Page 40 of Interlude

"I do," he says quietly and continues eating.

We clear the plates, returning to the relaxed banter of earlier, ignoring talk of the real world.

"About yesterday," says Dylan as I empty my third glass of wine.

Oh, nicely played, he starts on me when I'm more 'relaxed'. "Yesterday doesn't matter. Forget it."

"Yesterday matters to me, because I upset you. Can I explain?" I shrug and top up my glass. "I'm selfish, spoiled, and always get what I want."

"Nice line in self-deprecation, Dylan."

"Can you listen for once, instead of playing word games with me?"

I make a zipping motion across my lips and he gives a tiny shake of his head. "I wanted to prove to myself that I could be different to the selfish, spoiled guy I became—the one who takes what he wants and doesn't give a fuck about someone else's feelings. That's why I stopped. Not because I didn’t want to… continue."

He pauses and after a few moments I realise he's waiting for a response.

"Oh. Okay. Well, I'm not the normal kind of girl you meet, and I’d tell you to stop. Or are you telling me you couldn't stop yourself?"

Dylan grips his wine glass, a muscle twitching in his cheek. "No," he says darkly. "Never."

"This is funny, Dylan. You're talking as if you want to protect my honour. I'm not a virgin, I'm perfectly aware of what I'm doing and what I want."

I blush at his slow smile. "What you want?"

"I didn't mean..." But the shallow breathing has started again.

Reaching a hand across the table, Dylan rubs his thumb across the back, shooting familiar sensations up my arm. "You do weird things to me, and I want to get to know you to figure out why."

I run my finger around the rim of the glass, defences pierced so soon. "Alright. Take me on a date."

The grin that lights up Dylan's face and my world appears. "Awesome, thank you."

I slip my hand from under his and return to my meal.

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