Headlights

03 Him

For some reason, the first thing that came to her mind was "What's your job?" Immediately, he laughed and pulled into the garage itself, stopping briefly to scan his ID.

"You know, I wonder about that too," he remarked wryly. "Nothing of importance, really. My parents had a huge part in the apartment purchase."

She nodded and kept her silence as he parked in one of the marked spaces. They sat for a while. She wanted to say something, anything, but this was his territory, not hers. Say something.

"We're here, so let's hop on out," he said after a little exhale. He took out his key and opened his own door without taking a single glance at her. She shrugged as she opened hers. She couldn't really expect him to be a gentleman, could she? After all, she was in the Big Apple, not some small town in Georgia.

The elevator ride up to his apartment was quiet, not unlike their car ride. She was starting to believe that he was as taciturn as he thought she was. The elevator pinged when it hit the 11th floor. He turned to her and wiggled his eyebrows. "And here we are, my lady."

"Cut out that bull, please."

He laughed. "As you wish."

Her lips twitched. "The Princess Bride, right?"

He shrugged sheepishly, and then he let her walk out first. The hallway leading to all of the apartments was exquisite. Hailey hadn't seen so many paintings of fruit baskets gathered in one place in her life. As if he had heard her thoughts, Calvin stopped by a painting centered on a glistening apple. "Don't worry about those other fruits, babe," he said seriously, "because you're the apple of my eye."

She giggled and poked his arm. "You're full of cheesy lines today, aren't you?"

He shrugged. "I'm not an artist. I can't make something out of nothing. Stop with those high expectations, Hay."

Even though she smiled fondly and continued on confidently as if nothing at happened, her heart stuttered once, twice, before it resumed its normal rhythm again. What was he doing to her? It had been a long time since her giddy days as a teenager when the highlight of her day was hearing her boyfriend call her "Hay". She was in all sorts of knots today, and she wasn't sure if they were good or bad.

He had to hold her arm when she had apparently gone too far. "Hold your horses; we're here." She stuck her tongue out at him as he opened the door, shaking his head.

"You're really mature," he said. Before she could respond, he pushed open the door and ushered her in.

Dear God. What was this? She was facing a full view of the New York skyline from his amazing windows. Before she knew it, she was stumbling over her kitty heels to the couch right next to it. She didn't know she could see so many lights—all of them artificial—at once. Of course she rarely stayed in the city once night fell; she would have to stay back to see this more often. It had been so long since she had been stunned into silence, and she vaguely surprised herself by being so amused by the twinkling lights of the Empire State Building in the distance.

"Hey, you didn't even let me give you a tour." Calvin joined her side, resting his arm around her waist. She felt her body flush, and the lights were all but forgotten. Almost.

"How much did you pay for this place?" She looked up at him, and, unsurprisingly, was hit by a full view of that jaw and those eyes looking down at her.

"You'd have to ask my parents." He shrugged. "They said that if I was going to live in New York, I'd better live in a safe place."

"And you couldn't get it yourself?" Hesitantly, she leaned her head against his shoulder. When he didn't shrug her off, she took as a good sign and closed her eyes.

"To be honest?" He chuckled. "It's kind of hard to get a nice apartment that doesn't have closets listed as rooms when you've got a student loan weighing you down."

"Oh, right." She felt like asking more about him—who was he, truly?—but she knew that she herself wouldn't be willing to say anything about herself. So she kept quiet and listened to him breathe. It was as comforting as any piece of classical music in her CD player.

"You know, I never told you," he started, "but if I had gotten over to your place earlier, I would have officially asked you to accompany me to dinner."

Her heart beat wildly. "What do you mean?"

"My mom held me up. I couldn't turn her away because she had brought one of my cousins from France, who's only staying around here for two days."

"Oh." Maybe she was expecting something bigger, like how his mother wanted to make a dramatic announcement about her cancer diagnosis. But again, big announcements like that would take much, much longer than two hours. "So?"

"I was going to ask you out." When she opened her eyes, he met them steadily. "Like on a date. I made a reservation at a fancy French restaurant. I can't pronounce its name, in case you're wondering."

If her heart was functioning normally, she would have been wondering what the restaurant was called since she knew practically all the high scale restaurants in New York. But it wasn't, so her mouth dropped open a tiny bit. When she was sure her voice wouldn't sound like a bullfrog's croak, she mumbled out, "And?"

"It's a little late now," he said sheepishly, his fingers tapping out a pattern on her waist. "I'll have to make a call and pay for the inconvenience later, but we can still hang here if you want."

Of course she did. So she placed a hand on the nape of his neck and pulled his face down closer to her, whispering, "That would be amazing."

And she kissed him.

A delicious shiver ran down her spine. She felt him clutch her to him even closer, and they both fell against the couch. Her lips moved gently with his, and she wrapped her arms around his head. And God, she could feel the flush traveling down her neck as he broke apart from her and trailed down the arch of her throat...

Right then, in that moment, with her fingers curled in his mop of dark hair and one of his hands resting softly on the back of her head, she finally admitted it to herself.

Maybe she liked him a little too much.

.

Merry Christmas for real to you guys! I guess this is a sort of late present considering that it's 9:30PM right now for me, but it's something nonetheless. I hope you guys had a wonderful day.

And please keep on commenting and voting! I'd like to thank you all for checking this out :)

This chapter is dedicated to horridlybookish, my first true writing friend on Wattpad! Love ya, girl, even though we really need to catch up with each other.