Thick & Thin

Chapter Thirty-Four; Full of Regrets

Sleeping peacefully in the comfort of someone else's humble abode, Michelle shifted under the blanket draping her body and sighed sheepishly. The sound of someone chuckling in her presence put a complete stop to her peace in dreamland and frightened her. "What the hell?" she thought- telling herself that she was hearing things.

Slowly prying her eyelids apart, a frown appeared on her face once she realized she hadn't left Brian's place from the night before and was sprawled out on his sofa; neatly tucked away under a blanket that he more than likely put over her after she dozed off.

"Wow!" She muttered catching a glimpse of him disappearing into the kitchen.

She bit her lip and palmed her forehead after sitting up. 'Damn, after the second date, you're already spending the night and waking up to him in his boxers. Pure genius Chelle.' she mumbled sarcastically and stood up scratching her head and looking around the spacious loft for her belongings; her thoughts contradicting that exact statement.

Feeling the urge to just sneak out without saying a word, she was hoping the tiny clutch she had carried to dinner the night before would hurry up and come into view. She really liked Brian, but for some reason she felt that this was moving too fast.

Letting the events of the night before play out in her head, she couldn't help but regret the fact that she'd let her guard down so easily. They'd done nothing more than a little innocent kissing and touching but much to Brian's dismay that was a huge step for Michelle. After ending things with Kevin, she'd gone another 2 years living the single life and slowly falling back into her old ways. At least she knew a little bit more background information on this one, due to their prior friendship and connect to his family. Now if he was hiding a wife and kid somewhere too, she was convinced that she'd be growing old with a dozen cats living with her.

"Mornin' sleepy head." Brian walked into the living room with a glass of Orange Juice.

Completely jilted by the sound of his voice, Michelle swirled around and crossed her arms trying her best to maintain the cool persona she had going. She already knew he was going to make this hard for her just by the way he stared at her.

"You know, you look even cuter all knocked out with your mouth open." he chuckled and licked his lips.

Letting her eyes fall from his handsomely engraved facial features to his ever so perfect bare chest she replied over a nervous giggle. "I was just leaving. I didn't mean to intrude that long.."

'Intrude?' The word lingered on the tip of Brian's tongue with a handful of questions to follow. By no means was she intruding, but of course she couldn't comprehend that.

"I guess I was a little bit more tired than I thought huh?" She spotted her belongings on the bar stool across the room before slipping her shoes back on and trotting on over towards them.

Brian frowned, obviously confused. "You in a rush or something, Chelle?" He tried his best to figure out why it was so important for her to get out of there all of a sudden. She'd just woken up and was already acting 'iffy' on him.

"uh, No." She waved him off and approached his path in order to get to the door. "I just have somewhere to be later."

"Exactly." he caught her arm and rubbed her wrist gently with his thumb. "Later. It's 10:00 in the morning Michelle. You got time." he flashed her yet another heartfelt smile; making her melt. "Now can you please, just sit down and continue keeping me company?"

Now how the was she suppose to say 'No' to that?

"huh?" he pressed the question; noticing the torn look on her face.