She did the same with her cloth and moved past him to the next table.
She knew that she was lucky to meet him on his first day.
In a city as big as Center City was, the chance that she would have met him at all was staggering.
Well, they were both going to work near each other, but still-
"I know you've got your studies to do, so if you don't have the time to go over the apartment listings, I'll be okay."
Lexie knew that he was giving her an out.
It was true that she'd spent more time out than she'd given herself, but... This was a big thing for anyone moving to a new city. Finding a place to live.
If she didn't at least look through the listings to give him a direction to look in, he might end up stuck somewhere that didn't suit him.
"I live about a block over from here. If you don't mind coming with me for a little while. We can go over the listings that interest you."
"Thanks, I promise not to stay long." She heard the earnest tone in his voice. "I know we spent more time at dinner than you probably wanted to. I'm just glad we got a chance to meet again. You really were a lifesaver today."
She finished another table, and they started to move to the next few tables.
"In Hawaii, there's always someone willing to lend a hand. I was worried that Center City would be different."
"It is, sadly," she felt horrible telling him that, but it was the truth. "Sometimes they outweigh the good people around us, but I grew up on Mister Rogers."
Kaleo paused for a moment as he wiped off a tabletop. "I did, too. PBS in Hawaii was my jam growing up. My mom and aunt grew up on him, too. They were always reminding us not only to look for helpers, but to be helpers as well."
She heard his words and felt the warmth in her chest growing. "Me, too."
THREE
KALEO
Walking Lexie to her apartment was an easy path that took just a few minutes.
The weather was good with not a cloud in the sky, but there was one thing wrong with the sky over his head.
He sighed before he could stop himself.
He apologized just as quickly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to... I mean, I'm not tired or... or bored."
Lexie laughed softly. "I didn't think you did." She looked at him, and he met her gaze with a slight turn of his head. "I think that you're overthinking it."
"Ah... okay." They continued to walk and passed a sweet Victorian house at the corner of the street. "Maybe it's the jet lag. Or a little bit of culture shock?"
Lexie slowed her steps and came to a stop at the corner. "I guess it would be exhausting traveling that far by plane. Maybe," she looked over the intersection at the next block, "it was probably too much to ask you back tonight to talk about apartments."
Maybe, he wondered to himself, this was asking too much.
Familiarity, the quote said, breeds contempt.
Kaleo didn't want to push things with Lexie.
He didn't want to come across as a pushy guy. He had a younger sister, and he'd heard an earful from her and other women he knew about pushy guys.
The guys that women wanted to get the hell away from as soon as they could.
But those were the guys that always took rejection in the worst possible way.
