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“Are you blushing?” Samira asked with a smirk.
“No!” Frank said, a little too quickly. “Maybe.” He admits a moment later.
“Why?” She asks with a tilt of her head.
“Why do you think?” Frank deflects, hunching his shoulders and looking at the sidewalk they’re walking on, the only type of protection he can get at the moment. They had made a quick stop to get Hot Chocolate before their shifts started. It had become something of a tradition, the two of them getting some type of drink and taking a few minutes just to be together. As friends.
“Because I said you were cute? Really?” She asks, genuinely surprised. She hadn’t even meant to say it, was mortified when she realized she had. But whipped cream had gotten on his nose and he was smiling in the way that made the sides of his eyes crinkle and he was talking about the newest EM:RAP podcast he had listened to and it just came out. “Did I make you uncomfortable?” She asks when she doesn’t get more than a nod.
“No, not uncomfortable. I just….” He pauses for a moment, searching for the right words, and Samira lets him. He loved liked that about her. His brain was always going so fast, but sometimes it took a minute to actually articulate what it was he was thinking in a way that other people could understand. She always gave him time to think, didn’t push or rush him, just waited for his response. “When a cute girl tells you you’re cute, it kinda catches you off guard, ya know?” He settles on. “You’re so cute and smart and brave and so kind to me and everyone else and I’m not, I don’t deserve your kindness or the privilege of hearing your jokes or the time you give me with you, you’re absolutely amazing and I’m just happy I get to be around you, but the thought of you thinking positively about me, especially that I’m fucking cute, kinda throws me.” He doesn’t even realize everything he’s said until he stops talking. Suddenly, he comes to a halt, his eyes going wide as he realizes what he’s said, and he looks at her frozen just behind me.
“You, you really think all of that stuff? About me?” She asks.
“Yeah.” He says with a sigh. He dug this hole and now he has to just lie in it as she fills it back up with every cruel word and rebuff she’s about to tell him. She must be disgusted by him. A divorced addict repeating their third year, he was lucky she even let him into her orbit for a short time. He was hoping it’d be a little bit longer until she realized that he’s filled with jagged edges and if she gets too close she’ll bleed. He always wants to take more than he’s given, more than he deserves. And it probably would’ve been longer if he had just shut the fuck up. But he didn’t. And now he has to live with that. Without her. Just as he’s about to apologize, beg her to forget all about this, just give him a few more weeks of friendship, just go back to how it was just ten minutes ago, she reaches up on her tiptoes and kisses him.
“A ‘you look cute, too’ would’ve sufficed.” She says into his lips.
“You look cute, too.” He smirks before kissing her again and again and again.