7 Minutes in Heaven

Chapter 6

"Your chariot awaits," he said.

Nora paused in front of him, before groaning, "Oh God, you talked to Emma didn't you?"

"I may have had a word with her before she left," he chuckled, "Lady Nora, was it? I'm sure there's quite a story behind that title."

"I'm going to kill her," Nora muttered as she got into his car.

While he made his way to the driver's side, Nora couldn't help but take in the car with admiration. It wasn't every day one got to ride in a classic car such as this. She quickly put on her seatbelt as he settled into the driver's seat, not wanting to give him any more ammunition on her state of being.

"Where to?" he asked as he started the car up.

Nora contemplated not telling him, but decided that that would be childish since he was giving her a ride home. She rattled off her address quickly which he put into his phone to give him instructions, something she was secretly glad of since it would mean she didn't have to speak with him. Or so she thought.

"I feel there is something we need to clear up," he said after a minute or two of driving.

"I doubt it, but go on."

He glanced at her quickly before returning his eyes to the road. Nora steadfastly looked out the window away from him, still salty that he had gotten the best of her.

"You seem to be under the impression that I'm not interested in you. You should know by now that that is a lie. I'm very interested in you."

Nora's head whipped around so fast that she immediately got dizzy. Holding onto the seat for support, she gaped at Brendan, whose expression was unreadable. She struggled to think of something to say in light of his confession, but she could only think of one word.

"What?" she finally blurted out.

"Does that surprise you?" he asked, turning to glance at her with a mischievous sparkle in his eye.

"Well, duh," she said, not bothering to pretend to be coy in this moment. "I admit, I thought maybe you were at first, but then you said all those things and I-"

"You misunderstood, I said all of those things for your sake."

"For my sake?" Nora scoffed, "Are you serious?"

"Please, just, give me a chance to explain," he began, running a hand through his dark hair. "After our... first meeting, I expressed interest in getting to know you better and I admittedly asked around about you. Emma had hinted that that interest might be reciprocated and when I heard we were to be walking together, I thought that might be a good chance to get to know you better. So you can imagine my surprise at having to walk with what's-her-name again? Tammy?"

"Theresa," Nora said, giggling in spite of herself. Theresa would HATE to be called Tammy. "I assumed the two of you were close, seeing as she has your number and you rode together."

"Noticed that, did you?" Brendan said and Nora looked away self-consciously. She didn't know where the conversation was going yet and didn't want to lead him into thinking she was still interested, especially after he had let her down hard. After a moment, he seemed to realize her discomfort and continued.

"She got my number from Jason, evidently told him that she needed to send some wedding information out to the groomsmen and she did. She's been very nice for the most part... comes off as being a little fake in my opinion, but nice. However, on the ride over she told me that you were very sweet, but innocent, and thus I made you... uncomfortable with my behavior. At least, that was the reason you gave for requesting to walk with someone else-"