Bradford Ivanov

"Oh my gosh that Lobster Frittata was incomparable. Like I think it may have just transcended my soul." Joan moaned with content as we walked hand in hand down a trail path that led away from the restaurant.

She was practically skipping with delight after our meal, and it made me smile seeing how happy the food had made her. I hadn't ordered nearly as much myself, but that just allowed me more time to watch Joan enjoy herself. Every bite evoked a new expression from her. When she got a mouthful of the linguini, I swear her eyes rolled back. My eyes darted to my plate as I quickly became interested in my salad... the moans and groans she was making were starting to sound slightly sexual.

It was turning me on a little too much.

She speared one of the roasted potatoes with her fork and leant slightly across the table to offer me a bite. I could feel my cheeks burning up when her eyes made direct contact mine, but I leant forward myself and accepted the bite.

For most of the evening, Joan entertained me with all types of conversation. She had this thing about her... I couldn't really place it, but she always created such a comfortable environment for me to speak in. I was indisputably a quiet one by nature, and that was mostly because a lot of the things I was passionate about weren't anywhere near exciting for most people... but Joan seemed genuinely interested in all of my passions.

"Okay I think I'm following here. So with that case, most of the affidavit was thrown out due to enormous amounts of hearsay and non-credible sources, but the jury was hung because of the prosecution's inability to prove beyond a reasonable doubt? You mentioned that that burden lays entirely on the prosecution, right?" She asked me as we walked.

My feet slowed to a stop to look her way.

"Y-Yeah that's right. You got it." I gave Joan a nod.

The amount of information Joan had paid attention to and retained from my rambling during dinner, had surprised the completely hell out of me.

"Shit, I fucking nailed that." Her mouth twitched up into a large smile. "You know, this stuff is actually pretty interesting. Sounds like there's a ton more rules in law than Judge Judy and Judge Brown led me to believe all those years ago."

That one made me openly laugh.

It was cute that she thought any part of those law shows resembled even a shred of accuracy.

"I'm not sure if it's allowed, but I would love to sit in for one of your court cases." Joan added. My head whipped back in her direction.

I couldn't help having this feeling of discomfort. It wasn't that I wouldn't have loved to see this gorgeous woman seated in the audience, watching me work... because I most definitely would. It was just difficult for me to comprehend why Joan would wish to spend her time in a courtroom.

"Are you sure?" I asked hesitantly. "Usually um-" I stopped myself short, unsure of how to put this. "Well usually most women I've met really weren't into that sort of thing. I just- I don't want to bore you."

And I didn't.

My mind traveled back to what Christian had said to me earlier this morning. It was some cheesy bullshit about being my genuine self and all that. I wasn't sure if I was even ready to start a conversation such as this one, but then I thought back to Christian's very real threat about Ms. Anderson's parrot, Mr. Twigs... and I decided tonight was just going to have to be the night.

I took another deep sigh.

"In comparison to you, Joan, I have the personality of a rock." I admitted. "I mean you just- you light up the room. Every room. You know a little bit about everything, and watching you strike up a conversation with someone just showcases your real charm and vast levels of knowledge. You talk about the universe. You talk about psychology. You talk about conspiracy theories, and cults, and damn near everything in between. I can safely say I don't know any other grown adult who still owns a Furby, but you do."

Joan's smile grew as she listened.

"You're so vocal about what you believe in, it's fucking inspirational.... and downright sexy. Sometimes I think getting into a disagreement with you is futile, yet I love to instigate it because I get to watch all that fire come out. I absolutely loathe texting, yet texting you is like the next tier down from getting to physically see you. And emoji's! I think they may have been the cringiest thing ever created, but whenever you send me that cute smiley face one with the blissful smile and closed eyes, it makes me all giddy inside... And I'm a firm believer that the word giddy is the second cringiest thing ever created, and should never fall past anyone's lips... yet here I am saying it."

I hadn't noticed myself getting closer to Joan until now.

"You're phenomenal. I'm not too sure how you can even tolerate someone as boring as me." That last sentence was almost a whisper.

Joan's smile slowly faded at my words.

"You could never bore me." She spoke seriously. "I'm not sure who came along and made you think that what you do is boring, but it's not. It's not boring because you're not boring. I love it when you FaceTime me during your late work nights. You're in your fifth stage of coping with work overload, which is just full on delirium, and you're going on and on about how much bullshit you're going to have to make up on. You'll look up at me through your laptop camera every so often, with this goofy I might jump off a building soon smile."

I couldn't help the smile that had formed, and started to grow.

"It's those moments when you become passionate about a tv show or a specific court case, and your eyes light up when you talk about it. I could hear you talk about Star Wars for years. Did the franchise necessarily appeal to me? No, not at surface value... but you appeal to me, and whatever makes you excited appeals to me. You are witty, and charming, and such a gentleman. Some days I feel like I'm a whole basket case and a half in comparison to you. Your responsibility doesn't make you boring... some would say it's downright sexy." She finished, quoting the words I hadn't meant to say so bluntly.

I was now the closest I may have ever been to Joan physically, besides the times she's cuddled into me when she's fallen asleep. My heart beat had begun to pound through my chest as I allowed my eyes to hover over every inch of her skin. If perfection had manifested itself in a person, I'd say that's how good she looked tonight. Her richer than sunkissed melanin skin was damn near glowing against the golden hues of the setting sun. Her large eyes were staring back up at me, almost to ask what I would do next.

I asked myself the same question.

But when my eyes cast down to her plump lips, that question seized to exist.

"Joan," I whispered, watching as she moistened those perfect lips with her tongue, "Would it... Would it be okay if I k-"

Joan didn't allow me to finish. Instead, she got up on the tips of her toes and placed her soft lips against mine.

I wasn't sure how to react at first. My body froze when I felt her.

She moved her lips against me slowly, almost hesitant at first. I was so stunned I hadn't realized I wasn't kissing her back until she started to pull away.

That was when I pulled her back into me, and I made sure this second kiss was the farthest from hesitant. I made sure she knew I wanted this- have been wanting this. My hands wrapped themselves around her waist, and held her closer as her lips touched mine again. I let out a soft moan when her flowery aromatic scent filled my surroundings. She tasted just like her dessert order when I parted my lips to grant her tongue access. It was a sweet chocolatey flavor that made me lean into her.

I hadn't even noticed I had pinned her against the trail railing until I felt the hard wood against the back of my hand.

Her hands had just started to slip into my hair, but was cut short by the sound of my phone going off. She pouted when I had to reluctantly pull away, and that made my already big ass goofy grin, even bigger.

I was still riding on cloud nine, I had barely even been paying attention to the words on my screen so much so that I had to read them again.

The sound was from a text alert. It looks like Slav had sent me a message.

All it said was:

Come home.
Your mum and I need to talk to you and Christian... I wanted you to hear it from me first, but we've dropped the charges against Vadik.

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