“I was in the bath ten minutes ago,” she tells me, glaring at me.
“But you opened the door with no gloves on.”
She rolls her eyes. “You’ve already seen my scars.”
“What if it wasn’t me?”
“The doorman called and described you. I knew it was you.” She gets a bottle of water from the fridge and takes a sip. She doesn’t offer me one.
But I realize that she just opened the door to me with her gloves off, and that means she trusts me. It makes my heart start tripping.
“What do you want?” she asks again. She looks everywhere but at me.
“I want to kiss you,” I blurt out.
“Why?” She stares hard at me.
“Because you’re so damn pretty.”
She laughs, her mouth opening wide. “I look really beautiful right now, I’m sure.”
“You could be wearing a sack and you’d still be beautiful.”
She points to her ear. “Yet I’m hearing, so I’ll never be quite good enough for you.”
She goes to the couch and flops down on it, lifting her bird and cat slippers to rest on the edge of the coffee table.
I sit down next to her. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I should have asked you if you wanted to go with them, and then let you decide if you wanted to spend time with me and with them. I was being selfish. I wasn’t really trying to keep you away from them. I just wanted to have you all to myself.” Heat creeps up my cheeks. “I know it seems different, like I didn’t want you to hang out with my friends, but that’s not the case.”
She stares at me without saying a word. She has no emotion whatsoever on her face. Well, not that I can see her face under the green goop, but still.
“I wanted to have lunch with you alone so I could get to know you a little better.” I feel the need to fan my hot face, but I try to refrain.
“You don’t have to lie to me.”
“When you sent my cap back to me, I knew I fucked up.”
She arches her brows.
I hold my cap out between us. “This is my most prized possession in the whole world. My grandfather bought it for me at a Skyscrapers game and then he died the next week. So I was really worried you would lose it. But then I realized that it was a risk I was willing to take if you would keep holding it hostage, because that meant you would talk to me.”
She still doesn’t reply.
“I think you’re funny, and you’re smart, and if you don’t care that I’m deaf, I won’t hold it against you that you can hear.” She wiggles her toes and the slippers start flopping, so I let my eyes travel up the length of her legs. Half of her leg has been shaved and the other half is stubbly, but she doesn’t seem to care.
Honestly, even with her looking like she does right now, she’s the hottest woman I have ever seen. I want more days like this, where she’s vulnerable and normal. But I’d also like for her to be happy.
I reach out to dab a little of the green goop with my finger and then I rub it between my thumb and forefinger. “What the fuck is this stuff?”
“Avocado mask
,” she says. She lifts the tail of her shirt and wipes my finger clean.
“Now your shirt’s dirty,” I tell her.
She finally smiles. She motions to her body. “Have you seen me today? A dirty shirt is the least of my problems.”
“I think you look hot.” I grin. I can’t help it. “Really hot.”