…Her fingers were comforting him in a way that not even the Vodka could accomplish.  He was glad she was here; he wouldn’t have allowed himself to be this helpless with anyone else.  This vulnerability was foreign to him, it made him feel feeble.  He leaned over to grab the glass of Vodka again and this time Nikki gently took it from his him saying, “Mark, I think you’ve had enough.” She placed the glass on the coffee table away from his reach.  He didn’t reply or complaint he just shifted himself so that he could look at her.  She tilted her head sideways to catch his eyes and said caressing his face, “It’s gonna be okay.”  Her touch was soft and pacifying; he put his hand over hers and worked a caress up her arm.  His hand on her jawbone, he caressed her lips with his thumb provocatively.  She felt him apply a little pressure with his thumb, not sure what to make of it; looked into his eyes offering him a gentle smile.  She was so serene, envied her peaceful existence; he wanted to lose himself in her.  He inched himself up intent on locking lips with her, but somewhere in the recess of his mind, he stopped himself. 

She saw him get up and off the sofa with much more coordination than he ought to have.  She figured he wanted to put distance between, exercising self-control.  She’d sensed that he was trying to remain a gentleman with her.  She saw him enter the kitchen and for a few minutes she herself sat there thinking.  She’d her share of honorable moments and at the ripe age of nineteen she felt that she no longer wanted to be the subject of moral repression.  She had reached the age of majority over a year ago and although some would beg to differ she was a grown person, not ‘little Nikki’, not ‘sweet Nicole’, but her own person.  Furthermore, she thought that if anything intimate were to happen with a man, that Mark would be the only man for the job.  Over the years, her feelings for him had progressed from a crush, to infatuation to love.  It’d only be appropriate to take the step she was about to take with a person she loved, there.  Feeling as if she’d given herself a pep talk she got to her feet.