“I’m so confused right now,” I said with a shake of my head. “I literally don’t know what to say to you, or how to react to your bizarre comments. I’m just…”
Did I also mention that I was speechless?
Because I was.
Zaira looked at me like I’d just informed her that the Earth was asymmetrical. “Please don’t tell me you’re unaware of a nipple explosion.” Her voice and expression were so serious, that I began questioning every bit of my existence.
“Uh…” I managed to shrug, which made her frown.
“It’s a thing in Kingdom Fangirl,” she began. “Nipple explosion is the same as ovary explosion. It’sBOOM-BOOMin both situations, the destruction of body cells; the death of souls, and the insistent quivering of the affected person’s body – hence the bodily volcanoes. It’s legitimate; it’s a trigger for true, dedicated fangirls.”
“I… Umm…”
Wow.
Just…what the fuck?
Zaira gazed at me with big brown eyes, and when she knew I wasn’t going to say anything – because I really didn’t know what to – she opened her mouth as if to say something, but then shut it before dissolving into a fit of giggles that began so suddenly, that it startled me a little. Dumbfounded, I sat there with my tongue between my teeth for a good few minutes and watched her come down from her wave of shocking amusement.
“Oh God,” she sputtered between fading giggles. “Gallan, your face!” She began laughing.
My own laughter joined hers. “In my defense, you left me horrified and tongue-tied.”
She bent and tittered harder, and then sniffed a couple times before wiping tears from her cheeks. “I can’t believe you took me seriously.”
“Well, after the rat stampede, I’ve planned on taking everything seriously,” I told her, and then grinned when she ruffled my hair.
“But…” She finally stopped laughing, and with a smile on her face, began fixing my hair. “On a serious note, I really love all your photos from the shoot.” She moved back just a little, and then finger-combed my hair for extra measure. “However, I absolutelylovethis one.” She tapped a peach-colored nail over one of my photos. “I think you look positively irresistible in it.”
It was a shot in which I had on a pastel pink hoodie with the words ‘Pink Until You Sink’ at its center. With one hand in the pocket of my dark jeans, and the other cupping the back of my neck, I had a cheeky smirk on my face which was meant only to attract the customers.
“Yeah?” I looked between her and the photo. “You think this is front cover material?”
She ran a knuckle over my jaw. “You, my dear boyfriend, are front cover material, which naturally means so are your photos,” she said.
I smiled. “Can you hear the rustling of my feathers? Because I’m practically preening like a peacock right now.”
She chuckled. “Baboon.”
I let go of an airy laughter. “I’m serious; your compliments really make me wanna dance in the rain with my arms open wide.”
Her lips twitched. “I think peacocks dance in the rain to attract mates, and not because they’re happy or ego-satiated.”
I pressed my teeth to my bottom lip. “That so?”
She smirked. “Uh huh.”
“Wanna see my moves? I’ve been told I’m a lady-killer when it comes to Squash The Bug and The Chicken.”
She placed a hand over her mouth and laughed. “The dance moves?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I chuckled when she playfully pushed at my chest. “I promise I’m a mean hip-shaker.”
Zaira cackled and shook her head at me. “God, Underwood, you’re a miracle. A crazy, beautiful, empathetic, and silly miracle.”
I grinned and pressed a long kiss on her cheek. “And you wouldn’t have me any other way, right?”
She cupped my face and smiled. “No, I wouldn’t.” She touched our foreheads together. “I love you just the way you are, and there’s nothing about you that I wanna change; nothing about how I feel about you that I wanna alter. You’re my kinda weird; my kinda normal. Never forget that, Gallan.”
My heart damn near burst out of my chest at her words. “I won’t,” I told her, and then kissed her. “I promise I’ll never forget that.”
