Not Scared Anymore

Chapter 27 - Stephanie

As the door closed behind them, Stephanie started tidying the mess they had made.

"Oh, don't worry about that, I'll get it later."

"I feel bad about it though. We come in, eat your food, drink your beer, and then just leave you with everything to clean up. It'll just take a second."

"Or, since I was the one who invited everyone, you could just sit down, relax, and not clean up yet. Unless you are also planning to leave in the next two minutes."

Stephanie put the can she was holding down, suddenly nervous. "Do you want me to leave right away?"

"Not if you don't want to."

Kevin was sitting on the far end of the couch, so Stephanie sat on the other end, leaning her back against the arm rest so she could face him.

"So, Jared and Katy seem nice."

"Yeah, they're great. Jared's been my best friend for a very long time now, and Katy is the first girl he still acts like himself around which is a nice change. Normally he gets all weird and then drops girls after just a few dates."

"That's good. How'd they meet?"

"Honestly, I don't even know. At some point between leaving work and arriving at trivia two hours later, he met her and convinced her to go to trivia with him. She was wearing a Star Labs t-shirt at the time, which was probably the reason he talked to her in the first place."

"Plus, she's got the Disney princess eyes."

"That too." He laughed, "I was trying to figure out how to best describe them, and that's exactly it!"

Stephanie excused herself to go to the bathroom, and spent some time evaluating her appearance. Her light brown eyes were nothing special, nowhere near as alluring as Katy's. Her lips showed the barest hint of the colour she'd applied earlier, but her mascara hadn't started flaking yet. She pulled the elastic out of her hair and shook out the bun, using her fingers to fluff it up as much as possible. She had spent some time styling it in the morning, and was pleased to see the elastic hadn't left a huge crease. She touched up with just a hint of tinted lip balm, and straightened her shirt before heading back out.

Kevin was looking at something on his phone, but put it down when she came back in the room. His eyes widened as he took in her slightly improved appearance. She smiled shyly and took the seat slightly closer to him on the couch. He looked back at the television, cleared his throat, and they went back to normal conversation.

Talking to Kevin was easy. They talked about family and friends growing up, and he told her all about the situation between his parents and Uncle Dean, and the lunches they share on occasion. Stephanie tried to redirect towards dating by mentioning how funny it was when she found him on MatchedUp, but he chuckled robotically and mentioned a new show he'd been watching on Netflix instead.

Stephanie enjoyed hanging out with Kevin, and admitted he was pretty cute. She thought he was attracted to her, but he seemed to change the subject every time she tried flirting. After being with Mark for so long, she knew she was out of practice, but hoped she hadn't gotten so bad at it that it wasn't even worth responding to.

They decided to watch one episode of the new show together. Stephanie turned to face the tv and curled her legs up on the couch beside her. It was a British sitcom, and she found herself laughing most of the episode.

"You laugh a lot." He smiled at her when he said it, and she thought he was laughing at her.

"Oh, sorry."

She felt dejected by that comment, but he quickly clarified, "No, it's a good thing. You have a nice laugh. I like hearing it."

Stephanie felt herself blushing, and as she looked at Kevin, she noticed the tops of his ears getting a bit more red. She smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear. He cleared his throat again and looked away. Stephanie looked at her phone and realized it was already after 11 pm.