“Well, lucky for you!”
He was quiet a moment as I opened my laptop and wiped the keyboard with the pads of my fingers. I glanced up when he started coming my way. He sat on the edge of my bed with me, smiling again.
“What?” I asked nervously, tucking my hair behind my ear. His eyes dropped to my lips and I immediately snatched my gaze away, focusing on the screen of my laptop instead.
“I knew you were gonna do that. Why do you always do that?” he questioned, and I peered up.
“Do what?”
“Look away when I look at your mouth.”
I shrugged, pretending it was no big deal. “I don’t know. Nervous habit I guess.” I huffed a laugh.
“After two months of hanging out, I still make you that nervous? To the point you’re afraid to let me kiss you?”
“Well, it’s not like we hang out every single hour of the day,” I teased.
“We could, if someone didn’t always have an excuse to not meet up.” He pressed back on the palms of his hands and his chest looked buffer beneath the white T-shirt. The shirt hugged his torso, not doing a damn thing to hide his impeccable chest, abs, and biceps. His head turned, eyes pinned on me. “I would like to kiss you one day, you know?”
I bit a smile but said nothing.
“If I stole one from you right now, would that upset you?”
I drew my lips in and smashed them together. Because I said nothing, he probably assumed it was safe to go in for the kill. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on top of my shoulder. His lips were soft. Smooth. He also smelled really nice. Tilting his chin, he brought his face closer to mine. So close I could feel him breathing.
Just as he was about to guide his lips to touch mine, I dropped my head, running my thumbnail over my cuticle and focusing more on that.
He dropped his head too, letting out a low, throaty chuckle. Pushing away, he stood from the bed and blew a sigh. “Man,” he laughed dryly, but it hardly held any humor. “So many mixed signals.” I looked up and could tell his frustrations were getting to him. I understood, trust me, I did, but…I wasn’t ready for it yet.
Two months of hanging out often, some mild flirting, and teasing, and not one kiss from me. Not one move. Only hugs and long, heated stares. I had to hand it to him, he had more patience in his left pinky than I did in my entire body. I don’t know why he still wanted to hang out with me after so many failed attempts of trying to kiss me. Maybe he liked the chase.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured. “I’m just…it’s a long story. I don’t like talking about it.”
He looked at me, slightly confused, slightly intrigued as he sat again. “Did something bad happen before me to make you so hesitant?”
“Something bad like what?”
“Like…bad-bad. Things that can happen to girls that they can’t fight off, you know?”
“What?” I gasped, closing the lid of my laptop. “You mean like rape? No—God, no!”
“Okay—phew! Sorry if that offended you! You’re just really shut off, Kandy. I feel like you’re into me, but afraid to take it up a notch for some reason and I figured that could probably be a reason why, but I didn’t want to ask and end up scaring you off. I’m not rushing you or anything, but I’m curious why you are so guarded. It’s clear to me that something is holding you back.”
I lifted a hand in the air and dropped it like it was dead weight, unsure what to tell him.
“You know you don’t have to be scared to talk to me. I’m pretty good at keeping things quiet, you know?”
“I know…but it’s a lot. Talking about it will only take me back to it and I’m trying to get past it.”
“No, no. I get that. You don’t have to. No pressure.” He dropped his gaze to my lap and then rose to a stand. “There’s going to be a party at our house tonight after the MPA meeting. I know you aren’t big on parties but it’s my birthday, so I’d really like you to come.”
“What?” I slid off the bed. “Oh my gosh! I knew it was your birthday but didn’t know there would be a party! Why didn’t you tell me sooner? I could have gotten you a gift or something from the gift shop!”
He waved it off. “It’s no big deal. Just another year older,” he laughed. “The guys tried to make it a surprise thing, but one of them got drunk the other night and started blabbing about it. Not so much a surprise anymore.” He took a step forward, grabbing my hand and reeling me toward him. My chest was pressed to his, and his mouth was close to mine again as he asked, “You won’t let me party alone, will you?”