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“No, I only do that when you aren’t here.”
I roll my eyes, and we eat in silence for a few moments. “What’s up with the impromptu dinner?”
He shrugs, taking another bite. “I don’t know. I’m tired of eating alone every night. It’s nice to be around another human every so often. Is this okay? I guess it was pretty forward of me.”
My stomach flutters. I think I might like ‘forward’. It’s more than okay. I really like him being here, and the more time I spend with him, the more time I crave our next encounter. I shake my head, trying to clear those thoughts. Surely, he is only interested in friendship. He and I are going back to separate lives soon. There’s no point in starting something that is just going to fall apart in a week or more.
“So, tell me about your ex,” Andrew says, turning towards me, looking genuinely interested.
I sigh. “I’m not sure where there is to tell.” I say before taking a bite of my pizza.
“Well, it sounds like the breakup was pretty abrupt. What happened?”
“Basically? He and I had been together for three years. We lived together, and somehow, over that time, he decided that he suddenly has no desire to get married or have kids.” I shrug.
“And you do?” Andrew asks with a raised brow.
“Yeah. At least some day.” I pause for a second to ponder on my life. “In hindsight, I think I knew for a long time that he wasn’t really the one. We were kind of just living separate lives in the same house there at the end. Unbeknownst to me, while I was dreaming of a family, he was more focused on his Tesla and his golf game.” I say, shaking my head.
“His loss.” Andrew says with a smirk, before taking another sip of his beer. “So, what’s next over here?” He adds.
“Huh?” I ask, puzzled by his question.
He waves a hand around the room. “What are you planning to do to the house next?”
“Oh.” I laugh nervously. Why am I so freaking awkward? “I think I’m about ready to paint.”
“What about this amazing carpet?” He asks with a raised brow.
I scoff. “Do you mean to tell me you have a problem with shag carpeting?”
He takes a bite of his pizza and laughs. “No, not at all.”
I frown. “I’d love to rip it out, but I know nothing about putting new carpet down.”
He stands up and wipes some pizza grease on his jeans. “I’m willing to bet there is hardwood under this carpet. Want me to look?”
“Um, sure!” I agree excitedly. “You could probably eat first.”
“Eh, it’ll just take a minute.” He says with a shrug. Leaving his pizza crust resting in the open pizza box, he opens the hall closet. “Will you come hold this flashlight for me?” he asks.
“I don’t know. It seems that I still have some PTSD from being my dad’s flashlight holder, so just try to be nice to me.” I joke.
He rolls his eyes and hands me the phone. “I’ll try, Princess.” He says with a roll of his eyes.
Seconds later, I watch him peel back a corner of the carpet. He turns to smile at me. “Bingo! Come check this out.”
I lean around his body to examine the exposed hardwood floor, illuminated by the light of his phone flashlight. “It’s beautiful.” I whisper.
“Now, that’s not to say it’ll be like that throughout the entire house.” He warns me as he stands back up and turns to face me. “You won’t really know until you pull it all up. I can come over and help you tomorrow if you want me to.”
I nod. “Okay…” is all I can get out before it happens.
I couldn’t tell you who made the first move; who kissed who? Hell, we might have actually both moved at once. It’s all a blur in the moment, but what I know is that when our mouths crash together, I feel electricity that I’ve never felt before. It starts off softly, but neither of us pulls back. Slowly, he grabs his hand around the back of my neck and laces his fingers through my hair, tenderly pulling me closer to his body. We kiss as though we’ve been doing this for years. We kiss like he knows my mouth and I know his. The familiarity of it all is astounding. Once we finally come up for air, I take one step back and smile at him sheepishly.
“So.” He says, breaking the awkward silence. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then?”
“Yeah, sure. That would be great.” I say with a nod, still trying to wrap my head around what had just happened.
