In Denial | Completed

The first time they touched

The tyre was flat and Vann didn't have a spare one in his truck. He had explained that with a guilty look on his face as she climbed out of the car to inspect the damage herself. Not as if she had any knowledge about fixing cars. Or cars in general.

"I could call us a cab? Or we could walk. It's like twenty minutes more and I don't know when a cab would even be here."

When she didn't answer (because she didn't feel like that was her decision to make) he kept on mumbling, "I suppose I could at least ask how long it would take, though."

He fumbled with his phone for a second, but before he would actually press the phone to his ear, he looked up at her as if contemplating something. 

And after a second he asked, "Are you hungry?"

The question threw her off.

Vann licked his lips and continued, "there's a 24-Hour Diner right around that corner and I've been craving waffles since this morning."

"Waffles? It's like midnight," she said, only to delay an answer.

But he just shrugged and send a cheeky smile her way. His smiles were going to be the death of Vanessa.

Considering that she had last eaten at 4 o'clock before her last class had started, it was safe to say that yes, she was hungry.

There was no harm in enjoying a midnight snack, right? So, she enthusiastically nodded and watched how his smile grew bigger.

He went to the trunk of his car and took a sweater with him. It was cold, after all.

Side by side they started the short walk to the dinner.

She caught herself being way too aware about the distance between their two bodies. How much space was normal? 

It was like her intuition regarding that question had shut off for the day and she found herself thinking about it for the entire walk. One time she nearly ran into a tree when she felt like they were too close. But more than one time their hands nearly brushed and she noticed too late that they had drifted towards one another.

"So, waffles?"

The second she had spoken that out loud she could've cursed herself. An idiotic question. She didn't even know what she had wanted to ask him with that.

He sent her a teasing smile as if he knew her thoughts.

"Yeah, waffles," was his easy answer. Then, a pause. "Do you know what you want to eat, yet?", a miserable attempt at keeping their conversation going.

"I'm always so indecisive when it comes to things like that." She smiled.

"Things like that?"

"Well, yeah. Things where every choice would be a good choice. Like, waffles are great, but then what about burgers?", she contemplated.

"You don't like making choices, huh?", he wanted to tease her, "I could surprise you with something," he looked like he was already thinking about what that could be.

"I hate when choices are taken away from me, though," she mumbled quietly in a way that was too serious for a conversation about food, but she wasn't sure if he had heard her. She peeked at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he already looked at her.

So, to lighten the mood she added, "But it's just food, so please surprise me," and then, "I'm vegetarian, though."

He looked at her as if she was stupid when he just dryly said, "I know, Vanessa."

And her name had never sounded more beautiful.

***

He came back with a serving of waffles, pancakes, a veggie burger cut in half and two plates.