"Why are you doing this?" he asked me, licking his lip subtly. "Why do you keep pushing me away."
I stayed silent, just watching his face. He was confused but, at the same time, furious.
"I told you we can't be together," I said.
"Give me one good reason, and I swear I'll leave you alone."
Reasons I had plenty of, but he wasn't going to understand them, so I thought I'd use a card that never fails.
"I don't have to give you a reason. You have to respect my decision, period," I said.
Eric looked at me in disbelief at what had comeout of my mouth.
"Tell me you don't have feelings for me. Tell me you're not dying to repeat that kiss," he said.
"That's the thing, I do like you, and it's pretty obvious," I shouted. "But I'm not willing to give up my life and my identity on a mere whim."
My words were hurtful, not only to him but to me. I was trying to look tough, but inside I was in pieces floating in a sea of confusion.
"That's what I am to you then, a mere whim?"
"The truth is, I don't know what you are to me," I said in a clear voice.
Eric straightened his back, crossed his arms, and watched me silently.
"Let's not drag this out any longer, shall we?" I proposed. "Let's finish what we were doing so your mother doesn't get suspicious, and we can get out of here."
I felt like I wanted to run off into the woods and run as far away from him as possible.
"Well, let's get done," he answered me.
His eyes were dulled, and his gaze was lost in the drift as if his mind was anywhere else but here.
I stood up and walked to the refrigerator, not only to check the status of the main component but to get out of his sight. I picked up the small bottle, and already the oil was opaque, and its texture was firm.
"It's ready," I announced.
I handed him the bottle, and he began to extract the solidified oil with a metal paddle with extreme care and deposited it in a distillery. There we refined the oil and obtained the essence.
"All right, now let's make the fragrance," I said, "Would you like to add anything else to it?"
He looked at the shelf with the little fragrance bottles and pulled out the jasmine essence.
"This one," he announced.
I scrunched up my face at his choice since it didn't make muchsense to me. I was thinking more along the lines of more common scents like cinnamon or vanilla that go very well with coconut.
"Why that choice?" I asked him.
"It's a scent that gives me peace," he replied seriously and focused on his product.
He took the ingredients and began the process on his own. He did it naturally and with such confidence that I was surprised that he didn't ask for help at all. It was as if he memorized all the steps I did yesterday and repeated them in sequence without making a mistake.
"You could add a little more alcohol to soften its smell or a little more adhesive to make the effect last longer," I said.
"I think this will do just fine," he said, packaging the product in a plastic container.
"Won't you test it?" I asked.
