Chapter 43

"I'm not blind. I see the way you look at me, the way you react when I touch you." She demonstrated by placing her hand on my arm again. I felt the gooseflesh raising on my skin. "I'm just sorry I never said anything out loud. I guess my signals just weren't strong enough. So how's this?" She leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips.

Tower, this is Annie, over. Requesting victory fly-by. Say again, requesting fly-by, over!

"I mean, my god Annie," she said as we broke our embrace, "did you think I would give my bike to just any girl who showed up at my door? I knew how much it was worth. I'd taken it to a shop when I was thinking about selling it. And, I had a strong feeling that I could trust you not to run off with it. So my devious little plan was this, I thought that loaning you the bike might keep you coming around once in a while. I didn't know where things would go from there, but it was a start.