Page 18 of When the Walls Come Down
Awkward was bad enough, but what if we ended up hating each other? Who the hell was I going to borrow a cup of sugar from then?
Oh, please. Who was I kidding? I’d seen his old driver’s license picture. That man didn’t eat sugar anymore.
Panic buzzed in my ears, and I once again tugged at the shoulder of my sweater. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me? It was a date. With a guy I actually liked, found attractive, and hadn’t been able to stop thinking about all damn day. Besides, it was too late to back out now. I glanced around the empty hallway.
Ehh…was it too late though? Maybe I could just shoot him a text and fake Ebola.
Carefully, I took one step back, turning to angle myself toward my apartment, when his door suddenly swung open. “Oh, hey, Maggie. Nice of you to finally show—”
The words died on his tongue as his dark gaze raked over me from head to toe and back again. It was during this time that I too gave him a head-to-toe and what I saw was absolutely absurd—and pretty much par for the course as far as how things were going for Shane and me.
Dark jeans. Black sweater—his was a black cardigan over a white T-shirt, the sleeves pushed up to reveal his toned forearms. And a pair of sunglasses sat on top of his expertly styled hair. He looked good. Like, really good. Even better than he had in the shirt and tie the night before. And I should know because, minus the off-the-shoulder thing, we matched.
The utter ridiculousness of wearing practically the same outfit as your date could not be denied, but just like that, not even thirty seconds in, all my nerves had disappeared.
Shane must have noticed our coordination about the same time as I did, because he flicked his gaze back and forth between us, one side of his mouth curling higher each time. His smile was full blown by the time our gazes locked. “I like your style, Peach.”
“Clearly you do. Seeing as you stole it and all.”
He half shrugged. “I’m not sure I’d be able to pull off the one-shoulder thing. Then again, I like to think I’m fashion forward.”
“Fashion forward in a cardigan? Seems a little more Mr. Rogers chic if you ask me.” It was a lie. I fucking loved the fitted cardigan. It was doing some seriously nerdy-hot-guy things to me.
He bit his bottom lip, enjoying every second of our dueling sarcasm as much as I was. “Mr. Rogers was a good man. Did a lot for the youth of our country.”
I nodded. “And definitely in your age demographic.”
“Reruns. But you are not entirely incorrect.” He cleared his throat. “So, anyway, Tic Tac?” From his pocket, he produced a new package of orange candies. Because let’s be serious, orange breath mints weren’t really a thing.
We looked like a pair of fools standing in that hallway, grinning at each other in our matching outfits.
I was relatively sure he hadn’t preplanned his—how would he have been able to do it anyway? But who the hell knew with Shane. He was at least fifty percent crazy. Coincidentally, that made him one hundred percent my type.
He claimed to be rusty at all of this, but like a moth to a flame, I was eating it up—just as he’d predicted.
I extended my hand, palm up to accept his offering.
“That’s not how you eat a Tic Tac. Open up. I’ll give you the first pour.” He moved into me, holding the container of candy over my head.
The man had absolutely no concept of personal space. I couldn’t say I was all that mad about it as I inhaled the warm and woodsy scent that was born in a cologne bottle but somehow uniquely his.
“Open up,” he murmured, peering down at me with a playful grin.
Untrusting of my voice, I shook my head.
Slowly, he lowered the plastic tin of candy, but he didn’t back away. No. That wasn’t Shane. Hovering and looming, he swayed toward me while I struggled to remember how to breathe.
Thankfully, with his browns locked with my blues, he seemed just as entranced. Not a single inch of our bodies was touching, but there was some serious foreplay happening in that narrow hall.
And we just stood there.
Staring at each other.
Waiting for someone to make the first move.
Though I had no idea what the hell that first move was going to be. My mind told me I needed to snap out of it and head to the elevator. Though pretty much every other part of my body cast its vote for kicking his apartment door open and spending the evening in his bed.
I swallowed hard. What the hell was I thinking? I barely knew this guy.
But wasn’t this exactly what Melanie had wanted me to do? To go out and live recklessly? Have a one-night stand? Make bad choices? None of that had sounded even remotely appealing at the time.
