I was totally prepared for it and held on with all my might.
She growled and sat back, keeping hold of the small corner she’d extracted from me.
“I never said I wouldn’t share.” I let go and draped the comforter over both of us, tucking it into her sides before sitting back and letting her watch the movie in peace.
Well, for a few minutes anyway. Our hands on top of the blanket were too far apart for my taste. I moved mine closer to hers and left it there, close enough that she stared at my hand for several seconds before her eyes returned to the screen.
If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I would have called any other witness a liar. Slowly, slowly, slowly, her hand slid over and breached the final distance, until her pinkie finger reached out and caressed mine ever so softly.
Then her legs in her pink pajamas shifted over a bit until they were crossed with mine at the ankles, and the next thing I knew her face was turned towards me and she wasn’t watching the movie anymore.
“Lauren,” I whispered. “Are we friends?”
“Yes,” she whispered back. Her heartbeat fluttered like a little bird’s. I could see it pulsing on her neck.
“Are we more than friends?”
“I don’t know.” She paused the TV and dropped the remote on the blanket where it slid to the floor.
I laced my fingers with hers and stared into her earnest face. Should I kiss her? There was no going back to normal once I did. I knew it, but the full truth of it didn’t hit me until her lips touched mine. I’m not sure who made the first move, maybe we both did.
All I knew, was that kissing Lauren was like liquid fire shooting through my veins.
I ran my hand through her hair and softly down her neck, angling my head so she wouldn’t have to work so hard to reach me. Any moment, she was going to pull away, tell me this was a mistake, that kissing me was wrong. I forced myself to edge back several times, giving her that chance, but all she did was move closer, making a little noise of distress until I closed the distance again and met her demands. Her bottom lip was mine. Her top one too. I kissed the soft spot on her neck just below her jaw, and she angled her head up for me to reach. I was a goner.
It was the stupid chime of a text message on her phone that finally broke the spell. She backed away from me, her eyes wide and filled with wonder. Her lips were slightly swollen, and her skin had the most beautiful blush running from her forehead down to her neckline.
She shuddered. “Maybe we shouldn’t have done that.”
Just as I predicted. There were a lot of things I could’ve said to tease her about the hypocrisy of her words just then, but I had no desire to make her regret this any more than she already did.
She grabbed her phone from the arm of the couch and checked it. “Just my dad sending pictures of him standing with other construction nerds with lanyards around their necks.”
“He does love the conventions.” I didn’t want to talk about her dad. Right now was about the two of us, Lauren and me.
A silence settled between us, and Lauren couldn’t take it. Throwing off the blanket, she got up and walked the length of the room and back again. Her hair was adorably mussed. I guess I owned some of the blame for that.
A minute later, the lock clicked, saving Lauren from further overthinking. Jenny came in the door, dropping a shopping bag off to the side. She looked from me to Lauren, and her eyes widened slightly before she recovered. “How did the date go?”
“It was a disaster,” Lauren said with a little laugh. She looked back at me as though with new eyes. “I’ll walk you out, Clay.”
I got up quickly, made sure I had my phone and keys, and stepped out onto the porch. Lauren closed the door behind us, her eyes on the ground. “I don’t know what to say.” Her regret and embarrassment was palpable, and I realized my fear of scaring her off by saying the wrong thing had led me to say nothing at all after kissing her. Thoroughly kissing her. But I couldn’t let my focus go there. Right now was just as important.
“Can I see you tomorrow?” I asked, reaching out to run my hand down her arm to her wrist before picking up her hand.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?”
“I think it’s a great idea. I’ll be here at seven.”
“A.M.?”
“Yeah.” I kissed her cheek and walked off, only glancing back once to make sure she went back inside her apartment.
22
___________
Lauren
