Page 67 of One Little Kiss
Her gaze flits to mine and then she looks away again. But not before I see a world of wariness in her eyes. More trepidation and unease than I can take.
This…is wrong.
It feels off.
I don’t even know what’s so wrong about it, but this is not us.
“So,” I say suddenly, just needing to cut this silence as I put the car in gear. “How was your day?”
It sounds so awkward and forced and…like how my dad makes small talk with the housekeeper. I inwardly wince and curse myself.
“Um, fine. Thanks.” After a beat, she adds, “You?”
“Good. It was…” I think of my day which was spent scrambling to make a plan for tonight and replaying our kiss from the night before, over and over and over again. “It was good.”
“That’s…good,” she echoes.
“Yeah. Good.”
Oh my God, I need to stop saying the word ‘good.’
This is not good. This is bad. This is very bad.
Another silence falls, this one thicker, heavier, and about twenty times more awkward than the last.
And that’s when I realize the fatal flaw in my big plan for the night. The restaurant is an hour away.
My palms start to sweat again as I head toward the highway. Out of the corner of my eye I see Noelle clasping her hands together in her lap.
We have an hour ahead of us…and I can’t think of a single thing to say.
I draw in a deep breath as I reach for the radio knob.
Oh yeah, this is bad. This is very, very bad.
SEVENTEEN
Noelle
I’m in hell.
I take a miniscule bite of the world’s smallest piece of meat, and force another smile for Elijah’s benefit.
The slow classical song that plays beneath the clatter of silverware and the murmur of voices is what I choose to focus on.
It’s better than obsessing over the unbreachable silence that seems to have trapped us in this “prison of awkward.”
“How’s the chicken?” Elijah asks.
And I swear, this is the same tone he uses when he comes with me to visit my grandma at the nursing home. It’s overly polite and painfully charming and…
I hate it.
I hate everything about this date, but I especially hate that tone of voice.
And yet, I nod and smile like an idiot. “Good. Great!”
Great. Just great. Everything’s great.
