Above Water ✔️

19 - keep the peace

I was avoiding him.

It was the only solution. I was the world's worst receiver of confrontation, so I just avoided him. If I heard him typing on his computer when I woke up, I'd turn my back to him and go back to sleep. In the rare moments that I was alone with him somewhere in the house, I'd find an excuse to get the hell away.

The night after we babysat together and almost . . . I don't know what, I hung out with my drunk friends for hours. By the time I made it upstairs, Dallas was fast asleep.

I couldn't pretend like I didn't want to kiss him. Of course I did. I wasn't blind!

I just didn't want to ruin things if I was wrong. My instinct was to push him away or pretend it never happened. I was an expert in the matter, actually. I would deny, deny, deny until I was blue in the face and then I'd deny some more. Feelings, who?

Unfortunately, while the house was big, it wasn't big enough to avoid someone forever. I had just woken up when I rolled over and saw Dallas standing in front of the mirror.

Wearing a tie.

I rubbed my eyes, wondering if this was just another fever dream. He saw me in the mirror and did a little spin with his hands out. "How do I look?" he asked with a small smirk.

"Am I awake?" I asked, my voice groggy with sleep and an octave lower than normal.

Dallas laughed and walked closer to me. "No. You're dreaming. Kiss me, you fool," he said dramatically and tackled me on the bed. I, having not been ready for any physical touch, braced myself and just held his body. He prodded his fingers into my sides and made kissy noises into my neck.

Butterfly.

"Ha-ha," I said weakly, worried that too much of this would result in an atrocious case of morning wood. I gave him a good shove off of me and he settled on the edge of my bed, his hair messed up. I reached up and fixed it for him, his eyes trained on my face. "What's the occasion?"

He fiddled with his tie, which only caught my attention to the fact that he didn't even tie it right. This man wanted to be a lawyer but couldn't tie a tie? "I've got an interview," he said. I swear a saw a flash of uncertainty in his eyes.

I reached over and undid his tie. "You did it backwards, somehow?" I said, taking it off and wrapping it around my neck. I was shirtless and the satin tie felt ticklishly cool on my skin. "What kind of interview?"

He sat with his hands idle in his lap, just watching as I looped the fabric through itself. "Thinking about taking an internship in the fall and finishing the rest of my classes online," he said.

"Here?" I asked.

"I would have liked to stay in New York, but the firm I'm trying to get into has a really good program for grad students and specializes in what I'm interested in," he said.

I slid the tie over my head and then looped it back over his, fixing the collar of his shirt and tightening the knot as his neck. He looked down, then smiled shyly up at me.

"Well, you better knock 'em dead then," I said.

Dallas looked at me for a moment. I could see his eyes shift from left to right as he read mine. His eyelashes fluttered when he glanced downward, dare I say, to my lips. I gulped, not ready for this already.

"Thomas . . ."

I looked away and instead slipped out of the bed, creating some much needed space between us. I found some shorts and pulled them up. "Did you eat breakfast?" I asked, turning to face him again. He just frowned at me and shook his head. "I'll make you something if you have time."