| Brian had had an unsettled night's sleep. His dreams had been filled with visions of Sue, and things going wrong. She was always just out of his reach, no matter how hard he tried to reach her. He woke in a lather of sweat, the sheets tangled around his legs. He sat up, trying to make sense of the night he had had. The night out, despite being a disaster and making him feel like one of the biggest fools, was one of the best. He was glad Kevin had asked him to come along to Tabu, because meeting Sue was one of the best things he could have done. He knew in his heart he was already falling for her in a big way, and he wanted to get to know her a lot better. If only he could get over the fact that he was so shy around new people, especially when it was a girl he liked. And he definitely liked Sue. He ran his fingers through his hair and wondered how the day would go. Surely he couldn't make any more stupid mistakes like he had yesterday. He would be on his guard the whole time he was there. If he was ever going to get there, he had better make a move. He had to pack for their week away in New York. It really was bad timing. All he wanted to do now was spend time with Sue and get to know her. He wanted to be with her. Well, he had today, so he had better make a move so he could get there as soon as possible. A short distance away from Brian's house, Sue's night was filled with dreams of smiling blue eyes and she woke with a smile. Last night had been one of the best nights out she had had in a while. She knew the reason, and that reason was Brian. She would have to thank Kevin some day for insisting she went along. Brian had buried himself into her heart in just one evening together. His shy, nervous character was endearing, but the man himself had totally broken her resolve not to fall for another man for a long time. Just one look at Brian when she entered the club had changed that resolve. She was looking forward to today, when Brian would come to see her again. Her body tingled at the thought of being with him, even if it would only be to work on her website, straightening out the statistics that had so confused her. The whole morning, one thing was on her mind, and it was Brian. She wanted to be with him, she wanted to talk to him. She wanted to get to get to know him like no one else did. She tried hard to start the work on the website, but her mind was forever wandering. When would he get here? She kept watching outside. She wanted as long as she could with him, seeing he was going away. Finally her mind got on the job of the work at hand and she sat concentrating. She was glancing over sheets of stats, three pointers, rebounds, assists. She had names and teams and cross references all over the place and her mind was a jumble of numbers and names. When a knock at the window broke her concentration, she jumped, knocking a glass of water all over the papers she had been reading. She squealed and tried to dab the papers dry, noticing Brian through the window looking horrified that he had done it again. She smiled to herself. He really had to calm down a little. She waved to him through the window, calling to come on in, the front door was open. She continued to dry the pages as she waited for him to get to her. She turned to look in the direction of the door when she saw him appear there. He just stood there, not knowing if it would be a good thing to enter after what he had just done. This day was starting out as last night had finished off. His mouth opened and closed as if he wanted to say something, but he wasn't quite sure if it would be a good idea or not. "Hi" she said cheerfully. Phew, she wasn't mad. "Come in, come and see the mess I am in," she said and he cringed. Sue grinned and his heart skipped a beat. "I mean the web site itself, not this." She held up the wet pages. "Sue, I'm sorry about that. Seems I am starting where I left off last night." "What are you talking about? The water?" He nodded. "That was my fault. I am always telling myself not to put anything liquid near my work. This is something I do a lot, but I never seem to learn. One day I will." She stopped and looked at him, and he felt himself drowning in her gaze. "So, how are you today?" she asked. "I'm good," he answered her. "I'm all packed for next week, so I am free for the day. Hopefully I can help you decipher those." He pointed to the wet pages. She grinned again. She really had to stop doing that if she wanted him to be any help today. If she kept it up, his brain would be fried. "Great. I really don't know what the average basketball fan wants, and what is appealing to the eye for them. Your input will be wonderful. I have checked out the official site and checked some of the bigger teams. I have an idea what I want to do, and how to get it like that, but I still need help." "Great, that's why I'm here," Brian said, but he knew there was a whole lot more than that involved in his decision to spend the day with Sue. "Would you like a drink or something first?" "Um, no, I don't think that would be a good idea," he laughed. "Better do this stuff first. They both sat down to look at the work at hand. She showed him the work she had already done and he was impressed with what he saw. When he saw what it took to get the pages to look like they did, he was even more impressed. Soon they were sitting there together, discussing the merits of different ways of presenting all the statistics that made sense to him, on the webpages that made sense to her. Together they made a great team, and before long it was looking a lot better than she had expected it to and she was understanding a lot more. Brian sat back to look at Sue hard at work changing a particular part of the main page. He liked what he saw and ached to touch her. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. He reached over to take a piece of paper that had slipped from the rest, just as she was about to do the same thing. Their fingers touched and they looked at each other, their eyes locking. Brian's heart began to race. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to so badly. He wished he knew if she wanted him to. Sue wanted exactly the same thing Brian did. All morning she had been wishing he would get closer, look at her like he was looking at her now. Finally he was taking notice of her in more ways than just someone needing help with basketball statistics. As he looked deeply into her eyes, the two of them moved subconsciously closer. She could feel his breath on her lips and felt her body heating uncontrollably. His eyes told her he was going to kiss her. He just needed to know. She lifted her lips up, closer to his in silent consent. He was closing the space and she was ready. The computer dinged at them and the two of them jumped apart in surprise. Sue felt immense disappointment. She looked at the computer, trying to regain a steady rate of breathing, and silently cursed it. Any other time it would take forever to upload those files, but not this time. She was sure they had gone in record time. In her frustration, she tapped a few keys for the next lot of files to be uploaded and accidentally closed the program down. She sighed as she waited for the program to reopen and download information. It must be time for a break. Brian, however, felt slightly relieved that the computer had interrupted them. He watched as Sue's fingers flew over the keyboard and realised she was frustrated. He hoped it was because they had been interrupted, but he wasn't sure. He wanted to be sure. She sighed and suddenly looked up at him. "Brian. I think it's time for a break. Would you like some lunch?" Her sudden change surprised him. "Umm, sure." She jumped out of her chair and headed to the kitchen. Brian blinked and got up to follow her, smiling to himself at the thought he might have caused her sudden state of confusion. This was a good sign. Brian watched her as she made a quick salad and drinks. He offered his help, but she refused, telling him to sit at the table while she worked. He felt awkward, but it allowed him to watch her without being caught. She had her back to him making small talk about her work and how she knew Kevin, not giving a lot about her life away, but it let him watch her and just wish he knew her better so he could go and wrap his arms around her from behind, turn her around and kiss her till the world stopped. He shook his head, wondering where that thought came from. But he knew where. It came from his heart, it was exactly what he wanted to do. He just needed the courage. The rest of the day went in the same manner. Brian was relieved not to have caused any more accidents, and was growing more at ease at being here with Sue. They finished the work for the website and even he had felt proud of his contribution to making it look so good. They made a great team. As the day was drawing to a close he found himself reluctant to leave. He didn't want to go till he absolutely had to. And if that meant till the wee small hours of the morning, then so be it. He hadn't felt like this before, to be so attracted to this woman scared but excited him. There was something about Sue that had him entranced. "Sue, would you like to go out to dinner with me." He saw her slight hesitation. "Nothing fancy, just somewhere we can spend a bit more time together, before I have to leave tomorrow." "Like…. As in a date?" She asked him. Brian smiled at her shyly. "Yeah, I guess so. Would you like that?" Now it was her turn to smile shyly at him. "Yeah, I would." It had been a while since she had been on a date. She wanted to go and have this one work out for her. None of her dates ever did for one reason or another. But she felt confident about this one. "No need to get changed," To him she looked adorable and he didn't want her any other way. "Well. Just let me freshen up then." He nodded and let her go. He thought about the coming evening, or date, and wished he had more courage when it came to women, this one in particular. Would he have the nerve to kiss her? He wanted to. When she came back out looking as wonderful as before with just a change in her sweater, he smiled. He sure did want to kiss her tonight. |