Close to Heaven

Chapter Eleven

Chapter 11

I stand, taken over by his beauty for a moment, and I know that my mouth is slightly open, but I can’t close it. All I can do it look at his face, bathed in the rich morning sunlight, illuminated by it, and his eyes, dark and looking at me in that way that every girl wants to be looked at. And then, as if to make sure I’m speechless, he smiles and his lips pull up and his face accommodates for it, all the little aftershocks of the smile. A breath comes out of me in one annoyingly loud sound, as if it’s all I can do at the sight of him.

‘Hey.’ He says, looking away for just a second, as if he’s nervous.

‘Hey.’ I repeat, grinning like a darn idiot.

‘I’m early.’

I nod.

‘I couldn’t wait.’ He says, dropping his keys from one hand into the other.

‘I'm glad.’

‘Can I have your number?’ He asks, squinting slightly as he looks up.

‘Sure.’ I say, nodding, and stepping towards him a little.

He goes as if to reach out to me, but then pulls back and crosses his arms over his chest. ‘Yeah, I couldn’t believe you left and I didn’t ask you for it.  I . . . ’ He looks to the floor for a second, and then looks back, trying to regain composure I think and revert back to reality. ‘How are you?’ He says simply, but with a slight smile that gets my heart racing.

‘I’m great.’ I smile. ‘I wanted your number too.’ A little too much, but I don’t say that out loud, I don’t want to come across as creepy.

‘Good. I'm glad I'm not the only one.’

‘Shall we go? And swap digits whilst walking?’ I say, with a side smile.

‘Yep.’ He laughs, gesturing with his arm for me to step over the threshold. ‘Oh, you not ready?’ He asks when I don’t immediately go to him.

‘No, yeah, sorry, I’ll just grab my bag.’ I spin around and take it from the table, then step out to him, he smiles as I lean to close the door behind me.

We walk down the path and I see that his car is parked just across the street. ‘Is that yours?’ I ask, pointing over to it.

He nods.

‘You drove?’ I ask, as he only lives around the corner, I only drove yesterday so that I’d have an excuse not to drink.

He laughs, looking towards the car. ‘Yeah, I did. But, I promise you, I’m not one of those lazy assholes.’

I laugh, really loudly.

‘What?’

‘I know you’re not a “lazy asshole”, I mean . . . look at you.’ I gesture towards him, particularly to his biceps, he smiles.

‘Look at me?’ He asks.

Now he wants me to say it. I'm laughing again. ‘You make me laugh a lot.’ I say.

‘Don’t change the subject.’ He says, shaking his head.

‘Well, you’re like really . . . buff.’ I manage to get out, whilst trying to make it less embarrassing by pretending to show off my own biceps. Which are non-existent, so I look a bit of an idiot. I drop my arms, ‘yeah, you clearly work out. So that means you’re not lazy.’

He’s just laughing again. ‘Well, yeah, I only drove as I came from out of town.’ He touches my arm and starts to walk down the sidewalk. ‘But thanks for noticing, Ada.’ He smiles just before turning away again, and I follow on behind. ‘You know what?’ He says, and I don’t answer, as it sounds like he’s going to answer himself. ‘I’m enjoying this already.’