The Neighbor

Part 2: Smasher's Interrogation

The rawness and sincerity in Smasher's voice when he asks to stay melts my heart in to a puddle of emotions. I could tell he didn't do this a lot by the look on his face, unsure and  pleading. "Sure. Stay here."

A light shines in his eyes and he places a hand gently on my thigh, making me want to scream out in excitement. His touch was so pure it made me feel whole again after so long of feeling broken.

"Let's get to know each other." He looks at me with an intensity that would make it hard for anyone to say no, not that I wanted to say to no anyways. I wanted to get to know him too.

"How do we do that?" I ask, unsure how he meant for us to learn about each other. Was he meaning physically or did he want to talk? I didn't want to say either one and sound stupid. I shocked myself when I discovered I was down for either. I was ready to risk it all for this guy I just met. I didn't care that I was still married to Landon, or what people thought of me. People always say I can't be single regardless so what do I care? Maybe I should take it slow with Smasher, but I would let him decide that. I wasn't going to stop him. I guess his choice would teach me a lot about him, what kind of person he is.

He focused on my face, making me feel as though he could read my thoughts and was seeing right through me. "All you have to do is talk about yourself."

I squinted, blurring his handsome face a little. This felt like a trap. "You want me to talk about myself."

"Yep. Until your out of breath." He nodded. "There's so much catching up for me to do."

I push my hair behind my ears. "Why don't you talk about you first?"

He shakes his head. My leg is still tingling from his touch. "No way, it's late, I'm not risking you falling asleep before I learn anything about you."

This guy was such a romantic. I wondered why he decided he wanted to get to know me, he could have anyone he wanted, why settle on the damaged girl? For some reason I started feeling guilty for ever pursuing Blade, if I'd just waited a little longer I'd have something even better, something that was mine.  Don't get me wrong, Blade was great, but his friend is something else entirely. It felt wrong to have crushed on this beautiful man's best friend.

I played with my hands, a nervous habit of mine. "I don't even know where to start."

He sensed my nervousness and rubbed my shoulder. "How old are you? Let's start there."

"I'm 21 years old." I smile, leaning closer. All I wanted to do was kiss him, but I refused to make the first move with anyone ever again.He initiated the conversation, but it didn't completely count. I couldn't backtrack on my word to myself. If I couldn't trust myself, who could I trust?

He looked pleased with my answer. "Good. Now when's your birthday?"

"Good?" I questioned him. "I was born August 19th. What about you?"

He pointed a finger at me. "Hey, I'm the one asking the questions, you'll get your turn."  He kept repeating August 19th in a low voice.

"I guess this is your game." I grin at him.

He takes a sip of his glass of wine. "This is way too serious to be a game. What do you like to do for fun, like hobbies and such?"

"I'm glad, I'm so over games." I take a deep breath, blowing a piece of my hair that had escaped from behind my ear up into the air. I feel frustrated as it falls back down and I tuck it back neatly. "Umm, I like cooking, reading, long walks, ice skating and I'm sort of a movie fanatic."

Smasher gently reached for my ears and removed the hair from behind them. "One of those things is not like the others, ice skating. All of your other hobbies are a very chill."