She pressed her mouth closed and shook her head. Then she pulled away from me to wipe the gunk from under her eyes.
“I’m a mess,” she announced. “I’m just going to use the ladies’ room. I’ll be right back.”
I had this instinct not to let her go, not to do as she asked, and instead hold onto her, but she was gone too fast. Quickly melding into the crowd.
Shit. Maybe this was too much for her. I wanted to give her this night, but I also knew I was playing with fire. No, not fire. Her feelings. She thought she was in love with me.
I didn’t believe it. I’d never believed it. She was a kid and I was the only person she’d known growing up. Any affection she had was born out of circumstance, not true emotion.
She would come back to the table, and we would talk. I would set the ground rules. This was supposed to be just a nice night out for her. Nothing else. If she wanted to dance again, I wouldn’t hold her so close. I’d also think of anything necessary to stop myself from getting hard.
When she finally made her way back to the table, she was smiling, but I knew it was a front.
“Talk to me, Ash.”
“I will,” she said. “But not tonight. Tonight is my night and I don’t want anything to ruin it.”
“I don’t mean to lead you on. You know this isn’t…” I struggled for the word I was looking for.
“Real,” she supplied. “You want to say it’s not real. That we aren’treallya couple who had an incredibly romantic dinner. That you weren’treallyturned on because you were holding me close. That you’re notreallythinking of taking me home and making love to me. Sound about right?”
She said it with some cheek in her voice, but it had to hurt her. Because she was right about all those things. Except about the turned-on part, I couldn’t lie about that.
“I guess I just broke the spell,” she sighed. She turned and looked wistfully at the dance floor. “It was fun while it lasted. But this Cinderella is ready to call it quits.”
I took her hand and she squeezed mine back, and we made our way out of the club to where I’d parked the car. The ride home was quiet and when I pulled up the endless driveway to the house, it was dark.
She got out of the car and I followed, walking her to the door.
I shoved my hands in my pockets and watched as she opened the unlocked door.
“You didn’t lock the front door before leaving?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “No one ever comes up here.”
“That’s not safe.”
She shrugged again then turned to me. “Are you working tomorrow?”
“No, it’s Sunday. George has a bunch of chores I need to do, though, so I’ll be busy.”
“It won’t take long. I have to tell you something and I didn’t want to do it tonight. I’ll come over first thing.”
“That sounds cryptic.”
“I’m not trying to be. I promise.” She hesitated, as if thinking something over. “Are you going to kiss me? Because I’m pretty sure, along with the fancy restaurant, cake and dancing, I was promised a kiss.”
“I’m pretty sure you weren’t,” I said. I moved toward her, cupped her cheeks in my palms, marveled at how soft her skin was, then bent to place a solid kiss right in the center of her forehead. “Happy Birthday, Ash.”
She looked up at me. “That sucked.”
I laughed.
“I’m going to tell people you are the worst kisser ever.”
“You are, huh?”
“Yep. I’m going to ruin your reputation with all the girls in town by saying you give lousy head.”
