Lucky

Throwing Salt

The rest of the day we spent just having fun, watching movies, and drinking wine. It was the first good day I've had in a while, and it was so comforting to not think about Talon or anything that happened last night. Talon and I were done, and the sooner I realized that, the better. After all, it is what he wanted.

Shane poured me another glass of wine as Matt put in the 4th movie of the day. Or was it the 5th? We had lost track quite honestly.

"Are you staying over another night, Tana?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, why not? I don't really feel like going home."

Shane turned to me. "Where is home, by the way? I don't think I've ever come over," he said curiously.

I took a deep breath. "I, uh- around downtown. That area. Really crummy apartments but the rent isn't half bad." What he didn't know is that I no longer lived there- I hated lying to him, but I didn't want to admit defeat with Talon.

Thankfully, he stopped asking questions and started watching the movies.

     The movie wasn't half bad, but I couldn't stop thinking of coming up with excuses to tell Shane when he realized I was not going away. I tried to push it out of my mind, thought that I could cross that bridge when I got to it. I just couldn't.

     "Hey, Tana, can you pass me the popcorn?" Shane asked. I leaned over the arm of the couch and grabbed the bowl of popcorn. When I handed it to him, though, his hand grazed mine and it triggered something inside of me.

     "Can you throw me the salt, Tana?" Shane asked me. He was sitting across the table from me, his 100th time staying for dinner with my family.

     "Sure," I said, picking up the salt in front of me and loading up my arm to get a good swing. Before I could, though, my mother loudly cleared her throat and looked at me.

     Sweetly but through clenched teeth, she said, "Now, Tana, I know you are not about to throw a salt shaker across this kitchen."

     Shane laughed. "You had to take things so literally, didn't you?"

I blushed. Of course I didn't take it literally, it was just a joke. My mom just gets very tight lipped about things like that. So I got up out of my chair and walked over to Shane with the salt shaker in my hand.

"Here, how's this for throwing it over here?" I said, rolling my eyes. He took it from my hand, but there was something different about it. He slowly took his hand back, caressing mine as he did so. My stomach started to do back flips and I inhaled sharply. What was that? And why did it feel so good?

I was stunned, but I refused to let how I felt show across my face. I simply just walked back to my seat and my mom thanked me for doing the right thing. Shane smiled as I looked at him and he looked at me. Then, I broke the stares and went back to eating.

I flinched. Shane looked at me confused, but I just laughed it off and said it was nothing. But to me, that wasn't nothing. I still felt what I did when we were at that dinner table- and that terrified the shit out of me.