Make Your Move...before it's too late

Part Ten

As soon as Cal leaves the cafe Ash rises from his seat, walks around the table and takes my hand to help me up from the table. He picks up the sunflower from the table that Cal had bought me and hands it to me on his knee. Embarrassed, I whisper-shout at him to get up off the floor before people get the wrong idea. He smirks in amusement as pink rises in my cheeks.
"But darling. Is that idea so wrong?" Seeing the look on my face he laughs and reassures me " Jeez, lighten up Lena, I'm just joking, but hey I got you a flower". He twirls it in between his forefinger and thumb and I hear girls at the table near the door turn and giggle aw's under their breath as I yank Ash up by his shoulders, my fingers tingling with even the simplest of touches.
I correct him with as much sass as I can muster "Cal got me it actually".
He quickly masks his disappointment, but not before I see it. He continues, "does it matter more who was the first to give it to you or the last?" I grab the flower out of his grasp and spin on my heels to walk away-faster than needed, to make the point that this is not how it works. I am the one in control -not him! Right?
When I get outside I realise its started to rain and I have no way to get home other than walk. Cal wouldn't even let me bring my wallet this morning, he was being a gentleman, but now I cant call a cab either. As if he read my mind, Ash walks around next to me, curling his arm around my waist and winks at me as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out car keys...but when he presses the button to unlock it, the jet black motorbike I stand in front of unlocks instead. "No way, you must be joking. I'm-I'm not getting on that thing, and especially not with you!"
After a mild tantrum and a smooth coercion by Ash, I agree to get on the bike-I have no choice on the matter really-he threatened to call Cal-not that he would ever actually go through with that. No one would sabotage themselves and their whole livelihood for some girl they barely know-right?
Ash walked around the bike, grinning smugly from under the collar of his shirt-he enjoyed this, he really did. He offered his hand, holding it out after he'd gotten on the bike himself, swinging one leg gracefully over like prince harming on his stallion. Feeling stupid for even thinking that, I ignore his offering and place my hands on either side of his shoulder, remembering mounting horses in my childhood I swing my leg over the other side as my body falls into place, fittingly behind Ash's. I let my legs loosen, previously stiff with the touch of him, so that the hug his side. He looks surprised, and impressed as he hands me a helmet. "Wait, wheres yours?"
He looks at me like it's obvious "I don't have two helmets, I don't usually pick up girls from cafes so whats the need for it?" I hide my surprise, but not well enough. "I know you think I'm a player, and a bad friend. Truth is, I don't know why I like you, hell I barely know if I do, but there is something I feel for you and its strong, and mo matter how wrong you think it is I won't just stand by while Cal screws it up. I'll give him his chance, I'll give him that, but it won't last, I know that, it never does. So why wait until it falls apart to get to know you. Why not fall in love with me before you fall apart with him...." there is a moments pause as I processed everything he had said. I responded sharply, but with understanding-as much as I could muster. "I will go with you on the plane, and I will ride with you on this bike, but I will never, and I mean never be with you. Not the way you want." I watch his back, as his breath rises and falls. "Not until you change your mind, that is." I sigh, "just ride, Ash".
At the traffic light before my apartment I finally loosen up from the conversation we just had, as I do, Ash speeds off fast as soon as the green light flashes. "Fuck!" I yell at him as my hands instinctively move from beside my legs to wrap around his chest, holding tight as my face nuzzles into the crook of his neck, his hair softly brushing against my nose in the wind. I know he is smiling because I feel his jaw move, and I whisper in his ear "you can't scare me into loving you". He parks outside my apartment, turns around fast in his seat so that he is facing me, backwards on the bike and pulls off my helmet. Suddenly conscious of helmet hair my hands fly up to soften it but he catches my hands and places them back on my thighs, with his hands remaining over them, he breathes in and whispers back, "for you, it's worth a shot".