Page 32 of Just Like in the Movies
"Sure. I won't keep you up long."
He shrugged. "I'll let you know."
He led me downstairs to the family room his dad had put in back a few years before Lew and I had started dating. There was a bedroom and a small bathroom at the far end and through the half-open door I could see the room looked live in. "You sleeping down here now?"
Lew nodded. "Mom helps out with Ardan’s kids and they needed rooms upstairs. And I kind of wanted something... I don't know. I was thinking about moving out but Mom offered this. The rent's good, anyway." He grinned and sat on the end of the couch. The remote for the TV lay on the arm of the couch and he touched a button to turn up the sound. "Sit down."
I took the other end of the couch, careful not to get too close. If he wanted something more, he'd have to come to me. Knowing Lew, when he made up his mind, I wouldn't be left in any doubt of what he'd decided.
"Oh, I remember this one," I said when I got a look at the screen. It was an old Gothic romance, not one of her best films but there were some good scenes and occasional flashes of brilliance in the writing.
"Yeah. Her clothes were stupid," Lew said.
I laughed. "They were, but you remember the drinking game?"
"Not for this one." He tossed a cushion at me. "I remember some of the other ones."
"How did we survive high school?" I wondered, thinking about the parties in the woods.
“Dumb luck,” Lew said, like it was obvious.
Maybe he had a point.
We watched that movie all the way through—and made fun of most of it while we were doing it, because it really wasn’t one of Grandma’s most shining roles. Then one of Lew’s favorites came on,A Summer Romance, and he gradually slouched down into the cushions of the couch until he was lying with his head on the arm and his feet only inches from me.
Keeping my hands off him was going to be difficult—it was so tempting to pull his legs up on top of mine and rest my hands on them. But I reminded myself, over and over again, that we were doing this on Lew’s timeline and this time the idea seemed to stick. Probably because I knew that if I blew it again, we were done.
Permanently. Lew had always been generous and warm-hearted, but he was smart and practical too. If even I could see that no good could come out of the relationship if I couldn’t learn how to be a better partner, then that understanding had to be shouting at Lew. So I kept my hands to myself and tried to enjoy the movie. And when the urge to touch him grew almost impossible to ignore, I reminded myself of the five years of sitting beside Lew on the couch watching movies that I’d missed out on because I was an idiot and a fool.
Here’s to a hard lesson. Let’s hope it works.
When the movie ended, Lew stretched a little and sat up. “I’m going to have to kick you out,” he said, with what I thought might have been a little regret. “I have to get some sleep before my shift tonight.”
“Sure,” I said, with more complaisance than I was feeling. “You want to do something tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.” He turned the television off and stood up—my cue to start moving toward the door, I guessed. “I usually come home and sleep until the middle of the afternoon after these. What were you thinking?”
“Petting zoo?”
He laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Why not?” There was a good one about forty-five minutes out of town. It might have been a weird idea for a date, but it would give me a chance to tell more stories from Hollywood and make him laugh some more. “Unless you have something else in mind?”
He tipped his head to one side and squinted at me. “No, not really. All right, petting zoo it is. I won’t be ready to go until at least three, though.”
“That’s okay. I think they’re open until six. We can grab dinner somewhere on the way home, too.”
“We’ll see,” was all he said to that.
Well, it was a start. Now to prove that I could be a well-behaved alpha. “I’ll see you tomorrow then,” I told him and headed for the stairs without giving in to the desire to kiss him, even just a friendly kiss on the cheek. He followed me up and showed me out the door—he’d always had good company manners, even if he got a little wild when he was mad—and I got into my car and left.
Back home, Mom and Dad were in the kitchen, just finishing making dinner.
“You’re just in time,” Mom said. “Get yourself a plate.”
“Thanks.” I glanced into the frying pan and sighed. “Do you mind if I just grab a salad and a chicken breast? I can eat that tomorrow, maybe.” Or maybe not, if I was going to be eating out with Lew again.
“Are you not feeling well?” Mom asked, already reaching out to put her hand on my forehead.
