A Way Out

Chapter 18

Dallas never imagined for Christian to open up like that, and it threw her off her guard. During the car ride back, she didn't speak because she was too occupied with organizing the thoughts in her head. Dallas had always wondered who that shy boy in the coffee shop was. That shy boy who gained a blush on his face when her eyes found his.

Now she realized that she had been naïve. Dallas wanted to spend more time with him, but she was afraid she would hurt him in the long run. He didn't deserve that after the pain he had already gone through. She wasn't an easy person, and she didn't want to burden Christian with the difficulty of who she was.

"I enjoyed spending time with you," Christian admitted once he parked in front of the coffee shop that was their haven.

"I enjoyed spending time with you too," she answered. It wasn't a lie, that's what made her feel so conflicted. "You're a good guy, Christian."

A hint of something flashed through his eyes and it went too fast for Dallas to discover what it had been. She wanted to play the moment back in slow motion to analyze what she missed, but that was something she couldn't do.

Christian rubbed his hand over his face for a second, and she could tell that his thoughts took him to another place as he stared out of the window.

Christian's knuckles caught Dallas' eyes as they turned white while his hands gripped for dear life on the steering wheel. It made her feel sorry for him, and she wanted to reach out and touch him in his loneliness. The only problem was that she didn't know if that was what Christian needed, so she refrained from doing it.

"Christian?" she tried.

He blinked before he snapped out of his trance. His eyes found hers again, and what struck her was that the softness she became familiar with returned in his eyes. So much unsaid. There was so much they didn't know about each other and she doubted it was for the better to tell them each other's life stories. She doubted if he could give her the acceptance she sought for.

My eyes kept on trailing over the last sentence I wrote. Maybe that was what Donovan Dane searched for, acceptance. He wanted the man without the 'cold' to be accepted because that man rarely showed. But didn't I already offer that to him? I reminisced about the words he had spoken to me on the beach.

"What would you say to a man who isn't perfect?"

Nobody is perfect, and I accepted that. Did that moment on the beach had anything to do with his distance from me now? I sighed and placed my pen on the table. The coffee shop wasn't that busy, and I had five more minutes of my break left. I smiled when I saw Mrs. Ginny carefully sipping her tea before flipping the page of the newspaper in front of her. Besides Mrs. Ginny, there didn't seem to be any regular customers.

As my eyes kept on wandering, I discovered I couldn't be more wrong. Some icy blue eyes made my blood go from cold to hot, boiling with frustration. The air left my lungs, and I gripped the edge of the table. Donovan Dane didn't even advert his gaze, he just kept on staring at me, and frankly, that angered me. If he didn't want to act civil towards me, he shouldn't be looking at me at all.

I snatched my notebook from the table and stalked over to him, taking place across him without the blink of an eye. To say that he looked surprised was an understatement. I could almost hear his jaw hit the floor, and it made me smirk. Of course, he wouldn't be Donovan Dane if he weren't able to quickly regain his composure. He rearranged his tie that didn't need any rearrangement and said, "Ms. Florence."

"Some men are real dickheads," I stated with a raised eyebrow. I wanted to provoke a reaction out of him, but my attempt seemed unsuccessful.

"Is that so?" he asked, lifting his cup to take a sip from his coffee.