I held his helmet tighter as his eyes danced along my face.
“Why do you call me that name? Or any name, for that matter?”
He grinned. “Not a fan of a little flirting?”
“Not when it hurts, no.”
He paused. “You getting on or not?”
“I--don’t know.”
He shrugged. “What are you waiting for, Daddy’s girl?”
“See, there you go again with the names. I want to know why you call me those names.”
“Will you get on my bike if I tell you?”
I didn’t even bat an eye. “Yes.”
He snickered. “Fine. I’ll take that deal. Want to know why I call you these names?”
“Yes. I really do.”
“Simple. They fit you.”
His words stung
more than I could’ve ever imagined. They should’ve pushed me away. But they only made me more determined to show him I wasn’t the pushover he apparently thought I was. I glared at him before I picked up the helmet, lifted it over my head and made a show of slamming it down around my face. Grunting and groaning, I kept pushing it down to try and get it over the hump of my nose. I mean, I didn’t think my nose was that big. So why wasn’t the helmet going down any farther?
Max chuckled. “Try the other way.”
“What?”
He turned me around and I heard something ‘zzzwp!’ before I felt hot breath against my hair.
“Try the other way. You have it on backwards.”
He continued chuckling as my cheeks flushed. I pulled the helmet off my head and quickly turned it around. I felt tears prickling my eyes from embarrassment, but I refused to cry. Not in front of him. I wouldn't give him the ammunition to make my life miserable so long as he came into contact with me. I was strong. I could do this. I was in college. I had a new lease on life. I was an adult, and I could make adult decisions.
Right after I got this stupid helmet on straight.
“Need help?”
I groaned. “No.”
Max smiled. “You sure about that?”
When I finally got the helmet in place, I saw that full-blown smile across his face.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“Quite a wrestle you had there.”
I blinked. “What?”
His smile fell away quickly, much to my dismay. My gosh, he had a gorgeous smile. How his teeth were that white with all the smoking he did, I wasn’t sure. But it lit up his face and made his green eyes sparkle. It centered his softly crooked jawline and somehow made him look even stronger than before. I wanted him to smile for me again. I wanted to catch a glimpse of that radiant light in his face one more time.
You have to be around him more to get something like that done.