My lost military man

Chapter 15

I avoided Anthony for the rest of the week. I felt to embarrassed and humiliated to even want to talk to him. After the almost kiss we had things seemed to be on high alert for me, every time he would look at me or try to talk to me the eruption I felt in my stomach would make me feel sick and I would walk away in the other direction. Michael sensed that something was off about us, normally we could share a conversation but lately I couldn't, Anthony would try but I would shoot him down and ignore him. He kept asking if I was mad at him or if I was angry with him, I am mad at him but not with what he thinks I am mad at him for trying to kiss me, I am mad because I was happy he tried to kiss me. I was happy that he liked me like that, I haven't had a guy show this much interest in me and kept pursuing to get to me, usually after the first conversation with a guy they would run away, they didn't like my hostile nature of not letting them in and letting them get to know me, but Anthony is different he has actually tried and not given up on me, the tall and cemented walls I have built up over the years are starting to fall because of one military man that is slowly stealing my heart.
Michael is gone today, him and McKenna were going out tonight leaving Anthony and I alone, I was going to stay in my room while he stayed in the living room watching TV, that was our normal routine now. It was almost seven o'clock when I heard a knock on my door, Anthony walked in with some sort of confidence emitting around him.
"We are going out. I'm tired of not talking to you and I'm tired of sitting around all night long." He said, I was going to decline his offer but he gave me a daring look as if asking me to decline him, I surrendered to him and went to my closet he was satisfied with willingness and left the room. Ten minutes later we were in my car, him driving to some restaurant and me looking out my window.
"I'm sorry." He apologized. I looked over at him to see his eyes intently trained on the road.
"There's no reason for you to be apologizing." I whispered. Turning back to the window.
"Well I obviously should, I know you are mad or annoyed with me in some way, so I'm sorry." My annoyance was starting to increase.
"Stop saying you're sorry and that I'm mad at you." I said in irritation.
"But you are so, sorry." He said again, I pursed my lips and balled my fist up.
"I'm not angry at you! I'm angry at myself!" I shouted, we were at a stop light and he was able to look at me, he seemed astonished that I yelled at him.
"How could you be angry at yourself? I'm the one that tried to kiss you and took things faster than I meant too." He said glaring at me.
"You don't get it do you? I'm angry cause I let you almost kiss me! I'm mad cause I'm letting you get into my head! I'm annoyed cause I'm starting to like you." I whispered the last sentence, but I knew he heard me I could feel tears pricking my eyes, and the lump that was forming in my throat was beginning to hurt.
"I don't want to like you." I choked out. "But I do." I let the tears cascade down my cheeks, not caring anymore my feelings and emotions were already in the open for him to see I might as well let him hear me too. I could feel the cars engine die and my door was opened, his strong hands reached around me and unbuckled my seat belt, then he helped me out of the car and held me in a warm embrace, his strong arms circles around me protecting and shielding me, it felt like he was trying to help put me back together as I cried into his chest. His hands slowly rubbed my back and he rocked us back and forth, his soft lips came down and he kissed the top of my head, his actions comforting me.
"You want to know something too?" He asked, he didn't give me time to respond.
"I like you too." The feeling I got from his confession was so overwhelming, I gripped the front of his shirt pulling myself even closer to the comforting heat he provided. We stayed like that for couple more minutes, probably drawing attention but we didn't care, Anthony leaned down to my ear.
"We should probably head inside and eat." He whispered, his breath fanned across my neck causing me to shiver. He lead me into the lit building, it wasn't a fancy place but it seemed like a casual dining dinner. We were escorted to a table and ordered our drinks. After the waiter left we both looked at each other, I was starting to feel a sliver of dread, questions began to form in my head. What do we talk about? Will this be awkward? Should I really be doing this? I think Anthony could see the concern on my face, he reached across the table and took my hand in his.
"It is ok Lynn, we will take it as slow as you want. There is no hurry and no reason to worry." He said as he intertwined our fingers giving me a reassuring squeeze, then brought my hand up to his mouth and kissed my fingers, my heart felt like it was beating a tattoo on my chest as he starred at me from across the table. After that the conversation seemed to flow out of us, we talked about all sorts of things he asked me about my books and we talked about our favorite movies, one things we have in common is we both secretly love The Lord Of The Rings books and movies, we talked about that for most of the evening we hardly even ate our meal. He made me laugh too, throughout the whole date he continued to make me laugh, from his stupid jokes or funny stories he has from his childhood. It turns out he has a younger sister that's nineteen named Rebecca who lives with there sickly grandfather taking care of him. As we were getting ready to leave and Anthony was paying the bill I looked around the place noticing the layout of the restaurant and the paintings hanging on the wall, I looked over to the opening of the restaurant to see people spilling out of it, my eyes just sweeper over the faces and as I went to look on to the next thing my eyes had to do a double take, there standing by the door looking at me was him, his mouth lifted into a smirk and his evil eyes pierced right threw me, my hands clasped the edge of the table gripping it Anthony placed his hand on top of mine, my head sharply turned to him, his face was a mix of panic and concern my expression was one of pure terror. I quickly looked back over to see him. But he was gone, the breath I was holding shakily came out, my eyes darted to every corner of the restaurant trying to find where he went, I was going to be sick my vision was blurry and I could faintly hear Anthony calling my name, I felt pressure on my shoulders and a shaking feeling took over me, I blinked my eyes but that only made the fuzziness worse, black dots soon clouded the little sight I had and I found it troublesome to breathe, I felt my limbs go numb and then I was unconscious.