"Kissing knuckles"

Chapter 13

Robert stood in front of the bathroom mirror, toothbrush in his mouth. The light blue foam ran down at the corner of his mouth and the handle of the toothbrush. He halted in his movements and scrutinised his reflection. He didn't look appealing. He couldn't overlook the huge eyebags and the stubbly cheeks. His skin seemed as if it had a grey and used texture he thought. Completely opposed to Cora's smooth and porcelain skin of an angel. His hair was unruly and probably a little greasy. Robert couldn't comprehend what Cora had seen in him. Maybe he was a funny friend to her, but everything that had been more between them seemed like a distant dream. Making her blush as he had whispered saucy comments into her ear at the bistro around the corner. Feeling her soft fingertips pressing into his hairline at the nape of his neck as she pressed her plump lips eagerly against his. This was unreal. It wasn't the reality. How could it have ever been like this? How had they managed to erase all distance between them and let their minds fall into each other's arms so full of trust? But it had to be that way, otherwise, their bodies hadn't followed, and that he knew for sure. God, what these memories did to him!

"I'm actually already there," she confessed. Robert had his phone pressed between his ear and his shoulder and was picking the last Lucky Charms from the cereal box.

"What? Here?" he asked surprised, crumbs falling from his mouth.

"Yes..." A knock sounded on the front door. "Here."

Robert fell out of his lazy trance, and an unexpected bout of energy rushed through his body as he tossed aside the empty cereal box and straightened his t-shirt on the way to the door. They had been talking on the phone all while Cora assumedly did her grocery shopping. They had been chatting about everything and nothing really (Robert didn't remember ever being this chatty with anyone), and sometimes Cora had asked his help to decide what to buy. Ice tea or soda? Lemons or limes? Potato crisps or lentil crisps? Robert didn't understand how she could appear at his house directly after.

"Cora…" he pulled open the door, facing a bashfully grinning Cora. She lowered the phone and threw it into the bag that hung over her shoulder. Robert first noticed the strand of wavy hair that had fallen onto Cora's forehead. Her hair was usually quite straight – straightened he realised now – and he knew from Rosamund that humid weather could make hair frizzier, wavier, curlier. A very light summer rain had blessed the early afternoon, and it showed a little in Cora's hair. He liked it.

Secondly, he noticed the bag of vinegar potato crisps peeking from Cora's bag. He had recommended them.

"Hey…" she breathed.

"Hey, you! How did you know I was home already?" Robert asked as he waved her inside. When they had started talking on the phone, he had still been on his way. He was just in himself.

"I just took a chance," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Hold this." She handed him the bag of groceries blindly while fumbling with the buttons on her joke of a jacket. It was a very thin and short-cut cardigan, and Robert wondered why she even bothered with wearing it.

"I brought us something," Cora explained with a nod toward the shopping. "I thought we hadn't had a movie night in very long, so," she stuffed the pale-yellow cardigan rather carelessly into her handbag and smiled at him expectantly with wide eyes, "I just prepared something."

"I'm impressed," Robert answered simply. He didn't know what else to respond to that because Cora's forward way took him off guard. He was impressed and a little overwhelmed.

"You're still free tonight, right?" Cora now inquired a bit more unsure. She tilted her head slightly to one side and looked at him nearly pleadingly.

"'Course," he said quickly and made his way to the living room. After a few steps, he thought differently and added as he turned back around to her, "I'm very glad you took a chance. You made my day a whole lot better." Cora's face lit up, and that made the comment all the way worth it. He didn't even really notice how he instantly searched for another thing to say that could keep her face in this delighted expression. But before he knew it he started babbling.

"A movie night is long overdue," he expressed matter-of-factly as resumed his way to the snuggly sofa in his living room. He didn't hear Cora following him with her light steps but he knew she was there, just behind him. "I think otherwise, I would have just had a slump of an evening today. Not doing anything I really want to do but not getting anything done either. So, it's the best that could've happened that you appeared on my doorstep just now. Do you already have a film in mind?" He took a seat on the far right end of the sofa and rested his left arm on the backrest. Cora sat down in the middle.

"Uhm…" she seemed devoid of ideas on that matter. She pulled the coffee table closer to the sofa in order to do what she had grown used to. Every time she did it, even after earning bewildered looks from Robert the first time. She leaned back on the couch and put her feet on the table. It didn't matter that Robert told her he had a rather nice upholstered footstool for that. She thought it more practical that way, being able to also put down their glasses and bowls of snacks more easily.

"I don't know. You choose," she finally decided. Her hair tickled his arm behind her neck on the back of the couch. She turned her face to him, and he couldn't help but notice the way she chewed on her lower lip. She must have seen his look (she saw it much too often) because she blushed a trifle and looked down with fluttering lashes. With Cora, he knew she didn't do it on purpose, this flirty flutter of her eyelashes. Maybe this even increased the warming effect it had on him.

Clearing his throat, Robert rose from the sofa and looked for a film on his DVD shelf. He opted for an innocuous choice and fetched the disc of one of the Disney films Cora had given to him. The thought had crossed his mind to turn on a slightly scary film so that maybe Cora would cling to him and cuddle herself into his arms, but the thought left as fast as it came. Yes, sometimes Cora lay in his arms, and it was nice, but that wasn't all. First and foremost, they were friends, but the way she moulded into his embrace evoked a kiss here and there more and more often. It was okay, she said and so he said it too. But that didn't have to be all there was to their relationship.

However, it turned out a Disney film wasn't a choice as innocuous as Robert had thought. Maybe he should have thought better than putting on 'The Little Mermaid' because the sentimental sighs, as well as the jolly way Cora sang along to the songs, took the casualty out of the movie night for Robert. Cora was moved – as she was by every Disney movie – and Robert didn't always quite know how to handle a moved and emotional Cora.

"Oh, the tragedy," Cora said as she already anticipated the closing credits. "But it's even so much more tragic when you only read the original fairy tale. The Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, has a way of making everything so very sad. But sometimes these are the most beautiful love stories, don't you think?" she asked. Her head rolled over the cushion she leaned against, and her temple nearly touched his arm as she looked up into his face with clear and earnest eyes.

"I'm not sure. Why isn't it beautiful if two people are just happy with each other. Isn't that exciting enough?" he replied. He wasn't particularly in the mood for a discussion. Especially not about the right kind of love stories.

"Well," Cora brushed the wavy strand of her behind her ear and looked down. "I don't have anything against happy lovers either." She didn't insist anymore and let the topic fall which Robert was grateful for.

Against his desire to spend casual time together, he drew his arm closer around Cora. It had lain just there behind her back but she was so beautifully sweet just Cora, understanding and just right in what she did, and said, and didn't say. He wanted to hold her close for this. She shortly looked up at him a little surprised but snuggled into his arm without further ado. It was more of a reflex that Robert turned his face to the crown of her head. The warm almond scent of her hair made his lips connect with her hair. After a few seconds, she shuffled closer and sighed quietly. Robert wasn't quite sure what happened first, if he reached out his right hand to caress her cheek or if she turned her face to him, seeking his eyes with a look he didn't see for the first time. It wasn't really a voluntary decision by then that their lips met slowly but unerringly.

Robert felt relief wash over him as he gave into kissing Cora this night. He felt much lighter as he stopped fighting the subliminal urge to pull her close and drown in her.

Cora's hands found their way around his neck, and he encircled her waist with his right arm so he held her even closer. The little sighs that escaped their connected lips spurred them both on, and Robert skin started tingling as Cora's hands roamed his hair lightly. Robert leaned back, pulling her with him so that she ended up laying half on top of him. Her linen blouse had been hiked up a little. His fingertips now brushed over the soft skin of her lower back. It came to him that this was the first time he touched her skin other than her face or her bare arms and hands. Cora moaned softly, and suddenly Robert was overtaxed by the development of the situation. He retreated his hands so that they rested very lightly on her covered hips and he broke the kiss with only their foreheads still touching.

"You can touch me if you want," Cora breathed. She brushed her nose against his gently. "Hm?" she cooed encouragingly. Her nails scraped his scalp lightly. "You don't have to, though," she whispered into his mouth as she slowly converged their lips again.

In hindsight, it was needless to say that of course, he did touch her again. Because he did want to. So badly.