I was caught completely off guard. I hadn’t expected our first kiss to be there in front of everyone. I held my breath as his lips covered mine, and I took his tongue into my mouth for the first time. It was magic, heaven, everything I imagined it would be, and I wanted it to go on forever. My body felt like a live wire like I would go up in flames right there and then.
I didn’t know what I was doing, but he didn’t seem to mind as he deepened the kiss and his arm tightened around me. Shouts of laughter broke through the haze, and then someone, I think it was Steve, threw a French fry at us and broke the spell. For a few seconds, after he pulled our lips apart, I forgot how to breathe. And when he traced my lip with his thumb, with that look in his eyes, I almost melted into a puddle.
“Behave!” He said the word while looking into my eyes, and I blinked hard to try to remember where I was.
“What?”
“She’s gone!” Busted!
LISA
“Who’s gone where? I don’t understand.” Geez, Lisa, you really suck at this if he’s already caught on to what you’re up to. I felt even worst when he looked as if he believed me and doubted himself. Though I don’t want him to know what I’m up to, I don’t want to lie to him either. Somehow, I get the sense that that would be a big no-no in his book, and besides, just the thought of me deceiving him made me sick to my stomach.
“Forget it. So, you really want to go to that sorority thing?” He looked like he was about to be sick himself.
“Why, you don’t want me to?”
“If you want to go, we’ll go.” He could’ve added that it was not his kind of thing or anything else to dissuade me from going, but he didn’t, and if I weren’t doing it partially for him, I’d have given up the idea right there and then. But it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.
“It’ll be fun, and we don’t have to stay too long if you don’t want to.”
“Don’t sweat it, baby; we’ll go and have fun.” He flicked my nose with his fingertip, and I’m not sure when that became so endearing, but it was. Everything Cody does is adorable, I noticed. He went back to finishing his lunch, and I released the breath I’d been holding before my narrow escape.
I’m going to have to be very careful going forward, but for now, I think I’m safe. He changed the topic back to the car, or more like back to how much I knew about driving, how many lessons I’d taken in the past, and stuff like that. He balked when he learned that I knew absolutely nothing but didn’t call me out on it.
It was so adorably cute when he cut lunch short and dragged me off to the library for books on driving; I didn’t even know they were so many. “Cody, I could probably get these online.” I tried not to be affronted when one of the books was driving for dummies, and his arm thrown casually around my shoulder went a long way to easing the sting.
“Maybe, but this is better. Each state has different driving laws, babe, so you don’t just need to know how to pass the test; you need a better understanding of the road for your own safety.”
“Did you read all of these when you learned to drive?”
“Of course not, but you’re the baby, so it’s different.”
Is that supposed to make my heart flutter like this? I’ve heard some women hate being called baby or anything cutesy, but it did something to me. Maybe it was the way he said it or the way he looked when he said it. My silly mind went off on a tangent. Will he always look at me like that or think of me in that way? Would there ever come a time when he’d change towards me?
I’m sure everyone has those doubts and fears, but the thought of it made me feel like I’d already lost something, and it hadn’t even happened. At least he was no longer thinking about what happened in the dining hall as his mind was completely on me as he lectured me about the dangers of the road as if he were an expert. At least now I know how to get him behind the wheel to stay; I’ll just feign ignorance until he gives in.
I saw them as he walked me back to class, one of Susie’s friends and the girl who’d invited us to the social. I had my suspicions, of course, but it was good to know for sure since I didn’t want to blame anyone without cause. I pretended not to see them, and I know Cody didn’t because Chad and Steve had caught up to us, still talking about my new ride that had yet to be delivered.