CHAPTER 23: YOU WIN SOME, YOU LOSE SOME

Jessica and Louis were sprawled out on the sofa watching television when the doorbell to the apartment rang.

“If that’s Bowie, tell him I’ll be out in a few minutes,” a shout emanated from one of the rooms.

Jessica rose lethargically, plodded towards the door and opened it. “Hello Bowie, Flora says she’ll be out in a minute,” Jess repeated. “Why don’t you come on in first. Oh, and are those for me?” she asked cheekily, pointing at the bouquet of roses Bowie was clutching on to.

“Err…” Bowie smiled at her sheepishly and pulled one stalk out. “Here…”

“Hey you, you just stick to Flora alone, will you?” said a serious and threatening voice.

Bowie looked towards where the voice had come from. “Louis?”

Louis grinned at his friend.

“Err…I’m so sorry,” Bowie stammered and hurriedly snatched the stalk back from a very bemused Jessica and stuffed it back into the bouquet.

Louis laughed and went over and draped his arm over his friend’s shoulder. “Hey, I’m rooting for you, man. Charm the underwear off her tonight okay?” he whispered with a grin.

Bowie gave Louis a light punch into his stomach. “Shhhs…” he whispered nervously, indicating towards Jessica.

Jessica laughed. “If the both of you are trying to be discreet and inconspicuous about your conversation, you’re failing miserably,” she chortled.

“Who’s failing what?” Flora remarked as she walked out of her room, having caught the tail-end of Jessica’s comment.

“Flora…” Bowie smiled when he saw her. “These are for you,” he said as he handed her the bouquet of roses.

“Thanks, they’re beautiful,” Flora gave the blushing Bowie a peck on his cheek. Then she turned around and asked again. “So, who’s failing what?”

Jessica pushed both Flora and Bowie out the door. “You both will fail to make it to the movies on time if you don’t leave now,” she laughed. But before she could shut the door behind them, Flora shoved the bouquet into Jessica’s face.

“Oh, Jess. Could you please take care of these for me. Thanks!”

Jessica sighed as she took the roses from her friend. “Yes, mam.”

Louis chuckled. “I think you forgot to introduce me to your maid.”

Jessica shoved him out of her way as she went to look for a vase to place Flora’s flowers in. “Har, har, very funny,” she said sarcastically.

Louis followed her around the apartment. He was getting a kick out of annoying her. She looked so damn cute when she screwed up her face, he mused. “So, what are we going to do for the rest of the evening now that it’s just the two of us?” he asked.

“There!” Jessica exclaimed as she stuffed the bouquet into an urn that stood near their balcony. “That’ll do.”

“There’s no water in there. They’ll die,” Louis commented.

Jessica spun around and looked at him, blinking her eyes innocently. “But she didn’t say anything about water…” she pouted.

Louis laughed. “You’ve got a point there.”

Jessica grinned at the handsome face smiling at her. “Now, what was it you were saying earlier?” she asked.

Louis frowned trying to remember. “Oh…” his frown ironed out into a smile. “I was just wondering what we were going to do for the rest of the evening now that it’s just the two of us.”

Jessica peered at him mischievously. Then she laughed and threw her arms around the neck of a very surprised Louis. “Well…” she said with a glint in her eye. “I distinctly remembered us saying we wanted to get to know each other a lot better…”

Bowie hadn’t stop pottering about Flora the whole night. As soon as they had gotten out of the apartment, he was asking her if she felt cold. When they were in the car, he kept asking if the seatbelt was too tight. Throughout the movie, he was making sure that her view was unobstructed. Now during dinner he was still at it – is the beef too tough? Is the wine all right? Flora was slowly but surely getting rather irritated with his incessant worrying although she hadn’t shown it. Bowie, on the other hand, being the typical male, obviously had absolutely no clue he was driving Flora up the wall and getting on her nerves.

Finally Flora couldn’t stand it any longer. “Everything’s fine, Bowie. Quit worrying, will you?” she blurted out.

“Oh,” Bowie uttered. “Sorry,” he grinned at her sheepishly. “I just wanted to make sure the evening was perfect. I must have been behaving like a complete dork,” he apologised.

Now it was Flora’s turn to feel guilty. She smiled at him. “Don’t worry, you didn’t act like a complete dork at all. Maybe half a dork but definitely not a complete one,” she chuckled, hoping that her joke would remedy the situation.

Bowie laughed but mentally reminded himself to stop worrying all the same. The rest of the night passed without any further hitches and Flora could actually finally say she was having a good time.

“Thanks for a good night out,” Flora thanked him when they had gotten back to their apartment. They were standing in the hallway, outside Flora’s door into her apartment.

“No. Thank YOU,” Bowie insisted.

Flora smiled and leaned towards him to give him another peck on the cheek. But Bowie turned his face at that exact moment, whether coincidentally or on purpose we won’t know and instead, Flora’s lips found his lips. What was initially an innocent peck on the cheek turned into a full-blown kiss. Bowie, taking full advantage of the situation, wrapped his arms around Flora’s waist and pulled her close towards him. Flora in turn rested her hands behind the back of his neck. Inhibitions were cast aside as they locked in feverish passion. If it weren’t for the reason that they had to, at some point in time, come up for air, they probably wouldn’t have broken the kiss.

“Umm…” Bowie mumbled, still hugging onto Flora. “Could I come in for some coffee?” he asked dreamily.

Flora was very tempted to say ‘yes’ yet something she couldn’t quite fathom seemed to be holding her back. “Err…it is getting a bit late and I’m really quite tired,” she mumbled some pathetic excuse.

Bowie looked at her with disappointment and slowly but reluctantly released his grip around her waist. “You’re right, You should get some rest. It’s been a long day,” he forced a smile. He planted another light kiss on her lips. “Goodnight. Call you tomorrow,” he whispered to Flora before she disappeared into her apartment.

Flora leaned against the door as soon as she closed it. What the hell was wrong with her? She just turned down spending a night with a man! She looked towards the direction of Jessica’s bedroom. This was a time when she needed to talk to someone badly and was about to go pound on Jessica’s door when she noticed something in the living room. It was a man’s shirt draped over the sofa arm. Somehow the shirt looked familiar. Where had she seen it before? Louis... Flora finally deduced. She looked at the shirt and then at her friend’s bedroom. Sighing, Flora trudged into her own room and plopped down onto her bed. She laid there and stared up at the ceiling. Then she turned to her side and stared at the phone next to her. She hesitated only a few minutes before she picked it up and dialed the number.