Chapter 3-
I awoke in a cold sweat. This wasn't uncommon these days.
I immediately sat up and hauled my self out of the tangled sheets. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes as I wandered to the kitchen.
Bleary eyed I looked around the dimly lit room, There sat on the counter was Cosima. I had met her last night, quite briefly, but in that short period of time I felt like I knew her. Like the familiarity I felt had always been there.
I shuffled awkwardly into the kitchen trying to ruffle my ,somewhat flamboyant bed head, in to something slightly more acceptable. But then again what did I care what this near stranger thought of my appearance. I didn't usually.
"Hiya" she smiled whilst barely looking up from the book which was sat in her lap.
She obviously didn't realise it was me not Kirsten.
She glanced up again.
"Sorry I didn't realise it was you, are you not sleeping?" she looked concerned.
"Errrr.." I wasn't about to place my problems upon someone I barely knew "yes fine thankyou, just got up to get some l'eau"
"L'eau?" She questioned.
"Sorry, water." I replied apologetically.
"Don't be sorry" she grinned "L'eau" she attempted to mimic.
I couldn't help but laugh a little at her brash and extremely American French accent.
'Hey don't laugh!" She tried to act hurt before her smile broke through. " I love your French accent by the way, very sexy" she winked.
I felt my self getting flustered at the sentence she just relayed upon me. I ran my fingers through my hair. I could feel my cheeks becoming hot and flushed. Was I blushing?
"Merci" I replied with a small smile.
"Merci" she mimicked again whilst looking wistfully into the air as the word rolled off her tongue again and again. I found myself watching her.
"Anyway" she broke the spell "what about this water?"
"Ahh yes" I move my way to the sink.
"Where do you keep the glasses?"
Cosima lay down her book on the counter before hopping down. "Evolutionary biology" the title read.
"Science" I whispered as my eyes lit up.
"Yeah, you know it?" She laughed. I realised I had just uttered the word out loud.
"Eh, yes actually. I have just finished my PhD on immunology"
"No way!" I could see her eyes light up, " what was your thesis on?" She looked genuinely excited.
" Gene Loss as a Mechanism of Tumor Escape from T Cell Therapy" I replied.
There was a twinkle in her eyes I notched when she was dancing yesterday. I giggled.
"What?" She questioned.
"It's just nice to see someone as excited about science as I am I guess" I smiled
"Tell me about it! Kirsten's lovely but romantic poetry doesn't seem to have the same charm as science to me"
"Oh I don't know, I feel like romance can have its charm" I winked at her.
She grinned back.
Was I flirting with her? I had never questioned my sexuality before, I have never had to question it. But somehow I felt different. Somehow this woman who I had only known for less than 12 hours, was making me feel differently. But it felt natural. Like I had always flirted with women.
"Hey, I find that this time of night is the best time to drink wine, what do you say?" She grinned and held up a bottle.
" at 2:30 in the morning?"
"Ok then, I feel like this is the best time of the morning to drink wine" she joked
"Ok then" I giggled. I felt like a school girl again.
She hopped up on to the counter and I copied her. Her in her black underwear, a black vest top and a beige woollen jumper. And me in my short pyjama bottoms and a vest top. She still had all her jewellery and makeup on. I assumed she hadn't been to bed yet. She was sporting thick rimmed glasses, she wasn't wearing them yesterday, which framed her face beautifully. She was beautiful.
Both of us just sat there drinking our wine.
"So then, let's do a sort of... Getting to know you session"
"Oui, sounds good"
"Ok then, family?"
"Mother, father, brother, you?"
"Mother, father, only child, but I would like to point out I was never the stereotypical spoilt child. I only had 10 horses" she kept a straight face whilst I was in fits of giggles before she joined in.
"Holy crap, it's 4:30" she looked up at the clock.
"Merde! We have been talking for a while then" I grinned.
"I guess so" she winked at me.
During the conversation we had slowly moved closer to each other on the counter.
"So," she looked directly into my eyes " who's the lucky fella?"
"Non, erm... I am some what single at the moment, you" I brushed the question off quickly.
"Good... That's good" she smiled "and yup, single pringle" she winked at me.
I smiled at her. I felt like my grin was somewhat eager, even though I had not meant it to be. We were both slowly, leaning in towards one another, even though I don't remember telling my body to do that. She pulled me in and kissed me softly. I found myself kissing back. I felt so happy in that one single moment, happier than I had done for a while. As soon as she had done this she jumped up.
"Well goodnight then miss Cormier" she winked the closed her bedroom door.
I sat there dazed for a moment, the little flirt! I thought. But I couldn't help but grin.