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"No, because those are boring, and I don’t really give a shit what your favorite color is--that’s soh the power of observation"

I cross uess my favorite color based on the one tiht ahead"

He’s quiet a fewto dial down the volume on the radio "It’s blue"

Whoa "What makes you say that?"

"The pillows on your couch and the towels in your bathrooht--ly white in the diht?"

"Yes"

"You knohat else I think? You love this ga and drawn-out, like…"

Foreplay

He doesn’t say it, but I know that’s what he’s thinking

My face flushes because he’s right; I do like these gahtly ridiculous and cheesy and stupidly fun, and even though we haven’t gotten all that racy or sexual, the undertones of our recent conversations are gettingour boundaries with each other, neither wanting to , driving the hundred feet it takes to reachhis truck in park Idles, hands on the key buried in the ignition

"I guess this is you"

"This is --the one he noticed is blue--I unbucklefor the handle, and I pause, twisting to face hi ht, shadows playing across his expression Mouth set into a line, almost in a doard turn

"You look like you want to say so…" His voice trails off "What kind of guy Scarlett Ripley agrees to go on a date with"

Not what I was expecting him to say Not in that tone of voice--it’s low and expectant, likei about?"

"Huers tapping on the steering wheel

"Well," I begin slowly, releasing the door handle Sit back and stare straight ahead up the e myself a few more seconds of tih, solance, unnerved that he’s watching "

"That’s your type? Char isto the topic "A sexy dork with a hot bod under his button-down shirt would be my type A bad boy covered in tattoos would beup with characters for a new book series"

I shift inWade ask on a date?"

He faces the street, looking out the n the road, thinking "Not many"

I wait for hi to ask so the road "She’d have to be someone I’d take home to my lide netic clasp snap Open Close Adding to the underlying tension filling the cab of this truck

I hesitate "I have one bottle of wine in the fridge if you want to come in for a little bit"

"Two"

"Excuse e"

I do? "How do you know?"

"Obviously I was rooting around the other night The contents of your fridge were a real turn-on, if I’oing to get you in trouble one of these days"