Page 27 of Leo and His Love Bunny

“What if I’m busy with you? It would be kind of rude of me to leave a conversation with you to go have a conversation with someone else, wouldn’t it?” I’m just playing devil’s advocate, because if it had been someone, anyone, else other than my stepmother, I would have answered it.

She shrugs and gives me a smile, but her eyes are assessing.

The strangest urge to touch her steals over me again. It’s funny that I don’t typically have that problem with anyone, and yet I’ve been fighting it all evening tonight.

“Are you going to be okay?” I can’t believe the words are coming out of my mouth. But I find I really do care. I... I did something I normally didn’t do and said something that wasn’t true, because... Because of some strange hold this woman has over me. She makes me admire her, even when I don’t want to.The fact that she beat me is probably just that much more in her favor. And the fact that she is so humble and unassuming about it makes it even better.

There’s a part of me that thinks it’s probably a dangerous game I’m playing, offering to spend most of my summer with her. Even if we won’t be together, exactly, we’re bound to run into each other. In fact, I know myself well enough to know that if she’s in the room, I’m going to be gravitating toward her.

“I think so. I... I needed this little interlude. I feel bad that you had to take time to do it, I’m sure you’re busy.”

“Not so busy that I can’t help a friend.”

“Before today, I don’t think we were friends.”

“We’re friends now, right?” I ask, and it comes out in a tone that I really didn’t mean for it to, but sounds a little wobbly.

She hesitates.

And then she looks down. I want to hold my breath, but immediately the thought comes to me and I say, “Friends have each other’s phone numbers, don’t they?” I grunt. “Plus, I’m going to need yours to send you the schedule for the summer. I’ll see if I can get approximate estimates of the number of people who will be attending each one. It might take me a little while. I do my own admin work.”

“You should hire someone.”

“Once I’m making enough money from my speaking and writing, I will. But it’s kind of foolish for me to hire someone now. I’d be losing money on them.”

“It might be a good investment,” she says, and then she smiles a little. Like she knows I can afford it. And she is right.

“Go ahead. You can say it,” I prompt her. Even as she’s pulling her phone out.

“You’re a control freak,” she says simply as she swipes her phone on and pulls up her texting app.

She turns it around and hands it to me.

I put my phone number in along with my contact details.

I want to say something to her about sharing it with people. There aren’t a whole lot of folks who have my number. But somehow I know that Nora is not the kind of person who’s going to go around announcing my number. Of course, I probably ought to keep my eye on her, because she does have an in with the radio station. And she seems to be quite capable of getting information spread around town.

Information she doesn’t want to be spread around town.

I don’t think that we’re far enough away from the breast cupcake incident for it to be considered funny, yet. But I’m pretty sure eventually the two of us will laugh about it.

I hand her phone back to her.

“Do I get your number?” I don’t know why I asked. I just told her I needed it. But I guess there’s something in me that doesn’t want her to give it to me if she doesn’t want me to have it. I know it’s a little silly, but I want her towantme to have it.

Don’t ask me why. I can’t explain that one. Most of the time, I’m logical, but every once in a while, these crazy things happen in my brain that I can’t explain. That’s one of them.

“Of course.” She fingers the airplanes in her hand, they’re all crinkled and trash, but her thumb moves over them, and I can’t stop looking at it.

She moves over, and I almost don’t step back to get out of her way. But I don’t want to intimidate her. And I don’t want to be that guy. We barely know each other.

I’m not usually tempted like this.

I walk over, easily reaching the paper airplane that’s still on the top of the refrigerator. That was a really good landing. I never thought at my age I’d be thinking about this, but I want to go home and practice. I want to be as good as she is. Or maybe more than that, I want her to see what I’ve done and be impressed.

I want to impress Nora.

Silly.

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