Damned If I Do *Matt Murdock* (book one of Damned)

11) I've been sleepless at night ('cause now I know how I feel)

"Is that some kind of a bribe?" Vera asked, suspicious, sensing something fishy about her friend waiting for her in café at 5:15 with tea and a slice of cheesecake.

"You bet your ass it is. I want to know everything," she answered, not even bothering hiding her ulterior motives.

Vera rolled her eyes and passed the table Terri was sitting at. "Then I guess you better put the cheesecake back."

"But it's your favourite!" her friend exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air.

Vera didn't react and left to change to her uniform. She made sure there were some stickers in her pocket. When she came back, Terri was still sitting there, pouting.

"Terri..."

"Come on! I don't want any juicy details! I mean, if you wanna share, that's totally cool, but..."

"There are no juicy details to share!" She smiled for herself, sitting across from her friend, reaching for her cup. Terri reached for the cheesecake. "Hey, I thought that was meant for me!"

"It was. But then you decided to go all tight-lipped, so..." Terri eyed her, considering, then gave her a bright smile, "give me something and it's yours."

"Ew. I am not exchanging the info about my love life for a cake!" Vera objected, offended. "But I might tell you something, because you are my amazing friend and I'm sure you're happy for me and you helped me with the stickers which he obviously liked very much."

"Do tell!" Terri moved the cheesecake to Vera's side of the table anyway.

Vera tried really hard not to grin like a teenage girl with her first crush, but just the memory of yesterday made her all tingling.

On their way to her apartment, Matt had asked her to dinner with his May I? and expression almost timid, like there was any change of rejection. She had said yes, of course, they had settled on Friday and exchanged numbers, so he could let her know the details. He had asked her about her preferences, horrified when he had found out she had only had chinese once (in a crappy stall), vietnamese did not agree with her and she had never had mexican or anything else. When she had admitted she wasn't much of a wine person (or any kind of drinker, really), he had seemed on verge of desperation. When Vera had gathered her courage again and kissed him at least on his cheek (just because she could) with 'I'm not so hard to please' he had smiled at her gorgeously and pecked her lips with 'okay'. They hadn't talked much after that, both lost in their thoughts. In front of her apartment building, he had taken her face to his hands, cold due to the autumn night air, and kissed her slowly, deeply, sweetly, making her dizzy for the third time that day and given her another small kiss on her forehead for goodnight. She had made it to the flat before she started giggling like crazy, realizing retrospectively he could have probably heard that. It had made her giggle even more. She had texted Terri goodnight and went to bed after quick shower. She fell asleep with a goofy grin.

Now, she kept it together for the sake of her friend. Or so she thought.

"Oh my god, you got it soooo bad," her friend laughed at her and Vera looked at her in surprise. "You just zoned out for like three minutes. Also, you're grinning like an idiot. It looks good on you. What happened yesterday?"

Vera tried to make her lips to stop smiling. It took a lot of effort and worked for about five seconds.

"He kissed me. He kept his promise and walked me home, safe, as you know since I texted you. Asked me out."

She kept it simple. She didn't want to give away how over the heels she was for him and how tender and passionate he was. How quickly their relationship changed, how they couldn't stop touching (or at least she couldn't) and how natural it felt.