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Before, I felt awkward, but now I feel really awkward.
And I want to leave.
If Kyle triggered the chorus of Begin Again in the coffee shop before I knew what an asshole he was, this guy is definitely giving I Knew You Were Trouble When You Walked In.
“Um, so…” My mind races my heart, and I try to find a clean way out of the hole I feel sunk in. “Your phone,” I say, finally grasping at something. “Mine is back at the frat house, so I… I followed you in here because I was hoping to use your phone.”
The corners of his mouth tip up in a dark smile. He drops the mask and saunters closer. “My phone?”
I nod, unconsciously taking a step back.
My retreat amuses him. I can see it in his eyes. He keeps moving toward me though, so I guess he’s comfortable with making me uncomfortable.
“The phone that I had on me the whole time we were together? You had to come back to my apartment to use that?”
“Well, to be fair, I didn’t know we were at your apartment.”
“You seem nervous.”
“I—No.”
“Now you seem like a liar.” There’s a slightly playful lilt to his voice when he says that, and I don’t know why it makes my stomach flip over.
“I just… I need to get home.”
He shakes his head as if he’s the decider. “Nope. Can’t go back to your place.”
I scowl up at him. I’m still backing away. I want to stop because I don’t know where I’m going, but it’s hard to stop retreating when he’s still stalking toward me. “Would you stop?”
He cocks a dark eyebrow as if he’s not doing anything wrong. “Stop what?”
“Crowding me.” My butt knocks against a wall before I finish saying the last word, and I startle easily, so it comes out as sort of a squeak. I swallow, then shoot him my dirtiest look as I’m forced to look up at him.
He smirks. “I wasn’t crowding you.” He leans in, bracing his arm on the wall next to my head, casually trapping me. “Now I am.”
Wow, he smells good. Really, really good. How does he smell so good when we just ran for our lives through the woods?
That’s not what I should be thinking about right now.
My heart pounds and my mouth feels dry so I lick my lips.
I wish he would’ve left that damn mask on. I can’t seem to think straight at all since he took it off.
Since I’ve lost the thread of the conversation again, I grasp at the last thing I can remember saying that felt like we were on safer ground. “Why can’t I go home?”
He watches me for a moment, his blue eyes not missing a thing—the way I swallow nervously, the way I shift uncomfortably, the way that, despite those things, I don’t shove him or cuss him out or do anything to potentially escalate the situation.
I drop my gaze self-consciously, but it’s a split-second thing.
Finally, he answers my question. “You can’t go back to your place because I assume Kyle knows where you live. I didn’t go to all that trouble to save your little ass just to have him scoop you up outside your apartment.”
I swallow uneasily, shifting my gaze to look up at him again. “I have to go home. I have a cat, and my roommate won’t think to feed her. I can’t call my roommate because I don’t know her number. Besides, Kyle doesn’t know where I live.”
“I’m sure it’s not too hard to figure out,” he states, gazing down at me.
God, his lips are… distracting.
“I also don’t know you,” I add. “While I appreciate your help, I don’t have to listen to you.”
