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I shook my head. I wanted to touch her hair, run my fingers through it and hold it against the light to see how pigmented it was. I’d be wrapped up in the blue silk of it forever.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” she asked, pulling me from my thoughts.
I shrugged. “I’m actually not that hungry. So, why in a few years?” I leaned back, content to watch her. It didn’t seem to bother her.
“Pardon me?” She took another bite.
“Why ask you again in a few years?” I took a sip of my ginger ale as she chewed and swallowed the food in her mouth.
“Haven’t you heard? Hindsight is twenty/twenty. And besides, I don’t know that I’ll ever even see you again in this capacity. Maybe you’re satisfying some morbid curiosity. Maybe you’re slumming it, looking to see how the other side lives.” She shrugged. “The movies show us happy endings, that someone like me can end up with someone like you, but let’s be honest, I am no Becca Hamilton.”
I had to chuckle, a move that had her brows raising. “I was hoping you’d see me every day this week. If you don’t ever want to see me again, I’d walk away.”Lie. “But that’d be your choice.”
I couldn’t tell her the Grim Reaper had spared me and sent me back to find her. And that, quite possibly, the soul that belonged with mine was somehow implanted in her. I hadn’t figured out the logistics of it yet.
I reached up and pinched a portion of the blue strands between my thumb and forefinger and rolled the silkiness of it against my fingertips, only because I couldn’t help myself. “And you being nothing like Becca Hamilton is the greatest compliment you could ever be paid.”
She blinked a few times, the rise and fall of her chest the only other movement her body made.
I dropped my hand, worried I offended her. “Sorry,” I said, focusing on the plate in front of me, finally lifting my fork.
“You should be,” she said, snatching her belongings together.
“Hold on, what’s the problem?” I asked, rising when she did, my fork clattering on the table top.
“If you’re looking to get laid, I can give you the names of other girls who’dloveto be another conquest of yours. Fortunately for me, I’m not one of them.” She stepped away from the table and before I could think, I grabbed her arm. She looked down at the contact, her face looking much like it did when I first ran into her.
Even though the fabric of her sweater was between my hand and her skin, I could feel her warmth.
I hadn’t imagined the shock that owned us. It lived deep down, so small it could go unnoticed. The more time I spent around her, the more I felt it.
Regardless, it was there, causing my stomach to flip of its own accord.
“Please don’t go,” I begged. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I have no intention of sleeping with you.” Her eyebrow rose, and I couldn’t help but let out a stream of curse words. “Fuck. Shit, I’m getting this all wrong. Yes, I find you attractive and maybe down the road somewhere…who knows? But I don’t look at you as something to be won and then tossed aside. Maybe won over and over again, but never tossed aside.”
She lowered her arms, and my hand trailed down her sleeve until I was holding hers. Palm to palm.
“I don’t even know you, Dexter,” she whispered, her eyes on mine.
“Finally,” I said with a grin, “something we have in common.”
Dexter
My phone’sscreen lit up as I lay in my bed, my mind working itself over too many times for me to fall asleep. I unlocked the screen and read the text.
Noa:Sleeping?
I couldn’t have kept the smile from spreading across my face if I tried. I envisioned all that light blue silk spread across my pillow. I knew if I ever slept beside her for a night, I’d be wrecked.
Me:No. Can’t.
My fingers itched to explain myself but I thought better of it. I glanced out the window, seeing the stars twinkle from my spot in bed.
Noa:I wish I could look inside your head.
Noa:I wouldn’t want to read your mind. I’d want to feel what you’re feeling. You intrigue me.
Me:You could just ask.
