And apparently, he was going to continue it.
At first, when I felt his knee brush against mine, I didn’t think anything of it. An accidental brushing. But then, he allowed his knee to press against mine, briefly, intentionally... giving me a “kiss”. I almost died right then and there.
“Trip...” I warned.
I hazarded a look in his direction, saw that he was leaning away from me, his cast arm propped up on the armrest to his left, palm cradling his chin. Again, his eyes remained fixed on the screen, but his lips were trying to contain a smirk.
“I know what you’re doing. You know what you’re doing. Please stop.”
He turned his face toward me, his hand now smooshing his rested cheek. “And just what is it that I’m doing, Lay?”
Ummm, threatening to give me a heart attack?
“Just because you’re trying not to watch the movie, doesn’t mean you can play games and distract me from it.”
His eyes were set to ‘stun’. “Is that what I’m doing? Distracting you?”
I ignored the laserlike zap I received in my belly. Against my will, I let out and answered with a heavy sigh, “Yes.”
That seemed to entertain him appropriately. His shoulders shook, silently laughing to himself while I berated myself for letting him see just how distracted I truly was.
He leaned back toward my direction to add in the most dangerous, panty-dropping whisper, “See, because I thought what I was doing was seducing you.”
And that’s pretty much the moment I was sure my spine abandoned my body, as every inch of my flesh turned from solid matter into a melted, gelatinous goo.
“Okay. That’s it. We’re outta here.”
I broke free of his grasp and grabbed my purse and jacket, did The Movie Theater Sidestep out of our row and headed for the door. Trip was at my heels, and I could hear the low laugh escaping from his throat. It wasn’t until we were out on the street and halfway down the block before I whirled on him, ready to give him a piece of my mind, fighting against the urge to give him a piece of my ass. I was angrier at myself than I was at him, but from my tone, you’d never know it. “I’m engaged, Trip. So are you, in case you need reminding!”
“What? Layla. We weren’t doing anything. Are you really mad?”
“Hell yes, I’m mad! And you’re right. We weren’t doing anything. You were!”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
“Oh, don’t Shakespeare me, buddy. You know exactly what you were doing in that theater.”
He cocked his head to the side, aiming those baby blues right into my eyes as he asked, “Trying to enjoy a movie with an old friend?”
I paused, my breath heaving, and stared at him, registering that his eyes were mysteriously tinged with what very well may have been confusion.
I suddenly realized that just because my heart had been beating out of my chest all evening didn’t mean that his was. Maybe he was innocently holding my hand. Maybe he was only being his funny, flirty self when he made those comments about “being bad” and “seducing” me. Maybe I’d only imagined our knee kiss.
Maybe I looked like an idiot right now.
I deflated, trying to calm down, kicking myself for berating him for my own frazzled nerves. I’d clearly worked myself up more than he had. It’s who he was. He couldn’t help himself. It wasn’t his fault if I couldn’t get a handle on my own response.
I swiped my hair behind my ear and crossed my arms. “Okay, fine. I’m sorry.”
He mirrored my pose, arched an eyebrow in my direction. “Hell of an apology, there, Lay.”
That made me laugh for real. I took a deep breath and turned back to him, processed his determined stance. “You’re right, you’re right. Okay, I’m sorry for yelling in your face. And for making you miss the end of your movie. I really am.” I reached out and untangled his crossed arms, wrapping both of mine around his good one. “Forgive me?”
I bit my lip and gave him the puppydog eyes, imploring him to go easy on me.
“Sweetheart, you keep looking at me like that, and I can forgive you almost anything.”
I let out a little chuckle, relieved to know he’d accepted my apology. He only ever called me ‘sweetheart’ to tease, when he was feeling playful.
So, okay. Let’s go play.
“How’d you like to get some pie?”
His lip curled, but before he could answer, a young couple walked out of the theater past us. We watched as the guy stopped his stride and tugged at the sleeve of his girlfriend. He turned back, looking at Trip, skeptical. “Hey, wait a minute. You’re not... Are you... that guy we just watched in that movie?”
Trip looked at me and I gave him a shrug.