wondering ifthissilence’ll last longer than that one time he forgot her name.
Elle grips her hip.
“It took you a second.”
Andrew pinches the bridge of his nose. “For fuck’s sake, it was like two seconds—c’mon.”
I cough. “More like five.”
Andrew’s eyes slice to me.
“Appreciate the assist, Son?—”
He halts, catching the second half of my name,
swallowing down ‘ny.’
“Allison,” he says,
stretching it out.
“Really savin’ me here.”
I smile, sweet and innocent?—
“Huh. Would you look at that?” I say,
hand to heart. “Mine made the cut.”
His head tips back,
a guilty grin crawling across his face.
Then his head falls toward me again,
his mouth caught in a smile he can’t shake.
“You got a real smart mouth, you know that?”
Elle clears her throat,
chopping the moment in half,
and we rip our gazes from each other.
Andrew stands taller,
scanning between us,
re-centering.
“Right. Uh—Allison.”
He says it smooth, calm,
the way a loaded gun pretends to be
until you grab it.
