The Writer's Love Affair

Episode 27: Step By Step

Episode 27: Step By Step

"Are you okay?"

Leslie wiped at his damp forehead, glancing down at him concerned.

Christopher willfully looked away.

"I'm fine."

She scrambled up into a kneeling position. Her eyes were penetrating as they analyzed him.

"Are you sure? You look a little pale."

He ran a hand through his somewhat damped hair.

"It tends to happen when I...push myself beyond my limits."

"Limits? Of what?"

His eyes held her own as he nervously licked his lips.

"For starters, you."

Her face was a canvas for confusion.

Leslie felt it slowly starting to become hot as her brain registered what he was saying—that she was capable of pushing him beyond his limits. Flattery enveloped her, but at the same time it obviously wasn't a good thing in this case if he was put at a disadvantage.

Christopher caught the expression on her face and pointed between the two of them.

"I'm not usually this physically involved with anyone so when I am my body tends to kind of um...shut down for a lack of better words." He revealed, looking away almost bashfully.

She bit down onto her lips worriedly.

"Is that a condition? I'm sorry if that sounds dumb but I'm just trying to understand."

He sighed, head flopping against the material of the furniture beneath him. "I think it is, but it's not necessarily one I've been diagnosed with. Not completely like haphephobia. Maybe a cousin of it? I don't know, my therapist says it's strictly a psychological issue for me. Apparently I'd have to garner a deep level of trust for someone first in order to be intimate with them."

Her hands withdrew themselves as she sat up thoughtfully. "Oh."

He eyed her, afraid of what that reaction might have meant.

Oh? The little exclamation echoed in his head like a blaring alarm.

What did that mean for her?

The next second, Christopher was surprised to see her nervously playing with her fingers as she looked downwards asking, "Do you not trust me then?"

Right then he knew.

He'd never hated anything else in the world as much as the look on her face and the dejected tone of her voice in that moment.

"I..." His brows furrowed at why she'd even be asking that question with how much of himself he'd offered her. "Do I not seem to trust you? Is there something I've done to make you feel otherwise?"

Her eyes looked up at him and he saw a tinge of sadness within them.

"I don't know. You just said you needed to trust someone for them to touch you or vice versa."

"Yes, and that's why I kissed you a minute ago."

She looked at him, stunned at his bluntness.

"If I didn't have any ounce of trust for you or what we've developed these past months, I wouldn't have dared to."

"And what have we developed, Christopher?"

He gave her a warning with his eyes as he sensed her naturally seductive self resurface.