Was this how a young boy felt when he were going out on a first date for the first time with the girl he had liked for so long? I questioned myself, my gaze onto Miss Luca ,her eyes glued to the cup of coffee in her hands. It was as though she had not even blinked at all. What had been going on in her pretty little head?

Did that boy felt as nervous and jittery, tongue tied and trembling as I were now?

His breathing coming in heavy pants and his heart thumping, clammering so badly excruciatingly it pained, the sounds as the his heart encountered the walls of his chest so clangarous and blaring he felt as though he would soon be made hard of hearing?

Nah. Just you.

I clasped hands together that quaked so terribly, I wondered if they would soon fall off.

Say something to the woman, idiot! The voice in my head taunted, patronizing me. Reminding me I were yet to speak to the woman on the couch next to me. Could I be blamed though? She were in the pent house we lived in together after more than two years.

But God, where had all my confidence gone that I were making a fool of myself by not speaking to her? My tongue had double crossed me, unallowing any word to come forth. Mentally, Miss Luca must have been laughing her rounded bottocks off at me.

Ha!

"Miss Luca," I endeavored but despite the fact that my tongue and mouth moved no sounds came out.

I tried once again. "Miss Luca." Thankful and joyous that my voice had returned, full of conviction, believable. She angled her head to face me and I found myself afloat in the strikingly enticing pools of liquid diamonds she possessed as eyes, her delectable purple hued lips curved into a smirk, sexy and tempting as sin a complete discrepancy, contrast to her meekness a moment agone.

"Oh so he in fact speaks. I was, to be honest, beginning to think you had gone mute."

I was quick to dispute that, eager to attempt at "saving my face"-- although I had gone dumb. "Oh Miss Luca, it was your angelic beauty that had rendered me speechless. You know, your sweet lips, your fetching face, those big, gorgeous eyes."

That was totally lame, Monteiro!

She laughed, the sound so mesmerizing and tuneful ,it was as though she were singing. "Oh really? So no longer do I look as though a truck -- no wait,"she paused, feigning deep thinking, using her thumb and forefinger to her lip as she proceeded to correct her self. "No-- a bulldozer I mean, wasn't that what you said Mr. Monteiro? I look as though a bulldozer had flattened me out?"

I grinned and took the cup from her hands and placing it on the small coffee table before us and took her hands in to mine, covering them. My eyes never deserted hers until when they diverted, wandering down to her lips when she bit them as erotically as though she were teasing me. I desiderated to kiss her so bad my lips cracked in protest, until her mouth was bruised and swollen.

Quelling the thoughts, I shook my head. Get your head out of the gutter Monteiro!

I raised my hands, in a gesture of surrender. "Okay, okay I am sorry. Maybe I had hyperboled a teeny tiny bit."

She chuckled and then she kissed me.

****

I few to Miss Luca the last bit of delicacy of chocolate from the plate and she licked my fingers, murmuring a content "hmm" then sipped delicately the glass of Cabernet I had poured her.

She closed her eyes and sank herself deeper into the warm bath I had run her, aspersed, sprinkled with soothing healing oils and adorned with red and white rose petals -- as were the rest of the room.

I dunked the sponge into the water and glided it across her shoulders. A satisfied whimper escaped her mouth. "Oh Brandon, you are so good with your hands."

I smiled and pecked her head, wanting her to call me as such another time. I would never tire of Miss Luca calling me Brandon over and over again. "Say my name again my love, please."

"Brandon," she whispered, grasping my hand. "My Brandon."

And in a lower, more seductive tone she demanded. "Blow out the candles."

---

Her eyes closed, Miss Luca rested her head into my uncovered chest. I stroked her hair, creating invisible designs.

I smiled as my mind drifted to a fortnight ago when my "relationship" with Miss Luca had taken an angle I never thought were achievable -- at least not yet. It were as though out of the blue her hatred had transformed into "something else",something sweet, intimate. I do not know what influenced the change but with open arms -- literally and figuratively, I welcomed it.

Perhaps I were counting chickens or even naive after all we never spoke of our child but I believed little by little, bit by bit, my family was coming together.