Inertia

I backed up against the chalkboard, trying to distance myself from him. He inched closer, hesitantly, trying not to make me uncomfortable.

Too late. I felt like I'd just run for five miles straight without a break-my heart was being loudly and hard, and my lungs couldn't seem to hold on to any air. "Uncomfortable" didn't even begin to cover it.

He came so close to me that we were almost touching. He put his tanned, muscular arms on either side of my head. I brought my eyes up from the ground to look into his dark, beautiful, kind and warm ones. "The minute I saw you, Maya," he whispered, "I started moving, and there was nothing in the way, no impediment that could possibly slow me down. There's nothing that can stop me now, except you. I'm willing to keep moving... and I don't think I'll ever be able to stop feeling the way I do about you."

"Noah," I croaked, trying to find something to say, scouring my mind for the right words to respond with. He was right. There was nothing to stop us.

Noah took his hand from above my head, and laid it tenderly on my waist. "So... what do you say?"