“Okay.”
“Okay.”
“‘You know, sweet isn’t typically what I’m known for.”
“Maybe people haven’t gotten to know you as well as they should then. Because from what I can tell? There’s a whole world inside you.”
I suddenly feel my face getting hot.
“Am I blushing? Ew, is this what blushing feels like? I thought blushing was supposed to be this precious moment when a Jane Austen-type heroine becomes somehow even more beautiful when an extra speckling of pretty pink attaches itself to her already adorable rosy cheeks. So, if this is blushing, then why do I feel like a red-faced Rottweiler?”
“You don’t look like a red-faced Rottweiler. I can assure you of that.”
Thump-bump.
Thump-bump.
Thump-bump.
“You know, I looked closer at my employment contract this morning,” he says softly.
“Ha. So did I.”
“Nothing in there about fraternization.”
“Yeah, I didn’t see anything either.”
“You seemed pretty worried about that last night.”
“I was, yeah.”
“So… I think it’s perfectly okay for us to hang out.”
“Hang out?”
“Sure.”
“Is that all you want, though? To just hang out?”
“Well, yeah. What did you think I wanted… to get married?”
“No! Hell, no! You were just so sweet to me last night, that I—”
“Figured you had to beat me out of your apartment before I fell madly in love with you and derailed all of your plans for scientific excellence and eventual world domination?”
“Sort of. Yeah,” I say a bit shamefully.
“Chill, Callie. I have plans too. We can just… see where things go.”
“See where things go…” I repeat.
“Yeah. Sound good?”
I get brave and look into his eyes for a moment.
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
“Good. So. You always been like this?”