AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m not going to sleep with you.” I can feel the heat as it begins to spread up my neck.
“I didn’t ask you to.”
“Because you don’t want to sleep with me?” It’s off my tongue before I can take it back.
“Now, I didn’t say that, did I?” His cool composure is unsettling, but not in the way you might think. “It’s just dinner. I promise I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do.”
“I don’t want you to do anything,” I say almost too aggressively.
“You sure about that?” He cocks his head slightly to one side.
Am I? Sure about that, I mean? Because had you asked me a week ago, I would have said yes without an ounce of hesitation. But today... Today I don’t feel quite so sure about anything.
“I am.” I swallow past my nerves.
“Then I won’t do anything. Besides feed you dinner, that is.” His smile this time is so big I swear it casts a light over the entire freaking room.
Even if I wanted to say no, I’m not sure I could with the way he’s looking at me. But weirdly, I don’t want to say no. I’m just not sure what that says about me.
“What do you say?”
“Fine.” I try to seem irritated by his persistence, but in truth, it doesn’t irritate me at all. Not really. “But just dinner and as nothing more than...” I’m not sure what to call us.
“Friends?” He offers with a grin.
“Friends.” I realize I can at least agree to that much.
And while no, I don’t consider him a friend, we have reached some sort of weird place where we’re definitely not strangers, and I wouldn’t go as far as to call him an enemy, at least not anymore. So what are we if not friends?
“See, now was that so hard?” He smirks.
“Careful. I can always change my mind if you start to get on my nerves.”
“We wouldn’t want that, now would we?”
“Why do I have a feeling I’m going to regret this?” I ask, switching pencils again.
“You won’t.”
“You seem really sure about that.”
“I’m going to prove to you how wrong you are about me, Rory.”
“I still don’t understand why you care.”
“Then maybe you should start paying better attention.” With that, he falls silent.
He doesn’t speak again until I announce I’m finished, pretty pleased with the outcome of today’s sketch. I won’t deny that he looks beautiful smeared across the stark white paper. He does. I think he’d be beautiful if you drew him on the sidewalk out of dog shit. Disgusting, but true.
I haven’t put the portraits together to dissect the differences, but with each one, I know there are many. He’s changing my perception and this fact is slowly showing through my work.
“Rory...” He lets out an appreciative sigh. “You really are unbelievably talented.” His nearness makes me incredibly nervous and I hate so much that it does.
“I know. It takes a lot to make your ugly mug look this good.” I brush off my discomfort with a joke.
Seconds later, his warm laughter fills the room, causing goose bumps to prickle up the backs of my arms.
“And she’s funny, too,” he notes to himself, draping his jacket, that I reluctantly returned, over his arm. And no, I didn’t smell it a ridiculous amount of times while it was in my possession. Why ever would you think such a thing?
