One Beat Too Close

The second straw on the tray made me freeze for one beat. I could feel myself heat up as I could barely imagine what these straws are used for. As Natsuki pointed out, this is a couples' place all right. I did want to get closer to her, but not this fast!

"Hey, they serve the drink couples' style as well! Sweet."

"Uh...yeah. But since we ordered two, we don't need to share." I could only backpedal from here, nor did I have the courage to share with her, nor was the drink that appealing to me.

"Hey, at least let me have a taste of yours. Don't be that stingy."

She snatched up my drink and pursed her lips on the straw leading up to it. She took a small sip and made a slightly satisfied face as she passed the drink back to me. Oh how thankful I was that this straw had another section.

"I thought you would be a bit more serious after that confession, but you look even more docile than before."

"Excuse me? I am trying so hard here, can you cut me some ... Ah."

"Yeah, I noticed. But I also don't want you to feel too strained to make this work. If you can't even enjoy the time you spend with me, I can never look back to this outing as a happy memory."

"Hmmm. Yeah, sorry about that. But, I don't want to stay like the old me. If I can't even grow myself, how can I expect the same from you? Hope you don't mind me getting ahead of myself."

"Yeah, anyway I don't mind it. As long as..." As she said that, I could see a slight pained expression on her face as she looked at me. Like a piece of bone was stuck in her throat that she just couldn't get out. Was she remembering something? She tried to recollect herself

"Anyway, enough chatting. Let me enjoy my sweets in peace!" she declared as she helped herself to massive bites of her croissant.

Seeing her enjoy made me relax as well, and maybe she was right. I don't need to overthink too much here. If we can always stay together, we should be able to gradually open up about the parts of each other that we have not been able to share by now. Though I know, that will be a hard undertaking, given how popular she is. I can plan ahead, but if I don't relish this time with her, am I even enjoying spending time with her or just trying to please her? Relationships go both ways, so I need to make sure to enjoy it as much as she does. Well, there is a good entry for my diary.

As we enjoyed the treats under the slightly dimming sun, we opened up to each other slightly more. But I still wanted to know. What did Natsuki remember?