Yes

I was in the bathroom, checking that I wasn’t making a complete fool out of myself by looking like someone that hadn’t left her apartment since ever.

I was still wearing the grey oversize t-shirt but had tried to make it less visible by covering it with my leatherjacket. It had been so spontaneous going out tonight so my hair and make-up wasn’t exactly done… at all.

I shook my head and smiled to myself in the mirror.

Whatever, people are drunk anyways; I’M drunk, so whatever, I thought as I washed my hands.

We were in a bar not far away from Chinatown; apparently it was Norman’s favorite. It was cool here, but a bit too crowded for my taste.

I was just turning to the door leading back to the bar as a hand was laid on my shoulder.

“Excuse me miss, but can I ask you something?”

I turned around to see a young girl staring at me with frightened eyes, a phone in her hand. She couldn’t be a day over 21 and I even had myself thinking she looked younger. 17 maybe…

“Sure, what’s up?”

I thought about Norman sitting back at our table alone. He was probably having a good time anyway, giving thought the amount of alcohol he’d had.

The girl seemed rather scared of me, not really looking into my eyes and keeping at least one meter between us. It seemed unnatural here in this small ladies room.

“Um…” the girl started, “It’s just, I saw you were sitting with Norman out there and I’m really a big fan of his and…”

I kept smiling at her.

“And…?”

She was looking at her shoes; black All Stars with some white faces on them I didn’t recognize. She twitched her hands nervously.

“I just really want a picture with him. Can you maybe… It’s just, I don’t… I…”

Wow. This girl was so nervous, I felt like hugging her and tell her eveything was going to be alright.

“I’ll go ask him right away!” I told her.

She seemed so sweet and innocent; probably too humble to go and disturb his privacy. Her breath seemed to have been caught inside her throat somewhere so I hastily snuck my way between the tables to get to ours, almost in snake-like movements.

This bar was packed.

As I made my way through the crowd, I let my eyes wander over the backside of the room, and quickly found Norman eyeing me. He sent a smile my way before turning to talk to someone who’d sat down at our table. As I closed in, he got up and made a gesture with his hands at the girl sitting at our table, introducing us.

“Hi, I’m Maria, Norm’s former girlfriend.”

Uh oh.

I felt my heart sink as I looked at her. She was so beautiful; a light milk chocolate colored skin, long shiny coffee colored hair, dark and warm eyes and dressed like a super model.

Was she a model?

She easily could be. Her frame was lean, feminine and very sexy.

Hey confidence, where’d you go?

“Hi, nice to meet you Maria,” I tried giving her one of my best smiles before turning to Norman, “Hey, some girl came up to me and asked me to ask you if she could have a picture taken with you. She’s in the ladies room right now… Be careful, she’s really shy.”

He smiled at me, nuzzled my already crazy hair and excused himself. I knew he couldn’t let himself just pass that by; even though I didn’t know him that well yet, I knew that his fans meant everything to him. So I was left at our table with Norman Reedus’ ex-girlfriend.

Yay.

She was smiling at me and God did she have nice teeth. Actually, there wasn’t one thing about her that wasn’t pretty. But I held my head high.

No reasons for not trying to make a good impression.

After all, she didn’t know I had a little thing for him.

And don’t judge me here! I mean, he’s so sweet and caring, handsome, sexy, successful… And I was a fool to even have hopes of the two of us being together. I mean, look at her! If that was his type of girl… Well, let’s just say, I’m not even near her league.

“So, you and Norm, what are you up for tonight?” she asked casually as she crossed her legs, showing off her firm-looking calves and a pair of really high heeled stilettoes with paliettes.

I shrugged my shoulders: “Not really much, I guess. Just having a good time.”

It seemed like she was eyeing me. Or maybe that was just me eyeing myself, comparing myself to her.

Whatever.

I grabbed for my jacket, not being able to grasp the situation; I needed a smoke. As I stood up, I almost sighed in relief as I saw Norman doing the same snake-like movements I had made just before to get through the crowded tables. He would make the situation a bit more relaxed, I hoped.

“Cigarette?” he asked as he noticed me wearing my jacket.

I nodded and we awkwardly went out to the smokers’ yard out the back, leaving the ex-girlfriend behind. I couldn’t feel sorry for her even if I wanted to. I guess a girl can’t help but hating just a little on the ex-girlfriends. Even if it’s a friend’s or boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, you always feel weird talking to them as the new female friend or girlfriend, or whatever. Does that even make sense?

“So where to now, babe?” he asked me as I was lighting my smoke.

He was standing a few feet away, leaned up against a wall with his ray bans on even though it was dark outside.

Fucking celebrities, think they’re cooler than the rest of us all of a sudden.

I put my own sunglasses on, real John Lennon style ones, and grinned lamely.

“You wanna leave? But that Maria girl seems pretty interested in chatting?”

He breathed heavily. “Yeah, that’s why we’re leaving. It’s like she doesn’t get the fact that we’re not together anymore. I mean, anyone could see the eyes she was giving you…”

I shot him a nervous glare. I thought it was only me who had noticed that.

“She’s pretty, though,” I said.

He nodded. “Yeah, a beautiful girl indeed.”

Awkward silence. What to say???

Two women, probably in their fifties, placed themselves in front of us, their eyes plastered on Norman. You could tell that they had been drinking; their voices were a little too high and they swayed from one side to another.

“Oh, aren’t you a cutie?” one of them asked Norman.

He raised one eyebrow with a smile on his lips.

“So I’ve been told,” he joked, “You ladies having a good time tonight?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle; they obviously were.

“Jeesh, you really are a handsome man. I can see why my daughter has posters of you hanging in her room!” the other lady chimed in.

Norman laughed and stepped a bit closer to me, shoulders almost touching.

“Can we take your picture? It would make her go bananas!”

They lined up and I quickly maneuvered to the side avoiding to photobomb. A hand grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back in.

“Where’re you going?” Norman’s voice sounded in my left ear, “Hey ladies, you mind my friend here joining our picture?”

And I just stood there like an idiot.

Why they agreed to let me be in the picture I don’t know but soon more of Norman’s fans had joined our little spot out in the smokers’ yard. I felt a little out of place as he was signing random things and taking pictures. Because I didn’t know what to do with myself but mostly because Norman insisted that I stood next to him. Or almost right in the spot where he was. I had my back pushed up against his chest; my head leaned against his neck and with his hands reaching around me to give autographs. I could smell his breath, whiskey and cigarettes, and feel his laughter vibrate against my back.

Warmth was gradually spreading from a pit in my stomach and throughout my body. I felt a bit claustrophobic, not anything like the other time where we’d been hung up by the paparazzi, but because I felt like an intruder.

Wouldn’t his fans be annoyed by the fact that some random girl was ruining their picture? But every time I tried to slip out of his arms, he just tightened his grip, the beautiful muscles of his arms flexing lightly.

His fans were really sweet though, talking to me as well as Norman, and complementing my hair.

Two guys were getting their white iPhones signed and I was smiling to them as everybody else.

One of them chuckled lightly: “Pretty girl you’ve got yourself there Norm, can we see a little kiss?”

I felt my heart skip a beat and I quickly covered my face with my hands and through my fingers I looked up at him, searching for an escape somehow. He was grinning down at me and made a kissing noise, pushing his lips out.

In my mind I panicked, I didn’t know what to do; all of those people were watching, listening, and I just couldn’t control my thoughts. So I reached for his face, both hands shielding from the people watching and turned my face directly up at him. I couldn’t see his eyes through those damn ray bans but only felt his body twitch, crouching downwards, against me.

And then I felt his lips on mine.