“Kendall,” I push, “trying means we actually have to spend some time together.”
“We’ve spent time together,” she fires back triggering a smile.
“So you won’t mind if I stop by then?”
A few seconds pass.
“Great, I’ll see you in an hour.” I end the call knowing she is most likely cussing me at this point. When she tries to call me back, I don’t answer. When she sends a text, I leave it unread.
Placing an order for a pizza I swing home and take a quick shower. On my way back to Montgomery I stop by and grab some beer and as I am pulling up to her place the delivery driver is slowing to a stop right behind me.
“This you?”
“Yeah.” I grab the tip from my back pocket, take the pizza, and he is on his way. As I’m walking up to Kendall’s front door I notice a woman standing out in her front yard a few doors down. She has her hands on her hips staring in my direction and I realize this has to be the nosy neighbor.
Knocking on the door, the curtain moves to the side and Kendall stares back at me. Her brows are arched, her lips pressed in a tight line. I wait, and she stares.
Finally she unlocks the door and steps aside. “How do you know I didn’t already have plans?”
“I don’t, but I also don’t care,” I offer with a shrug and walk inside. Setting the pizza box down and the beer I turn around to face her. “You might want to shut that, your nosy neighbor was already eyeing me.”
Kendall looks back over her shoulder.
“Unless of course you want her to join us.”
“Maybe you should take all that,” she waves her hand at the stuff on her countertop, “and go spend your evening with her.”
“She couldn’t handle me,” I say with a grin and notice the way Kendall shifts on her feet. She swallows hard.
“You’re kinda full of yourself aren’t you?”
I walk toward her and she closes the door quickly then moves around to the opposite side of the counter. “I told you I already ate.”
“So don’t eat.” I flip open the box. “I brought some wood for a fire in case you didn’t have any and there is beer. I know you’ll drink that.”
“I have beer.”
“Well, now you have more.” She can pretend she doesn’t want me here and I’ll give her that. But I know it’s more of a show to somehow prove she doesn’t need anyone. I don’t want her to need me, but I do want her to want me.
Her eyes shift down to the box as I reach in to grab a piece and lift it to my mouth. She watches my mouth and I purposely lick the sauce slowly from my bottom lip. “Are you sure you’re not hungry?”
Narrowing her eyes at me she grabs her own piece and spins around walking toward the living room.
Her place is small and this is the first time I’ve been inside. There’s a small living room and an even smaller kitchen with an island separating the two. Slider doors go out onto a back patio and there are two doors, I assume one for the bathroom and one for a bedroom.
“I’m really tired tonight,” she adds, picking up the controller and turning the television on. “I was just going to take a shower and lounge around in my pajamas.”
“That sounds good to me,” I say as I sit down on the cushion next to her. “I’m a lounge around kind of guy.”
Kendall stares at me, blinking a few times.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Aaron.” She seems frustrated.
“Do what?”
“This, us,” she says, dropping her slice of pizza onto the plate and setting it on the coffee table. “I don’t date, I hang out mainly in groups. It feels foreign to me to be here with you and I honestly do not know what to do.”
“There is no playbook, Kendall. You hang out with the girls, right?”
