“Wait, what?” Daniel’s eyebrows lowered as he frowned. He gestured toward Karla and me. “You two? Athing?” he asked, with a hint of shock in his voice. Yeah, that man had the hots for Karla. No doubt about it.
“No, we aren’t, I mean, we are not... a thing. We don’t have, I mean, I...” Karla started to fumble her words as her cheeks grew pink. She glanced at her phone. “Gosh, it’s a bit late, you guys. Is it OK if we wrap up the meeting? I have so much inventory to sort through tomorrow, so I want to tackle it early on.”
What was that? Why did she get so flustered?
Eric yawned. “Yeah, I’m a bit beat, anyway. I got work at six in the morning.”
We all exchanged our good-nights, and after Eric, Becca, and Grace left, I debated if I should leave too. But a part of me wanted to keep hanging out with Karla. I wanted to ask herwhy she grew so flustered when Grace thought she and I were a thing.
A thing.
What an odd way to describe what she and I shared. We were so far from just athing. Without a doubt we were many, many things in all the good and bad ways. We were pain, we were joy, we were laughter, we were tears. We were everything and then we were nothing, and now... well, I didn’t exactly know what we were currently. But I wanted to find out.
I offered to help Karla clean up everything at the same time Daniel offered, too.
“It’s not a big deal, I got it. I know where everything goes in here, anyway,” Daniel told me.
Karla smiled toward her friend. “No, it’s fine, Daniel. You already work enough at this shop. Ash and I can clean this place up tonight. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Daniel hesitated for a moment, then agreed. He held his hand toward me. “Ash, great to meet you.”
“You too, Daniel.” I gave him my hand. He shook it a little too hard, but I matched his energy.
Game on, Daniel.
After he left, I grabbed one of Karla’s mother’s records and put it on the record player. Then I began to help her clean up. Even though I shouldn’t have cared, I couldn’t help myself from asking her.
“So did you and Daniel have athingin the past?” I blurted out, using Grace’s term of endearment.
Karla paused her footsteps as she held a bowl of the leftover wings. “What?”
“You and Daniel... did you two date before? Or are you dating?”
She laughed, as if the question was completely out of left field. “What? No. Of course not. What a weird question.”
My brows lowered. “Why are you acting like it’s such an odd question? It’s clear he likes you.”
“I like him, too. He’s a good friend.”
“Yeah, but helikesyou likes you. Like you’re hisgoodfriend.”
Karla’s brows knit together. “What? No. Daniel doesn’t see me that way.”
“Why do you say that?”
She shrugged. “Because no one sees me that way. I’m not really the type of girl that gathers guys’ attention.”
“You caught all my attention when we were young,” I said.
Perhaps I was too direct, because Karla’s whole persona shifted. Her lips parted as her blue eyes fluttered open and shut for a millisecond. She seemed thrown off by my words, but it was important for her to know that.
She was beautiful.
She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
I had a feeling Daniel felt the same exact way.
She shook her head. “Well, Daniel and I are just friends. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t have feelings for him.”
