Chapter 109: Chapter Twenty- Seven-2

I don't even give my doubt the chance to creep into this moment with Nora. This is between us, no other voices, just hers. "I am here, with you." I tell her. She looks away from me, but she's fighting a smile. "My biggest flaw is that I take on so much from everyone around me. It gets heavy sometimes," I feel guilty admitting, but I want to be honest with her. She lifts her eyes to mine for a brief second, then looks out into the view again. "And, yeah. I think we are crazy." "Good crazy or bad?" We both have reasons to believe the other one is a little... I won't say crazy. Nosy. Both of us are very nosy people. I followed her all the way from her job to a city over an hour away. I stalked her family on Facebook and she knew who I was before she led me to believe. We've both had our share of "nosy" and maybe that's why we understand each other? My brain can't decide if this is a good thing, or bad. "Is there a difference? It usually ends the same, doesn't it?" I ask her. She inhales a deep breath, thinking over her answer. "Yeah. It does." Neither of us look at the other and we continue the game. The questions stay neutral and impersonal. Questions that you could ask your friend. What's your favorite season? Hers was summer, mine was winter. Snow or rain? I took snow, she chose rain and told me about her thirteenth birthday party when no one came, but her sister took her up to the roof of their villa to dance in the rain. Her parents were furious when the girls came inside soaking wet, ruining their freshly scrubbed floors. Stausey took the full blame, saying she thought the cat ran outside. Her mention of the cat led to her tell me about Tali, her family cat who once jumped on her mom's back when she was walking down the stairs. Nora swears that the cat did it as a favor to Nora, who had just been grounded for two weeks by her mother. She can't finish the story because she's laughing so hard and I decide that my favorite thing in the world is this. I love the way she tells a story, with every single detail in tact. She gives a full backstory and supporting details too. Maybe she should be a writer after all. She tells me about her sister braiding her hair and teaching her how to apply lipstick. I learn how her mom started to change over the years. She went from a broke cafeteria worker in Bogota to the social wife of one of the countries most prestigious surgeons. "My mom is a homemaker now, she occupies herself with being a surgeon's wife and she fills her schedule with charity events and luncheons." Nora doesn't sound impressed by her mom's lifestyle. I can't tell why. "What else? I want to know the important things, not what she does for a living. I want to know your favorite things about her. Memories, things like that." Nora's fingers caress my chest and she runs her index finger through a patch of hair. "Why do you always ask the most intrusive questions?" "They are only intrusive if you don't want me to know." I say, my voice sounding much sadder than I meant it to. "Fine. My mother is... well, she is..." Nora struggles for words. "She used to make the best Arros con leche." "Is that your favorite dessert?" I ask her. "It's the only one I like." My jaw drops. The only one? I must have heard her wrong. "The only?" "Yep. The only," her voice lowers to a whisper. "Confession, I don't really like sweets, I'm more of a salty kind of gal." "What? What kind of fraud!" I'm only half pretending my horror. "But you're a baker- I mean a pastry chef!" I catch myself before I finish the sentence. "And?" Nora's smile grows and I like the way her eyes twinkle under the city lights. "And? This is such... I don't even know who you are anymore." I laugh and she nuzzles further into my chest. "So now you question me, when I admit that I don't like sweets, but not when I tell you about my mess of a life." I hear the pain in her voice, the shame dripping from each word. "Well everyone makes a mess now and then," I try to soothe the ache inside of her ribs. "But I don't think I can come to terms with this," I pull away from her. She latches her arm around mine, but I keep pulling. "This is too much," I pretend to cry. For a moment, I consider that I'm a total freaking geek on the roof of this fancy apartment, but the moment passes and I decide that I don't give a shit. "The betrayal!" I bury my face in my hands and Nora shrieks with laughter. "Oh stop," she giggles, trying to pry my hands from my face. I'm not stopping. She's laughing and I love it. I shake my head in despair, my hands hiding the huge grin on my face. "I thought I knew you," I cry and she can't stop laughing as she tries again, to move my hands from my face. When she pulls harder, I stop resisting and her arms fly with mine and I grab her waist and lay her down on the couch. Playful surprise covers her face and her eyes are wide on mine. The neckline of her shirt is ridiculously low now that I've rumpled her perfect outfit and pinned her underneath my body. I run my nose from one side of her chest to the other, following the soft curve of the fabric over her soft breasts. "What am I going to do with you?" I ask her and she groans under my feverish touch. I lick her skin and then pull away. I keep an arms length between her body on the couch and myself and I hold myself up using my arms, like I'm doing a push-up. "I could think of a few things," she says, just inches away from my mouth. If I knew for certain that none of her sister's neighbors would join us up here, I would drop my mouth between her thighs. "Hmm," Landon dips his hips down to brush over mine. She convulses on the couch and tries to hold onto my back best she can. I lay some of my weight onto her body, resting his head on my stomach.