Just a Dare

Chapter Twenty-Nine

She hadn't released my hand since I'd agreed to come with her until we were standing in front of her apartment door. I watched with a smile gently tipping my lips upward as she fiddled with her key chain. She kept shooting me little stolen glances that I never missed because she had all of my attention, releasing a few breathless giggles every now and then as she did so.

Once her giddy fingers found the correct key, with a secretive little smile flashed my way quickly, she pushed it into the bolt and twisted it. Her other hand reached for the door handle as she pulled the key back out and she released a soft exhale before opening the door.

I followed her and was immediately enveloped in darkness when she closed the door behind us. I chuckled as I heard her hand feeling along what I assumed was the wall in the dark until her search was acknowledged by the click of a light switch being flicked on.

Light flooded the entryway and leaked into the room behind me, but I was too wrapped up in watching her take off her coat and hang it on a hook mounted on the wall beside her purse and briefcase to give the rest of her home a look. She toed her heels off and lined them up carefully against the wall, her back to me all the while, and when she did finally turn back around, her pink lips stretched slowly into a surprised grin.

"You can take your coat off, too, Trey." She said in a quiet, amused tone.

As if her words had breathed life into my joints, I suddenly found my hands mindlessly unbuttoning my coat, pulling it and my suit jacket off in one tug, hanging them on the hook beside hers. I felt a strange sense of happiness filling me as I glanced up and found her emerald eyes observing me while I pulled off my shoes and straightened them alongside hers.

It was these little seemingly insignificant things - our belongings resting side-by-side in her entryway - that made this all seem so much more real, as if my polished black Oxfords were always meant to reside by her sophisticated yet simple heels.

I turned to delight my eyes with the sight of her but found myself greeted by the empty space where she should have been.

Curious, I ventured a few steps into her carpeted living room, my eyes wandering over the soft brown leather couch and love seat, smiling to myself as I saw a book resting on her coffee table.

There was a window behind the love seat, which had a plush blanket draped across the back, and I pictured her sitting here in the earliest part of the morning with lazy pale rays of sunlight bathing her skin and lighting her tired eyes that drank in the words inked onto the pages of that very book. Her glasses would slowly make their teasing journey down the bridge of her nose until she would push them back into place, using her other hand to pull the blanket tighter around herself so she could snuggle further into its warmth. She would continue to read there, in my fantasy world, waiting for a few more hours to pass, a sleepy smile tugging at her lips when she would get to a particularly funny part.

I was interrupted by the smell of warm chocolate and found myself following it into her kitchen, where she was humming to herself as she poured the contents of the metal teapot in her hands into two mugs that were set out on the counter. As much as I wanted to continue simply watching her every mesmerizing move, every cell in my entire body seemed to gravitate towards her as she rinsed out the teapot.

I wrapped my arms around her waist, holding her tightly even when she jumped so violently that she nearly dropped the kettle. I chuckled and reached for her hands to steady her grip. "Careful," I teased her, guiding them back to the stream of water.

"A little fair warning would have been nice, you jerk," she grumbled, but I heard the lightness in her voice.

"That would have taken all the fun out of it, though." I said with a cheeky grin, resting my chin on her shoulder.