‘Oh, Lorelai.’ Riggs pulled back for a second, before kissing her again.
This time she was keenly aware of Riggs’s rough, chapped lips finding hers. But the images were different than before. Now she saw an old man, alone, asleep in bed. He awoke, a hand clutching his chest, before collapsing back down again, gone forever. The vision slammed into her brain several times and she felt a tightening in her own chest. It took her far too long to realise why she had seen two potential futures.
As the pain in the back of her head subsided she tuned back into the weight that was on top of her, the breath on her neck and the smell of beer.
‘GET THE FUCK OFF ME NOW!’ she yelled against his mouth, pushing him back, trying to sit up.
‘WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!’ Joanie flew into the room so fast she skidded into the coffee table, knocking the full bottles of beer onto Lorelai and Riggs who were tangled together on the floor. Joanie grabbed Lorelai by her underarms and slid her out from under Riggs. His expression cleared as he realised what he’d done.
‘I’M SORRY! I’m sorry! I thought… I just—’ Riggs was on his knees, soaked in beer, his head in his hands.
‘Don’t you dare try to justify this!’ Joanie hauled Lorelai up from the floor and stood in front of her, arms outstretched.
‘I misread the situation! I thought you were coming on to me!’
‘Coming on to you?!’ Lorelai shrieked, a tear catching in the corner of her mouth.
‘You said you didn’t care if I didn’t have a job or money or lived with my parents!’
‘I wasn’t talking aboutyou,you arrogant idiot! I was saying it hypothetically about someone I might be dating, Riggs! But I’m not dating you, am I? Nor do I want to!’
‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ Riggs kept repeating his apology as he pushed himself up onto the couch, still wobbly from the amount of alcohol in his system.
‘Jesus Christ. Did he kiss you?’ Joanie span around to face Lorelai. She held her by the shoulders, checking her over for signs of damage. But the damage was already done.
‘God forbid anyone kisses me,’ Riggs muttered, rubbing his temples.
‘This isn’t about you!’ Joanie shouted.
‘That wasn’t OK, Riggs,’ Lorelai said through her tears. ‘I didn’t want that.’ She wiped her mouth, but she could still feel his lips on hers.
‘Why didn’t you say?’ Riggs mumbled, his hands covering his face in shame.
‘When exactly was I meant to mention it? When your tongue was already in my mouth?’
‘He slipped you the tongue?’ Joanie exclaimed.
‘Not now, Joanie,’ Lorelai said, and Joanie nodded, understanding.
‘Why, Riggs? I was just trying to be nice to you. I wasn’t coming on to you.’
‘You were nice. The nicest anyone’s been to me in a long time.’ He looked up at Lorelai, mournfully. ‘I’m… I’m really drunk.’
‘Is that meant to be an excuse?’ Joanie snapped. ‘Actually, you know what? I don’t care. Out. Get out. Now.’
‘Joanie…’ Lorelai put a hand on her friend’s shoulder, thinking about what she had seen when Riggs had kissed her. Riggs kissing her hadn’t been OK, and she’d make sure he knew that, but the visions kept coming back to her. She was disorientated and needed to be alone for a while.
‘No. No, no, NO! You cannot seriously still be defending him?!’
‘I’m not! I’m not but… when we wake up later this afternoon, we’ll discuss this. Right now, we’re sleep-deprived from workingall night and we all need some rest. We need to sleep on it. In separate rooms. Away from each other.’
Joanie’s face softened when she looked into Lorelai’s tired, red eyes. Joanie sighed and nodded, and then turned to Riggs.
‘You heard the lady. Clean up this mess and then you’re sleeping on the sofa or the floor or anywhere that’s in the vicinity of this room. You are to go nowhere near Lorelai. Or me for that matter. You hear me?’
Joanie grabbed Lorelai by the hand and led her towards her bedroom. Lorelai held onto her friend’s cool hand, soothing against her sweaty palm. She knew Joanie was ready to kick Riggs out but Lorelai was relieved that he would be in the flat, at least for another day. She could keep an eye on him here.
Because for the first time in seven years she had been kissed, which meant for the first time in seven years she had seen the way someone was going to die – and that person was Riggs.
