Strictly In The Bedroom 2

Chapter 2 Oat Milk

M A L L O R Y

“Are you checking me out?”

It left a lasting effect on me the way he used my words against me while wearing a grin. In addition to being dangerously attractive, he was tall. Pretty tall. And I could tell when one was young, and I had a gut feeling that he was, as he appeared to be younger than me.

With just a glance and a grin, the attractive stranger might easily win your heart. He was clearly and dangerously handsome. His striking light blue, penetrating eyes added to his overall compelling appearance, which was enhanced by his powerful, attractive features that gave him an intimidating, manly presence. He appeared to be the kind of man who would make you want to be the only person with him. Beneath that practically almost see-through white shirt, his physique was flawless, including powerful legs, broad shoulders, an athletic frame, and toned abs. He really was a dangerous man.

“I wish I was.” I answered him right away as I looked back at the long queue from behind me since I was holding up the line. “I need your help, please?”

He chuckled under his throat as he walked closer to me, while licking his lips to wet them, and then faced the attendant as he was casually speaking in Portuguese before turning towards me and asked as he was tilting his head to the side, “What did you want to order?”

“I wanted to know if they had flat white?” I chirped.

He turned to the female attendant, “Você tem um flat white?”

The female attendant answered, “Não, não temos flat white. Mas temos cappuccino ou latte.”

He faced me again and translated, “They do not have flat white but they have cappuccino or latte.”

“I will have a large cappuccino then, do they have oat milk?” I asked him and added, “If they do, I will have it.”

He faced the attendant again and told her, “Ela quer um grande cappuccino. Você tem leite de aveia?”

The attendant responded politely, having the best patience in the world, with all these translations from English to Portuguese, “Leite de Aveia? Temos sim.” She smiled at him and then at me before adding, “Mas o grande Cappuccino pode levar alguns minutos para ser feito.”

“Excelente, ela terá um grande cappuccino com leite de aveia então. Obrigado.” The handsome stranger looked back at me and told me, “She said your order will take a few minutes.”

“Algo mais que ela queira pedir? Temos sanduíches.” The female attendant chirped.

“Anything else you want to order? They have sandwiches.” He translated right away.

I shook my head sideways, “No, that would be it. Thank you.” I found him absolutely charismatic and intelligent as he speaks two languages while he translated what I said to the female attendant.

“Name?” He asked, his eyes light blue, piercing right at me as if he was trying to seduce me without using words as if he did not need any words at all.

“Mal.” I answered him, “M-A-L.”

He smiled at me before turning to the female attendant and told her my name, even spelling it for her as well. I paid for my order at the same time the other barista hollered aloud, “Um grande Americano gelado para Liz, por favor.” I watched him walk to the releasing order counter, as he took his order which was a large iced Americano.

He grinned at me, raised his drink up as he told me calmly, “You owe me one.” I was left completely speechless as he added with that mischievous look on his face, “See you around, Mal.” Saying it as if he was expecting to see me around once again as he walked towards the coffee shop’s door and left me feeling absolutely breathless but at the same time there was this sense of sudden need of wanting to see him.

I grabbed my order as soon as it was prepared, and left the coffee shops, walking my way back towards the hotel where I was staying and sharing it with my elementary to high school best friends Gia, unmarried, and only loves hook ups, and Max, gay who has been a hopeless romantic, were on the tour in Lisbon’s very beautiful palaces, that I had skipped because I was experiencing pain from my rheumatoid arthritis earlier in the morning. They needed to enjoy Portugal and leave me on my own in the morning since I was fine, despite the joint pains earlier. Since we had already taken a tour together yesterday, I told them that they could go without me so I would not interfere with and ruin their vacation as well.

When evening came, I went out to dinner with Gia and Max as we were in this seemingly a bit fancy restaurant and enjoyed our meals where Gia talked about the beautiful palaces they toured this morning, while Max was talking about the handsome Portuguese men that he had seen for the entire day.

“I swear, Lisbon does not only have great palaces, but also Portuguese d***s that my butt wants to ride.” Max smirked and laughed, making Gia and I laugh with him and his usual vulgar words.

Gia chuckled softly under her throat, “You missed a lot this morning, Mal. You should have gone with us.”

“I wish I had.” I smiled as I took a sip from my wine.

“I wish you did, you could have met these very handsome guys on tour. I exchanged one with another tourist, and he is inviting us tomorrow for a drink.” Max grinned happily, and I knew that look since it was his usual look that he has when he would meet a very handsome guy and wanted to score one.

“Ugh, I do not like that at all.” I grunted and was right away against it.

“What? You need it more than we do.” Gia pointed out as Max nodded his head firmly.

“I absolutely agree with Gia, Mal. You need to go out there and meet new guys, for fun or not, just to forget and move on and be happy.” Max stated loud and clear.

“Yaaas.” Gia hyped up Max’s idea as she added and smiled at me, “I am not letting you slip into a rut from that heartbreaker, Thomas. I am not going to sit here and let my best cousin waste away her life after that jerk.”

I playfully rolled my eyes at her, “It has been three months, come on.”

“Ugh, do not even say that right now. This was the only time you went out after a month of locking yourself up in your house.” Max pointed out as they have been forcing me to head out and have fun. “Life does not end there, okay? Just because you are thirty-five and got out of a nine-year-long relationship, does not mean you need to be boring and get stuck in a rut.”

“Exactly.” Gia agreed intensely, clinking her glass of wine with Max’s as she added, “It is time for you, Mallory, to get out there and have some fun!”

“Yaaaas!” Max chimed happily, clinking his wine glass with mine which made me smile wider at him.

“So, I am telling you tomorrow, we are going to dance, drink, have fun, and meet guys, go clubbing, hell, even have s*x with a guy–”

“Or two and three at the same time.” Max butted in which caused us to laugh with him.

“And just do whatever we want to have fun and relax, let loose and forget,” Gia smiled wider now, as she added right away, “Even though we are all in our mid 30s, life does not end here.”

“Life starts at 30.” Max chimed.

“Cheers to that.” Gia agreed happily.

“But we are all 35 year old adults.” I pointed out the truth.

Max groaned inwardly, “Why did you have to ruin the mood?”

I laughed under my throat as Gia seconded, “Seriously.”

“I am sorry.” I laughed again, smiling as I took a sip from my wine.

“But honestly, Max and I are happy you came here with us. You have been stuck up in such a toxic relationship with that asshole who cheated on you obviously numerous times before, and then had a secret affair with that b***h Kiara, so you deserve this. This vacation, this wine, this food, and you need to go out and mingle.” Gia smiled at me.

We were then interrupted with our conversation when a waiter handed us a drink which had a light tan or golden-brown color with dark amber tones.The three of us looked at each other in confusion since we did not have any add ons, so I was quick to say, “I am sorry, but we did not order that.”

The waiter was smiling at us as he answered, “Someone else ordered it for you, ma’am, that guy over there.” He pointed out where the three of us followed his gestured hand and there I saw him once again, that dangerously handsome stranger. He sat there with three of his friends as he was smirking at me, raising his glass of drink as if he was making a silent toast while Gia and Max were teasing me, since he was indeed very handsome. He was wearing something formal, since the restaurant had this dress code, which was the total opposite of what he wore earlier.

The dangerously handsome man was wearing something formal, which was a plain white polo shirt, a pair of black pants and a pair of white sneakers. He was dressed in a sophisticated and classy way that made him even more attractive than he already was. His outfit was well-fitted and complemented his broad shoulders, tall frame and athletic build. His choice of clothing highlighted the best aspect of his appearance, giving him a sharp and distinguished look. His stylish outfit contributed to his dangerous and seductive charm.

Gia and Max looked at each other then looked at me with very wide grins on their faces as they were teasing me with the look on their faces and their smiles.

“Who is that handsome young looking man?” Max whispered to my ear.

“Did you forget to tell us something?” Gia asked, also whispering in my other ear.

“He is fiiiiine as hell.” Max giggled with Gia who was agreeing and teasing me even more.

“Stop it.” I shied as I whispered.

Max laughed, Gia laughed as well as she told me, “But it is true, though.”

“Who is he? I think you definitely forgot to tell us something when we left you earlier.”

I rolled my eyes playfully at them, “He was just someone I met earlier.” I told them as they were grinning at each other mischievously while I grabbed the note that was attached to the drink as it read, ‘Chai Tea Martini with Oat Milk for Mal.’

I pulled my head up and looked at the dangerously handsome stranger who was smiling at me.

His light blue eyes locked with mine even from across the room, and I could feel this immense pull towards him that I could not explain, maybe because I needed some diversion from my thoughts? I do not know what it was, but it was there. There was something about his look that made my heart sped up. my body heated up, and my stomach lurched in excitement. He was dangerously handsome, and I could not help but find him enthralling.

When he ordered a Chai Tea Martini with oat milk for me, it seemed as if I could almost taste his lips on my lips as he was drinking the same thing.