Page 106 of Clichés & Curses

A teasing smile appeared on his lips. ‘Were you looking for me, sweetheart?’

I playfully slapped his chest again, and a deep laugh came out of him as a response, while I tried to fight the scarlet from entering my cheeks a second time. ‘Shut up. I wanted to save myself from the embarrassment in case you remembered me from our little encounter.’

‘Oh, I remember you, all right,’ he deadpanned. ‘You’ve been on my mind ever since.’

That tug in my heart made an appearance once again at his words. ‘Well, what happened next?’

‘For a while, I thought about asking the people at the party if they knew who you were, but something held me back. I couldn’t really explain what it was; I just had this gut feeling that I’ll run into you again someday. When the time is right,’ he continued, ‘and it turns out, I was right. Because the next time I saw you was at our first ASL class. Imagine my surprise when I found the only empty seat was next to yours. I couldn’t believe it. The girl I had been looking for was right there, in front of me.’

I tilted my head to the side. ‘And what were you planning to do about it?’

‘To be honest, I don’t know,’ he answered truthfully. ‘I never actually thought about it that far ahead. I thought about bringing up the bathroom incident to break the ice—to see if you remember me, but I figured that wasn’t really something you could just casually bring up to a total stranger. When Mr Albert had us partnering up, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know you. But you were pretty apprehensive about us working together,’ he explained. ‘It was never about me being too busy, was it?’

I shook my head. ‘I mean, I knew you were going to be busy, but that had nothing to do with me not wanting to be partners with you.’

‘I thought as much.’ Colton nodded. ‘Anyway, when we did eventually become partners, I thought about just letting the whole thing go. I wanted to brush off whatever gut feeling I had as some nonsensical thing I had made up, and the fact that I kept missing you at every turn was just nothing more than a coincidence. But then, we had started spending time together and I realized that maybe there was something to this wholething, after all. I kept finding myself wanting to know more about you and just wanting to constantly hang out with you. I was crushing on you so hard,’ he let out, pausing momentarily before saying his next words.

‘I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t believe in fate before, but I couldn’t ignore the events that led me to you. Whether or not there is such a thing as fate, I’m just glad it brought me you. In some sense, I didn’t realize I was waiting for you. I’ve waited for you all this time, Clara. And I’m willing to wait however long it’ll take, so don’t worry about taking it slow, okay?’

But how does one want to take it slow, after hearingall of that?Because now all I wanted to do was kiss him until I was of breath. It seemed like the perfect moment for it.

At least, that was what all the romance books had told me.

I had never actually kissed someone before.

How does someone even initiate a kiss?

And do you actually kiss until you’re breathless?

‘Hey, are you okay?’ I heard Colton ask, taking me out of my inner turmoil.

Shaking my head, I tried to brush off my thoughts. ‘I’m fine,’ I told him.

Colton kept his eyes on me, a concerned look on his face. ‘What’s going on in that head of yours?’ he said, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear.

Kissing you.

‘Oh, nothing,’ I quickly said, trying my best to hide the blush on my cheeks. But with how close we were, I was pretty sure Colton could feel my whole body warming up.

‘Come on. What is it?’ he persuaded me. ‘You can tell me.’

‘I want to kiss you,’ I blurted out, my eyes widening in horror once I realized what I just said out loud.

An amused smile slowly took over Colton’s face. ‘Do you, now?’

‘Please don’t make fun of me,’ I said, covering my face with my hands once again.

I could feel Colton’s hands gently wrapping around my wrists, slowly prying my hands away from my face.

‘Hey. Hey,’ Colton lifted my chin, so my eyes were looking into his. ‘For what it’s worth, I want to kiss you too. I’ve been wanting to kiss you for quite some time now,’ he reassured me.

‘Yeah?’

‘Yeah.’

‘I just,’ I broke off. ‘I don’t want to give you any more mixed signals. I mean, I just said I wanted to take things slow, and now I’m telling you I want to kiss you, when we haven’t even gone on a date yet,’ I explained.

‘Well, what do you say about having a free pass for tonight?’

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