"Okay Mrs. Davis, you're fully registered for our next session of Silver Sneakers classes. The calendar is online, but if you ever need a paper copy, we keep them right over here on the edge of the reception desk." I pointed at the stack as I handed the sprightly eighty-year-old her receipt.

A warm smile deepened the wrinkles across her entire visage as she picked up one of the calendars. "Thank you again for the tour, and for all of your assistance. You've been such a dear helping me this morning."

I said, "It was my absolute pleasure." Yet the smile I gave her didn't reach my eyes, as they flitted momentarily towards my laptop.

As soon as the front doors of the community center swung closed behind her and I was alone, I turned my attention to the screen again. Finger poised over the scroll-pad, I took one deep breath, then tapped it awake. My eyes roved over the NYU application as I scrolled. Every form field was filled in. Every necessary document attached. It had taken me a week of scrambling to get all of the required materials together. The cursor hovered atop the "submit" button. My hand and my heart froze.

What was I so afraid of? The possibility of rejection? Or worse... acceptance?

Acceptance would mean change. My life was predictable and stable right now. Two things I didn't take for granted. Certainly that was part of it.

But maybe another part of me was afraid of attaching my future trajectory to Kyle in some way? Would I feel that I owed him somehow for giving me the nudge I needed to make this change?

Being beholden to a man was not a position I ever wanted to be in, knowing where that type of thing lead my mother with boyfriends, dealers, and dealer-boyfriends. As far as I could tell, Kyle wasn't anything like any of the men my mother got involved with. But there was an edge to him, and I suspected it could mortally wound me if I let it.

I blew out, hoping my hesitancy would dissipate like my carbon dioxide. Maybe then my head would stop aching. Closing my eyes, I pressed the heels of my hands against them.

"All it needs is one little flick of a finger!" I quietly admonished myself through clenched teeth.

"But where's the fun in that?" an unmistakably deep voice deadpanned.

My heart leapt into my throat, and both hands flew from my face, smacking into the scroll-pad. Words didn't come immediately as my mind registered two things at once. Kyle was standing in front of me, and my application had been submitted.

Blinking repeatedly did not change either of those facts.

Fuck me!

Kyle loomed silently before the desk, clutching his helmet in one hand, and running the other through his hair. I gaped at him while shifting through a series of emotions. Confusion, aggravation, relief, hope, and lust all held me in its commingled grip, until finally my brain clicked back into control. Tamping everything down, I chose to operate in receptionist mode again. My mouth moved while striving to sound calm and professional, "Good morning. How can I help you?"

Once my lips stopped, I struggled to make them smile, but they refused. So I bit the lower one to keep it from pulling into a frown.

Kyle's eyes darted from my face, to the corridor beyond me. "I'm not here for your help. I'm here for Felicity."

"O-Of course you are," I stuttered.

"Did you think I came here to make sure you kept your end of our deal?" He looked back down at me with a slight lift of an eyebrow.

Heat rushed to my cheeks. "I um... I actually just sub..."

The door behind Kyle opened, cutting my sentence short as a few of the kids for Felicity's next class bustled into the vestibule. I stood up to welcome them. This time a genuine smile came easily. "Good morning!"

They each in turn offered their own greetings as they walked past me, heading towards the corridor. Their happy faces and youthful energy filled me up with something like confidence again.

One young boy stopped in his tracks beside the desk. He turned his head way up, taking in Kyle's now frowning face. His dark little eyebrows furrowed as he asked, "You okay Ms. Rose?"

I nodded. "I'm fine Flynn. This is Mr. Walker. He's here to help Ms. Felicity. I was just about to point him down to the room."

Flynn looked from Kyle to me again. "I can take him for you."

Noticing the little balled up fists at his sides, a lump formed in my throat. Flynn's willingness to put himself in harm's way to protect me was touching, but also concerning. Especially from the amount of bruises I'd noticed on him recently. I made a mental note to speak with the center's social worker about my observations.

Flynn's double entendre and body posture didn't seem lost on Kyle either, whose face melted from its hard angles into warm butter. Kyle's tone became as soft and soothing as a cozy blanket when he said, "I'm sure you can. However, I'm a stranger to you. So it's probably best if she walks me, and you walk with her. Don't you think?"

Cocking his head to the side, Flynn squinted for a second before he decided. "Okay."

I placed the "Back in 5 Minutes" sign onto the desk, before snapping the top of my laptop closed and picking it up. Then I flitted myself in between the tree-sized man and the shrub-sized boy, while chirping like a nervous finch, "Let's go!"

At first we walked in silence, but as the doorway grew closer, Flynn outpaced us in his anticipation of fun, and Kyle cleared his throat.

"Brave kid!" he said, near a whisper.

"Indeed," I said, equally low. With a small smile I added, "I know grown people who are intimidated to walk alone with you."

Kyle snorted. "Well, adults I can take or leave. Kids however... I think they're great."

"Really?" My voice rose an octave in shock.

"I wouldn't have volunteered to come here today if I didn't. I might be an asshole frequently, but I'm generally an honest one."

"Says the actor..." I mumbled, certain his relationship with Felicity had more to do with his presence at the center, than any opinions he might have about kids.

Kyle's voice grew stronger now, "That's not fair!"

His palm thrust out, flat in front of me. I stopped before making contact with him. Looking up from the obstacle to our destination, I observed Flynn disappear through the doorway. Then I turned to face Kyle, bringing my laptop up against my chest like a shield. He seemed totally unconcerned that Flynn would announce his presence, and Felicity would expect him in the room momentarily.

He continued, "There's a relationship between an actor and their audience, one involving suspension of disbelief. But I don't believe in lying in my personal life."

I chewed my lower lip and squinted at him, wondering why he was giving me this glimpse behind his defenses right now. He'd shut me out so quickly during our atrocious date, and when I was encouraging him to apply to drama programs. Did this have to do with Felicity being a few feet away?

That was a subject I dared not broach. I hadn't even worked up the courage to talk to Felicity about Kyle. If I asked him another question right now, would he lock me out again?

Hugging my laptop tighter, I released my lip from my teeth, letting the blood rush back in before I asked, "So you don't lie? Ever?"

Kyle looked me straight in the eyes. "I try not to... Unless it's for a surprise party, or something good like that. Maybe that's why some people get upset by me. I err toward brutal honesty in most circumstances."

His unfaltering gaze pulled me closer to him, without my body moving an inch on the outside. Deep inside however, my heart felt like I was running a marathon. It burned up my blood, coursing it swiftly through my veins. My pulse quickened at the apex of my thighs. The realization of how much I still wanted to know him, despite everything, terrified me. Color flashed up into my cheeks. I forced myself to look away from him, back to the room where Felicity waited for him. The chatter of tiny, happy voices drifted into the hall.

"That's probably what you like about kids. They're honest," I said, looking down at my feet before adding more softly, "Life often finds a way of chipping away at that..."

Kyle's low hum of agreement brought my attention back him. It was a delicious sound. Our eyes met again, and a shiver ran down my spine.

"What were you going to say before?" he asked.

"What? When?" My brain felt muddled. I needed to shake myself out of whatever spell I'd fallen into before him.

"Before the kids came into the lobby area. You started to tell me something."

Felicity's voice rang out from inside the meeting room, "Hey Kyle! What's the holdup?" Her shoes sounded their click-clack towards the doorway.

I looked frantically from Kyle, to the doorway, and then back again. My mouth grew dry. "I um..."

Felicity's voice called out again, much louder this time. "Oh, Ro! I didn't know you were in today."

Both Kyle and I swiveled in unison to look at her. She stood just outside the doorway with her hands on her hips. "Kyle, the little thespians are growing restless."

He wordlessly held up one finger at her, then looked back at me.

I swallowed and shook my head. "I just wanted to tell you that I submitted my application."

Kyle simply nodded.

Then he took four large, confident strides towards Felicity, before they disappeared through the door together, and shut it behind them.