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“What makes you think I wasn’t waiting for you to say hello first?” she asks him, quipping back without missing a beat and with the trace of a friendly smile on her lips. I can see she’s a little tense; it’s the way she is around people. Tense at first, quiet too, but if she wants, Chloe opens up easily and what’s inside is raw and beautiful.
Carter grins back at her as he says, “Hello.” He pronounces the word carefully, enunciating each syllable and it makes her laugh although that shyness is still there.
“Are you working here too?” she asks him and the hair raise on the back of my neck. Everyone here works for Romano, but Carter needs something better than this. I keep my thoughts to myself and wait for him to reply.
“Still in school,” he answers and she’s quick to add, “I always forget you’re younger than us.”
It’s odd how she says it. Like she knows him or maybe she’s just paired us together like other people have.
“Were your ears burning?” Carter asks her with his brow raised. “We were just talking about you.”
Chloe hums a small laugh with her lips closed tight although she can’t hide her smile. “I hope good things,” she adds after a moment of the two of us staring at her and waiting for her reply.
“Mostly,” Carter jokes with her, but I can tell he makes her nervous by the way her smile slips.
“Yeah,” she says honestly. “I kind of figured you might be…” her voice trails off and she offers me a small smile although I can see how nervous she is. She picks at the hem of her shirt while she talks. “I might have been talking about you too,” she tells me, biting down on her lip after and looking me up and down.
“Is that right?” I ask her and she’s quick to shake her head. “No, I’m just playing.”
Carter barks out a laugh while I stand there looking like an asshole.
“I didn’t give you anything good to talk about?” I joke with her, but she just clears her throat, slowly letting those walls come back up.
She didn’t talk about me because she has no one to talk to. I feel like a prick when the realization hits me.
“I’ll make that up to you tonight then,” I add before she has to say anything. Her cheeks must be on fire to be that red.
I let my hand travel to the small of her back to lead her away and I nod a goodbye to Carter. He’s waiting for the bus to go to the hospital, but it’ll be here in minutes. It’s almost 5:15.
“See you later, Carter,” Chloe says sweetly, giving him a small wave as I walk her to my car.
I open the door for her, but before she can slip in, I wrap my hand around her hip and bring her closer to me. I have one hand on the door, with the other on her hip and her stance mirrors mine. It’s as if she’s waiting for what my next move will be, so she can determine hers.
Her lips are parted and her eyes dart between my gaze and where Carter’s standing behind me.
All I wanted was to give her a small kiss. So, I do, just a short one on her lips. Pressing my mouth to hers and making sure to run the tip of my nose over hers. The cops already know; people are already talking. Might as well give them a show.
That shy smile I love plays on her lips and she can barely look me in the eyes.
“You nervous?” I whisper against her cheek before pulling away. Her wide eyes stay on mine as she settles into the seat and answers honestly in a single breath, “Yeah.”
CHLOE
My heart’s being stupid. It keeps fluttering and flipping all sorts of ways like it’s trying to escape or run away. I try to swallow again, but I can’t. Instead, I snuggle closer to Sebastian on the sofa, although every inch of his side is covered with mine right now.
It’s just sex.
I keep reminding myself. Every time the nerves work their way up from my heart to my brain, I have to remind myself. It’s just sex.
Not just that, but every part of me feels like it was supposed to be this way. Like Sebastian was meant to have me. Even the little bits of me hidden away in the pages of my books, all the way down to the marrow in my bones; it was supposed to happen like this.
I haven’t told him, although I almost did earlier. We were sitting on the sofa, but not cuddling like this, sitting cross-legged, and eating Chinese food from the cartons. He’s been good at keeping the conversation going and giving me those cocky smiles. I think he’s drawing it out on purpose.
First dinner and now a movie, although it’s almost over.
And thus, my heart is doing that stupid thing knowing the movie will be over soon. I swallow it all down as best I can and nestle my head into Sebastian’s chest.
“You comfortable?” he asks me although it sounds like he’s picking on me. I only hum a response.
