And then the shots.
I rolled my shoulder, feeling the soreness settle in deeper now that the adrenaline had long since burned off.
It all could’ve gone differently.If I had been one second slower, I could be in a body bag.
I wouldn’t be leaning against this window and thinking about the woman asleep in the next room.
My jaw tightened as I took another drag.
Britta.
That almost-kiss had done more damage than the gunshots.
Which was saying something.
I hadn’t planned it or gone into that moment thinking I was going to cross that line.But then she’d looked at me, and everything in me had shifted.
It wasn’t just attraction.
It wasn’t just proximity.
It was something deeper than that.
I wanted her.That part was simple.Clear and undeniable.
But I didn’t just want her like that.
Didn’t want one moment.I didn’t want something that happened because the day had been too much and she needed something to hold onto.
I didn’t want her to say yes and then regret it when things settled.
Didn’t want her to wake up in the morning and feel like she’d made a mistake.
I wanted her to choose it.
To choose me fully, with her head in it as much as her body.
I blew out another stream of smoke, watching it curl into the night.
She wanted me.I wasn’t blind.I’d seen it and felt it.The way she leaned closer without realizing it.The way her breath changed when I touched her.The way her eyes dropped to my mouth like she was already imagining it.
But she wasn’t ready.
Not all the way.
Her life had been turned upside down in the last week.
Shot.
Threatened.
Her brother suddenly in question.
Her sense of normal was completely wrecked.
And now me.Standing in her space.Sleeping on her couch.Watching over her like she was something that needed protecting from everything out there.
I took one last drag and crushed the cigarette into the ashtray on the windowsill.The ember died with a soft hiss.
