Hide Seek Kill - A Thriller Novel || Draft One

Twenty-Two: Chase

"Listen honey, I know I'm hot and all, but I'd appreciate it if you kept to your own personal space bubble. Please and thank you." Vivica pushes Chase back from where he was looking over her shoulder.

He gives her a cheeky smile. "Are you saying that you enjoyed my kisses?"

Vivica gives him a good look up and down, her eyebrows raised. "Oh, is that where you're going with this, pretty boy? Because if you think I enjoyed that, well..." She snakes her arms around his neck. "Quite frankly, I really found your kissing as bad as it was the last time."

Chase feels his cheeks heat up a little bit but doesn't break eye contact.

Maybe every single time he did that he was giving away a piece of himself, and maybe each night he also filled in a little gap that his mother left him with those times she was too drunk to recognize him.

He shakes away the thought of his broken family and looks deep into Vivica's emerald eyes, searching for whatever made him take her to his apartment that night.

Besides the little quirk that gave her a mysterious essence, he can't find anything that led him to want her, to need her.

"I don't know why I..." Chase looks at her earnestly. "I don't know why that night even happened. I was lost, blind, and a little drunk too I think."

Vivica smiles, "Boy you were totally gone. That's probably why you said the things you did."

"Oh, and what things did I say?" Chase hopes that it isn't something too bad. But knowing his behavior at those old high school parties where he got drunk, it must've been something nuts.

A light pink dusts Vivica's cheeks. "I think they are better left unsaid and forgotten."

"That bad, huh?"

Vivica hums and takes his hand before twirling herself.

"At least you could dance," she says. "I always loved a good dance partner."

"Is that so?" Chase knows the glint in her eyes, one implying that she wants to have some fun. "Well, then, if you'll allow me."

He places his left hand on the crook of her back and grabs her left hand with his right, pulling her a bit closer to him. While he had no feelings for her whatsoever, Chase believes that he owes her something nice.

If she wants to dance then they can dance. It's the least he can do, he reasons, for what he'd done to her.

Together they move in sync. One step forward. One to the left. One to the back. One to the right. Then they do it all over again.

Vivica lays her head across Chase's chest and he wonders if she's thinking about that night at the pub when they danced to Bless the Broken Road.

Chase spins her, her body moving gracefully back toward him. He knows that Vivica is a woman of many talents, and he isn't surprised when she takes the lead.

She spirals out, never letting go of his hand, before twirling back inwards. Chase catches on quickly and holds her close then dips her. A light pink dusts Vivica's cheeks and Chase feels a bit warm.

Looks like he's still a bit out of shape.

"Thanks Chase. That was nice." The said guy pulls her up from the dip and lets her go with a bashful smile.

"Do you think if someone walked in, they'd find us to be crazy?" Chase wonders aloud.

"Oh, I'm sure Otto would say, 'See ya, loonies,'" Vivica replies, her imitation of the German spot on.