Some might spill an entire cup of iced coffee on my thousand-dollar suit. They'd be right to do it, too.
But Ash - he knows everything bad about me. That's pretty much all he knows.
He hasn't said that outright, but I can see it in his eyes. When I first met him, I was a total bitch. I worked for the firm of the devil, and my office overlooked that magnificent statue.
It was always right under my nose. How fitting.
Ash nudges the door open a centimeter, and I can see his eyeball peer inside. I jump out of bed and awkwardly run my fingers through the back of my hair.
"Ever hear of an invasion of privacy?" I ask.
He ducks away and issues a quick apology. "I'm used to the streets. Not much privacy there," he says.
I stand and awkwardly cross my feet. I crack each knuckle and sigh. "Never mind. It's fine. Come in," I say.
It takes him a second to work up the courage. If this were last year, I'd be frustrated by the hesitance, but it's actually kind of nice. The whole game of life has changed, and now I can understand that he's just acting out of the goodness of his heart.
It's a bit refreshing.
"You can shut the door," I say.
He shuts it and smiles. "I wanted to apologize," he states.
I take a step forward. The only one who needs to apologize is me, but I haven't found the right way to do it, yet.
"For what?" I ask.
Now that he's clean, he looks like a completely different man. He has thick and shaggy brown hair, a perfect five o'clock shadow, and a lean, chiseled body. For a quick second, I forget our life-changing circumstances, and I nearly give in to the impulse to kiss him.
Like, total French kiss, tongue scraping, hot-and-heavy-action kiss.
However, Ash is a gentleman. He could easily take any girl home with him. That's just not him. Because he has bigger plans. Much bigger.
We both do.
He takes a step forward, this time. "I promise you, I didn't mean for this to happen. All of it just... well, it came at me without warning, too," he says.
"It took us both by surprise," I agree. "But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. I mean, we don't have to worry, right?"
I guess I can't stop thinking about the gun Lucifer gave him. The bullets inside that chambe
r are meant for me.
"You don't think I'm on your side?" he asks.
I look away. "How can I know the answer to such a question? I don't know any of you. For all I know, you're in league with him."
He opens his mouth, but before a word comes out, he pauses to think. "That joy we both felt," he says. "That was a feeling I had been waiting to feel for a long time. Maybe all my life. When I fell to my knees in the lobby of your firm, it was like everything was finally coming together. For the first time in my life, I felt free."
"It was brave," I say. "I'll give you that."
He smirks. "I kind of went crazy back there, didn't I?" he asks.
I cover my mouth and snort with laughter. "You totally yelled about having a gun," I say.
I want to believe him. For now, I'll let go of my fears. I'll allow trust and try to move on.
Another step forward, and we're so close that I can actually feel the heat emanating off of him. I swallow and bite my lip.