'Just like you.'
'I'm a walking inspiration. Now hurry up before I give you a helping hand just like you gave me.'
'Alright, alright. Geez. Here goes nothing.' With that, Lucy made her first attempt at slurping up the dhal between pursed lips. It was noisy but it worked -- to an extent. It was extremely slow going. After several loud mouthfuls, barely a dent had been made in the dhal.
'Pathetic,' Sam said. 'I guess you really do want a helping hand.'
'No! Don't you--' Lucy was cut off, forced face-down into the food just as she had done to Sam just moments ago. Just like that, Sam pushed her face around the place, spilling dhal over the sides, but, more importantly, covering Lucy's face in a gloopy layer of dhal.
'Now,' said Sam a moment later, finally letting go. 'I think you need a drink to wash it down, don't you?'
It took Lucy a moment to recover enough sense to reply. Still processing the damage to her makeup, her dignity and her meal, she just about managed a nod of reluctant agreement. 'I guess.'
'Great. Here you go.' Sam pushed the cup towards Lucy's face, slightly harder than necessary, so that it banged against the plate and momentum sent a few droplets in the direction of Lucy's face. Instinctively, Lucy reached her hands toward the cup in order to steady and then lift it.
'Ah-ah,' Sam tutted. 'No hands, remember.' Before Lucy could protest, Sam grabbed a wrist in each of her hands and then pinned them gently but firmly behind Lucy's back.
'Sam, gosh, I never had you down as this sort of woman,' Lucy said, having clearly regained enough of her wherewithal to crack jokes again.
'Drink!' Sam said, struggling to maintain an air of authority while fighting the urge to laugh.
'Yes, mistress,' Lucy joked, gripping the rim of the cup of lassi between her teeth. Sam said nothing as Lucy lifted the cup with extreme care, knowing that the further it got from the table, the further its contents would splatter if dropped. Getting the lassi into her mouth without also getting it all over her face, neck and presumably cleavage was another matter, however. She paused for a moment with the cup swinging precariously from her gritted teeth, subconsciously judging the physics of the situation. It was a brief moment, because she knew Sam would harangue her again if she took too long. Calculations and guesswork complete, she threw her neck back as if about to down a shot.
The result was disastrous. Approximately a third of the cup's contents splattered up over her nose, causing her to shut her eyes reflexively. With her face still upturned, lassi formed little yellow pools in the hollows around her eyes. She had managed to get a mouthful and gulp it down, but that was the least of her concerns. What to do next, considering the yoghurt-drink currently covering her face, was foremost in her mind.
'That's quite a predicament,' Sam said, deliberately unhelpful.
'Uh-huh,' was all Lucy could put together by way of a response, not helped by the fact that she daren't open her mouth to speak properly. There was no way out of the situation that didn't involve turning her face to a more normal angle, causing the lassi to streak down her face. She braced herself then jolted her face forward, just as suddenly as she had jolted it backwards in the first place. As predicted, yellow slime dribbled down her cheeks, off her chin, and pitter-pattered onto the table, narrowly missing her cleavage. 'Oh my god,' she groaned at last, the lassi soon running out. Unfortunately for Lucy, this meant that it now left her chin from further back, causing the remaining dregs to plop into her milkshake-soaked bra.
'Still quite a bit left,' Sam said, deadpan. 'Maybe I can help you out. Don't want to be here all day.'
Lucy pondered the offer, knuckling the leftovers out of her eyes. 'And you promise it will be the helpful kind of help?'
'Is there any other kind?'