Mayas POV

James had fallen asleep after some time. I could see on his face that he needed to rest. To make it comfortable for him, I took the blanket on the stool beside the couch and covered him with it. I was all warm and fussy after all the kissing, so I had to walk away to kind of gather myself and take in what had happened in the last thirty minutes. James was here. He said he loved me. I turned to watch him sleep. A smile crept on my face.

I decided to head to the kitchen to make some dinner for us both. He must have been hungry too. I decided to make something that didn't take too long to make, so I went with pasta and some mushrooms mixed with some vegetables and some bacon.

I began to slice the onions and the garlic. I missed cooking food over at James house. My kitchen was nothing special compared to his. I ducked down to grab a bowl in the cabinet and placed all the sliced vegetables in it. I tried to be as silent as possible to avoid waking him up. I went to look for my earplugs and started to listen to some music while cooking. I went for Pharrels song; Happy, as my mood was way too good to be true. 

I felt at peace knowing that James was with me, that he wanted me. A sudden wave of love and happiness welled up inside of me and I couldn't help but sway a little bit to the music. The onions and garlic were starting to fill the kitchen with its aroma. After a while I had already cooked the food and was now boiling water for the pasta. I didn't know if I should wake him up yet or just wait until he woke up by himself. I chose to wait. He deserved some rest and I knew that I must have made it harder for him these couple of days.

I started to open the package with fresh pasta and found the salt at the table. As I was about to put the pasta in the pot with boiling water, I slightly jumped a bit when I realized that some arms had snuggled up around my waist from behind. I got a huge shock and turned around to see James hugging me for behind.

'God, James... You scared me there for a bit!' I gave him a nudge on the side and he quickly jerked aside. I smiled and he embraced me again.

'Hi, beautiful' he moaned in satisfaction. 'It smells divine in here... You woke me up with your lovely cooking. It was hard to lay there without you'

I blushed at his sweet words and chose to keep quiet. His face came closer and he inhaled a big breath. He was right at my neck and he started to kiss me now. I closed my eyes and enjoyed his small feathery kisses on my neck.

I stopped with whatever I was doing, I completely lost everything that was in my mind. My only focus was his lips on my skin. I turned around to face him. I thought that it was a bold move and I was ready to do something that he wouldn't expect, but when I met his eyes, I became too conscious about us being this close, and I ended up being like a little girl who was too shy to do anything. He still had a tired face and he still needed a lot of hours just sleeping, but even though he was tired, he still looked handsome. 

My chest was going up and down more visibly than normal because of our closeness. He grabbed my waist very gently and he met my lips.

'nm, Njames... The stove... The water' he didn't listen to me. He just kept showering me with blissful kisses. Only when the water boiled over and the stove began to be overflood by water, he stopped and let me handle the situation. I quickly turned off the stove and moved the pot away from the heat. The pasta got a little too much.

I turned around to give him an accusing look. He just smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

'You didn't really want me to stop, did you?'

He knew I couldn't resist his caring touches and his lips. I began to chuckle and then refocused on the food. We moved over to the living room and sat with our food while watching television. We didn't talk that much. He was silent, ate the food in a rush. He must have been hungry! After finishing eating, we both leaned back and sat more comfortably on the couch. I snuggled up to him and covered us with my blanket. He smelled so good and I felt at peace when he was here. I still couldn't believe that James was in love with me. He liked me! He even freaking loved me!

I couldn't fathom the fact that this was true.

'James, did you really not like me when we first met?'

He looked down on me looking a bit flustered over my blunt question. He gave me a vague smile and kissed my forehead.

'I liked our first date. It was amazing to meet someone that had so much more passion for life than the ordinary. I just got surprised when I saw you. I wanted to tell you that you were beautiful too, but I messed up by mentioning that I didn't normally date black girls. I guess I was too stuck up to even think like that. Before I could explain or anything, you chose to leave. But I didn't stop you either. I thought it might have been for the best'

I nodded and my thoughts started to wander back to our first meeting. He continued though;
'But I realized I made a mistake by letting you go when I saw you at Connor and Roses' wedding. I just couldn't get myself to let you in as I didn't know how to. But I wanted to dance with you, I wanted Kevin to stay away from you. I guess I wanted to protect you, but at the same time the other part of me wanted to stay away from you as I had my other thoughts about you being different. I'm so glad you changed my mind Maya. Really'

I had a strange feeling after he told me that. It wasn't the first time anyone had prejudices about me. It wasn't easy for everyone to understand my culture. The Sri Lankan culture could, for some people, seem so distant and unfamiliar that I couldn't really blame them, but at the same time I hated it. Why not just see us as normal people too but with different views on life? Wasn't that the same way with politics, religion, and different opinions? 

I mean, human beings were unique. We looked alike as species, but we had so much diversity. People should embrace that. How would the world even seem like if everyone was the same? I got even closer to him now.

He held me tightly and just sat like that for a while without saying anything again. Until he broke the silence.

'Were you in love with Oliver?' he kept looking on the screen without looking at me.

'I thought I did until I fell in love with you. Then I knew that Oliver was someone I just really liked. I guess if we had spent more time, I would have maybe gotten to love him, I don't know...'

'Hmm. I feel sorry for that guy. He just missed the rare diamond and settled for the standard ones'

He winked at me and I could feel my whole face getting hot. The way he spoke sometimes, would make me all jelly belly inside. He was indeed a charming man and I loved it. I was all for it!

I kissed him and then we both drifted off to sleep. The emotional rollercoaster these past days had worn me out.