Chapter One – Timing is Everything (page 2)
by Shiloh
Visibly upset, she wiped away a tear. Looking straight ahead again, “I know, I know. Just stop saying it please.” Regrouping with the singleness of mind that only youth exhibits, she doggedly turned the conversation back.
“So, that was your girlfriend last night?”
The teacher shot Grace a look, “And you shouldn’t be asking me questions like that!”
She turned to the window, covering the tears on her face with her hand.
Mr. Dimitri watched her and softened. She touched his heart and he could not turn away from her again. Answering the question that should never have been asked, he made his fatal error. “She was my girlfriend, a long time ago, in college. Now we’re just”-- looking introspective -- “...friends.” He looked up at Grace, smiling.
He’d given her hope and the tears stopped. Looking at him, “Oh” is all she managed. As she shifted her gaze from his eyes to his mouth and back, the silence became physical, as did his attraction to her. He gazed at her tear stained eyes, her full lips, and back with longing to her eyes. In case he didn’t get it, she repeated her look, but the teacher understood perfectly well.
In one last desperate attempt to save her, and him, he warned “You’d better get out of the car now.”
Disregarding his warning with a raised eyebrow and coyness beyond her years, she dared him with “Why?”
Somewhere in his mind, locked away, part of him was insisting ‘No!’ but she had unlocked another part of him. His body, of its own volition, shifted towards her. Mesmerized, they edged closer to the precipice. Fearing this chance would be lost as was another, she leaned towards him. She needn’t have worried though, that he’d change his mind, come to his senses. It was as if the world had stopped and there was only his desire to kiss her, overwhelming reason, and logic, and rules. He leaned in, until he was so close she could feel his breath. Pausing, questioning eyes raised to hers, giving her one last opportunity to escape. She couldn’t move. He very slowly closed the gap, brushing her lips gently, waiting for her reaction. When she closed her eyes and offered no resistance, he lightly caught her bottom lip with his. He pulled back slightly. Lips barely touching, they shared the same breath. His hair fell forward and swept her cheeks. Reaching his left hand out as if to pull her nearer, it paused, and dropped. And then the world started up again. The spell broken by the sounds of a dog barking fitfully at them. They both leaned too quickly back to their own seats. Running off, the stray dog threw nervous yips back at them. Once more the teacher, he looked nervously around him, but the streets were still empty. Grace looked at only him. Now it was the teacher’s turn to look uncomfortably straight ahead. He grasped the steering wheel tightly. It was a moment before he regained his composure. Silent, Grace watched him.
Apologetically, all he could say was “Grace.” She said nothing, only waited for him to go on.
“I’m sorry. I ...”
“I’m not” she interrupted, “sorry, that is.”
“I didn’t mean to..., we can’t...”
They were both startled by a loud knock on the window. Grace rolled down her window as Lily leaned into the car. “Hi, Mr. Dimitri!”
With a guilty stammer that only Lily would not pick up on, “Oh! Umm, I was just...it was cold outside and...”
“Oh, I know. Thank you so much! Grace, would you give me a hand with the groceries?”
“Sure”, relieved her mother hadn’t seen anything, Grace hurriedly got out of the car before she did see.
Contemplating, the teacher uncomfortably ran his hand through his hair. Briefly, before his lips brushed hers, before that whisper of a kiss, he had thought, ‘Would it be thrilling or awful to kiss her?’ and he wondered now, how it had managed to be both. Once, he remembered asking her if she could keep a secret. He started the car and turned into the street. The sound of tires on wet pavement spoke to him. “Shhhh”.