****
I found his building without any trouble. It was a lot nicer than I had expected. It was beautiful and pre-war. I told the doorman my name, and he said that Damon was expecting me, but that he hadn’t seen him come home from work yet. He phoned Damon’s apartment and Damon’s roommate, Eli, told him I could come up to wait.
I rode the elevator up to the 14th floor and checked my reflection in the mirror inside the elevator before stepping out into the hallway. Damon was hot. I wasn’t going to lie to myself about that, and I still wanted to look cute even if I wasn’t interested in him. The competition for men in the ward was cutthroat, and I had to be on top of my game in every situation if I wanted even the slightest chance of being asked out by anyone. Guys talked. I didn’t want anything uncomplimentary being said about me.
I found the right apartment and knocked on the door. Eli opened it, and I realized he was one of the guys I had been eyeing forever at church, but hadn’t ever met. My tummy did a backflip.
“Kylie?” He asked. He was totally checking me out and not even being subtle about it.
I cocked my head, thrust one hip to the side and gave him my best Peach Queen pageant smile, but thankfully resisted the elbow-elbow, wrist-wrist princess wave that usually accompanied it.
“Hiiiiyaaa,” I drawled. I had no idea why I had gone all Southern on him, but was mortified I couldn’t stop it. I was notorious for the dumbest automatic responses to cute guys. Why couldn’t I just be cool and normal for once?
He smirked.
“Hey, come on in.”
Of course, I didn’t just casually walk in like a normal person, but actually sauntered into the place, swaying my hips like I was Marilyn Monroe or something. Oh my gosh, I wanted to die. He seemed amused with my performance as I walked past him and demurely perched myself on the couch. He sat down next to me and I turned to him, flipping my hair more dramatically than I had intended. My idiot moves just wouldn’t stop. It was as if my insane hormones had completely taken over my personality.
“So… Kylie… Damon called. He’s running a little late, but should be here soon.” He grabbed the remote to the TV and turned it on, “You don’t mind hanging with me until he gets home, do you?” He leaned back against the couch and made himself a little more comfortable.
I relaxed a little, “Oh, that’s totally fine,” and leaned back too.
We were so close to each other our shoulders were touching. I didn’t want to move, though. It was kind of nice sitting there companionably with him… until he slid his hand over to my knee. I held my breath. My mind was racing. I guess if he kissed me, it wouldn’t be the worst thing on Earth. I actually wanted him to do it. Besides, it sort of went right along with the “Date-like-a-Man” plan. I couldn’t see how it could hurt anything if I let him kiss me. I mean, we did have time to kill thanks to Damon’s awesome lack of punctuality. So, why not? Eli was super hot. It would be dumb not to.
I shifted towards him, hinting that we were definitely on the same page. He leaned in closer and I could smell the faint scent of cologne he had obviously sprayed on before I had come up to the apartment. His hand left my knee and he cradled the side of my face as his lips touched mine. It was just the lightest of kisses, but it was enough to want another. He kissed me again, and my mind melted into oblivion.
“Well, there goes my theory that you just might be different than other girls in the City.”
Eli and I froze. The voice had come from behind us. Crap. Damon. I had completely forgotten the actual reason why I was there in the first place. I didn’t want to look at him. Eli freed himself from the suction of our damning lip lock and looked back at Damon first.
“Hey, man!” Eli sounded a little too chipper, and I snorted trying to hold back my laughter. I couldn’t contain it any longer and erupted into giggles when I had finally turned around to see Damon’s disapproving face. It was just too funny and ironic that Damon, of all people, didn’t approve of the behavior he had actually participated in himself with my roommate. Whatever. I didn’t care about what he thought.
“Hey, nice of you to show up,” I said as my laughter subsided. I stood up, “Well, now that I’m warmed up, maybe we should get started planning the Conference.”
My lack of contrition seemed to bug him, “Maybe we should.” Yeah, he was definitely not happy.
“I’m gonna change. Just a minute.” He walked down the hallway. I heard him sigh before closing his door. Maybe he’d had a long day at work or something. I decided I could be nice and civil. It was what I would appreciate if I’d had a bad day… even if we were annoyed with each other. I could cease fire for tonight.
Eli turned back to me after Damon was out of ear shot and we busted up laughing.
“I can’t believe he walked in on us,” Eli said between laughs.
“Oh, wow… I know!”
“Ok, I guess I should go somewhere else. I do have to live with the guy, and I don’t want to make it worse being here.”
“That’s probably a good idea.” I agreed.
He patted my knee, cocked his head and grinned. It was probably the cutest thing I’d ever seen.
“Alright then, don’t have too much fun.” He winked and stood up, grabbed his coat and waved before walking out the door.
Damon came out of his room just a few seconds later, and I plastered on the fakest smile I could muster, “Ok, so where should we start?” I asked as he sat down on the other side of the couch.
“I think we should figure out who we want on our committee first. Then come up with a theme, and go from there.” He slumped further down the couch and closed his eyes to think.
“Ok, sounds good.” I fished out a notebook and pen from my bag and wrote down names as he threw them out.
His head was resting on the back of the couch. It seemed like he was more than just tired, and I felt a twinge of compassion for him as he struggled to stay awake.
“Hey, I don’t mean to pry, but are you doing ok?” I asked softly.
He opened his eyes and turned his head to look at me. His face looked weary, but it made him seem softer, vulnerable. He was thoughtful for a moment before answering.
“That’s sweet of you to ask, Kylie.” He smiled. A genuine smile I hadn’t seen before. “Everyone has their stuff, but I’ll be ok soon.”
I nodded, and was quiet for a minute before replying, “Ok.” I didn’t know what to think about what he had just told me. There was obviously something he was dealing with, but he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I was surprised he had shared even that much with me.
My phone buzzed. I grabbed it out of my bag to see that it was Jake. Damon had closed his eyes again, so I figured it would be ok to read the text.
Jake was letting me know that his sister wanted the room and was wondering if I wanted to come over to watch a movie. I was confused. He had been dating someone for the last year and everyone knew that “watch a movie” was code for making out. I answered, saying that I was excited about his sister wanting the room and that she could stop by and pick up the key any time. I then added, “Are you single now?” to the end of the text. Sure, I was interested, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes first.
He replied quickly with a “YES”. Interesting. It was a surprise that he wasn’t still together with his girlfriend, but I was also kind of excited that he was now single and available. I decided to jump on the chance he was giving me, even if it was just a NCMO. It would give me some great practice with not letting my emotions get in the way and to just have fun.
I replied, “Ok, I’ll see you in an hour. I’ll pick up ice cream.”
And he texted back, “See you soon.”
“Really? You’re actually going to do that?” I hadn’t realized Damon had been awake and had seen my entire conversation with Jake.
I rolled my eyes, “I can’t believe you just read my texts.”
“It wasn’t like I had a choice… they we
re right in front of my face.”
“But…” the rest of my sentence was silenced by his lips.
I was stunned for a moment, and then quickly regained my wits. I pushed him away.
“What are you doing?” I yelled.
“Teaching you a lesson. This is exactly what every guy in the ward will try to do when they find out what you’re up to. The only difference is they won’t respect you enough, like I do, not to take advantage. You’re better than this.”
Ugh. I couldn’t believe the nerve and arrogance of this guy thinking he needed to teach me a lesson. I stood and grabbed my things, “Nice lesson. I’ll make sure to write it down in my journal and pray about it,” I said sarcastically storming towards the door.
“Make sure you do,” he snarked back following me. I walked out the door and he slammed it behind me.
Chapter 5
I was fuming as I walked down the street to the market to pick up the ice cream I promised I would bring to Jake’s. After Damon’s stupid lesson, I was more than convinced that a movie night with Jake was exactly what I needed. I picked out a carton of cookie dough ice cream and headed to Jake’s.