Page 29 of Leo and His Love Bunny
“Make up something else about us?” she asks, lifting a brow with a smile on her face so I know she’s joking.
“I’m happy with the way things worked out,” I say, wondering if I’m saying too much. Usually I play things pretty close to the vest, but with Nora, I admire her, I feel comfortable around her, and I hadn’t intended to say that much. It just came out.
“I’m happy with the way things worked out, too,” she says, giving Goalie one last pat before she stands to her feet. “Thank you. I... I feel like I’m getting more out of this than you are, and I don’t want you to see me as a gold digger.”
“I won’t forget that it was all on me.”
I hold my hand out. I want to give her a hug, but that seems a little inappropriate considering that we just decided that we were friends. “And I have a feeling that I need you. You’vealready challenged my thinking in several different ways, and I like being friends with people who make me better. Thanks.”
She looks surprised at my words, and I realize that she wasn’t saying anything she had said for the purpose of trying to prompt me into doing anything. She said the stuff because she actually believed it. That, for some reason, surprises me.
She doesn’t hesitate but grabs my hand. Mine is so much bigger than hers that it swallows hers whole. Hers feels delicate and soft inside of mine, and I wonder if maybe what I said was true, and conversely, that maybe I might not be good for her. I hate thinking that. After all, I’m planning on being a inspirational speaker. But in my world, people like Nora get hurt.
Maybe it would be best for me to back away from her. That might be a better help than anything else I can cook up to try to get us together.
“I’ll see you around,” I say, wanting to press her for a date, a time, to know when I can look forward to being in her presence again, talking with her, enjoying her company. Having a paper airplane contest.
But I don’t want to come off as heavy-handed, and so I leave it at that.
“Yeah. Thanks again. And if you need me for anything, I owe you.”
“You don’t,” I say, shaking my head, not wanting to get into an argument. I let go of her hand and scoop my cat up who is looking at me like she wants to go back to the parakeet. She looks longingly over my shoulder at him while I walk to the door.
To my surprise, Nora has followed me.
I stop with my hand on the knob, trying to think of something wise to say. Or something witty, something that will make her unable to forget me as I walk out the door. But nothing comes tomind. I don’t know why my brain decides to choose that moment to stop working, but it does.
“Good night,” I say.
“Good night, Leo.”
I hide the shiver that goes down my spine at her words. Some feeling I can’t name, but it feels warm and good and I want her to say it again, but instead, I open the door and walk out, closing it softly behind me. I hear the lock click, and I smile, knowing that Nora is safe, and somehow that makes me happy.
Chapter 13
Nora
After Leo leaves, I have to admit I feel 100% better. I think our paper airplane competition was just the thing I needed to get my mind off everything and be able to reset.
This is not the end of the world. It is actually really good.
Sure, there were a few bad things that were involved, but nothing I can’t overcome.
I think I was still smiling at five AM, although I was sound asleep, when my phone rang.
I should have expected this. But clueless, I rolled over, feeling clumsily on my nightstand for my phone, intent on getting the odious noise to stop until I realized that it wasn’t my alarm, it was ringing, and I had better answer it pronto. I looked at the caller ID.
Cordelia Higginbotham.
I don’t know why I didn’t know for a fact that she would be calling. I should have.
“Hello?” I say, trying to sound bright and cheerful, but only managing to sound slightly awake.
“Nora, dear. Did I wake you up?”
How do you answer that question? Obviously she woke me up. Why would she even ask? What normal person is awake at five o’clock in the morning?
“Maybe?” I say, unwilling to admit I was still sleeping. It is my pride, because obviously she will think I am some kind of slothful, wicked heathen for not having most of my day accomplished by five AM. After all, I am five hours into the day. I should have something to show for it.
