Layers(80)

For a long beat I let his words sink in. Is he serious? This must be just another one of those ‘I am totally messing with you Hales, relax’, things. He cannot be serious. Psycho and impulsive as he is, this is over the top nuts even for him.

“Hales, look at me. I’m right here.” Concern erupts from his voice. I lift my troubled eyes to meet his and am taken aback by the seriousness his hazel depths transmit.

“You’re kidding?” I say tentatively. “This is the part where you say just messing with you, right?” I question, swallowing hard, feeling my mouth gradually turning to cotton.

“No, Hales. I’m serious,” he annunciates each word firmly, in a low voice. “I’m trying to tell you that I hate every minute you’re not with me.”

I feel the same way, but this is so soon, so wrong. This screams disaster waiting to happen, in capital letters.

“Daniel,” I start and halt to reassess how I am going to deliver what I’m about to say. “I do feel the same way. Actually, I have never felt as right about someone as I feel about you. This is the first time I’ve actually fallen in love. I have never, in my entire life, felt anything remotely close to what I feel for you.” I pause to take in a much-needed breath.

“This sounds like the beginning of a requiem of the idea to me,” he mutters flatly.

“Daniel.” I touch his face, grazing his mouth with my thumb. “Please listen to me.”

“Go on,” he says, not looking as keen as he seemed moments ago.

“But as confident as I am about you, I’m still not so confident about all of this relationship stuff. I feel that it’s too soon for us to try to live together. This is all so new to me and I feel like it’s completely taking over my life.” I watch him, trying to evaluate whether what I am saying is getting through to him. There is no f**king way I’ll do anything to jeopardize what we have.

“I’m not dismissing your idea, I’m just saying let’s take it one step at a time, let’s not jump into this. It’s just too new to both of us, D. Let’s try and not be impulsive, though it might feel like the right thing. Believe me, I had to fight myself to not stand in your way when you left my apartment earlier today.”

He smiles though the smile doesn’t appear in his stare. “Hales, what I’ve learned throughout life—and believe me I did experience a few things to get to where I am—is that being impulsive isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Impulsiveness and strong gut feelings are what brought me to where I am in life and I consider it quite a good place to be.”

“That it is,” I reply. Who can argue with that.

“So, to summarize, my gut feeling tells me I have found the one.” He pauses to look at me with a penetrating glare, emphasizing the gravity of his argument. Hearing these two words I need to fight my urge to jump up and down and yell, “yes, I’ll move in this minute and never ever leave.”

“I don’t think that acting passive rather than impulsive is the right way to go. But, my sweet Hayley, for once I’ll let you have it your way,” he chuckles.

Thank you.

“I don’t want you running out the door,” he adds, scornfully in what sounds like a non-negotiable concession. D, the last thing I would do is run away from you willingly.

I try to process everything he laid on me. He just doesn’t stop dazzling me. How fast did we get from ‘I don’t kiss if I don’t mean it, I don’t do relationships’ to, well, this. ‘Move in with me’ …

“Don’t get me wrong, Daniel, in my heart I feel like I would do anything you want but when reason sets in and I take control of my Danielized brain, I know this isn’t right.”

He rests his hand on my cheek and brushes my lips with a tender touch of his. I kiss him back and think for a second.

“Tell you what,” I say. “Let’s start with a drawer and a key and see how it evolves.”

“As long as you use it on a daily basis,” he mutters deadpan, but that mischievous amused expression of his slowly sprouts on his lips.

How overbearing of you to summarize it that way. My long speech, and here we are back at square one.

A moment later a low, throaty chuckle rolls out of his mouth. I look at him trying to understand the source of this outburst. Are we being bipolar all the way today?

“Come here.” He enfolds me deep into an embrace. “You’ve been Danielized?” he asks, highly amused. “I adore the hell out of you,” he breathes into my hair.

“You are so beautiful,” he says, his head rested on his propped arm as he observes me lying by my side on his bed. “I love these freckles.” He gently runs his finger from one side of my face across the bridge of my nose to the other.

“And these eyes of yours.” He bends to kiss my eyes softly, lingering there like a ritual. “They have the most fascinating color and I love the spark in them when you laugh.”

He moves to briefly kiss my lips. “This mouth,” he says, “drives me crazy.” He holds my face with two hands and repeats, “Crazy!”

I tilt my head slightly back, giggling, enjoying every bit of his tour of my face. “It’s so sexy. The obscene thoughts it brings to my mind each time I think of it. And yet it also produces these gorgeous smiles of yours that have me agreeing to whatever you want.”