“Shame, I wouldn’t want to put you out. You’re doing me a favor, so how ’bout I do you one?”
“Um . . .” It looked like he was considering this for a moment. What was there to think about though? Someone was offering to clean up. I would have jumped at that. I watched and waited for him to say something, he really did look deep in thought. This didn’t seem like a super difficult question, though. Well, it shouldn’t have been.
“Nah,” he finally said. “I’ll do it. Could be snakes in there.”
“OH!” I went wide-eyed thinking about the last encounter I’d had with a snake. “Well, thanks. I really appreciate it. Otherwise Harun and I would be bunking in the car . . . Wait, it is okay to bring Harun?” I asked.
“Sure,” he said.
“Thanks.” I smiled, feeling very appreciative of his offer. “Has it stopped bleeding?” I asked, looking at his nose.
“I’m too scared to check,” he said faintly.
I walked over to him and without asking, removed the paper toweling from his nose. No new blood had formed, and all the blood there had already dried up.
“Looks like it’s stopped.” I reached for a small cloth and ran some water over it, and then, very gently, lifted it up to his nose and wiped away the dry blood. “There,” I said when I was done. “As if it never happened.” I looked away from his nose and then up to his eyes. It was only then that I realized how close I was to him. There was a certain familiarity to the closeness, a certain feeling of comfortableness that existed there, because of what had happened between us last night. When you’ve already kissed someone, it’s so much easier to just kiss them again. Our eyes locked and then . . .
CHAPTER 50
“I . . . I . . . better go,” I blurted, as memories from last night flooded back again. Physical memories this time, though; like how my skin had felt hot when he’d touched it and how his lips and tongue had tasted. Memories that I didn’t want flooding me right now, not since the “f” word had been dropped. Friends aren’t meant to think about kissing.
He nodded uncomfortably and backed away. “Sure. Of course.”
“Sorry about this whole thing, I don’t usually make a habit of coming to naked men’s houses in the middle of the night.”
He smiled. “Yeah, that kind of thing usually lands a person in jail.”
I gave a small chuckle. We were using humor to deflect now. How lame. But it was working, so what the hell. We walked to the car together, me in my satin gown and him still with a sheet wrapped around the bottom half of his body. Anyone watching us would’ve assumed we’d just had sex. Been at it inside.Stop thinking about sex!I climbed into my car and turned on the ignition.
“What the hell!” Mark said, jumping back from the vehicle.
“Yeah. That.” I rolled my eyes. “It glows blue.”
“I’ve never . . .” He walked around the car, taking in the endless blueness.
“It’s a rental,” I piped up, in case he thought this monstrosity was mine.
“It’s very . . . blue.”
“I know.” I lowered my head in embarrassment.
“I mean, it is sooo blue,” he continued, and he reminded me of what I’d sounded like when I’d first seen it. It was as if the awareness of the blue crept up on you. At first you were aware of its blueness. But the more you looked, the bluer it became until all you could think about was blue.
“It’s weird, because of the position of the blue lights, it actually makes it look like it’s hovering above the ground.”
“I know,” I said on a loud exhale. And then I thought about something else.
“Harun,” I called out to the dog on the veranda. He appeared to have settled in quite nicely now. He opened his eye and looked at me, but didn’t make a move.
“Harun,” I called again. Still nothing. I made a move for the door handle and was just about to climb out when Mark stopped me.
“It’s cool, he can stay here tonight. If that’s okay with you?”
I considered his offer for a moment. “I mean . . . he did have a lot of physical activity coming here, which he really shouldn’t have.” I inspected Harun again, and I swear, his snaggletooth lip moved into something that looked like a small smile. As if this had been his bloody plan the entire time, which clearly it had. Little shit! Little black, wire-haired shit.
“It’s really not a problem,” Mark added. “And clearly he needs the rest.” He turned and looked at him now, and the dog closed his eye. Manipulative too!
“Okay. Fine. I’ll fetch him in the morning?”
