"Let's get our food," Ollie said. He got a sneaky look on his face and added, "Damian and Heidi better stay here to make sure nobody steals our table. We'll bring you guys some food."
All the guests were already here and already seated at other tables, so I knew he was full of crap. Since when did he try to play matchmaker? Ollie had hated it when my mom tried to set him up with the daughter of one of her friends. But now he was trying to maneuver me and Heidi into…something.
True love, marriage, and babies. That was what my best friend had suddenly decided I needed.
Once the others had hurried off to the buffet, Heidi and I enjoyed the most awkward silence in history. Yeah, I was pretty sure not even cavemen and cavewomen who spoke in grunts ever suffered through a silence as awkward as this one. I scratched my neck. Heidi clasped her hands on the table. I cleared my throat and set my hands on my thighs. She toyed with one of her little stud earrings.
Those little studs were blue like her eyes. Staring at her earring made me want to look into her eyes since they were almost the same shade, but she kept staring at the wall.
Finally, I couldn't stand the cavepeople awkwardness anymore. "We had a good talk earlier, so this shouldn't be so hard now."
Heidi swerved her gaze to me but kept her head aimed straight at the wall. "I know, but it is weird. We, you know, kissed."
"Yeah, I remember." That kiss was something I would never forget, not even when I got old and couldn't remember how to zip up my pants.
"About what happened earlier," she said, "it can't ever happen again."
"You kissed me."
"A gentleman wouldn't point that out."
Now I wasn't a gentleman? Because I let her kiss me? Jeez, this girl was wound up even tighter than I'd realized.
"I'm sorry," I told her. "I wasn't trying to be a dick. But you're acting like it's my fault you kissed me."
"Well, it kind of is. You said you wanted to kiss me."
"But I didn't—"
I stopped myself before I argued more with her about who instigated that kiss. We shouldn't have been fighting about this, but clearly, our kiss had unsettled her. I didn't know everything her ex had done to her, though I knew the story about how she kept going back to the cheating jerk over and over. Heidi had told me about her parents, and I got the feeling their hostile relationship had affected her in ways even she probably didn't understand.
That meant I needed to be gentle with her. Not my strong suit.
"Listen," I said, "I don't want to argue about it. The kiss happened, but it doesn't matter who started it. I won't try to kiss you again unless you tell me that's what you want, and I'll do my best not to flirt with you either. Honestly, I'm not that good at stopping myself from flirting, but I promise to try."
She stared blankly at me, without blinking, for several seconds while all around us people were talking and laughing, having a good time.
Maybe I said too much. Or not enough. Either way, all I could do was wait.
Heidi sighed and glanced down at her lap, then aimed her baby blues at me. "Sorry I got mad at you. I don't mind the flirting. Actually, I kind of like that. It's the intimate stuff that freaks me out. You know, kissing and dating and…other stuff."
"By 'other stuff,' you mean sex."
"Not just that." She wriggled on her chair and hunched her shoulders, seeming like she couldn't get comfortable. "Relationships too. That's 'other stuff,' I mean."
"Oh, right. I get it."
"We don't know each other that well, but I'd like it if we could be friends."
"Thought we already were. I suggested it this morning, and you said being friends might be nice."
She almost smiled. "Forgot I said that. So we are friends already."
"Yep." I reached out, intending to touch her leg, but then I realized that was a bad impulse. She might've taken it as a come-on, though that wasn't what I meant. I started to pull my hand away.
Heidi grasped my hand and laid it on her thigh.
"Uh, what are you doing?" I asked.