What Happened in Paris--A Nomanda Story

Flashback 2

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As the last notes of the song faded away Noah became acutely aware of the distance between him and Amanda.

It wasn't terribly far.

He was overcome with the sudden urge to make that distance disappear, and his face flushed.

"Noah," Amanda mumbled, staring into his eyes.

"Mmm."

"We...we should probably...run that again," she said, but her breath hitched as his hand came up and cupped her face.

Gently, Noah's lips pressed against hers. Almost instinctively, Amanda closed her eyes and placed her hands on Noah's shoulders. He smiled into the kiss and pulled her closer. 

That was when Amanda realized what she was doing. Her eyes flew open and she backpedaled away from Noah.

"I--Noah, I can't..." she whispered. 

Noah blushed a furious red and looked down. "Right. Right I'm sorry, that was...dumb. I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that," he stammered. "We should go preform this," he turned around and made to exit the room.

For some reason Amanda wanted to call after him, to ask him to come back. And a part of her - a part larger than she'd like to admit - really wanted to kiss him again. 

Amanda watched Noah leave the room and sighed, then turned around to pick up her dance bag. As she did so, she heard footsteps coming back to the studio. 

"Amanda," Noah walked back into the room. Amanda spun to face him. He grinned at her. "This is really stupid. I'm sorry for kissing you, but there's no way I'm going to let this be awkward. That would be awful. Friends?" he stuck out his hand. 

Amanda frowned. In her mind. Friends? Just friends?  Shoot. Isn't that what I want...?

Amanda smiled at Noah (albiet painfully) and shook his hand. "Yeah, friends." 

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Five seconds.

Seven seconds.

"Noah...are you gonna let go of my hand?" asked Amanda quizzically, not altogether hating the experience. 

Noah pretended to think. "Hmm...no," and then he pulled her out of the room. "Let's go!" he laughed.