AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, yes,” she says. “I just get a little car sick when I sit in the back.”
“Ah, that sucks. Well, feel free to sit up front with me.”
“Thanks…Chris, right?”
“Yup.”
“Have you been a guide before?”
“I haven’t, but I think I’ve got it under control. So far, at least.”
I cross my arms and make my stance wider. Did I just come off like a total ass? And why am I standing like this?
She looks me up and down and when her face comes back to mine, it’s the look of disappointment I notice first.
“Right,” she says, then turns around and gets in on the passenger's side.
Fuck me. I drop my arms and walk around to the driver’s side. Calm down man, you talk to women all the time.
“Everybody ready?” I shout over my shoulder, and everyone cheers. I look over at Sarah and her smile is beaming again. Until her eyes find me and it drops before she stares out her side window.
Great.
It’s a quick thirty-minute drive to the beach we are exploring first. I park and round the van.
“Need help?” I ask Sarah.
She looks at me, confused. “Why would I need help?”
“It’s just, umm, you're so, umm small.” While I’m saying this my hands are moving closer together as if I am holding something tiny. “I just--”
The confusion that was once on her face has now turned into a bright red on her cheeks and forehead.
“I don’t need your help. I’m short, not disabled.”
Fuck.
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Her eyebrows hitch up, “Then what did you mean?”
I stand there for a moment, not sure what to say. Instead, I shrug my shoulders and walk away.
I walk away. What the hell is wrong with me? Why does this woman make me forget how to be around people?
I avoid her the best I can for the rest of the day. And by day three, she couldn’t care less about me. It didn’t help that every time she would ask me a question, I would either freeze up or brush her off. I must have appeared as an arrogant asshat.
TheNorthCarolinaZoois busy. We try our best to all stay together but eventually we break into smaller groups. When we get to the aviary, I skirt around the edge, looking for Sarah. When I find her, she is looking at a blue-crowned hanging parrot.
I walk up behind her, just close enough that I can smell the sweet smell of her perfume. She smells like baked goods. But not close enough that it’s creepy.
“You know, they like to sleep hanging upside down?”
She stands there, ignoring me.
“They also bathe like that.”
Her head turns slightly, and I can see her looking at me from the corner of her eye.
