“Gracie, I’m in here!” he yelled from the back room.
“How’d you know it was me?” I yelled back.
I turned the corner and found him sitting at a desk withone small desk lamp on. He looked over his shoulder and smiled. “I could just tell.”
“Prove it.”
Matt laughed. “You swing the door all the way open to accommodate your cello case, even when you’re not carrying it. The bell jingles a second longer with you than the average customer.”
He looked up from his dimly lit desk and saw me. “Jesus. You’re freezing, Grace.”
He stood and hurried toward me, taking the cello from my hands. “It’s pouring,” I said, and then a visible shiver snaked through my body. My numb fingers made it impossible to unbutton my jacket. Matt quickly undid the buttons for me and pushed my peacoat off my shoulders, letting it fall to the ground. He wrapped his tall body around me, and within seconds I was warm.
“I was in the park with Tati and then it started raining.”
“Shh, you’re drenched, you should get out of these clothes.” He let go of me and began searching the cabinet for something while I checked to make sure my cello case wasn’t wet on the inside.
He came toward me with a towel. “I knew these were in here somewhere. Do you want to take your sweater off and I can throw it in the dryer?”
“There’s a dryer here?”
“Well, it’s a print dryer. It’s like a big hot roller, but at least you won’t be freezing while you’re here.”
“I can just go home.”
His brow furrowed.
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Don’t you think we should talk?”
“I guess we should talk,” I said, hesitantly. I went to lift my sweater over my head and noticed his eyes were fixed on me. “Turn around.” I said.
“I’ve seen you really naked, Grace.”
“So what? Turn around, creeper.”
He obliged but laughed. “You’re a dork.”
I threw the sweater at the back of his head and then quickly wrapped myself in the towel. Matt went to the corner and fidgeted with the dials on the rolling dryer while I wheeled around in one of the office chairs, propelling myself in circles, faster and faster.
When he was done, he found another chair, pushed off, and came sailing at me across the linoleum floor. “Bumper cars!” he shouted, right before he knocked into me and sent us both falling to the ground.
“Is this your definition of ustalking?” I said as he hovered over me, a mischievous grin on his face.
He leaned down, kissed the tip of my nose, and then popped up to his feet, offering a hand to help me up. I clung to the towel as I found my seat again. There was nothing clumsy about his movements, and he was always self-assured. I found that incredibly sexy.
Rolling his chair up to me so that we were face-to-face, he grinned again. “You gonna go to California with me for Christmas, or were you planning on going home to your parents?”
“I can’t really afford either one.” I looked down at my hands in my lap. Even though he knew my circumstances, it was still hard not to feel embarrassed.
“I’ll pay for your flight to go home and see your parents. I’d love for you to come with me, but I don’t want to be selfish.”
I wanted to be with him, and even though I missed my family, I felt like I was going to miss him more if we were apart for three weeks. “You really want me to meet your parents?”
“Yeah, Grace. I do.”
“It’d be awesome to see California. I’ve never been.”
