A Taste of Spring

Chapter 8

SPRING

"I was wondering," Spring said after eating in silence for most of the meal. It was different-the silence- but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence where she felt the need to fill it. When Dez nodded she continued, "Do you step up, playing the boyfriend for damsels in sticky situations often?"

"Not habitually, no." He tilted his head as if thinking. A smile stretched out his full lips, allowing his sparkling teeth and sexy dimples to make an appearance. "I wouldn't look the other way if a woman was being attacked, but usually I try to mind my own business." This content © Nôv/elDr(a)m/a.Org.

"But you didn't tonight." Spring was curious to know why.

He seemed to think about it before he answered. "I suppose there was something about you that made me want to be your...man."

While Spring frowned at the answer, Dez lifted his glass to his lips and drank.

"Do you have one?"

"Have what?"

"A man in your life?" Dez held her gaze, waiting for an answer.

Spring's frown deepened. Why would I go to a stranger's loft, at night, and alone if I had a man? What did he take her for? She pressed her lips together and was about to ask exactly that but held her tongue. His question was probably not meant to offend.

Spring tilted her head and gave her best innocent pout. "Can we continue with the mystery? Keep our info, personal."

Spring watched Dez closely for a reaction as she continued to eat. Would he get suspicious or freaked out? (Will he ask me to leave?) She was going to blow this. Great way to show your sister a bit of gratitude. Getting her fired.

What Dez gave her was little to nothing. His face was a stoic blank slate. He said nothing for a minute or so then he spoke. "Nothing personal tonight," he raised his finger in the air "but what we divulge, we answer honestly and I need to know one thing."

"Alright," Spring agreed but tried to hide the fact that she was in full out panic mode, wondering what he needed to know.

"Are you seeing someone and if you are, is it serious?"

"Me having no one, that's important to you," Spring said with relief. That could have gone a number of ways.

"Yeah, it is," Dez said plainly.

(Must be those values he was raised with, and that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.)

"I'm not involved with anyone." Admitting that truth didn't feel so bad or personal, so Spring went a step further. "I haven't been in a relationship for a few months."

Dez smiled. "That's great but...it also has me curious."

"Nope." Spring shook her head then drank the last bit of wine in her glass. "Shut that curiosity down. Those are the rules." She placed her empty glass back on the table. When Dez attempted to refill it, she waved him off. "Light weight I'm afraid."

"No shame in knowing your limits." He placed the wine bottle back in the center of the table and settled back into his seat. He glanced at her nearly empty plate. "How was your meal?"

"Delicious. If I had known that the food was so good, I would have gone inside before tonight."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it. So, about these rules." Dez wiped his mouth with his napkin. "Would you care to share what they are with me?"

Spring smiled. "I figure we can make them up as we go." Dez gave her the same blank look he had earlier. The one she was shit at reading. "What, you don't like that?"

"I'm not opposed to it, I just find it interesting."

"You're one of those types who likes to dissect everyone and everything." Did she manage to keep her disgust hidden or did it flare just then?

"Whoa," Dez said as he held his palms up, "That's not me. I will admit that just about everything and everyone piques my curiosity in an, let's say...educational way. But I judge nothing and no one, alright?"

"Alright." She took a deep breath. "Ok, so can I use your bathroom?"

Dez stood and moved to pull out her chair but Spring raised her hand to stop him as she backed away. She moved so fast that she almost knocked over the chair she was sitting in. Dez immediately backed away, giving her some space.

"It's behind that wall, the door to the right."

Spring spun around. She hurried across the expanse of the open living space toward the black brick wall. When she got close enough, she realized that the wall was just a separator from the rest of the loft, that you could enter his bedroom from either open side. She had to walk through his bedroom space to the far wall.