Heart of the Sea

Chapter 32 - Heart of Gold

The appointment with Whale went fine; her leg was healed, though it needed time to recover. He gave her a sheet of exercises to help regain her mobility, which, to her dismay, would happen gradually over the next few weeks.

The day after that, Lili met with the sketch artist they found. His name was Apollo; he was good, and he was actually kind of cute.

Emma snorted when she found Lili leaning over his shoulder as he drew. The young man had bright blond hair and bright eyes. His face was well-sculpted, as was the rest of him. "You don't have a type at all," Emma murmured as she passed by.

Lili's cheeks flushed as she snorted. "Nons'nse. Yeah, a little more shading there, by his cheek."

Apollo glanced up at her and Lili felt an old spark light inside her. She covered it in anger and the memories emblazoned in her brain. "Perfect. Yes." She straightened, limping a few steps away, stretching her legs, hands on her hips.

"Don't have too much fun while I'm gone," Emma called on her way out the door.

"Bye Emma!!"

Apollo glanced back up at her after a moment. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. 'T's fine." She quickly swept a hand back to his papers. They'd succeeded in getting two down. Three to go.

It took another few hours for them to capture the rest of the faces, Lili often stepping into his space as she watched him work, tension beginning to fill in the space between them. More than once she caught herself looking at his perfect lips, taking in his sweet cologned scent, wishing for the fifteenth time that she'd bathed recently. He was nice, and if she was still good at catching signals, he was feeling the same way she was. "Well, I'd better get these down to the station," he said, standing up.

"Yeah, probably. Thanks again f'coming."

"Sure," he said, grinning lopsidedly.

Depths he was attractive. Just-

"You're an artist, aren't you?" he asked.

"H-what?"

"An artist. The way you talked, it sounded like you knew what you were doing."

"Oh, yeah, sort of. I dabble," she grinned, turning her embarrassment into bashfulness.

"Really? Can I see some of your work?" Something lit in his eyes.

Her eyebrow twitched as his gaze did not waver.

Her mouth opened, and his eyes caught the movement.

Depths. This could go either way.

After a rather long silence, Lili closed her mouth, swallowing. "Sorry, not t'day, lad. It could still use some fine-tuning."

He nodded. "I understand." He blinked a few times, raising his hand, which was still holding the papers. "I'm gonna..run these over."

"Yeah. Alright. Safe journey."

His eyebrow and the corner of his lips twitched at the odd phrase, but he nodded as he headed to the door. "Thanks."

The door shut and Lili turned, swearing quietly, kicking a foot at the air. "The hell is wrong with me," she muttered. That could've been something. A brief something, granted, but something nonetheless.

No. She'd done the right thing.

....The right thing??

Where the hell had that come from??? When had right mattered??