Learning to be Beautiful

Learning to be Beautiful ~26~

As soon as his lips touched mine, only one thought was occupying my mind: "What the freaking crud is happening right now?" I wanted to do something. I wanted to scurry away from him, but at the same time all I wanted to do was stay right there in that semi-perfect-ish moment.

All too soon--or was it not soon enough?--Linc pulled away from me and looked at me curiously. "Is something the matter?"

"What?" I said, though I think it came out more like a timid squeak.

"Is something the matter?" he repeated, his dark head tilting to one side and his mouth setting firmly in a line.

"I--uh--no?" I found myself chewing on the inside of my cheek as I tried to process what had just happened and what he was saying.

Linc's mouth remained hardened in a straight line as he looked at me--the odd angle that his head was at, however, off set the harsh look so drastically that he looked like an odd looking bird trying its best to be serious. "That sounds more like a question than a statement, Ms. Palmin." Suddenly, his lips were pressed together any longer, and his bottom lip was slightly between his teeth. "Perhaps I misread your signals improperly." He looked around awkwardly for a few moments before taking a few steps backwards. "I'll just... be leaving now."

I found my voice then, and called out, "No--wait!"

He turned on his heel to look back at me, but said nothing.

"Where are you going? Are you seriously just going to kiss me then leave?"

His blinked once or twice before he answered me. "It's obvious that you do not feel the way I believe you did." He shrugged and half-turned away from me. "I merely thought it best to leave the room before I could further make a fool of myself."

Before I could say anything, before I could correct him, and say that I totally felt the way he thought I did, he turned and practically ran out of the room. Sighing, I turned in the direction opposite the one that Linc had just disappeared and walked out the same doorway Gavin had when he made his own escape. I hand't walked five feet when I noticed Gavin leaning casually against the wall, phone in hand. 

"Well that certainly didn't take long," he commented, pushing off the wall with his shoulders and walking over to me.

"No, it didn't," I mumbled in reply.

 It was kind of weird talking to Gavin after having just kissed--or rather, having just been kissed by--Linc. Gavin had never actually... liked Linc much, and if he found out that he had kissed me, or worse yet, that I had feelings for him... He--

"What did he want anyways?" Gavin's words cut through my train of thought and I was forced to concentrate on the situation at hand instead of that kiss.

"Just... to talk." I grimaced; it wasn't good lying through my teeth to my best friend. It didn't feel good. It didn't feel right.

The young man raised an eyebrow at my totally obvious lie, but didn't comment; instead, he swung his arm around and settled onto my shoulders and began to lead me out of the agency. We walked outside of the building in companionable silence for a while before we reached our cars which were parked next to each other.

"Want to come over?" He asked, just as my hand was on the driver's side door handle to my car.

I laughed. "Dude, it's like... eleven at night."

He shrugged it off and waved his hand dismissively. "Details, details."

I rolled my eyes at his puerility and opened the car door. "Tomorrow, Gav. I'll come over tomorrow."