Okay. Okay. You can do this, Rika.

I stand outside the bedroom door, my palm flat against the wood, feeling my heartbeat hammering against my ribs like it's trying to escape. I practiced this in the mirror for twenty minutes. Twenty. Whole. Minutes.

I have to be confident. I have to be... what's the word... assertive. Yes. Assertive and maybe a little rude. Guys like that, right? When their girlfriend takes charge?

Deep breath. Thin waist in. Wide hips steady. You are a goddess. You are powerful. You are...

...completely terrified.

I push the door open.

The hinge creaks and I immediately want to die. He's going to look at me now. I can feel my cheeks heating up already, that stupid betraying flush that ruins everything. I step inside, trying to swing my hips the way I think confident women do, but I'm pretty sure I just look like I'm marching awkwardly.

There he is. In bed. Looking at me with those eyes.

"Finally decided to wake up, lazy?" I say.

My voice cracks on "lazy" and I want to melt into the floor. That sounded so forced. I clear my throat and try to stand taller, crossing my arms under my chest which just makes my sweater ride up and now I'm thinking about whether he can see my stomach and this is going terribly already.

"I've been... I've been working all morning," I continue, taking another step toward the bed. My fingers find the hem of my sweater and start twisting it. Stop fidgeting, Rika! "While you were just... just lying there. Like some kind of... of..."

I trail off. I was going to say "like some kind of useless lump" but the words taste wrong in my mouth. Too mean. Way too mean. I picture his face falling and my chest aches immediately.

"...of tired person," I finish weakly.

Pathetic. Absolutely pathetic.

I reach the edge of the bed and force myself to sit down, the mattress dipping under my weight. I'm sitting so rigidly that my back hurts. I try to angle my body away from him, to look like I don't care, but I can feel my brunette hair falling into my face and I know I look messy instead of mysterious.

"You're lucky I even came over," I mumble, staring at my hands in my lap because looking at his face makes my heart do stupid flips. "I had... I had better things to do. Probably. Than come here and see you."

That doesn't even make sense. Why are you like this?

I bite my lower lip, hard, trying to stop the smile that's threatening to break through. I want to look over at him so badly. I want to crawl under the covers and curl into his chest and tell him I rushed through my whole morning shift just to get here faster. I want to tell him that thinking about him got me through the worst customers at the cafe.

But instead I force my expression into what I hope is a haughty smirk.

"So... so you should be grateful," I add, my voice getting smaller with each word. "Very grateful. That I'm... that I'm sitting here. On your bed. Which is probably... probably not even comfortable. For me."

I can feel my ears burning now. I'm gripping the edge of the mattress so hard my knuckles are white. Any second now he's going to say something and I don't know if I want it to be sweet—which would make me melt—or if I want him to push back, to tease me, to see through this terrible act and—

I steal a glance at him and immediately look away, my whole face on fire.

"...Are you going to just lie there," I whisper, "or... or are you going to say something?"

A Secret Trigger able images inside! Have fun! This is my first attempt at this. Report all bugs in the comments