The Only One For Me

6 | The Dinner Party

I can still feel Odin’s hand on the small of my back as I walked inside, and gushing at everyone. Thanking them and blowing the candles on the cake that Nora baked for me. This was the best birthday I’ve ever had and I can already tell this will be a memorable one.

We danced and drank for a while, technically, we weren’t allowed to drink alcohol yet, but Carly is rich, she does whatever she wants and in this party, vodka and tequila was what we were drinking. Odin had a few shots of tequila, I was over the moon because I can keep him here with me and make his drinking as an excuse not to let him drive. After a while, Carly told everyone to move to the dining room for dinner. Odin sat to my right and Ivan sat on my left. I’m going to break up with Ivan but I didn’t want to do it tonight. Thankfully, he didn’t act like a boyfriend at all, so I don’t think anyone thinks we’re actually together. After all, we’ve only been dating for 3 months, and only made out a couple of times, we haven’t even gone to second base yet.

Dinner was amazing. It was a lot of fun. Drew kept looking at me in a weird way but I paid him no mind and enjoyed dinner. Carly and Drew sat opposite us, Nora and her boyfriend, Jake, sat to the left of them and Kaye was to their right next to our other friends Casey, Kris and Rose.

There were 2 other tables where our friends from school were sitting. Some of them I barely even know but it’s Carly’s party as much as mine, so she invited some of her friends too.

After dinner, we went back to the bar for more drinks and dancing.

I was sitting in a booth in the corner with Odin, Nora and Jake, Casey, Kris, Rose and Kaye. The music was loud but it’s soft enough to still hold a conversation. We all realize that Odin is so much older than us so he was giving us advice on life and love and I loved that my friends thought he was amazing, for the good advice he was giving. He was also the only one who was legally allowed to drink, and it felt as if he was drinking more to spare us from actually drinking, or he just liked drinking? I don’t know.

In the midst of the conversation, somehow the topic of virginity came up. When everyone was in their own little conversations, he leaned toward me and said, “You should save yourself for someone worth your virginity. He should love you and you should love him, but it should be real love and not just lust, or infatuation.”. I just looked at him thinking to myself. Looking in his eyes, I thought Are you the one for me?.

“How do you know it’s real love?”, Nora asks Odin, obviously hearing what he said to me. Odin looks at her and says, “If it’s love, you give, if it’s like or lust or infatuation, you take.”. That makes so much sense. I thought, and I know it’s what the others on the table were thinking too.

It’s already 12 midnight, my birthday is officially over. Odin, tipsy, asked me if he could nap in my room for a while before he leaves for the city, and of course I said okay. So he left the party to take a nap in my room. I stayed in the bar with my friends. Carly and Drew excused themselves too, telling us they’re done for the night. Ivan and I were sitting together quietly when he looks over to me and says, “You’re amazing, but...”, “But you feel like I’m your sister.”, I continue. He looks at me sheepishly and says, “Yeah, kind of.”, I smile at him and say, “I feel the same. You’re a really nice guy and all, but let’s be real, there’s no spark.”. “Yeah...”, he says. We sit in silence for a while, listening to the others chatter. He then stands up, holds his hand up for me to shake and says, “I hope we can be good friends.”, I take his hand in mine and say, “Absolutely.”, I stand up too and we hug. That was the best break up ever. We told everyone who was still there that we were not dating and that we were just really good friends and it seemed like no one really cared, but I felt really good and I can tell Ivan did too.

I looked at the time, 2am, I yawned, kinda sleepy, I bid everyone good night and headed up to my room.

I almost forgot that Odin was here. He was lying down on the love seat at the bottom of my bed, asleep. If he looked good awake, damn, he looked even better asleep. I have the urge to kiss him but I stop myself and decide to get a shower and brush my teeth before I go to bed. I get my pajamas and head to the bathroom. I move as quietly as I can. I strip naked and jump into the shower. I let the warm water soothe my tired body and just enjoy getting clean. I shampoo my hair, the shampoo smells like coconuts, I like the smell of coconuts. I grab the body wash and it smells like mango, great, now I smell like a fruit salad. I finish my shower and dry my body completely. I put on my underwear, skipping the bra because I’m more comfortable sleeping without it. I dry my hair with the towel, opting to skip the hair dryer because I didn’t want to wake Odin. I brush my teeth then proceed with my skin care routine. I have super sensitive skin and I break out if I even miss a step. Cleanse, tone, moisturize, serum. Done. After combing my hair, I hang the towel and head out to bed. It’s kind of cold, I feel my n*****s harden a bit at the cold. I checked the thermostat, it was on 16°C. I increase the temperature to 19°C and walk to bed, careful not to wake Odin.

As I lay awake in bed, I’m debating with myself, should I wake him, should I let him sleep? I let him sleep, as I drifted off to sleep myself.