The gutter

From Maria's excitement Laila could already pretty much tell what Maria had been building up to but she could hardly believe it. Not wanting to steal her moment by saying the words out loud before Maria had said them, but finding it impossible to fully contain herself, Laila tried to find words that would ask what she wanted to ask without actually asking it. With an equally big smile on her face and a look of hopeful disbelief, Laila asked, "Noo...Don't tell me that it finally happened?!" Maria nodded and let Laila know that she had guessed correctly non-verbally before she said, "Steve asked me to be his girlfriend and I accepted!" and confirmed them verbally as well.

Instantly Laila grabbed Maria's hands as they both squealed from excitement. "I can't believe it! I mean, there is no surprise that Steve was still interested in having you as his girlfriend and I am guessing as even more but I didn't expect it from you. How come you finally decided to accept his proposal and end that poor man's misery?" Maria chuckled at Laila's description of her and Steve's situation, before giving an actual response to her question. "Well, I am not fully sure. It is just like something clicked these past few days. I have come to realize more and more that we are really compatible and that he really loves me. Being able to depend on him yesterday, it gave met that last little nudge I needed I think. So, I guess you could say that you ended up being our cupid from the very beginning till the very end. You succeeded in bringing us together and now it is up to us to show each other that we can make this work. That we are both willing to continue putting in the necessary effort, even after I go back. Especially after I go back. But for now things are going well."

Now knowing that Steve and Maria had become a couple as well, Laila of course wouldn't leave matters at this. She was filled with questions and she didn't plan on letting Maria leave until she had answered them all. The first question being about their progress as a couple. With a big grin on her face, Laila asked, "So, tell me, did anything beside a confession happen between you guys? Maybe after Noah and I left?"

Maria's face coloured red and she looked away as she mumbled, "A lady won't tell and a gentleman won't ask." But Laila was determined to get an answer out of her oddly bashful friend and said, "Well, lucky for me I am neither. So, spill the beans sister!" After these words Maria turned back to face Laila and saw that she still had that wide grin on her face and had leaned even more forward out of her curiosity. Maria dropped her head with a sigh and decided to give up as there clearly was no way for her to escape. She knew that look in Laila's eyes and that was a level of crazy that she could not argue with. Instead she tried to work her way up to the kiss by starting with the smaller things that had taken place.

"Well there have been light, short touches here and there but nothing really noteworthy happened until we had shared our first little date. He had said a few things and I wanted to make it clear to him that I was far from disliking him at that point. So, I ended up kissing him on the cheek. After that there was a few moments of nothing and then today, I felt such relief when he arrived and managed to make you return to the land of the living, that I ended up hugging him. It was a pretty long and warm hug. I enjoyed it very much and he ended up placing a kiss on the top of my head, which somehow is something that makes me feel so loved. A type of innocent love. The type that makes you feel treasured."

Laila was already super excited by these revelations from Maria and was inching closer with each new sentence that left Maria's mouth. Waiting for her to continue and see if there had been more. Every new revelation was met with a high pitch reaction from Laila and after Maria had told her about the kiss on the cheek and on the top of the head, she couldn't help but ask if there had been any other kisses. As she rapidly lifted her eyebrows up and down, and with a teasing look on her face, Laila asked, "Are those the only places your lips have touched or did you two end up celebrating becoming a couple by doing something couples do? Hmm?"

Maria's face, which had finally gained their natural colour after dragging that moment out for as long as possible, trying to avoid giving a full answer or at least buying herself some time, ended up becoming bright red after Laila's question. Especially because there was some inuendo in there that talked about something much more happening between them. Something she was no way near ready for and something that Laila's words had brought her mind to. She had a very strong imagination and that one sentence from Laila was enough to send her mind in a frenzy.

After shooting Laila a glare, Maria said, "Don't be ridiculous. We did nothing more than share a kiss. So, get that mind of yours out of the gutter!"