Love & Cherry Blossoms

by Amara Kent

  Lauren throws her head back and I go to place a kiss on her neck when I spot a familiar person in the crowd. Stopping, I lift my head and see the last person I had expected to. Kerri. She’s with Sara, dancing and having a good time. The intoxication is evident as she lets loose and dances. Swaying her hips seductively and hypnotically. Eyes closed as she allows the music to control her.

  Letting go of Lauren, I press my lips to her ear. “I’m sorry, but I have to stop this dance short. I need to go to my friend.”

  “What?” She spins around and blinks wildly at me. “We were having fun. I’m sure your friend will be okay. She did leave you after all.”

  “I’m sorry, but I’m going to go.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” she exclaims.

  I give her a blank stare and she lets out a huff before storming off into the crowd, which isn’t as effective as she thinks it is, having to weave and dodge through people on her way. Instantly forgetting about her, I make my way through the crowd to Kerri. Her back is to me now and I slip in behind her, placing my hands on her hips. She doesn’t even still at my touch. Her friend Sara’s eyes have gone wide and I lift my finger to signal her silence. She nods and gestures to Kerri that she’s going to get a drink, leaving us alone. Her hips sway rhythmically to the music, and I love how her ass presses against my dick which reacts instantly to her. Thoughts of how she would be sitting on top of me, grinding against me as I work her clit and suck on her nipples, driving each of us to our own satisfaction has my dick thickening with every motion of her body.

  I nip at the sensitive juncture of her neck and collarbone, eliciting an excited yelp from her. She spins around, pulling me down to her by my neck, bringing our lips together. Soft and sensual at first. Almost as if she’s savoring me. My tongue sweeps out, asking for entrance and she complies, opening her mouth and connecting her tongue with mine. She moans before deepening the kiss. This is how women should be, and I’ve yet to find a woman who can match the way I am. I like the push and pull of dominance with a woman. Everyone is submissive and allows me to do whatever I want with them. With Kerri, she gives me her full passion, forcing me to comply or fight back for dominance. Moving against me, my now rigid cock moves against her pussy, and I relish in the way it all feels.

  She’s the one to break the kiss, her glassy eyes meeting mine. Despite being intoxicated, I expect her to slap me and storm off to find Sara, except she doesn’t. Her teeth pull at her bottom lip and she smiles. She’s too drunk to care it’s me. She leans into my ear.

  “Come home with me,” she says loud enough to be heard over the pounding music.

  Slamming my lips on hers, I kiss her full of passion, lust, and yearning, before pulling away. “No. When I have you squirming and coming harder than you ever have in your life, I want you to be sober and aware of what’s happening.”

  She blinks a few times at me. I’m shocked myself. Sobriety is never something I’ve cared about in the past. As long as you genuinely want it, I don’t care if you’re drunk. With her, I need her to know I’m the best thing she will ever have. I want to ruin her for every other man that’ll surely have the honor of being with her physically.

  I see the outline of her mobile in the pocket of her jeans and pull it out. “Unlock it,” I order. She does as I say and hands it back to me. I punch my number in and ring my phone so I have her number before placing it back in her pocket and walking away.

  Chapter Ten

  Kerri

  I groan as I wake up with a pulsing pain in my head. How much did I drink last night? I wonder. I’m not a big drinker. It may seem like I am because I enjoy hitting the bars, but I usually only have one or two drinks because I like to have my wits about me when I pick up guys. There’s nothing worse than being so blind drunk you fall asleep on someone eating you out or fucking you. Cursing the bright light streaming through the cracks of the blinds, I roll over and fling the duvet over my head. A light knock pounds in my head and I grab a pillow and throw it in the direction of the intruding noise.

  “Ahh!” I hear Sara yelp.

  Pulling back the covers, I turn to see her smiling face and frown. She has no right to look this damn gorgeous and this damn happy this early in the morning. How dare she not be feeling as crappy as I am and probably look right now. It’s not right. Girlfriends who go out and drink together should suffer the same hangover together. The bed dips with her weight, and she nudges me to sit up. Slowly, dragging my body up to a sitting position, I graciously take the proffered ibuprofen and glass of water, popping the sugary coated tablets in my mouth and gulping the water.

  “How are you feeling?” Sara asks quietly, understanding of the self-inflicted pain I’m suffering.

  “Mmm,” I groan.

  She chuckles. “I gathered. It’s why I let you sleep in.”

  “What time is it?”

  “It’s five in the afternoon. You’ve slept for most of the day. You don’t drink much, do you?”

  “I drink, just not as much as I did last night. What the fuck was even in those drinks?”

  “I told you to take it easy on the cocktails, but you wouldn’t listen.”

  “This is not the time to be rubbing my mistakes in my face, Sara. This is the time to be kind and feed me,” I scold, rubbing my now complaining and deprived belly.

  “And that’s exactly what I came in here to do. I left work a little early to take care of you. Tonight, we’ll stay in and let you deal with your hangover. I have Netflix and we’ll Netflix and chill, as they say.”

  I cock a brow. “Do you know what that means?” I ask, curiously.

  “Of course. We’ll chill and watch stuff on Netflix,” she answers, confused at my question.

  “Oh, honey,” I say, patting her on the thigh. “It means that we’ll get together and fuck. I love you and all, and I won’t deny that having sex with you hasn’t crossed my mind once or twice, but I have a feeling that boyfriend of yours won’t appreciate his girlfriend cheating on him, even if it was with a woman.”

  She slaps her hand over her mouth in shock. “Oh my God, I said that to my staff when I left work this afternoon. No wonder they looked at me the way they did.”

  I can’t help the roaring laugh that escapes me, and I instantly regret it when a sharp pain shoots through my scalp. I cup my head and wince at the pain. Instead of shoving it in my face that karma was getting me back for laughing at her, she gives me a look as if I’m dying and places her hand on my shoulder.

  “Okay, Kerr. Go have a nice hot shower or a bath. I’ll go and get us some dinner. Sound good?” she asks.

  I nod.

  I gather a pair of sweats, a baggy T-shirt, and underwear and head to the bathroom. The hot water is delicious against my skin, and I get some instant relief. I remain standing under the cascade of water until I feel satisfied and myself again before washing my body. Hopping out, I quickly brush my teeth, wrap a towel around my head, and collect my phone from the charger and sit down on the couch in her spacious living room. Flicking through social media and catching up with Taylor, I lift my head to see Sara walking in with two plastic bags.

  “What the fuck? Did you buy out the whole place?”

  She grins and heads to the kitchen table, placing the bags down and removing the contents. I walk over and stand, watching in bewilderment as she takes out item after item of food, before collecting some others that look to be microwaved.

  “You are in for a treat,” she states.

  “Where did you go?”

  “Just down to the convenience store.”

  “And are they okay you bought out the entire shop?” I ask sarcastically.

  She laughs. “I’m sure they’ll be fine. If you could take that bag of food over to the couch and wait. I’ll bring over the hot food.”

  I do as instructed, collecting the plastic bag, and wait on the couch. A few minutes later, she joins me and flicks on the TV, setting up Netflix.

  “Now, what would you like t
o watch?” she asks.

  “Something that doesn’t require me to think, and preferably no subtitles. I don’t want to think or read,” I groan.

  “Hmm. Well, that pretty much takes out all the shows on our Netflix. It doesn’t matter.” She stands up and walks over to the entertainment cabinet and pulls out a DVD of Friends, putting it into her DVD player and coming back to join me on the couch.

  “Good choice,” I approve.

  “I know. I love this show. I’ve watched it many times.”

  “Is it how you learned English?” I enquire.

  She nods her head. “I learned English in school, but it did help. Fluency didn’t come until I got into modeling and became international with the comedy. There are still words I don’t understand and sayings, but that will come with time,” she explains.

  I smile. “Like Netflix and chill?” I say with a smirk.

  She picks up a cushion and swats me over the head with it.

  A light chuckle escapes me. “What did you get for us?” I take a look at the items she’s placed on the coffee table.

  She points to each dish, rattling off their name and giving me a basic description of what they are. “First, though, you have to try this. You’re going to love it.” She takes out two packets of stuff with pictures of colored balls on them. One in purple and one in red, two plastic cups of ice, and two bottles of sparkling water. “This will probably be the most amazing drink you’ll ever have in your life,” she states.

  I take it from her and look at it. “What’s in it?”

  “Ice, these frozen grape balls that break up in the sparkling water.” I scrunch my nose at it. “Trust me, it’s delicious. Full of flavor.”

  I sniff it, then I tentatively take a sip. Ooo, that’s good. Have you ever had a grape Starburst? It’s like that. The strength of the grape flavor is intense but not overpowering. The sweetness of it seems to be brought down by the fizz of the sparkling water. It’s heaven in a cup. It doesn’t come close to my liquid diamond—it’s what I call coffee. I know, people refer it as liquid gold, but as I’ve said to Tay many times before, diamonds mean much more to me than gold—but it’s pretty close.

  “See? I told you it was good.” She hands me a bun, and without thinking, I pull it open and see… well, not what I was expecting to see. It’s an orangey color with white stringy stuff I’m hoping is cheese. I hold it up to Sara.

  “That is a potato bun. The white stuff is cheese.”

  I rip off a little piece and pop it in my mouth. Oh yes. You would think it would be plain and not that interesting. After all, it’s just potato and cheese, but holy shit, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever had in my life.

  We dive into our food, Friends playing in the background.

  “Sooo. Do you remember much of what happened last night?” Sara asks cautiously.

  “Not really. It’s all a dangerous blur,” I comment casually. And then the meaning of her question hits me. What the fuck did I do? See, this, my friends, is why I don’t go overboard with my drinking. Blackouts are not fun. And you’re more likely to do something bloody-ass stupid when that happens.

  She pauses for a moment before saying, “It wasn’t bad.”

  I don’t like the sound of that. Nothing good comes from a pause. “Just tell me.” I sigh.

  “You kissed Ren.”

  The sushi roll I’m holding falls to the floor. It’s no doubt left a mess, but I can’t seem to care right at this moment. I hear the distinct sound of Sara rushing to the kitchen to grab something and coming back to clean up. This can’t be right. No… really? The thing about giving someone like Ren an inch is that like some lovesick fool who falls as easy prey… or a much better comparison, like some loser stalker, is that he’ll grab a hold of the little that you’ve given, and run with it.

  “I didn’t do anything else, did I?”

  “Nope. As far as I know, you just kissed him.”

  Hang on a second. Are you telling me this bitch right here didn’t stop me? She better pray she shook some sense into me. “What do you mean, as far as you know?”

  She shrinks down with a guilty look on her face. “Okay, I may have known he had approached you from behind and left you alone with him, knowing how intoxicated you were,” she rushes out in a single breath.

  I close my eyes, cocking my head to the side. I couldn’t have possibly heard what I just heard, right? Surely, my friend didn’t just tell me that she knew Ren was there and that she left us alone together. Because if she did, she’s a dead woman.

  “I’m sorry, I just thought since you were feeling good and he was there, that it would give you a chance to lighten up and just go for it,” she explains quickly.

  Calm, Kerri. One. Two. Three… oh, fuck this!

  “What the hell were you thinking?” I shout, making her jump a little.

  She exhales deeply and straightens up. “Honestly, Kerr, I don’t know why it’s such a big deal to you,” she says, trying to sound strong, but not quite getting there.

  I sigh when I realize how right she is. She doesn’t know why I have this rule of mine I’m determined to keep. She doesn’t know that I fall like a love-struck dickhead every time a guy shows the slightest bit of interest. She also doesn’t know that my ex ensured that that fuse was forever extinguished, and to make sure that I never fall down that hole again, I prevent myself from getting close to guys. “You’re right. You don’t know.”

  “I understand you don’t want to tell me. I get that, and I don’t want to force you into it… It’s just; I don’t want you to shut yourself out from ever experiencing love.”

  “It’s not love I’m shutting myself out from, Sara,” I advise.

  “Is it not? You have a rule that stops you from ever getting close to anybody. That tells me you’re shutting yourself off from love,” she argues softly.

  Love has never been an issue with me. I can love. For Christ’s sake, love is the exact problem with me. I’m too in love with love. It’s getting my heart stomped on and physically and emotionally getting hurt again which stops me. It’s the fact that I have no more trust for guys. I’ve tried, but every time I think that someone can change, I hear a girl crying with her girlfriends in a coffee shop because her boyfriend just up and left and told her he didn’t love her anymore and kicked her out of the apartment they share. It’s those times that make me believe that the existence of love is too dangerous to hold. It’s the most powerful weapon against all living creatures. Love can make beautiful pieces of art and music, or it can eviscerate the very existence of life. It’s invisible and untraceable. Nothing on this earth comes close to the cumulative destructive and creative power it possesses.

  I’m about to respond to Sara when my phone rings with an unknown number. Strange. It’s not a number I’m aware of. I answer it anyway and regret it immediately when I hear his voice. Frowning, I point at Sara aggressively.

  “Ren?” she mouths.

  I give her a curt nod.

  “What do you want, Ren?” I bark.

  “Well, hello to you too,” he says with a chuckle down the line.

  “I’m not exactly in the mood right now, so out with it,” I snap.

  “Hungover? Yeah, you had quite a bit to drink last night. Don’t get me wrong, it was nice to see you loosen up and kiss me the way you did, but I would have preferred it if you were sober so I could have fucked you against the wall in the bathroom until you screamed so loud that not even the music could drown you out.”

  My traitorous, hungover body reacts to his dirty words. “Goodbye, Ren.” I hang up the phone and throw it onto the couch.

  “What did he want?” Sara asks.

  “To tell me he wished I was sober so he could have fucked me against the bathroom wall and make me scream so loud not even the music could have drowned me out,” I paraphrase his words back to her.

  With a slack mouth and wide eyes, she places her hand on her chest. “Oh my,” she says, smiling. Fanning herself.<
br />
  “What, Satoru doesn’t do the dirty with you?” I ask on a smirk.

  “No,” she breathes out.

  “You’re missing out, girl. Dirty talk is the best if done right. I think he’s got it in him.” I wink.

  “Oh, I don’t know, he’s very…” She stops when my phone alerts me to a message.

  I pick it up and look at it, and what I see is… well, okay then. Yep, that’s a dick pic. In a way, I must say I’m slightly disappointed in Ren. And no, it has nothing to do with his package, which is very impressive. It’s the fact that, as someone who works very well in the digital age, he doesn’t seem to care about privacy. He doesn’t know me well enough to know I wouldn’t plaster this all over the Internet. Not that you can see him, but it wouldn’t take much for someone like me to tweak things a little. I may not be as brilliant as him, but I’m not shit when it comes to computers either. His dick is hard and quite pleasing to the eye. Now we all know, genitals aren’t the most attractive things in the world, but there are a few that live in the VIP section of the world of genitals. These are the ones that don’t look like some alien creature and are neat and presentable. These are the ones that look clean cut. Not too veiny with the right girth and length. It’s not thin like a strand of spaghetti, and it doesn’t look like a weird version of Toad from Super Mario. Ren’s, well, his looks photogenic. It’s the supermodel of penises. A pearl of pre-cum sits at the tip, beckoning me to run my tongue along it to taste the salty delight.

  “Woah!” Sara says behind me and I remove the text message from her line of sight. “He’s not shy,” she says after a couple of beats.

  “No, definitely not. I guess he doesn’t have anything to be shy about.”