A/N: I'm back :) quite short but the next one should be longer.
It’s been two weeks since the whole incident on the bus and I obviously haven’t stopped thinking about it. We’re back in the studio again and so I’m having to spend more time with her than is sensible considering the fact that every conversation with her leaves me feeling a mixture of confusion and irritation. Scott, Mitch and Kevin have all picked up on it but if Kirstie’s noticed then she’s keeping quiet. I’m sitting with Ben and the guys trying to work out part of a new arrangement when Kirstie and Ryan walk in. Ryan’s laughing and Kirstie looks like she’s trying to make him stop. ‘What’s up Ryan?’ ‘Maybe you should be asking Kirstie what’s up.’ ‘Kirstie?’ She blushes and ducks her head. ‘Nothing Scott.’ ‘Sure, if nothing is a guy asking you for your number.’ ‘Oooh Kirst. Was he hot?’ She blushes. Kevin rests his hand on my shoulder. ‘Kind of, I suppose.’ She’s nervously playing with her hair and it makes my heart hurt.
‘Hey Avi can I talk to you for a minute?’ We’re having a break from arranging. I’m glad. Even though everyone dropped the conversation pretty quickly it still left me feeling uncomfortable. She doesn’t wait for me to answer and just sits down on the couch beside me. ‘I’m sorry if the whole thing about that guy made you feel awkward. Ryan doesn’t know what happened.’ ‘It’s fine.’ My voice is cold and I feel bad when I see the way her face falls. ‘If it helps I didn’t actually give him my number.’ I look up at her so fast that my neck twinges and there’s amusement in her eyes as I wince. ‘Why not?’ She turns so that she’s facing forwards and I do the same so that instead of looking at each other we’re looking across the studio to where everyone else is sitting, unable to hear our quiet conversation. ‘I’m not sure. He was hot but it just felt wrong.’ ‘Ok.’ ‘What are we going to do Avi? We can’t just act like nothing happened.’ ‘As far as I remember that was your idea, not mine.’
Unexpectedly her head drops to lean on my shoulder. ‘I know. I should have realised it wouldn’t work. It was easy before when it was just sex but now.’ ‘So what exactly should we be doing instead?’ she moves away from me and stands up. ‘I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m really hungry. Wait here.’ She walks across to where the others are working and says something I can’t hear. They look over at me curiously and I watch her duck her head and play with the ends of her hair. Eventually Scott nods and she grabs her coat and bag from the chair and walks back over. ‘Come on. We’re going to get some food.’ ‘Everyone, or just us?’ ‘Just us.’ She starts to walk towards the door and then turns around ‘and before you ask Avi, yes this is a date.’
A date with Kirstie. It was kind of a surprise. I think she surprised herself as well because now we’re sat in her car and we haven’t spoken in ten minutes. The guys looked sort of concerned when we were leaving but they let me go without questioning it so they can’t be too against it. ‘If it’s ok can we go back to mine so I can get changed? We’re not going anywhere particularly fancy but I am a total mess right now.’ ‘You look fine, but sure if you want to.’ ‘Cool.’ She hums the tune that we’ve just been working on and I hum along with her. I try to sing Mitch’s part to harmonise with her and fail miserably. She laughs loudly and I try and look mad. ‘Hey, you would never be able to sing my part either.’ ‘Ok grumpy, I’m sorry.’ She’s smiling as she parks the car and climbs out. ‘Do you want to come in? You can just wait here, I promise I won’t be too long.’ ‘Hmmm I’m not entirely sure I believe you on that Kirstie.’ ‘And just for that you can stay in the car.’
I send a couple of texts while I’m waiting for her to come back. Kevin and Esther have both texted me. Kevin telling me not to mess it up and Esther saying that Scott had told her and that I had better be the perfect gentleman. I completely intend to be. When she walks out of the building I get out of the car and open the door for her. ‘Um Avi, I appreciate the thought and everything but isn’t it kind of weird to open the door of my car for me to drive?’ ‘I’m just trying to be a gentleman.’ Maybe she senses my discomfort because she smiles graciously ‘Thank you anyway.’ ‘You look beautiful by the way.’ She rolls her eyes ‘I’m not even dressed up’ I shrug. ‘You still look beautiful.’ She bites her lip and scowls but the way the corner of her mouth twitches upwards gives her away.
