Page 73 of The Other Guy

She huffs and spins back around, calling for Toby once again in an angry voice. He follows, albeit a little reluctantly, and she starts up the sidewalk toward Kyle’s front door. But she’s underestimated me if she thinks I’ll just let her walk away.

Especially in a pissed off mood that I can’t figure out.

I rush after her and gently grab her arm, pulling her to a stop.

“What’s going on and do not say nothing?”

“I broke up with my lying, cheating ex-boyfriend last week and practically jumped into your bed immediately after. I need to clear my head and think more clearly. I can’t be with anyone right now.”

“Okay.”

She stares at me for a long moment, cheeks pink from the cold temperature and her arms wrapped around herself. “That’s it? Okay? Well, good to know you don’t care!”

“Whoa. Calm down.” Her eyes widen and I realize the words that just came out of my mouth. “Not calm down, calm down. Like… listen to me and hold up a sec. Can you do that?”

“I don’t know if I can stay calm long enough.”

“So were you holding back your crazy the last three days? That the problem? Just gonna unleash it all at once?”

“Oh my gosh, you’re an asshole,” she snaps.

“No. Just calling you out on flipping your switch.” Now her eyes are practically slits. Not sure if she can even see me through the small little sliver that’s open. I risk my manhood and turn her to face me, placing my arms on her shoulders. “Listen to me, okay? You’re not crazy. You’re not easy. You’re not hard. I have loved the hell out of having you around these past few days and if I pushed you to do anything too quickly, I apologize for that. I’d never want you to feel like I was only with you for sex.”

“We never had sex,” she reminds me.

“You know what I mean, smartass. Can you tell me what happened? When we were at my house, you were relaxed and didn’t seem to even want to leave. Now you can’t get away from me fast enough and you’re snapping at me. When I said okay, it was me trying to make you realize that I’m willing to wait for you to be ready for this to be more. Not that I don’t want that. Because I do. But like you said, you just broke up with your boyfriend and while I still haven’t gotten the full story there, I do recognize that it’s not something you should just ignore and brush under the rug like it never happened.”

“Okay.” She smirks and takes a step closer to me. “I’m sorry for going a little insane for a few minutes. I’m kind of scared, all right?”

“About what?”

“This.” Her voice is barely above a whisper and she’s staring at my chest. I place a finger under her chin and lift her face so she’s looking at me.

“What do you mean?”

“This feels… different. And it scares me. I’ve never had this before and I don’t know what it means. But it’s terrifying how —”

“Right it feels?” I answer for her, interrupting her. She nods in agreement.

“Yeah.”

“It’s not lost on you that I’m over thirty years old and single. That means I haven’t felt this way before either. Ever think it only takes one time — one person — to feel this way? To realize that timing might finally be on our side?”

Her eyes sparkle as she watches me lower my mouth to hers and she places her hands on my chest between us. I pull her close and show her just how right it is. She shivers and I’m not sure if it’s because it’s fifteen degrees out here or because of our kiss.

“You’d better go in and get warmed up. I’ll call you tonight, okay?”

She looks nervous when she says, “You don’t have my number.”

“Shit. That’s right. Here.” I hand her my phone open to my contacts so she can put her number in.

She types away then hands it back to me. “Now you do.”

I hold up the phone like it’s an award. “Now I do.”

She looks at the phone then up at me, swallowing hard. “Thank you for letting me crash at your place for the past few days.”

“Believe me, the pleasure was all mine.” I wink and give her one more kiss before making sure she and Toby get inside Kyle’s house okay.

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