Page 126 of Mr. Flirt

Lucy took a step forward, and I pulled her inside, shutting the door behind us.

“I’ve missed you so bad.” Her voice trembled as she took a step back from me to keep the space.

The absence made my chest pull, but I didn’t want to do anything I’d regret.

“I’ve been so worried, Shep. Just downright scared. The feelings I’ve had for you are completely new to me.” She peeled off her coat and dropped it on the floor. “I’ve been looking for a way out since I met you.”

Her words stung me like falling into a nettle bush. Each little prick damaged my already frayed ego.

“We are both afraid.”

She leaned against the foyer wall. “I’m tired of being frightened, Shep. I don’t want to wind up with a Cliff.”

“A Cliff?” I asked, confused.

“I was on a date with him tonight. You know, Cliff?”

“Oh, right. I thought you meant a cliff, as in like falling over.”

She chuckled. “See? This is what I’m talking about. I miss you.”

I swallowed down all the emotion running through me. She was drunk.

“I didn’t want to go on a date with him, but I kind of had no choice,” she confessed. “Some might call it a dare or a veiled threat. Not sure.”

I tensed. “Of course, you had a choice. Just like I did all those times that I didn’t tell my friends enough with the bets.”

She laughed and shook her head, bringing her eyes to mine. “Actually, I learned just how persuasive your friends could be.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.” She shrugged. “Do you have anything to drink?”

“Like water?” I suggested, eyeing her.

I didn’t understand what brought her here tonight, and it felt like one wrong move, and she’d flee into the night, never to be seen again.

“I guess water will do.” She pouted and followed me into the kitchen, where I handed her a glass of H2O.

“I’ve never seen you this drunk.”

“You’re not exactly sober,” she bit back, and I had to smile.

“Why are you here, Lucy?”

My heart tugged to be with her, to pull her into me, kiss her, and feel her once more.

But she was drunk, and by morning, I knew she would regret whatever had happened.

At least now, she could just hate me for doing what I did. She didn’t need to wake up hating herself too. I didn’t want to open the floodgates and unlock emotions that couldn’t be locked away again.

“I was wrong. I was selfish.” She took a few more sips of water before setting the glass down. “You were just being Shep. You had no way of knowing that I’d develop feelings for you. That your dare had escaped the bounds of reality.”

I nodded, unsure of what to say.

“You alarm me, Shep. The thing we have between us freaks me out, and I think I was looking for any little thing to be able to cry foul and jump ship.”

I studied her, trying to unwrap whether this was coming from the alcohol or her heart.

---