Wow, I could lick this man right now. It should be illegal to be this hot.
I'm not the only one eyeing someone here, and I catch it when he pulls air hard into his lungs while looking me up and down and smiling.
"Wow. You look beautiful, Charlotte," he compliments me, and I blush a little.
"Thanks, you're not looking too bad yourself," I give back, smiling in return. "When you said you'd come pick me up, I didn't imagine it would actually be at my door," I remark, and the dark-haired guy shrugs.
"My mom said if I ever honked in front of a girl's house for her to come out to me, she'd disown me." His confession pulls a genuine laugh out of me.
"I already like her," I say honestly, and he keeps an affectionate smile on his face. "Do you want to come in?" I ask then, taking a step back, letting him see the little sitting area we have in the double dorm. It was just a space with two armchairs and a study desk, plus the two doors that led to Maddie's room and mine.
"If you need more time to do something, I can come in and wait, sure, but I suspect there's no way for you to look any more beautiful than you do right now." The new compliment makes me blush harder this time.
Wow, how long had it been since anyone really flirted with me? It felt so good! And Ethan Clarke seemed to be very good at it.
I give a shy smile and shake my head no.
"No, no, I'm already ready, I'll just grab my phone. One second," I ask, then take a quick dash to my room. I come face to face with my cousin the moment I step into the space, since she hadn't even bothered to hide that she'd been listening to our conversation. She's grinning from ear to ear.
"Take a condom, because that guy knows what he's doing." That's her shameless comment, and I stick my tongue out at her. I grab the phone off the little table and put it in my bag quickly. I give Maddie a kiss on the cheek before whispering:
"It was already in the bag, you goof!"
I hear her cackle as I walk away and I can't control a little smile. I wasn't planning to sleep with Ethan Clarke today, but...it was always good to be prepared, right? The goal, when it came down to it, was to end the dry spell, after all.
Chapter 6
Charlotte
The movie theater was one of those classic street ones, really charming, and it only took about ten minutes by car to get there. On the way we talked the whole time about trivial stuff, and I caught myself loving how easily the conversation flowed both over text and face to face.
"Sorry, I can't picture you dressed in a sparkly leotard," I remark, laughing. We'd already bought tickets for a comedy, the only thing showing at that time, and now we were waiting for the popcorn and soda to be handed over by the bored-looking attendant.
"Believe it. I was a figure skater from nine to twelve. And I was good, you know? My partner and I even won a little competition in town," he reveals, and I laugh even harder. The grump on the other side of the counter hands us a big bucket of popcorn, which Ethan quickly grabs. I take a few pieces from the edge to keep them from spilling and chew one while I shake my head at the player, still in disbelief.
"I'm afraid I'll need photos to believe that. Or better yet, videos!" I say, and he laughs, also grabbing a few of the little salty white puffs and popping them in his mouth.
"I'll see if I can find some on my computer later to prove it," he says after swallowing. The attendant finally brings the sodas and I take them, then turn to head off and look for theater number four. Ethan follows me. "And you, didn't you do anything really different or elaborate as a kid?"
I give a little laugh before shaking my head no.
"No. I did a lot of years of theater just because I was really shy as a kid. It helped me loosen up and gain confidence, but I was never especially good."
We reach our theater and Ethan holds the door for me to go through. The room was still half-lit and the trailers hadn't even started.
"Must have been fun. Who was your favorite character?"
I ponder for a few seconds while we look for our seats in the back row.
"I think Sleeping Beauty. My teacher did a reimagining of the classic, so I saved myself from the dragon," I say, already sitting down, which Ethan copies.
"That's cool! But I'm afraid I'll need photos of you dressed as a princess," he shoots back, mischievous, and I laugh. I don't have time to reply, because right then the lights go all the way down and the giant screen starts playing the theater's notices and rules.
The room was pretty empty, I don't think there were even twenty people, and there was no one around us. The first half hour in that theater was fairly innocent. We shared the popcorn, took a few sips of the cold drink, and whispered comments to each other during the movie, which was more of a dumb-humor type, so there were plenty of pure secondhand-embarrassment moments.
Since Ethan had lifted the armrest between us in the very first minutes, our bodies instinctively drifted closer, until his thigh ended up pressed against mine. And just that was already making me hot.
He tried to be subtle raising his arm to drape it over the back of my seat, but I was way too aware of every one of his movements not to notice. When his fingers gently reached my shoulder, I felt my whole body shiver. I'd taken off my cardigan as soon as we got there, since the room was really warm, leaving just a white spaghetti-strap crop top, so his touch was straight on my skin.
