When they got to Cora’s, the lights were out so Jaya figured her sister had already fallen asleep. She unlocked the door and let herself and Mark in, who closed the door and locked it behind himself.

“Could you deal with the food while I go change?” she asked him, pulling the hair tie out of her hair and sighing, “I’ll be right back,”

He nodded and made his way into the kitchen while she jogged upstairs.

Jaya rushed a shower, and put on a little more perfume than necessary to head back downstairs, where Mark sat scrolling through his phone, both boxes of food beside him in the couch.

“Do you wanna watch TV or…?” she inquired and he nodded, so she just selected a random channel then sat beside him on the sofa. Jaya made sure to turn it down so it wouldn’t wake Cora.

They ate in silence, with her looking at Mark out the corner of her eye ever so often. He just looked so good. His hair looked so soft and brown and shiny –

“Why are you staring at me?” he tried to fight a smile, and Jaya mentally slapped herself when he caught her looking at him.

“I wasn’t,” She replied, now keeping her gaze on the television, and trying to ignore him staring at the side of her face.

“Hmm,” he shrugged, “Okay”

And just like that, he dropped it. Jaya sighed lowly with a deep sense of relief.

-

Jaya woke up, surprisingly comfortable given that she’d fallen asleep on the couch. Her eyes opened, and it was then that she realized that she was basically lying on Mark, but it wasn’t all on her. His left hand was casually laid on her lower back, and she could feel hi