He does not take his eyes off me.
All the love songs that have ever been sung about this moment seem to play in my head, and they’ve all been rewritten just forus. For the second time tonight my heart motors at top speed, and it’s all I can do not to fall over dead.
He lowers his chin, aligning his face with mine, and as he starts to bring his lips down, a giant, extra pokey elbow from a child running behind me jabs me in my side. I stumble and blurt, “Ouch!”
Rubbing my side, I take a deep breath and prepare to return my gaze to Christian. Christian’s smirking now. The moment clearly passed, but I hold my breath anyway.
Things are about to change.
twenty-four
Christian
“That turned out to be a fun evening.” I chuckle as I pull my car slowly into her parking lot and creep to a stop. “And again, we didn’t kill each other.”
“We’ve both gone crazy.” Her eyes sparkle but neither of us move to exit the vehicle. We’ve been sharing these lingering moments all night.
She doesn’t move.
I don’t move.
We stare at each other as if meeting each other for the first time, yet it feels so familiar.
Familiarandexciting.
More exciting than familiar.
There’s an airy feeling in my chest, making me lighter, and I feel as if I could laugh myself silly for days.
If anyone had asked me even two days ago if I would ever be able to stand Portia, I would have had a hard time believingit was possible. Now, I can’t take my eyes off of her. She is stunning. Which I had always known…even though I would never admit it. She didn’t have the type of beauty you see in magazines: nothing is overly made up about her, unlike all the women I saw tonight at the fundraiser. She’s a true natural beauty, exactly like my mother had been.
Only in a slightly different font.
“Do you need me to walk you up the stairs?” I know the answer is no but I can’t say goodnight. I also don’t want to come off as some creep who is only walking her upstairs to try to get an invitation inside her apartment. That’s not the kind of guy I am.
“Well, the elevator’s still broken, and it’s late.” Her voice drops to a whisper at the end, and I barely hear her pronounce the T. Her eyes round even more, pulling me into her endless spirals of beryl-blue hues. “I’m sure you’re tired.”
It sounds like a goodbye, but she doesn’t even move her pinky to graze the door handle. Once again, we gaze at each other, frozen. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it. I feel so alive, and I don’t ever want this feeling to end. I’m hesitating because I don’t want to push anything. “Thanks for ah, coming out tonight.”
“You’re welcome.” Her upper teeth clamp down on her lower lip, flushing the pink tissue into white. My heart jerks out a massive flutter as if it’s having a seizure.
She is clearly waiting for me to kiss her!
As much as I want to, it doesn’t feel right.
I’m her boss.
We work together.
We don’t date.
We clearly don’t kiss.
The thing is . . . I want to kiss her.
We had an amazing time tonight.
But I’m not the guy who goes around kissing girls because we had one night of fun. When I fall, I plummet heart first. I’m notsure what this flirtation even is. Are we riding on the coattails of Pappi’s party where we pretended to like each other? I don’t want to suffer in the long run for this. I break our gaze, rake my fingers through my hair, and toss a look forward over the steering wheel. “I’ll see ya tomorrow at work, right?”
