Page 79 of The System

“Kieran?”

“Yeah?” she asked, looking up at Carina now. “God, you’re really pretty.”

Carina laughed and said, “Thank you?”

“No, like, really, really pretty. I’ve thought it all along. I just never said anything. Now, you’re here, and we’re kind of on a date, and I don’t even know how to compliment a woman I’m on a date with, so I’m just word-vomiting all over you.”

“You think I’m pretty?”

“Yes,” Kieran said. “You wore your hair down tonight. You don’t usually wear your hair down.”

“I wear it up for work a lot.”

“And you had it up at the party. That was a date.”

“Not one I really wanted to be on, though,” Carina replied.

Kieran swallowed and asked, “And you really want to be on this one with me, where I’m rambling a lot and not dressed yet?”

“If you weren’t dressed yet, we’d probably be in the bedroom right about now.”

Kieran’s eyes went wide.

Carina laughed and said, “Kidding. Well, mostly kidding. But you are dressed. And I planned something relaxed, okay? You don’t need to dress up.”

“You’re dressed up,” Kieran pointed out.

“Not really. You just haven’t seen me dress casually all that often.” Carina stood back from the counter and added, “I’m wearing a sweater and black pants. That’s it. Nothing fancy.”

“I bought this shirt online at a site called nerdygirlshirts.com.”

Carina laughed and said, “They could’ve at least called themselves nerdywomanshirts.com.”

“I guess. But their target audience is high school and college students, so…”

Carina walked around the counter and leaned down to smell one of the roses in the pitcher as she placed a hand on Kieran’s hip.

“Show me your office now,” she said as she pulled back.

That touch was unlike any other Kieran had ever experienced. It was something that told her to calm down and relax, that everything was going to be okay, that Carina was there with her and didn’t want to be with anyone else, and that she wanted to touch her. It also managed to turn Kieran on, and it was over the shirt and lasted for about six seconds. She wasn’t sure how one brief touch could do all of those things at once, but as she took a step back because she thought she might fall, Kieran knew that it had.

“Okay. It’s really not that interesting. It’s just a bunch of computers and monitors and stuff.”

“You’re an engineer and a gamer. That makes sense to me.”

Kieran walked around her and was pulled back a little when Carina took her hand and entwined their fingers. She looked down at their hands, joined like that, gave Carina a small, shy smile before she pulled her along with her, and that, somehow, felt even better than the hip touch.

“This is it,” she said when they arrived at the second door after the bathroom and she pushed it open with her free hand. “The gaming computer is the massive thing on the floor by the desk. I haven’t hooked it back up since your team was here and needed to take a look at it. I have a few systems in the living room, so I play my games out there sometimes. I figured I’d add a few upgrades before I put it back where it goes.”

“You have, like, seven screens.” Carina laughed. “I have one when I work.”

“I have three plus the laptop screen for work, but I’ve had as many as six up at once before, when I worked in an office. It allows me to work, review my work in real-time easily, and keep my email and messages up at the same time.”

“And your eyes aren’t exhausted at the end of the day?”

Kieran let go of her hand to walk into the room and picked up a pair of yellow glasses.

“I wear these sometimes. They have that blue-light blocker thing in them, so my eyes don’t get as tired and I don’t get headaches.”

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