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He found her in the study. Looking out of the window. Her chin tilted up slightly, almost regal. An expression on her face which seems to say “don’t you dare interrupt me”.
He still did.
Stepping beside her. Only a few inches of space remaining between them. He could see the small strands of her hair move every time he breathed in her direction. Hetty hadn’t turned around when he entered, nor did she give any indication that she acknowledged his presence. But she had noticed him. He knew it. Nothing ever goes by her without notice. As if she had some sort of sixth sense. Even the slightest change, the faintest movement didn’t escape her mind. Like a predator – always watching. A deity always lingering somewhere in the shadows, watching your every move, collecting all of your deeds to judge you on doomsday.
She still didn’t say anything when he stepped more to the side. Their shoulders brushing almost accidental. Almost. Not that he had planned his movements precisely for two minutes, heeding to make it seem as casual as possible even though nothing about being with her had ever felt casual. Not even when they were only hooking up. Not even when they decided to just be friends. Power friends. Not even when everything slowly fell back into track. Them talking just like before, teasing each other, scheming together. Just like nothing ever happened when everything happened.
After another moment of just standing in silence he caught her glancing over to him. Not that he had watched her the whole time. He knew if she wouldn’t want him here she would have long said so. It wasn’t her style to not let others know when something displeased her. In fact, he thought she would rather offend someone than feel uncomfortable for even a second. It was a trait he had always adored. Adored even when it was used against him. When he was standing too close for too long (which happened occasionally when he just couldn’t stop himself, though most of the times it just happened unconsciously) or when she scolded him for an immature joke (which he sometimes did just for her, to get a reaction and because he knew she appreciated some of them even when she didn’t show it).
“When do you think it’s going to start?” Hetty asked outright with no introduction nor further explanation. Just a question she knew he would understand even without her elaborating it more than necessary.
“I don’t know. Sam said around midnight.” He answered.
Shooting stars. It had been all over the news yesterday – or was it still today? A meteor shower spewing hundreds of stars into the night sky. Like sparkling snowflakes appearing in the dark void, leaving a silver mark for a heartbeat just to disappear again. A flicker of something magical.
“Are you going to make a wish?” Hetty asked and turned to him. Her red hair seeming like smoldering coal. Only the faint moon light illuminating some of the strands, the red gleaming through the darkness.
“Maybe.” He answered quietly, turning to face her as well.
“You?”
“Maybe.” She responded just as quiet.
“Can ghosts even get a wish granted?” He pondered. It wasn’t an actual question he had, more of a thought that plopped into his head and that he held onto to think of something else than her so close in front of him. It was the first time this week they were standing so close. Not that he kept track. And just like the times before he had to keep himself talking, his mind and mouth occupied with something else then the thought about her lips.
“Are you saying one had to be of solid matter for a wish to work?” She asked, though he had trouble really grasping the words. He was relieved it was dark. This meant he at least had a small chance that she didn’t see him struggling to look away from her lips. As if the rest of her face were safer territory at all.
“Wouldn’t that be pretty bleak?” He shrugged his shoulders at that. Maybe he should think about his words more careful before blindly grabbing onto a thought and voicing it without having an idea what to say further.
The last time they were standing so close they at least had had a set topic to speak about. They had watched Sam and Jay in the garden trying to unload a shelf they had bought for the B&B. Hetty had stated that if her staff had ever handled something so poorly she would have dismissed them on the spot, probably just opening the window and shouting it directly at them. He had chuckled and, in the process, somehow ended up even closer to her than just standing side by side. He hadn’t even really noticed it till he had felt her breath on his face. Had seen the slight surprise in her eyes when she looked at him. The blue drawing him in like a siren coaxing a sailor to voluntarily drown. And he had. Drowned that is. In her eyes, her scent, her presence. Had only moved away when Jay had dropped the shelf outside and they both had flinched. Had backed of slowly like their consciousness had only then snapped back into their bodies. He had then tried to avoid standing close to her for the rest of the day. Not that he hadn’t wanted to. But because he didn’t trust himself.
Now felt like a strange déjà vu to that moment. Only now her eyes weren’t as bright but no less captivating. The darkness making them seem like two ponds by moonlight. He swallowed when he noticed how he leaned in. Like a moth getting drawn in by light. A planet absorbed by a black hole. Unable to stop it, his body moving like it were pulled by some strange force, like his muscles no longer were his to control.
“Sorry.” He mumbled and forced himself to recoil. Hetty raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything. She also didn’t move which he decided to take as a good sign that he hadn’t made her uncomfortable.
“I believe as we are in purgatory everything is possible. Even wishes becoming true for ghosts.” Hetty stated and he needed a moment to catch up on what they had talked about.
“So it would actually be small minded of us to rule out the possibility. Also we do make wishes, why shouldn't some of them come true even without a body? Not to forget that we don't need one to get condemned to hell or sucked off to heaven. How are wishes that different?” She added.
“I suppose you are right.”
“I am only rarely not.” Hetty responded a faint smirk appearing on her face.
“That’s only because you rarely admit it when you are. That is a difference.” He countered, mirroring her previous smirk.
“No. The difference is that you hardly ever are around when it happens.”
“Are you just alleging to be always right when you’re with me?” He asked and Hetty tilted her head like she thought about his question. The corners of her lips twitching barely noticeable.
“Then tell me. When was the last time you were right and I was wrong?”
“Just now.” She stated without missing a beat.
“Now?”
“When you pulled away.”
“I…what?” He asked, his mind playing through the last minutes, his heart stumbling in the process.
“You leaned in but then pulled away, like you thought what you did was wrong.” She explained as if it were obvious. As if it was just an insignificant observation. As if her addressing it wasn’t speeding up his pulse like he’d just taken cocaine.
“You’re not only wrong but seemingly wretchedly slow tonight.” Hetty stated amused while he must have simply starred at her for the last seconds. He blinked, trying his best to focus again.
“Sometimes I really wonder how you got this far in your job with a brain that crashes this easily.” She added, deliberately leaning in, her fingers curling in the lapels of his jacked as she pulled him closer to her. His mind still catching on while his muscle memory kicked in. His arms looping around her waist.
“You see that’s where you’re wrong tonight. My brain didn’t crash.” He breathed, a wicked grin forming on his face when he noticed her breath hitch as he tugged her even closer. Her hips now pressed against his so that she had to lean back slightly to still be able to look in his eyes.
“No?” She asked quirking up an eyebrow, still far from backing down.
“You see…like in all good movies…only a pause really accentuates a scene.” He told her, a giddy pride swelling in his chest at her expression. This point went to him. Though he couldn’t say it really mattered at the moment.
She didn’t close her eyes when he leaned in. Nor did he. In fact, they kept their gazes locked to whole time. Like each one of them was daring the other to move away or stop. Watching, waiting. Testing each other’s reaction to them not only moving but completely overstepping the boundary they had set not long ago. Their eyelids fluttering close only seconds before their lips meet. Both sinking into the kiss with a content hum.
The first shooting stars adored the night sky while he saw colors explode in front of his eyes he’d only ever seen when he was high. Kissing Hetty felt like getting high. Actually, better than getting high. He had no idea how this tonight was going to end. What it meant for them. But for the moment he couldn’t say he even cared. Couldn’t say his mind would even be able to form any coherent thought at all. His whole body transfixed on her like he couldn’t be somewhere or do anything else even if he tried.