Page 16 of Text Me A Kiss

Chapter Six

Kady

I woke up, turned over comfortably, clutching the blankets to me with one hand, and stretched out the other into the space Pridamant distinctly didn’t occupy.

Early morning usually didn’t suit me, but when I rolled over to check my phone, I felt wide awake, even at 7:00 AM. If I’d invited Pridamant inside after he escorted me home after dinner, I doubted I would have woken up before 10.

I didn’t do it. I just didn’t bring home men after one date, especially ones I’d only met in real life once.

And I hadn’t toyed with Pridamant. After that first glass of wine, I made my stance on the night clear—I wanted to drink wine, eat dinner, and talk the night away, but the man across the table from me, no matter how informed when it came to art and no matter how handsome, was not invited when I went home. What was I? A tease, yes. Without morals, no.

Well, there was another reason I couldn’t let things get too crazy. I had a rehearsal at 8:00 AM the next morning, and I couldn’t do anything tonight that might affect the level at which I could perform.

I hadn’t exactly brought those things up quite this clearly, but I had managed to work my decision into the conversation. After some of the sexy pictures I sent and steamy fantasies that accompanied them, I wondered how he’d react to my clear refusal to have sex on the first night.

The answer? He really hadn’t reacted. Taking it in his stride, Pridamant had just given me the perfect first night that I wanted, then kissed me goodbye at my door. And that kiss….

I liked to kiss and be kissed, and of course, I had some preferences on how I prefered both. When the man had just enough of a beard to scratch at my lips and chin during a brief kiss and dig into the skin of my cheeks during a deep, passionate kiss, I liked it best. When we both tilted our heads to the right, I liked it best. When I could feel just a little tongue on a brief hello or goodbye kiss, I liked that best too.

Huh. I guess he checks all the boxes,I realized, interrupting my luxurious stretch with a thoughtful pause.

Box One: Pridamant was older than me. Probably older than me than most people in my life would prefer—but to me, that just meant he had his life together.

Box Two: He had a job, one that constantly required his attention. Even when he couldn’t reply for a while, though, he was still attentive and thoughtful, because he always let me know when he had to go and when he might get back.

Box Thr—

My phone screen lit with the persistent ringing of my snoozed alarm. Dismissing it this time, I rolled out of bed and jumped into the shower. Enough daydreaming. If I just focused through this rehearsal, I could spend the entire day with Pridamant. No more ballet for the day. No more business for the day. Just getting to know a good friend as something more.

Two kinds of shower people walked on Planet Earth. Well, technically, three kinds, but we should never talk about the third kind.

Olivia firmly believed in taking a shower only in the evening or during the day after some sort of exercise that caused you to break a sweat—so, ballet. Personally, as a anti-morning person, I felt that showers helped me wake up and prepare for the day.

Really, who wouldn’t want to start out the day feeling and smelling fresh?

Olivia, apparently. “Kady, we literally just stepped out of the shower right now. You wasted two showers’ worth of water when you could have only had one. No one is even awake enough in the morning to smell anything.”

I tried to say something, but Olivia had unbridled righteousness on her side. “I mean, if you’re so worried about how you smell in the morning, just wash your bedding more often. Then you’ll smell like the detergent of your choice!”

“Hold on, hold on, hold on. Wouldn’t washing my bedding use even more water?” I reasoned, combing some replenishing oil through my damp curls and using one of the two blow dryers Juilliard had used our student fees to invest in.

Olivia stopped with her gym bag over her shoulder and smiled sweetly. “I don’t know. Why don’t you try washing it more and taking a shower in the evening, then compare water bills?”

I jabbed my jaw to the side and cocked my neck in fake superciliousness. “Uh, excuuuuse me? My apartment building covers water?”

We couldn’t keep it up anymore. My face melted into a smile and Olivia walked out of the shower room laughing.

When I met up with Pridamant at a nearby park shortly afterward, he found our antics just as amusing as we had and chuckled along with my renewed laughter. “You’ll have to introduce me to Olivia sometime.”

Readjusting my purse on my shoulder, I laid a hand on the gentlemanly arm Pridamant proffered and tilted my chin so the seven-inch difference between our heights wouldn’t mask my happy smile. “But not today?”

“Of course not. Today is about us getting to know each other in person.”

A perfect response that mirrored my own thoughts. So far, we were connecting just as well on the streets of the city as we had online.

“So, what should we do?” I asked, glancing around. Technically, I didn’t need to look at my surroundings—I walked past this park three times a week—but if I let my eyes keep gazing into Pridamant’s greenish-gray ones, I would start blushing. It wouldn’t be a cute pinkish blush, either. It would be one of those stupid blushes where my face turned as bright red as that slice of tomato I could see in one of the patches of unmelted snow.

“Well, I’ve been to Juilliard before, but I don’t know what’s around here. Why don’t you show me where the finest dancers and musicians go in their free time?”