Summary: On their last night before going back home, Daphne and Hamid struggle to express their feelings for each other as the imminent moment of separation approaches.
Based on the prompt: 16.“Why haven’t you kissed me yet?” from Super Sappy Lines Prompts/OTP Prompts:the superior flavor of chips fight
As the winter break approached, most college students were glad to have some time off and go back to their hometowns, visit their families and hang out with friends during the holiday season. However, that wasn’t the case for Daphne. The more the days passed, the sadder she got as she realized soon it’d be time to go back home. She couldn’t say she wasn’t happy to see her father, or her stepbrother, or her grandmother. She loved them. The problem was everything else.
Among the many reasons she didn’t want to go home, Hamid was definitely the biggest one. As they became closer, they promised to always save each other from boredom and their still unlabeled relationship grew stronger at every picnic they had, every art exhibition they went together, each visit to the temples of both their religions and each soccer game they watched, and even though she spent most of the match asking questions, it didn’t bother him. He patiently explained all the rules and game strategies to her.
Still, their most recurring activity together was binge-watching series and movies, which could happen any night Hamid was free and even some nights when he wasn’t, since he’d rather text-watch series with her than be at some dinner with politicians.
The night before both of them fly back to their countries, they decided to watch Daphne’s favorite movie and order pizza. But they also needed snacks while they waited for the pizza and for later if they felt hungry. So they went grocery shopping in a store next Hamid’s flat apartment.
“Hey, licorice dude! We’re here for chips. Focus,” Daphne called out Hamid looking through the candy section.
“Just a second. I’m picking something to eat on the flight.”
“All right, but be quick. We only have thirty minutes.”
“It’s fine. Yusuf will be there to receive it. He’s also having a movie night, remember?”
“Yeah, but once Bartie arrives, they lock themselves in Yusuf’s suite and their movie session will last until tomorrow. Just pick something!”
“You talking unceasingly won’t help me pick any fast either,” he said teasingly as she passed by with the cart.
“Hey!” She threw a salted peanut she was eating at him, making him laugh.
“Come on, Daph… Help me pick up licorice,” he whispered in her ear as he hugged her from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist as he brushed her hair away from her shoulder and kissed her neck.
Daphne’s eyes flutter shut, ravishing the warmth of his lips on the sensitive spot on her neck. They were so close now they already knew one another’s weaknesses and could easily convince each other to do anything.
“Take both. I know you prefer the red one but the flight to Istambul is long and you’re going to eat it all before we arrive in London anyway.”
“You’re a genius.” He kissed her neck again and grabbed two packs of licorice. “Let’s grab some chips,” he cheered, placing his hands over hers and began to push the cart.
Daphne smiled and let him guide her towards the second snack aisle. They stopped in front of the shelves and looked around in silence. A couple of minutes later, Hamid picked a bag of salt and vinegar chips off the shelf.
“What are you doing?” Daphne asked looking at the bag warily.
“Picking up chips.”
“Salt and vinegar? Really?”
“It’s simple, but it also has a unique taste. It’s awesome.”
“No, it’s not. This is awesome,” she said picking up a bag of Memphis BBQ.
“So you prefer the artificial taste of meat,” Hamid goaded.
“Because it tastes amazing. It’s almost like real barbeque.”
“If you want barbeque, you should have barbeque. Not the industrialized version of chips with a taste that may or may not resemble meat.”
“It still is better than salt and vinegar,” she pursed her lips.
“You’re just fooling yourself and you know it.”
They continued on the heated discussion about which chips have the superior flavor while other people walked by the aisle, grabbed their snacks, some of them even watched parts of the fight and left, but Hamid and Daphne barely seemed to notice.
“Do you think we’ll fight over chips when we get older?” A high school teenager with colorful locks of hair asked her tall and aloof boyfriend.
“Nah… We wouldn’t do that. We’re too cool to become that stupid,” the boy whispered to his girlfriend, who buried her face on his green utilitarian jacket to stifle her giggles. “They’re probably secretly in love, but they’re looking for any reason to be mad at each other.”
“You think so?” The girl furrowed her brows.
“Look at them,” the boy nodded towards Daphne and Hamid. “See how he can’t stop touching her arm and her hands in a non-aggressive way and she turns away from him, but then she turns back to poke his very large chest, he pulls her close and they stare into each other’s lips? They’re five sentences away from screaming ‘I love you’.”
“It’s true. It’s like watching Marimar in a live and more diverse version. It’s cute.”
“You’re not wrong…”
The teenage couple watched Daphne and Hamid arguing for a little longer.
“Okay, let’s walk out of here before Arabian Sergio Santibanéz and Asian Bella Aldama go R rated on us while eating barbeque and salt and vinegar chips.”
The couple left the aisle laughing while Hamid and Daphne remained arguing.
“You know what? I’m tired. Each one of us should grab a bag of chips and go,” Hamid let out an exasperated sigh.
“Fine. Grab your chips and I’ll grab mine,” Daphne spat throwing a bag of Memphis BBQ into the cart.
Hamid, on the other hand, picked one bag of salt and vinegar and another one of sour cream and onion.
“Sour cream and onion?” She raised an eyebrow.
“What? Is it another disgusting taste to you?” He mocked.
“No… I like it,” Daphne uttered, looking away.
“Oh…” Hamid glanced at Daphne discreetly chewing her nails. “Do you want to share it?”
“Yeah, thank you.”
“Good. Let’s use it to clean the palate and disguise the artificial taste of pork brisket,” he jested.
“Good call. No way I’m going to kiss that mouth tasting like cheap vinegar.”
They elbowed each other hiding smiles from one another as they walked to the checkout counter.
…
After a cheerful chat with Bartholomew and Yusuf while they ate pizza drinking beer, Daphne and Hamid started their movie session, each one of them with their own bag of chips.
“So she is a fifteen-year-old maiko madly in love with the chairman of a Japanese Electricity Company since she was nine? That’s… wild,” Hamid furrowed his brows.
“No, it’s romantic. Their love goes beyond age gap differences and their social status,” Daphne commented.
“And beyond prison bars, apparently,” he insinuated.
She gave him a nasty look.
“By the way, he doesn’t even seem to like her that much. His best friend with the scar is all over her and he’s letting him have her. Maybe he knows it’s wrong because she’s an underage girl.”
“Hamid!” She threw a potato chip at him.
“Hey, if you’re going to throw chips at me, at least throw the sour cream and onion ones.”
“Nuh uh! I’m eating them all while you ruin my favorite movie.”
“Daph, this movie is all kinds of wrong. She’s a teenage maiko auctioning her mizuage in hopes that the rich and married businessman she likes will buy it and in the meantime, she’s also screwing her best friend’s chances to be adopted by the okiya mother.”
“Stop analyzing the story with your twentieth-first century perspective! Look at this!” Daphne said pointing to the TV.
The maiko walked into a dark runaway wearing a beautifully embellished kimono and impressively high geta sandals with an umbrella in her hands while a traditional Japanese instrumental song played in the background. She slid delicately across the runaway and it began to snow. The song grew heavier and she danced frantically before an astonished audience, including her mesmerized love interest, the chairman. In a graceful full-body movement, the maiko ended her performance as the crowd applauded in unison.
Hamid watched the scene with his jaw dropped, holding his bottle of beer mid-air.
“So…?” Daphne asked, waiting for his reaction.
“It’s…beautiful!” He scratched the back of his head. “And wrong in so many ways…”
Daphne giggled.
“I mean, she’s remarkable!”
“Do you see what I mean? There’s so much more to their story than the practical daily stuff like age gaps or the fact that she may never become his wife for real because geisha aren’t allowed to love their dannas. She changed her whole life just to find a way to be closer to him.”
“Okay, I admit. I like her. And the chairman. But her onesan is up to something.”
“Ah, yeah… She is,” Daphne said reaching for the bag of sour cream and onion chip on the coffee table.
A slow smile spread across his lips as his eyes followed her every movement. Taking a sip of the beer, he reached for the same bag of chips, their hands eventually brushing whilst they talked during the movie.
As the movie ended, Daphne sighed contently. “What do you think?”
“Now I know why you like it so much.”
“And pray tell me, why do you think I like it?”
“Because this is poetry. The little girl who became a slave and had no hopes in life falls in love with a kind and powerful man along with the water metaphors to dancing and to her life and how she adapts to the changes because she truly believes he’s the only one for her. It’s beautiful. Sad, but really beautiful.”
“Wow…”
“What?”
“I think you understood the movie better than I ever did.”
He chuckled. “This is your favorite movie. You’ve probably seen it a hundred times and you only see it with passion. But don’t be so modest. You made some pretty convincing arguments about it.”
“Thanks,” she smiled. “I should probably use my persuasion skills and try to talk you out of salt and vinegar chips and make you like Memphis BBQ.”
“No, you shouldn’t.”
“Come on, Hamid. It’s not even real pork,” Daphne gave him a pleading look.
“Yes, it’s worse. It’s artificially flavored chips.”
“It’s junk food. You eat licorice.”
“Vegan licorice,” he corrected. “Some types of food are not worth to try because they’re harmful to our bodies, despite cultural beliefs or how good it tastes.”
“But you know this isn’t real sour cream.”
“Actually it is. Look at the ingredients in the bag.”
Daphne grabbed the bag looking into the ingredients contained.
“See? Same thing goes for salt and vinegar chips. That’s why it tastes so good.”
She sat in silence, putting the barbeque bag aside and reaching for the salt and vinegar one as he flipped through the options in the streaming service catalog. She knew he wasn’t in a good mood that night, but slowly she got annoyed about how they weren’t all over each other on their last night before the winter break. “Okay, I’ve been eating these for like half an hour to erase the artificial barbeque taste, so here’s a question: why haven’t you kissed me yet?”
“You said you wouldn’t want to kiss these salt and vinegar lips, so I’m making it easier for the both of us,” he shrugged.
“I’m eating salt and vinegar chips!”
Hamid stared at her lips for a moment, then leaned back on the couch.
“What is it?” Daphne inquired.
“I need to know something first,” he turned to the side to look at her. “What are we doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Daphne, we see each other almost every day and we kiss every single time. There are very few things we don’t do together, but somehow, we’re still not a couple. Is there something wrong? I mean, besides the obvious reason…” he rolled eyes as he thought about it.
“It’s not that,” she placed her hand on his. “I don’t see him like that anymore. It’s just–” she bit her lip nervously. “I don’t want us to start with a long-distance relationship.”
“Daphne, I’m right here,” he gave a reassuring smile.
“Now… But you spent the last three weeks in Istanbul, then Dubai, Cairo, Frankfurt. I barely saw you. And you’re so nice and cute and charming…” she frowned.
“Hey,” he cupped her cheek. “It’s just work. I’m not seeing anyone else. My sister even gave me a most boring big brother t-shirt because she said I don’t know how to have fun anymore.”
“Nonsense! We have tons of fun together.”
“Exactly,” Hamid smiled coyly.
“Oh…” Daphne blushed as she realized what he was talking about.
“Look, I’m not pushing you to do anything you don’t want to. I just need to know we’re heading somewhere.”
“We are. I just had a bad experience with long distance relationships and there are so things I wish could share with you like Christmas Eve, and Christmas morning, and New Year’s eve…” She looked down and picked at her cuticle. “I know you’re Muslim and you probably think it’s silly, but I wanted to live these moments with you and I won’t. Because you’ll be with your big traditional loving family in Istambul and I’ll be in Edgewater yawing at stepmother’s frivolous habits during some unnecessary nobility event.”
Hamid pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “It’s not silly. If you care about it, I care about it too because it’s part of who you are. I respect your beliefs just like you respect mine. We can work things out. Besides, Edgewater isn’t that far from Instanbul. I can find a mistletoe on my way over there…” he wiggled his eyebrows making her giggle.
“Okay,” she shifted on her seat to make herself more comfortable in his arms. “I still don’t want to spend the first month of our official relationship missing you, but I’m ready for the next step.”
“Well, I’ve been waiting for you to be ready since your birthday. So what now?” Hamid gave her a playful smile.
“You pop the question, we make out and promise to meet each other at New Year’s,” Daphne bit her lip.
“All right,” he cleared his throat and took her hand in his. “Daphne Wang, will you be my girlfriend?”
“Yes!” She said wrapping her arms around his neck and kissed him fervently. His arms enveloped her into a warm embrace as their tongues danced together in slow motion.
Several minutes passed and they still kissed, exploring each other’s bodies until Hamid pulled away. “Uh… Daphne?”
“Yeah?”
“I can’t do–” he rubbed the back of his neck. “…That.”
“Oh god!” Daphne sat up and covered her face. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to–”
“Don’t worry about it,” he brushed a lock of hair from her face, smiling fondly at her.
“Is it because you can’t do it before marriage?”
“No. No! I just think we should wait until we return because I don’t think I can handle spending the winter break thinking about you that way…” Hamid blushed.
“You know that won’t stop the thoughts from coming, right?” She smiled slyly.
“Yes, I’m fully aware of that,” he chuckled, trying to hide his embarrassment. “But it’s easier to control the urges if I don’t know how you’re like.”
“Well, there are ways we can fix that. FaceTime, Skype…”
“Don’t tempt me, Daphne.”
“Too late,” she pulled him and they lied down on the couch kissing until they were breathless.
