Fall From Grace(12)

“Gray,” she leaned forward and hugged me.  “Why don’t you just try to live a little?  Do what makes you smile.  Stop looking for things that aren’t here.  Just enjoy the things that are here.”

If only it were that easy.  I leaned back and smiled at my friend.  In a blink of an eye, this life would be over.

Conner and Shane strolled in and stopped abruptly, feeling the seriousness of our conversation.  I stood up and without a word walked back down the hallway and into the kitchen to reclaim the coffee I had left there.  I needed to escape before anyone saw me cry.

“Everything okay?” I heard Conner ask.

Shane chuckled.  “Did I piss her off?  Shit, I didn’t make her cry or anything, did I?  She just asked if I wanted my shirt back.  I thought I’d get to look at her half naked again!”

I heard Lea stomp off the couch.  “Shane, you are the biggest egotistical self-centered man I have ever met.  If you think for one minute, someone like Grace would spend more than a minute with you on her mind, you’re more than stupid.”  Her voice got louder.  “Her brother died yesterday.  Ass hat!”

She stormed through the hallway.  The sound of the bathroom door slamming shook the walls.

Within two seconds, Conner’s voice was murmuring to her though the locked door.  I leaned my hands on the kitchen countertop letting the cool granite calm me.

The floor creaked softly behind me.  Shane leaned against the counter next to me.  He was so close that I felt his breath on my temple.  It took all the control I possessed in my body not to scream at him to get away from me.  “I’m sorry...Grace, I didn’t mean to be a smart ass.  I didn’t know about your brother. I didn’t mean to...”

I shook my head and sighed.  I didn’t even turn to look at him.

“I’m being serious, Grace. I know how much it sucks to lose someone you care about.”  I felt him lean in closer and it made me dizzy.  “Look at me.”

I met his eyes with mine, and then his gaze traveled down to my lips.  Of all the male egotistical, crappiest things to do, he was trying to use my grief to get me to kiss him!  I swear, if he leans in and tries to kiss me, I’ll bite his lip right off!

His eyes lifted back up to meet mine.  He had to have seen the disgusted expression on my face. “It is what it is.  You said nothing that affected me Shane.  Thanks for the condolences for my brother.  And, do yourself a favor, don’t bother trying to mess with my head, it’ll be a waste of your time.  I won’t sleep with you.  Just treat me like one of the guys and we’ll get along fine and then you won’t have to stand over me in a kitchen pretending you give a shit about anyone other than yourself.”

He blinked and hesitated for what seemed like an eternity.  Then a devilish smile crept across his face, “Who said I wanted to sleep with you?  You’re just one of the guys.  I don’t do guys.”

I burst into laughter and matched his smile.  Leave it to an egotistical man to make a joke about it.

He slid his hands off the countertop and dropped them to his sides.  His smile lingered for just a moment and he backed away.  “Although, I have to admit.  You are the sexist guy I’ve ever met.”

The totally goofy grin that was plastered on his face right before he walked out of the kitchen made being mad at him almost impossible.  Almost.

After a few minutes, the four of us converged back into the living room and hung   ourselves over the furniture.  For some odd reason, Shane and I found ourselves sitting next to each other on the couch.  Lea was cuddled on Conner’s lap in one of the chairs, and she was spastically flipping through the channels on the television.  Shane was continuously texting someone, or a bunch of someones, and smiling like an ass.