it from her. With her face chilled from the cold outdoors, she looked very much like a pixie. And the messy bun was hot. I'd taken her for a very put-together and bold woman the way Naomi talked about her. It was nice that she felt she could relax around me.
"What kept you so busy that you almost forgot your best friend's cake tasting when you're her maid of honor?" I chuckled and hung the coat in the coat closet, and she brushed a stray hair out of her eyes.
"I was working on the dress. The design is one of my favorites." Her hand slid down the front of her red and green Christmas sweater and into the pockets of her jeans.
"You, working on a dress?" I raised an eyebrow and her eyes widened.
"I, uh… I mean I was helping Jade. She needed to know more about Naomi's tastes." Amber looked flustered but also startled, like she almost let a secret slip. But we all knew her sister was designing the dress.
"Merry mix-up, I guess," I said comically, and she chuckled nervously before darting into the living room.
Confused, I followed her and sat across the room while she went right to Naomi's side and started corralling the bridezilla. Even Jared looked relieved that Amber was here to help out. Naomi calmed down as each person ate their small one-inch by one-inch square of cake from each flavor they had selected. I favored the chocolate, which seemed to melt on my tongue. When Amber ate it, she looked like she was in heaven, eyes shut and head arched back as she enjoyed it.
"What do you think?" Naomi asked her, but Amber scrunched her nose up.
"It's okay. I think the strawberry is my favorite." Amber licked her lips and used a finger to scrape the rest of the chocolate icing off her plate and lick her finger clean. It didn't appear that she liked the strawberry best.
People watching was one of my favorite pastimes. I enjoyed studying them, getting to know who they were as people based on their body language and facial expressions. It was almost like Amber was picking strawberry to keep Naomi happy, not because it was actually her favorite. I'd have to ask her about it later, but right then, I found it very intriguing that she went back for a second square of chocolate while everyone else donned their hats and gloves.
"Time for a bit of a romp before everyone goes home. We decided on snowball fighting." Naomi dragged Amber toward the coat closet, but Amber protested.
"I'm not feeling up to it. I think I have a sore throat coming on." She coughed a few times, very obviously fake, and Naomi scowled.
"You sound like Jade. She hates the snow but you love it. You'd never pass up a chance for a good snow fight." Naomi's whiny tone didn't even convince Amber, who crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head.
"I mean it. I feel sick, Nomes. You go on, okay? It's your big day." Amber planted herself resolutely in the front entryway and refused to budge, so Naomi and the rest of her friends donned their coats and dashed into the darkness without her. I watched as she stood near the front door staring through the window as her friends threw snowballs at each other until I joined her there.
"Not feeling up to it?"
"No," she grumbled, but it sounded more like she had no desire to go out into the cold, not the fact that she was sick.
"Well, it looks like Mom and Dad retired for the night. Care to join me in the kitchen for another slice of cake and some wine?" I held my elbow out toward her, and she wrapped both arms around my bicep and grinned.
"I'd love to," she announced happily, and I decided she'd planned this too. How could a woman who loves the snow as much as my sister not want to go out with her entire friend group to mess around? Unless the real reason she didn't want to go out was because I was here and I had shown interest in her.
I led her into the kitchen and pulled a chair out for her, then grabbed the box with the rest of the cake samples and two glasses for wine. I set them in front of her and returned to the wine cooler for a bottle of wine, and when I came back, Amber had a slice of chocolate cake in her hand, licking her fingers on the other hand.
"I knew it," I told her, laughing softly. "You told Nomie you liked strawberry, but I saw your face when you tasted that chocolate. It’s heavenly, isn’t it?" I popped the cork on the wine bottle and poured some into each glass as she covered her mouth and grinned behind her hand.
"So good," she said, and her mouth was full of cake.
"Why’d you do that?" I asked, sipping my wine. The first few sips are always so tart, but I love it.
I sat down on the chair next to her and our knees brushed under the table, but she didn't shy away. She chewed and swallowed, and it looked like she was thinking. And I swore her hand shook a little as she picked up her glass of wine and downed the whole thing in one gulp.
"Careful now, you have to drive home… Unless you want to sleep over." I made the comment in jest, but having Amber share my bed tonight wasn't a horrible thought. She had slept over at this house hundreds of times over the years, but never with me. And Naomi and Jared had their own place now, so there would be no mistaking the reason behind something like that.
"Newt, I…" Amber nervously looked down at the cake.
"I was joking." I sighed. "You take this maid of honor thing too seriously, I think. It's okay to tell her if you hate the strawberry and want chocolate." I poured a bit more wine into her glass then selected my own slice of cake to eat. It appeared we would be fighting over the last three slices of chocolate if she kept devouring them.
"It's her big day. I know what she likes. I just want her to be happy…." Amber bit her lip and her shoulders dropped. "Which means I don't want anyone to know what happened… you know. At the tree farm… and the mistletoe."
"You mean when I kissed you? It was mistletoe. That's tradition."
Amber's face blanched, and I could tell she was really nervous about it for some reason. The hand shaking wasn't mistaken, because now they were folded in her lap, wringing together with anxiety.
"Okay, I won't tell anyone," I said, touching her knee. "But can you tell me why?"
"I just…" she blurted, then she looked away. "It's her big moment. I don't want anyone taking any attention off her. I want the spotlight on her."
Her explanation made sense, but now that I had touched her, all I could think about was that kiss. And all I wanted to do was kiss her again.
"You seem anxious." I rubbed my thumb back and forth across the denim, wondering what had her so flighty and fidgety.
"Finals… I have to study, and then the master's thesis I'm writing." Her tongue flicked over her bottom lip, and I watched it vanish behind them.
"You mean doctoral?"
"I mean… Yes… I'm sorry, I…" She exhaled, and I couldn’t take it. The faint hint of wine paired with chocolate on her breath was intoxicating.
"I'm going to kiss you now, okay?" I said, but I was already leaning in, and I caught the brief head nod before my eyes shut.
When our lips touched, it was nothing short of miraculous. The same heat and chemistry I'd felt between us at that tree farm under the mistletoe was here now, too. She parted her lips and slid her tongue along mine like an expert, and I was hungry for so much more. The thought of asking her to come to my room crossed my mind, but if she was trying to keep this a secret for now to honor Naomi, she'd say no, and I hated the thought of that rejection.
But it didn't stop me from pulling her onto my lap where she straddled me and kissed me harder. I found myself swelling, aching to feel her skin against mine. My hands rested on her hips and pulled her down hard onto my lap, and she moaned against my mouth. And when I slid my hand up inside her sweater to cup one tender, fleshy globe in my hand and knead it, she tensed. I could almost imagine the feeling of her pussy clamping down on my girth.
"Oh, God," she whined and shot off my lap so fast it made me lightheaded. "I'm so sorry, Mr. Phillips. I should…" Amber looked sick to her stomach. Her face was white as a sheet as I looked over my shoulder at Dad, who had a stupid smirk on his face.
"Oh, don't mind me. I'm just getting a nightcap." He reached between us and took the bottle of wine and winked at me as he nudged me with his elbow. Then he retreated through the door toward the back hallway.
But when I turned, Amber was gone. I heard her shoes in the hall and got up to follow her. She moved so quickly, I'd have thought she was running away, but maybe she was just embarrassed that he'd caught us. Or maybe she figured he'd say something. I’d have to speak to him about her request. Dad would keep it quiet for me if I asked.
"Amber, please…"
"Uh, Mav, okay. Please call me Maverick," she spat, but she was already diving into the fluffy pink puffer coat. "And I have to go. I have to study."
I caught her by the elbow and made her stop. "Tell me I can see you again?"
She looked like a deer caught in headlights, but she nodded. "Of course, I'd love that." And her tone told me she meant it, unlike the way she lied to Naomi about that strawberry cake. More merry mix-ups, if you ask me, but I knew hardly anything about Naomi's friend group.
I led her out, but I watched her drive away wishing Dad hadn’t interrupted us. I'd like to have seen how far we got. Maybe next time. Until then, I had some cake to polish off.