Part 24

Wow, talk about a mood shift. It's as if entering my vehicle was some sort of dimensional portal to Awkward Town.
"Hey Christine?"

"Yeah?"

"We're both messed up."

"What..."

"...I barely ever leave the house except to get art supplies. I forget to eat some days."

"I don't und...

"...What I'm trying to say is that I know I've seen you at your worst and that I understand that that must make you feel very vulnerable, but, I would never..."

"...Stephen stop. I trust you. I just ate to much at dinner and am now sleepy is all. O.K."

I catch a wisp of a smile edging around Christine's lips before she turns back to gazing out the passenger window, felling the tense atmosphere from earlier dissolve into comfortable silence.

*

Can a persons back be described as hopeful, because that's the only way I could express the feeling I got looking at Christine walking up to her door.

"Hey Stephen, thanks so much for tonight. It felt good to laugh for a change."

If I hug her will she freak out? Oh well, guess we'll see. "You are most welcome. Apparently I do enjoy the company of other human beings, which will please my mother no end."

************

Stephen's long, lean, arms enveloping me was an odd, yet not unpleasant, feeling.

"No screams of horror, nor kicks to the groin. May I take that as consent after the fact?"

I suppress a giggle and push away from him.  "You may this once, however, try it again and I'll end you."

"Duly noted. Well, it's late and you have work tomorrow. Let me know how you get on with your car. Night."

"Night."

I watch him shuffle back into his car and drive off, lingering in the warmth of a newly formed friendship.

*

"So how did the date go?!"

"For the last time Shelly, it wasn't a date, we're just friends."

Shelly treats me to a world class eye roll then heads back into her room. I flick off my heels and rub my aching feet. "Thanks for the loan by the way."

"Any time honey."

************

I rush in the door and start digging around my studio for a spare canvas and the right paints. I have to capture how I feel at this moment or it might disappear and I'll never be able to know it again.