Not a Valentine

Chapter 44

Once I get back to the living room with a few plates, Mason is still sitting on the couch. I walk over to him, my heart in my throat from the fact that I had talked about him in the kitchen. Did he hear? I hoped that he wouldn't have overheard; I didn't know how I felt about him knowing I liked him. I wasn't ready to tell him I liked him yet, not when it seemed he didn't want to tell me either.

Not that I knew he liked me. Everyone else was saying one thing, but I hadn't seen it from Mason recently. He hadn't been shy around me lately, and he was more talkative with me. What if he liked me, but now he doesn't like me? What then? I couldn't afford to tell him that I liked him and for him to say that he didn't like me.

I glance down at the cake in front of him and say, "Hey! Why didn't you cut it yourself?"

"With the way you were so possessive over the cake ten minutes ago?" Mason retorts back with a little smile. This was one of the first times I heard Mason make a joke around me, and it makes me laugh. Or giggle. Whatever you wanted to call the little noise I had made.

Mason's smile widens at my reaction, something that makes me feel warm inside, and I shake my head as my laughter subsides. I take a seat back on the couch and start to cut the cake. "You want a big piece or a small one?" I ask him as I make the first cut.

"An appropriately sized one," Mason answers back.

"So, a big piece," I conclude as I cut the second part. Once it is cut, I place it on a plate and then hand it over to him. "Thank you," Mason whispers to me in gratitude, and I nod as I move on to my own piece of cake. I get an appropriately sized one as well, and then the both of us sit back on the couch with our pieces of cake.

"Do you want to watch something?" Mason asks as he looks at the television. I don't answer, and he turns to me with a little frown. "You wanted to watch something."

"I know, but..." I trail off with a shrug as I place a piece of cake in my mouth. Mason looks at me for a second, his mouth opening like he was going to say something, like there was something he wanted to ask of me, but he clams his mouth shut. He turns away from me and picks up the remote.

"What are you watching now?" he asks me as he scrolls through the channels on my television.

"Friends," I answer, and he nods as he goes on to find it. Once he does, he asks me what episode I'm on. After the episode is playing, Mason turns the volume down before leaning back on the couch.

I'm nervous when he comes back because he is sitting closer to me, his shoulder is too close to mine, and I'm scared for our legs to touch. But when I go to move, they do touch. I couldn't deal with this. I wondered how, in the show I was watching, the characters were always sitting close to each other and never feeling awkward.

I felt a lot as Mason was sitting next to me. Once he is done with his piece, he turns his head toward me, and maybe he senses how close we are then as well. This was in the middle of the day. If he moved away from me, it meant that he thought it would be weird to sit this close, but if he stayed, it meant that he was okay with it.

He stays in his spot, not moving one bit. "Done?" he asks me, and I nod, to which he takes my plate away from me even though I could very well put mine on the coffee table as well. He places both of ours back and then moves back to his spot. I pull my legs up on the couch, only to find that it means I will be right by his side now.

I stay like that, though. If he didn't move, then why would I?

"Hey, this is a very funny part!" I shout at the TV, my hands moving on their own to be placed on Mason's arm. I feel his muscles tense under my touch, and I fall quiet when I realize that I shouldn't have touched him. I want to move my hand away, but I don't want to draw attention to it.