"I hope I wasn't too much trouble last night."
She kept her eyes on the sink. "What do you think?"
The laugh came up before I'd decided to allow it.
"I'm sure I was a tremendous amount of trouble."
She laughed.
It came out as one short beat—half a syllable, no more—and her hand went up to her mouth as if to take it back. But she didn't take it back, and the laugh stayed in the room.
I smiled and leaned a hip against the counter. It put me a foot from her shoulder, but my balance and my judgment weren't going to win an argument with each other today.
"Could I make it up to you? Dinner?"
She turned the tap on for one second, off again. "I have to work."
I didn't move from the counter. "I'll bring it to you."
She picked up my phone off the counter, glanced at the screen, and held it out without looking at my face.
"That should be enough power to get you on your way."
I unplugged and took it.
This was as far as her generosity went. I should’ve moved.
A picture on the wall behind her—a kid's marker, framed, three figures and a cat under what was either a sun or a flower. It was hung crooked. A quarter inch low on the right.
I crossed the kitchen.
The trajectory took me a foot from her shoulder. She turned her head, slow, watching me come. I lifted my hand toward thecorner of the frame, and my arm passed her arm by an inch, no more.
Heat came off her shirt.
We were a foot apart.
Kiss her now and find out what happens.
I lifted the corner of the frame a quarter inch, then let it back down. The framed picture was straight.
I stepped back, and she turned her face back to the sink.
I picked up my jacket from the arm of the couch and my phone, then walked to the door. She didn't turn around. I said goodbye to the back of her shirt, but she didn't answer.
My hand was on the knob when I stopped.
"Sabrina."
She didn't turn.
"Could I have your number?"
"No," she replied without turning, without hesitating.
Bonnie came around the corner with her backpack on one shoulder, water bottle in the other hand, ponytail straighter than it had been.
I turned to her. "Bonnie."
