The curtain rustled and he heard Kenna walking into the room. “Okay, we have your entrées here. Are you finished with your salads? Do you want me to clear?”
“Sure,” he responded automatically even though he hadn’t finished his salad.
At the same time Audrey said, “Yeah.”
Kenna went into detail about their main dish, explaining the sauce that was dripped over the chicken, how the veggies were blanched before they were sautéed in herbs and oil, and how the potatoes were hand whipped and drizzled with a garlic butter before saying, “Do you have any questions, or do you need anything?”
“No.” Josh replied.
“Nope,” Audrey answered.
“Okay, just let me know if you do.”
With that she left and they were alone again.
“This smells delicious,” Audrey said.
“It does,” Josh agreed.
They both began eating their main dish and Josh was still trying to think of something to say to address the virgin elephant in the room.
But Audrey let him off the hook when she asked, “So how did you get roped into this?”
He told her that Nonna had told him he needed to go eat without the lights on, which she chuckled at. Then she explained that Viv had called her while she was at Golden Years because she was stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it.
The conversation then turned to the work she was doing at the senior living facility and how badly he wished that Nonna would move there. The rest of the meal and dessert continued, and they easily fell into their regular pattern of joking around and talking about everything and nothing. But in the back of his mind all he kept thinking about was that she was a virgin.
Audrey’s a virgin, was playing on a constant loop in his head. He knew that his brain shouldn’t be stuck on that, but it was.
He’d noticed when he was feeling anxious that would happen a lot. He would repeat things over and over in his head and get stuck on a certain thought, almost to the point of obsessing over it.
There was one moment between them when they both reached for their glasses and their hands brushed one another’s. The graze of skin on skin caused tingles to spread from his fingers up his arm and through his body like a wildfire. He had no clue if it had affected her the same way, but it took him a moment to recover from it. He had to take a few deep breaths and a large drink of cold water to get his body under control.
He’d touched Audrey before, but never when they were both blindfolded in the dark. There was something about those circumstances that made an innocent brush of hands feel much more intimate.
The rest of the meal went by without any further accidental grazes. And when they were done, Kenna escorted them out of the room the same way she’d escorted them in. As they walked out single file, Audrey’s hands were on Kenna’s shoulders and his were on Audrey’s. Josh tried not to pay attention to how soft her skin felt beneath his touch, or how silky her hair felt as it brushed against his fingers.
He heard the curtain being pulled back. They went a few steps and then stopped. “Okay, you can remove your blindfolds. You may want to shield your eyes or look down; the light can be a little jarring.”
Josh’s heart was pounding heavily against his ribs as he lifted his arms and pulled the material off his head. He squinted when he opened his eyes and saw that Audrey was doing the same. They both handed the blindfolds back to Kenna and she gave them back their phones.
The entire exchange Josh kept sneaking looks at Audrey. Every time he did, she was looking straight at Kenna, not in his direction. It was as if she was avoiding looking at him altogether.
Which she might be. She’d just revealed something very intimate and personal about herself and he hadn’t exactly handled it well. The more he thought about how he’d responded the more anxious he felt, and that just made the entire situation worse.
As they said their goodbyes, Audrey raved about the food and told Kenna that she’d let Viv know she’d had a great time. He smiled and nodded, but if he were being honest, he hadn’t even tasted the food after she’d dropped the virgin bombshell on him.
When they walked out to the parking lot, he noticed that she’d parked on the opposite side of the picnic area from him which was why he hadn’t seen her car when he rode up.
“Do you need a ride?” she asked when she didn’t see any other vehicle but hers.
“No, I have my bike.” He motioned to the other lot.
“Oh, okay.” She nodded and smiled. “Well, see ya later.” She lifted her hand in an awkward wave before turning on her heel and heading toward her car.
He took a step and caught her wrist, pulling her back toward him. “Audrey, wait.”
When she turned back around her lips were parted as she looked up at him with so much raw vulnerability shining through her golden eyes, he could barely stand it. His mind was racing with the right words to say.
Should he thank her for trusting him enough to share something so personal? No, that somehow sounded weird and sort of creepy.
Should he tell her that he thought it was cool that she was a virgin? No, that sounded patronizing.
Since he didn’t have the right words to say, he fell back to his default. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Tightly. He held her for much longer than he normally did, not wanting to let her go. Then he pressed his lips to her forehead. Just like the embrace, his kiss was not brief, it lingered.
Finally, he let her go, stepped back putting his hands in his pockets so he wouldn’t reach out and touch her. She looked a little dazed and both of their breathing was a little more labored than it normally was.
“Goodnight,” he rasped.
“Night.” With that she turned and walked to her car. He waited and watched as she drove out of the parking lot. When her taillights disappeared, he ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath as he had a feeling of déjà vu.
It was the same feeling he’d had the first time he’d seen Audrey and his world had shifted on its axis. He felt like tonight’s dinner had caused a seismic shift in the plates of their relationship, and he had no clue what to do about it.
8
“Thanks for coming in!” Audrey waved at Mr. and Mrs. Brooks, who owned the old-fashioned ice cream parlor downtown, as they walked to the door to leave with their granddaughter Beth.
Beth had visited the doctor that morning and had to get shots. They’d asked her what treat she wanted for being brave and she’d said a chocolate croissant from the coffee shop. The couple thought it was hysterical and ironic that, of course, their granddaughter had chosen something other than ice cream as her treat when so many other kids chose Two Scoops as the place they wanted to go for a treat.
As the door shut behind the trio, Audrey’s mind played the same sentence that had been running through it on repeat all day.
I can’t believe I told Josh that I was a virgin.
She still had no clue what had possessed her to make such a personal confession. For some reason having the blindfold on had given her the boldness to make the intimate declaration.
And he’d said…nothing.
But, then again, what could he say? There wasn’t really a good response to that. Sure, she would have loved it if he’d offered to help change her status, but that wasn’t really Josh’s style. He was quiet. He processed things.