𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐘𝐏𝐒𝐄
𝟐𝟑. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠
(𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐤𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮)
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"THE MIND FLAYER," Mike's voice rang out across the empty mall. "it built this monster in Hawkins, to stop El, to kill her, and pave a way into our world."
"And it almost did," Nancy added. "That was just one tiny piece of it."
"How big is this thing?" Hopper asked, his voice serious, yet still collected.
"It's big," Jonathan replied. "Thirty feet, at least."
"Yeah..." Lucas mumbled. "It sort of destroyed your cabin.
Hopper nodded his head, his lips pursed in annoyance. From the other side of the circle that the group had assembled into, Lorelei was standing next to her father, who had a secure arm around her shoulders as they kept close to each other.
There had not yet been enough time for them to discuss everything that had happened. But at this point, Lorelei and David Keller were just relieved that neither one of them was dead in a ditch, or Russian base, anywhere.
"Okay, so, just to be clear this... this big fleshy spider thing that hurt El-" Steve spoke up, his face contorted as he looked over at a worn-out Eleven who was lying in Hopper's lap. "It's some kind of gigantic weapon?"
"Yes," answered Nancy.
"But instead of like- screws and metal, the Mind Flayer made its weapon with melted people," he continued asking, the voice seeming all too hesitant to believe the next issue that the group was destined to face.
"Yes, exactly," Nancy confirmed.
"Yeah - okay," he nodded. "Just um- just making sure."
Near the water fountain, Robin and Estelle were sitting together as they watched the group recap all the nightmarish horrors that they had faced. Whilst Robin looked both intrigued and slightly freaked out, it seemed as though Estelle had already gotten used to the fact that her life had been turned topsy-turvy, and she simply picked at her blue nail polish absentmindedly.
"Are we sure this thing is still out there? Still alive?" Asked Joyce.
"Pretty sure," muttered Estelle.
Max nodded her head slightly. "El beat the shit out of it - but yeah, it's still alive."
"But if we close the gate again-" Will said.
"We cut off the brain from the body," Max interrupted.
"And kill it," Lucas completed. "Theoretically."
Lorelei looked up from where she had been glancing at her worn-out sneaker. "There's just one problem - this gate is guarded by a plethora of angry Russian soldiers. All of which are most likely on high alert after we-" she pointed to Steve, Dustin, Robin, Erica, and herself "broke into their little evil lair."
"But there's gotta be a way in," her father theorized from beside her. "Don't you guys remember what trail you took?"
"No offense, Dad, but we haven't so much as slept in more than a day-" Lorelei grimaced. "That place is a maze."
In front of her, it seemed as though Hopper was becoming increasingly frustrated with the predicament that they were currently in. In fact, Lorelei could tell that everyone was very much on edge as they tried to think of a solution.
"Yoo-hoo!" a voice suddenly called out.
Lorelei looked over her shoulder to see the peculiar man who had shown up with her father walking over to the group. It seemed as though he had a multitude of papers in his hands, which he was waving about frantically. After asking her dad, Lorelei had learned that is name was Murray Bauman, and that not only did he look peculiar - he also acted like it.
Once he reached the group, he placed the papers that he had brought with him over to one of the tables that were spread out across the open food court. The group hastily gathered around him in curiosity of what he could have possibly been showing them. Lorelei ended up between Steve and Max, who were both looking down at the papers with narrowed eyes.
Deciding to see what Murray was so eager about, Lorelei glanced down only to view what seemed like an accurate representation of the location of many places within the Russian base - save for the gigantically long space that he seemed to omit from his clearly not-to-scale diagram.
"Okay, so this is what Alexei called The Hub," he started explaining.
Lorelei's father had told her briefly of this man who was named Alexei. It seemed as though they had managed to find the only nice Russian who was currently in Hawkins - and they had befriended him, who was a scientist working for the Russian government, to pass on information to them. Tragically, David Keller had also informed Lorelei that Alexei had been shot by one of the less friendly Russians.
"Now, it takes us to the vault room," Murray pointed at the drawings.
"Okay, where's the gate?" Hopper inquired.
"Right here," he replied. "I don't know the scale in this-"
Clearly, thought Lorelei as she held in a laugh.
"But I think it's fairly close to the vault room, maybe 50 feet or so," Murray estimated.
"More like 500," Erica suddenly stepped forward, her hands on her waist as she glared over at Murray. "What? You're just gonna waltz in there like it's commie Disneyland or something?"
Besides Lucas and the people who had been stuck underground with her for the past day, everyone else seemed shocked by her attitude and confidence - especially Hopper and Murray, who both looked like they were on the verge of a collective stroke.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Murray asked her.
"Erica Sinclair," she replied. "Who are you?"
"Murray... Bauman," his voice seemed to draw out from the shock that was visibly apparent.
"Listen, Mr. Bunman," Erica raised her hand up. Lorelei snorted in a laugh beside Steve, who was also having an apparent hard time holding his laughter back. "I'm not trying to tell you how to do things, but I've been down in that shithole for 24 hours."
Lorelei grinned at Erica's words, her hand coming up to cover her mouth as she giggled. She felt Steve's shoulder bumping into hers and looked up to see that his cheeks were red from the effort it was taking him not to laugh.
"And with all due respect, you do what this man tells you, you're all gonna die," she finalized her little speech.
"I'm sorry, why is this four-year-old speaking to me?" Murray asked. It seemed as though she had managed to insult him.
"Um- I'm ten you bald bastard!"
Lorelei heard Steve letting out a low laugh beside her. "Personally, I'm enjoying this," he whispered to her, and she nodded back at him.
"Erica!" Lucas exclaimed.
"Just the facts!"
"She's right," Dustin's voice then rang out. "You're all gonna die, but you don't have to. Excuse me-" he walked over to the drawings. "Sorry, may I?"
"Please," Murray smiled sarcastically.
"Okay, see this room here? This is a storage facility," he circled with the pencil. "There's a hatch in here that feeds into their underground ventilation system. That will lead you to the base of the weapon. It's a bit of a maze down there, but between Erica, Lorelei, and I, we can lead you."
"Me?" Lorelei pointed to herself.
"Her?" Steve said at the same time before he shook his head adamantly. "No - not happening."
"Don't worry, you can do all the fighting and the dangerous hero shit-" Dustin said, more so to Hopper. "And we'll just be your... navigators."
"No," Hopper said with a shake of the head. "Nope."
Steve stepped out from beside Lorelei. "I could go," he offered hand raised as he called everyone's attention.
Lorelei furrowed her brows at that. "Are you insane?"
"What?" He shrugged. "You can go, but I can't?"
"You just said that you don't want me to go," Lorelei argued.
"That- that's completely beside the point," Steve fumbled with his words.
"Why the fuck would that be beside the point?" she countered. "You don't even know how the vents work - you were too busy self-sacrificing to escape with us-" she pointed an accusatory finger at his chest.
"Lorelei-" her father tried to step in, but he was quickly interrupted by Steve.
"What did you expect me to just let you get captured?" Steve raised his arms in frustration before quickly bringing them down. "And um- Henderson and Erica, of course."
"I'm not helpless, Steve!"
"Neither am I!"
Lorelei groaned in frustration. "Look at your face! You've clearly had enough fighting for today."
"I don't even get why we're arguing over this," Steve muttered bitterly. "It's not like they're gonna let either of us go."
David nodded his head, still feeling like he was interrupting something. "No, definitely not."
Lorelei looked over at her father for a moment, her eyes still fiery with the annoyance she was feeling towards Steve. It seemed as though everyone was watching their little spat, but Lorelei was so pissed off that she could not bring herself to care.
"It's not about going," Lorelei replied to Steve. "It's about principle."
"What in the hell is that supposed to mean," he said while running a hand through his messy hair.
"It-" Lorelei paused for a moment. "It means you can't keep self-sacrificing all the time! God-" She took a deep breath. "It's like you don't even care about anything anymore."
With a roll of his eyes, Murray walked over to Steve and Lorelei, his hands pushing both of them away from each other. He turned to Steve first, hands on his hips which were covered by funky blue shorts.
"Alright," he spoke. "That's enough. None of you lovebirds are self-sacrificing or whatever."
Lorelei and Steve both took a step back at his words, their eyes wide. "Excuse me?" Lorelei said before Steve could get anything out. "I don't know who you are, but Steve-" she pointed to Steve. "Is not my lovebird."
Murray looked at her in surprise, then at Steve, back at Lorelei, and his eyes finally settled on Steve again. "Wait - so you are Steve?"
Steve blinked at his words. "Uh- yeah?"
"Holy crap," Murray laughed, looking back at an awkward-looking Nancy and Jonathan. "What is it with you people and running away from feelings?"
Lorelei and Steve watched in silence as he walked away from them, laughs still stumbling from his lips. They refused to glance at each other as both of them crossed their arms over their chests.
The room was silent for a moment, with everyone reeling from the argument that had occurred in front of them. It always felt like watching a dramatic movie, only without the popcorn, and instead of actors, Lorelei and Steve were the ones giving the show.
A couple of seconds later, Hopper was the first to walk away and towards the sack of guns that was on the floor. David Keller stared Lorelei down for a few moments, his eyes searching for what was going on inside her mind, but she refused to look up at him, and so he soon gave up and joined Hopper.
Knowing that no words were going to be shared between herself and Steve, Lorelei walked away as well, her heart thudding against her chest. She walked hastily over to the counter of hotdog on a stick, jumping atop it with her legs dangling.
Her eyes glanced down to her shoes once more - it seemed as though they had become the main focal point of hers in recent hours. Lorelei huffed out a breath of air, her mind reeling from the public argument she had just had with Steve,
She was insanely embarrassed and upset, but most of all, she was confused. Sure, Steve was her friend, and it made sense that she would be worried about him, but the panic she felt when she thought of him going back to the base was not something commonly felt by her. It seemed as though she had been transported back to the moment when she had had to leave him and Robin behind to escape with Dustin and Erica.
Lorelei could not go through that again.
Loss was not something unfamiliar to her. She had already experienced her mother leaving, not to mention the pet fish she had when she was young - which although it sounded stupid, his death had been very traumatic for a four-year-old Lorelei. And that's just in her youth - nowadays, with everything that was going on, Lorelei knew that death could be right around the corner for anyone.
She knew it was not far from her.
But death could not take Steve.
It only made sense - after everything they had been through, that she did not wish to lose him now. After all, who would listen to her rant about movies and music - who would give her rides to the record shop or to the diner whenever she had any nightmares at night and could not sleep? Whose house would she go to in the middle of the night when her demons haunted her and kept her eyes from fluttering shut?
"Hey-" she snapped out of her thoughts to see Estelle looking at her with pitiful eyes. "You okay."
Lorelei shrugged her shoulders as her friend jumped up to sit beside her on the counter. "I'm fine."
"Ding, ding, ding! There goes the biggest lie ever," Estelle grinned as she bumped shoulders with Lorelei. "Come on. Just tell me."
"Alright- I don't know what's wrong with me," Lorelei shrugged. "I've just been very emotional these past hours."
"Dude, you and I both know that was not normal Lorelei Keller behavior," Estelle raised her brows. "Even when you're emotional, it's never public like that."
Lorelei looked over at her friend with an awkward smile. "Was it really that bad?"
Estelle paused for a moment as if thinking it over. "Nah," she smiled. "It was actually kind of entertaining - very Breakfast Club monologue type of shit, you know?"
"Wow, someone call John Hughes and let him know he found his newest star," Lorelei joked.
Both friends smiled at each other for a moment before silence washed over them again. All around them, it seemed that people were looking tense as they prepared for what was about to happen, but as stupid as it felt even to her, Lorelei could only think of what she and Steve had said to each other.
"Stella?"
"Yeah?"
"What that Murray guy said - what do you think it meant?"
"Come on," Estelle sighed. "You aren't this dense, Lorelei. I mean, you can solve any problem people throw your way. Why is it so hard for you to understand what's going on here?"
"What is going on?" Lorelei questioned in frustration. "I really don't understand, Stella. Things with Steve have always been simple - and now, I don't know - it all seems so complicated."
"I can't tell you what to do Lorelei," Estelle mumbled. "And I can't tell you how to feel. But I think you should talk to him-"
"No." Lorelei shook her head adamantly, still sour from the way he had shouted at her.
"I know how you are- you don't like to go to bed angry, let alone go into battle angry," her friend pointed out.
"Maybe my anger will help," Lorelei muttered stubbornly.
"I think he wants to talk to you too," Estelle patted Lorelei on the back, her head slightly. nudging in the direction of another food store.
And lo and behold, whilst Robin was playing with an Orange that was left over on the counter, Steve was leaning beside her with her eyes looking straight at Lorelei. Even with the swollen eye, Lorelei could tell that he felt just as conflicted as she did, as his good eye was looking at her bashfully and apologetically.
Lorelei sighed to herself before she pushed her body out from atop the counter. Her feet landed with a thud, and she brushed off the little clap of pride that Estelle commemorated behind her.
Ever since the fights between her mother and father, Lorelei had created to rule to herself that she would never go to bed angry at anyone - you just never knew when they would leave for good. And so, she decided to take Estelle's advice and apply that rule to this situation as well.
No walking into an intergalactic fight whilst angry at Steve.
Or anyone, really.
"Um- hi," Lorelei said as he walked up to Steve, who was nearly pouting in bewilderment as he looked over at her.
"Hi?"
"I think that-" Lorelei started speaking before she took a deep breath. "You should um- you should probably clean up those cuts before anything else happens. You wouldn't want them to get infected."
Steve looked over at her with his mouth hanging slightly wide. "Are- are you serious?"
"Do I look like I'm joking?" Lorelei deadpanned.
"No," Steve said carefully. "I don't think so."
Robin looked between the both of them, her eyes carrying a small glint in them. "There's an emergency kit in the backroom of Scoops."
Both Steve and Lorelei looked over at her. Lorelei nodded her head before she began walking over to Scoops Ahoy, under the clear assumption that Steve would follow her soon enough.
"Thank you, Robin," Steve hummed with a sarcastic glint in his eyes.
"No problem!" Robin grinned proudly.
Steve rolled his eyes with a deep sigh before following Lorelei inside the ice cream parlor where he unfortunately worked. He caught up with her as she walked into the backroom, silence still ringing in the air uncomfortably.
They had been used to arguing all the time, especially when they had first met each other, but it had never been a serious argument. Or at least, it had never been an argument that felt so uncomfortable before.
Usually, they just glared at each other and threw jabs here and there before deciding that fighting was too much work, to which they started talking normally again. As if nothing had ever happened.
This was definitely not the case now.
"You should wash your face first," Lorelei was the first to speak as she walked over to the cabinet on the side, her body being held up by the tips of her toes as she reached for the first-aid kit.
Steve still had his feet planted on the floor, staring at her with careful eyes as she moved around the room casually. In the time he had known Lorelei Keller, Steve had gotten used to the fact that she was a professional at hiding whatever she was feeling - but he had also become a professional himself at deciphering that which she tried to hide.
This time, however, he did not have a hunch.
"I know you've been awkward with me for the last hour-" Lorelei spoke once more.
"No I haven't," Steve tried to defend.
"Yes, you have." She looked at him pointedly, in a way that made it hard for him to object. "Ever since I came into the bathroom where you and Rob were."
Right, Steve thought.
Lorelei had missed the first part of his talk with Robin.
"And I know us arguing in front of everyone-"
"Including your dad," Steve interrupted.
"Sure, including him." Lorelei could not help the small smile on her lips, but she quickly pushed it away. "I know that didn't help. And we're both tired, Harrington-"
She hadn't called him Harrington in a long time.
"But I really would like to help you clean those wounds," she pleaded carefully. "So, please wash your face."
He looked at her for a few more seconds. Steve tried to contemplate whether or not he should say something else - maybe apologize. But he could not apologize. After all, the only thing he had done was keep her safe.
As he walked to the bathroom, he closed the door behind him and flipped the lights on. His eyes glanced in the mirror for the first time since he had gotten hit, having been much too occupied earlier in the cinema bathroom to look at his reflection, and what he saw caused him to gulp.
He had taken many hits during the past few encounters with fights, but this was the worst of all. Billy Hargrove had been a close contender, however, the look of his eye was what freaked him out, and he could hardly see how he would be able to walk around with that bruise until it healed.
Steve let the water drip down his face as he washed it, trying not to wince at the feeling of water hitting the cuts. As the water rolled down his neck, Steve wondered about why Lorelei had freaked out at the idea of him going back to the Russian base. Any sane person would value their own life above everyone else - or at least, that was what Steve thought.
He had always been the one to look after others, and he knew that despite the worry they sometimes felt for him, anyone would be glad to let him take one for the team instead of getting hurt themselves. But it didn't seem like Lorelei was like that - in actuality, she never had been, but it was now getting clearer. His thoughts, however, were getting foggier by the minute.
The break bathroom door opened and out came Steve with a small smile on his injured face.
"How'd you feel?" Lorelei asked as she sat atop the break room table; the same table she had sat at to chat and listen to music whilst Steve worked - though that now seemed like it had been ages ago.
Steve shrugged his shoulders. His eyes - more like eye, considering the fact that one was so swollen he could barely see - ran over Lorelei as she carefully opened the first aid kit onto the table. She was still trying to hide it behind a calm facade, but he could tell she was worried.
"Come over here," she urged with her voice just under a whisper.
The sound of his sneakers against the floor squeaked in the empty room as he moved over to her. Lorelei slightly opened her legs, making room and indicating for Steve to step between them, which he did.
She then grabbed the cotton pad with her hands, mixing it with some liquid that Steve was too tired to recognize. "This is going to sting - big time."
"Lay it on me, Keller." He smiled lightly, trying to give her some comfort.
Of course, the second she touched his bruised cheek with the pad, Steve winced out with a low "fuck." Ignoring his slight protest, Lorelei carefully reached her other hand to his cheek, holding it softly as she moved the pad around his injuries.
She could feel his eyes on her face as she cleaned him up, but she refused to make eye contact with him. He had worried the shit out of her, and Lorelei knew it wasn't his fault - she really did know that, but it didn't change the fact that she was scared. Not just of what they had once more gotten themselves into, but more so of the fact that she had never feared for anyone as she did for Steve the moment he was taken by those guards or volunteered to go back.
"You should just take up a job as my nurse at this point," Steve tried to joke.
Lorelei glanced up at his eyes, a frown still perched on her lips. "I'd prefer it if you just stayed out of trouble instead."
"I'm fine, aren't I?" He replied teasingly, still in vain attempts to ease the tension.
Lorelei sighed deeply, her fingers still holding his cheek carefully. She reached her hand with the cotton pad towards his eye, and gently tapped it against the corner of his it, not missing the wince that escaped his lips at her action.
There was blood everywhere, and Lorelei felt sick at how swollen his eye looked. "You look anything but fine."
"Geez Lor-" Steve scoffed. "You really know how to flatter a guy."
"I'm serious Steve," Lorelei snapped, her hands leaving his face and placing the bloody cotton pad on the table. "You could have died!" She exclaimed, before her expression turned shy "I thought you had died."
"Well I'm not dead," Steve tried to comfort, albeit weakly. "You don't have to worry about that."
Lorelei bit the inside of her cheek as she heard that. She finally gathered the courage to look up at him, brown meeting brown as their eyes gazed into each other. How could he possibly stand there and tell her that she should not worry about him dying? How could it be that Steve Harrington thought his life was that unimportant?
"Of course, I worry," she scolded. "All I did down there was worry!"
"You had the kids and yourself to care for," he shrugged. "It's normal to worry-"
"That's just it, Steve." She interrupted. "I wasn't worried about myself. I was worried about you."
Now that, Steve was definitely not expecting. He gulped as he stared her down, waiting for the next words to leave her lips.
"I was worried sick thinking that I would never see you again; that I would never hear your voice- or hug you," her voice turned quieter at the end.
There were rarely ever times when Steve felt truly needed around other people. He had been used to trying to make people like him for too long, and now that sort of care from other people felt odd - foreign even. But he seemed to realize that almost every time he felt needed - and not just that, but appreciated also, were the times he was with Lorelei.
"Hey-" he uttered softly, in that low voice that always calmed her nerves. His hand reached to her arm, holding it carefully as he stepped closer to her. "I'm alright Lor. Really- I am."
Lorelei looked at him with that face she always made. The face that said you're an idiot loud and clear. Her brows were raised, and her lips slightly pursed, as if completely unconvinced.
"I'm alright," he repeated. Steve grabbed her hand in his, before raising it to his cheek once more. "See?" He raised his brows with a small smirk. "It's just a few bumps and bruises. I'll be brand new in no time."
Lorelei stayed quiet and instead averted her eyes from his own once more. She ran her pointed finger down his face, carefully observing the small freckles that were barely noticeable to anyone who didn't look close enough. Despite the fact that she hated to admit it, feeling his warm skin against her hand, with his own hand over hers, slightly calmed her down.
When she reached his lip, which was incredibly bruised, she paused. The blood had somewhat washed away from when he had cleaned his face in the Scoops Ahoy sink, but she could see the cut clear as day.
"Does it hurt a lot?" She asked slowly as if dreading the answer she was expecting.
"It's not so bad anymore," Steve replied lowly, his attention not fully on the topic of conversation.
Lorelei nodded and looked back at his eyes, only to find that they were glancing down. "Steve?"
His head snapped up the moment he heard his name, a blush of embarrassment coating his cheeks. Turns out that his little conversation with Robin had messed him up big time - not that he wasn't in deep shit before, but now it was more apparent. And scary.
"Sorry," he replied. "I guess I dazed off for a minute."
The silence in the room was deafening. So much so that they could hear the walkie-talkies beeping from the court, where everyone else was still assembled.
"I was worried too, you know?" Steve spoke up. "That I would never see you again. I guess you were right to be skeptical before we started this."
Lorelei smiled at this, her lips morphing into a smug smirk. "When will you learn that I'm always right?"
"You were wrong about one thing," he answered slowly. "When you said I don't care about anything anymore."
"Steve-" Lorelei tried to cut in, regret flooding her lungs as she wished she could take back those words.
"I care about you," he said before she could get another word in.
Lorelei looked up at him with wide eyes that held nothing but pure surprise. Now that she hadn't been expecting.
"I care about you more than I would like to admit to myself," he scoffed to himself. "I mean- how could I not, you know? You're like perfect. Even when you yell at me, or when you blast your mixtapes in my car."
Lorelei felt almost suffocated in the small room. She could feel how close he was - he always had been, but now it felt different. What bothered her was that she didn't know how to interpret what he was saying.
As for Steve, he could not believe the words that were tumbling out of his mouth. But in that moment, he knew what he was saying was the absolute truth, and he could not find it in himself to regret anything - even if he did not yet understand why he was saying it, or when his heart had started pumping louder in his chest. Even then, he knew what he was saying was the undeniable truth.
"Ever since you came into my life, you've managed to make everything better." He admitted, eyes locking onto hers. "I don't think I say that enough."
"You don't have to say it, Steve." She assured despite the fact that it did feel nice to hear. "I'll always be here to deal with your shit- it's no big deal."
"No one's ever stuck around as loyally as you have," Steve shook his head. "That's a pretty big deal."
Lorelei shrugged her shoulder, suddenly feeling increasingly warm from the neck up. She realized that her hand was still on his cheek, feeling as it warmed up under her touch. Her eyes looked down at the damn shoes she was wearing again - a common way of showing that she was feeling awkward - but her hand remained where it was.
When she finally looked back up, her heart hammered at the sight of Steve glancing down at her lips. His eyes held the same dazed look that they had before when she was running her finger down his face, but this time it seemed like he did not care enough to hide where they were focused on.
Involuntarily, Lorelei felt her own eyes going down to his lips, still bruised, but now without any blood smearing on them from her excellent job at cleaning him up. Her mind went back to the first time she had patched him up, back at the Byer's home after everything had settled down.
She had asked him what they were doing - not even understanding her own question before it tumbled from her lips - and Steve had answered in a truly Steve fashion. But now, she knew what they were doing, or at least had a hunch, but with her mind thinking a million thoughts per second, she now did not know the why.
Fear of the unknown caused her to clear her throat, ending what had felt like hours of silence, but was probably just seconds. She quickly removed her hand from his face and jumped down from the table, her feet landing on the ground with a thump before she turned her back to him.
She now knew what it meant - the rush of blood to her face and the sudden shortness of breath, but she didn't want to admit it, not even to herself. Not yet. Not when they could so easily get hurt still; when she could so easily lose him.
"We should get back to the group," she cleared her throat, already starting to head towards the door.
Steve watched for a moment, his eyes trained on her back as she walked away from him. He surely had not been in his right mind. There was absolutely, positively no way that he had just tried to kiss Lorelei Keller.
No way.
He shook his head before following her out the door with a heavy sigh. It turned out that Lorelei had been waiting for him outside the door, and she shot him a forced-looking smile before walking back towards the group with him by her side.
They did not talk of it.
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