“I’m cool with picking everyone up and being DD,” Silas said.
“Great,” Doc replied. “And I’m also inviting Raven, just so everyone knows.”
The team turned to Silas. For a second, he thought they’d somehow found out about his kiss with Raven over the weekend, but it turned out they were simply wondering if he’d contest Doc’s arrangement.
“Guys, we’ve been over this. I’m okay with Raven joining us for things we do as a group,” Silas said before starting his coffee over at the counter.
Silas had decided he wouldn’t bring up the kiss unless Raven did. It had been a mistake. How was he supposed to conduct himself with some level of professionalism when he was recalling her curves or the weight of her arms on his shoulders? What made things worse was now he knew she was attracted to him too, and he was a little bothered by the dopamine hit he got every time he thought about that.
“Morning, everyone,” Raven said cheerfully, entering the break room as if summoned by his thoughts.
Her sudden appearance had Silas knocking over the box of coffee filters, but Raven was briefly pulled into a conversation happening at the table, giving Silas a moment to compose himself.
She eventually made her way to the counter space beside him, where she began making her morning beverage.
“Hey,” he said, casting her a look as he dumped sugar and creamer into his cup.
She smiled, meeting his eye. “Hi.”
It felt like looking directly into the sun.
The kiss seemingly had no noteworthy impact on Raven because she was cool and at ease next to him. Meanwhile, Silas was worried he was breathing too hard.
He found his place at the table, Raven followed shortly after, and conversation floated past Silas as he considered what he should do. He could not continue to feel unmoored over a kiss. It was ridiculous.
He’d been too flirtatious at the bar. He’d gotten comfortable, so the kiss had been an easy, perhaps inevitable, progression. Maybe he needed to bring back some stringency from their earlier interactions. Basic politeness only.
He took a mouthful of his coffee but immediately spat what he’d imbibed back into the mug.
“Fuck,” he shouted, bitterness and brine coating his tongue.
Everyone turned to him with a mix of horror and concern.
“What’s wrong?” Halo asked.
“I added salt, not sugar,” he managed to say as he grabbed his water bottle to rinse his mouth.
The entire team found his flub amusing, slapping the table and cackling loudly, but it was the way Raven laughed behind her hand that made him, for the smallest discernible unit of time, consider slapstick comedy.
Yeah, it would be total politeness from here on out.
* * *
A day of interactions between Raven and Silas went as follows: A regular greeting in the morning, small talk during lunch, brief goodbyes at the end of the day, and most importantly, absolutely no references to the Kiss.
It appeared they’d both independently come to the same conclusion that the kiss had been ill-advised and would never happen again.
All the lighthearted energy they’d cultivated between them was gone. There was none of the strain or irritation of her early days at Mountaintop, just blandness. Which Raven convinced herself was fine. She was in Cedar Lake for a bigger purpose than to engage in banter with a man, after all.
That’s not to say she’d reached nonchalance in regard to Silas. Because when Doc in the middle of the week said, “Raven, you’re on the schedule to shadow Silas’s archery class today,” she immediately wanted to cancel.
However, it would’ve required Raven to admit that the kiss had meant something, so she attended the class.
Right off the bat, when Silas welcomed her and the seven other students to his archery introductory, his strong and resonant voice raised goose bumps across her arms.
“If you take any lesson from today,” Silas said after going over safety and the gear, “let it be that you should never pull on an empty bowstring. It’ll damage the bow or, worse, injure you. That wouldn’t be good because I skipped the last day of first aid training.”
Despite his occasional jokes, Silas fostered a serious learning environment that made Raven feel like she was practicing for mastery. She carefully listened and watched Silas demonstrate basic archery form and the steps involved in shooting.
