Page 35 of Falling With a Spin

I grab a pair of chopsticks and he hands me one of the smaller boxes, our fingers lightly grazing each other. I take a bite, and it’s so good that a moan escapes my lips. It’s the first bite of food I’ve had in the last six hours when Taylor and I had lunch. Glancing to my left, I see Hunter's eyes darken slightly, and I quickly avert my gaze back to my food.

Our last episode ends, and I start to gather all the boxes on the coffee table to put them in the trash when Hunter stops me. “You have something on your face.”

“Oh, where?” I grab a napkin and start wiping, hoping that I got it.

He laughs a little, and I roll my eyes, but my whole body freezes when he drags his thumb down the corner of my mouth. Hunter shows me the sauce before licking it right off, his gaze never leaving mine. My lips part slightly, and my heart begins beating erratically as my center dampens.

What the actual fuck is happening to me.

“That was good,” he whispers, licking his lips. He pulls back from me, and the breath I don’t realize I’m holding leaves me. “Do you have anything sweet here?” He looks over to the very bare kitchen.

I bite my bottom lip, nodding slowly, and get up from the couch, heading towards the kitchen. I’m not sure what Hunter is doing to me, but no other guy makes my heart beat this fast, my head dizzy, or makes me speechless.

After throwing out the boxes, I grab the milk carton from the fridge and the Oreos from the pantry. I pour us two glasses and carry them along with the cookies over to the couch.

I reclaim my seat and open the container, grabbing the first Oreo. I plop it in my mouth and take a sip of my milk, swallowing the whole Oreo without a bite of it.

I feel Hunter staring at me, and I turn to him with a questioning look. “What?”

“N-nothing,” He stutters, looking back toward the TV. “What do you want to watch? We can continue watching Tiny House Hunters, or we can turn a movie on.”

“I vote for a movie,” I grab another Oreo, dunking it in the milk this time.

“Okay. Now the real question is, do we watch a Disney movie, an action movie?” he looks over at me with a lethal smirk on his face, “or a horror movie?”

“Disney Movie one-hundred percent. I don’t do well with horror movies. They give me nightmares, and I already have enough of those.” The words are out of my mouth before I can even think about taking them back.

He stares at me, and I can’t read the look on his face, which bothers me more than it should. He doesn’t look at me with pity, which should’ve been better, except it wasn’t. I haven’t told anyone about the nightmares that plague me in the middle of the night, that I wish I could fall asleep like I used to.

“When did the nightmares start?” His soft voice comforts me, and it’s so strange that I’m unsure how I feel about it.

“After I left your house,” I begin picking at the nail polish that I got done today as the confession continues to pour out of me.

“Do you want to talk about them, or would you like to turn on a movie that will make you laugh until you have tears streaming down your face and can’t breathe?”

I can feel his stare burning on the side of my face, and all I want to do is go back in time when I didn’t let the words slip from my mouth.

Is it silly for me to have these nightmares? I’m not a little kid anymore; life shouldn’t be like this.

I turn to look at him, and what I see isn’t what I expected. Hunter is smiling. It’s one of those smiles that makes you feel warm and safe. The one where you can spill all of your dark secrets, and they will go into a lock box, safe from the world.

Breathing in deeply, I tilt my head towards the ceiling, trying to blink away the tears. I feel rough callus hands against my cheek as Hunter wipes the tears away, and I close my eyes, memorizing the feel of his touch. No matter how I feel right now, it stops tonight. Nothing can come out of this.

“Sorry about that. I have a lot on my mind right now.” I sit up, pushing back my hair. “I think a rom-com movie would be best right now.” I reach for another Oreo, but he grabs my wrist, stopping me.

“Emma, don’t be sorry for saying any of that. We barely know each other, but you never have to apologize to me for how you feel. You have every right to feel the way you do. You won’t be like this for long. You are strong, resilient, and beautiful.” His hand is still around my wrist as his eyes stare into mine.

My pulse quickens when he pulls me back to the couch and brings me closer to him, resting my head on his chest. “You’re safe with me even if you don’t feel that right now.” He kisses the top of my head, and I relax underneath him as he scrolls through the streaming services for a movie to watch.

I let the thoughts from earlier sink in more. That, at this moment, I’ve never felt safer, even with what Hunter said.

I should have this feeling of running, keeping space from all men. However, I want to be here in the moment, press pause, because you don’t know what tomorrow or a few months from now will be like.

I brush the thoughts away as the title of Forgetting Sarah Marshall comes onto the screen, and Hunter’s arm stays wrapped around me.

Chapter 15

Emma

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