Page 118 of Flirtasaurus
I hear the click of the main door disengaging and immediately pull it open. I hustle up three flights to the fourth floor, prepared to knock, but find that he’s left his door ajar for me. I dash through and let it slam shut behind me.
He’s standing in the kitchen, staring at me.
“You’re a dreamboat,” I blurt out. “Such a friggin dreamboat! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! God, I love you!”
Launching myself across the room, I kiss the living hell out of him, gratitude coursing through my veins like crazy. I feel nothing but love and adoration for this man at this moment. Gosh, every moment, really.
That’s when I realize how hard his body is against mine. How his arms hang by his side even though mine wrap around him. How his lips barely moved underneath mine as I kissed him.
“Ralphalpha? You okay?”
“Don’t say that.”
“Nuh-uh. No way, dude. You surrendered to Ralphalpha! Ralphalpha is now officially a thing.”
“No. Don’t say that you love me. Because clearly, you don’t.”
“What?” I say with a nervous little laugh.
“You heard me, Calliope.”
“I just mean that you’re awesome, and I really appreciate you and what you did for me was—”
“I’d like you to leave.”
“What?”
“You can continue to stand here saying ‘what,’ like you don’t know what you did, but we both know you’re smarter than that. And we both know, or at leastIdo, that I deserve better than that.”
He’s never looked at me the way he’s looking at me right now. Stone-faced and steady. No expression. No twinkle in his eye. That smile that is always at the ready for me is nowhere to be seen. It’s breaking my heart. He’s standing right in front of me, but I miss him already.
“I’m so sorry for the way things went down. I really am, I just—”
He waits for me to finish.
I have no idea how.
There’s no excuse for what I did.
“What do you want me to say right now, Ralph?”
“It’s not my job to give you the answers on how to treat people, Calliope.”
“I understand that.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. I know I should have spoken up at that meeting. I just… I froze. I’ve worked so hard to get in Dr. Knowles’ good graces. I saw my position with her this summer slipping away and—”
“Understood. Have a great summer, Calliope.”
He turns and walks toward his bedroom.
“Ralph, I’m sorry, I thought you were protecting me!”
He whips around again to face me.
“When the hell does someone protect me, huh? Take care of me?”
