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“You’ll be sick of my baking soon enough,” she mumbles.
Gently grabbing her wrist, I spin her around to face me. “Never.”
She gulps, and her skin flushes red. “Set your stuff wherever you’d like. Um, I-I’ll get the pizza going.”
She pulls from my featherlight touch and walks to the kitchen.
With my bags in hand, I bring them over to the sofa as I hear her rustling in the fridge. I unzip my duffel and begin refolding the mess that Chloe made. I stack the clothes neatly on her chair and unpack the rest of my bag as fast as I can so I can join her.
“How’s it going in there?” I ask.
“Oven is preheating, and the pizza station is ready, just waiting for you, slowpoke,” she teases.
“I’m done now.” I laugh, dropping everything in my hands.
Walking a few feet toward her kitchen, I step beside her and wait for her instruction.
“I only have cheese and pepperoni,” she says as she spoons sauce onto her dough.
“Pepperoni is my favorite,” I say as I take a spoon from the counter and scoop sauce onto my dough, smoothing it out.
Silence and tension build between us as we make our pizza. The oven beeps, and she jumps slightly. At least I’m not the only one on edge right now.
“All done?” she asks without meeting my eyes.
“Yeah,” I whisper as her gaze slowly rises to mine.
She wets her parted lips before tearing her focus away and going back to the task at hand. She places both pizzas on a baking sheet and slides them into the oven. She grabs her phone and sets a timer.
“Ten minutes-ish. I usually only cook one, so it’s a guess,” she says as she sets her phone down on the counter.
I take a few steps back and grab the counter with my hands as I lean against it. I can’t help but stare at her. Her eyes are so piercing blue, almost haunting. I didn’t think pink hair could look so good before I met her.
I let my eyes roam over her body, down my hoodie to her bare feet and back up her perfect face. “You are so beautiful,” I whisper to her.
She looks down, and I wish I were close enough to catch her chin to make her meet my eyes so that I could say it again.
“I like you, Cameron,” she says softly while looking anywhere but at me. “But it scares me.”
“What scares you?” I ask her.
“How much I like you. I’ve built such a careful wall around my life, around myself. Letting you into that…” She trails off and meets my eyes. “It’s terrifying. My ex hurt me…a lot. I know you say you won’t hurt me and you won’t let anything hurt me. But what do you think he said to me? He said all the right things all the time until he showed me what he really meant.”
Gripping the counter tighter, I resist walking over to her and touching her. I know how difficult it is to open up about this. I don’t want her to feel suffocated.
“I know you take everything I say with a grain of salt, and that’s okay. The only way you’ll ever trust me is through my actions, and I’ll make sure that they always match my words, I promise. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay at the hotel? I don’t want to push you.”
She smiles, and her face lights up, like the shadows that her ex cast over her fade to the back of her mind. “I want you here, Cam.”
Taking slow steps toward her, I hold her intense stare and place my hands on either side of her against the countertop. Gently, I lean my forehead against hers and close my eyes.
“I want to be here too. I like you, Little Dove.” I lift my head up and place a soft kiss on her hairline. “A lot.”
We spend the next few minutes wandering through her studio apartment on somewhat of a tour. When our pizzas are done, we eat and start The Princess Diaries on the couches. At first, I want to sit on the sofa seat next to her. But I opt on the other couch across from her’s to prove that I’m not just here for a hookup and to touch her. That I’m here because I really like her. And now I couldn’t be happier with my decision. I would like to say that I learn all about her favorite movie, but I can’t take my eyes off of her the entire time. When the end credits begin to roll, I make a mental note to watch this sometime in the future to actually remember what it’s about.
“So, what did you think?” She turns to look at me on the couch across from her.
I knew I couldn’t sit next to her and focus on the movie. Little did I know, that would happen over here too.
