Don't Drop Your Mask

Possible Batmans:
Charlie- suspicious. Dropped down on my balcony before. Knew which one it was. Regular at work. Might have similar eyes to Romeo, lighting makes it difficult to tell.
Phil- wanted to walk me home without knowing where I live, or that I was in walking distance. Might be a ploy to save his identity since Romeo mentioned Phil, but never Charlie.
Paco- probably not. Paco is way more fabulous than Romeo. Paco also would not have kissed me. I am a girl.
Someone I don’t know.
Results inconclusive at this point in time.

Today is my first day off in quite some time. What am I doing? Trying to figure out who my rescuer is. Why? Because I have no friends.

I mean, there’s that Phil guy, but he has my number. There’s Charlie, but I’m always waiting on him. I mean, he’s been in my apartment once.

I sighed and started petting Turtle, who had just crawled onto my lap. “Turtle, you’re my friend, right?” He licked my hand. “You’re loyal. You’ll always be here for me. Never go off to Yale, or sleep with my boyfriend.” He made a funny little noise. “That would be pretty weird, huh? Well, you’ll always stay right by my side.”

There was a knock at the door and he went running into the bedroom. “Traitor!” I yelled after him.

I looked out the peephole. “Hey, Charlie,” I said, opening up the door. “Can I do anything for you?”

“I’m just… bored.”

I laughed. “Me, too.” I walked away from the door and he followed me, shutting it behind him. “I have cable?”

“Really? I haven’t set mine up yet.”

“Cool! Now we get to complain about how there’s nothing on television!”

“Well, let’s bring it on then.”

We turned on the TV and channel flipped. We ended on the travel channel.

“So how’s the apartment going?”

“It’s fine. I’m adjusting to the cold. Does the heat ever work here?”

“Sort of. The heat in your room may work. You just need to use a wrench in that one, I believe. I can show you some time.”

“That would be great. Right now it’s colder than your apartment.”

Just then, we heard a bang coming from his apartment. “What was that?” I asked.

He looked up nervously. “My brother is up there.”

“Oh, he’s still staying with you? I thought he was just helping you move in.”

“Well you know how family likes to stay.”

I nodded. “Yeah.”

“I have some movies in my apartment.”

“Should we go fetch them?”

“Um, I’ll go.”

“Okay. Do you want anything to drink when you get back?” I asked. “Lemonade?”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” he said, with a smile.

He is so bipolar. I made him a glass of lemonade and grabbed another blanket. I looked at the blanket that I had shared with my mystery man just hours earlier. And I was drunk. How trashy is that? I sighed.

We had left the door propped open so he could get back in. “I grabbed you a blanket. It’s still pretty chilly in here. I, uh, left my porch door open last night.”

“Right,” he said. “Thanks.”

He put in a DVD and sat down next to me. “So did your brother break anything?”

“What? Oh, no. Everything is… fine now.”

“The Holy Grail! I haven’t seen this movie in forever.”

“A Monty Python fan? I thought so.”

I laughed. “What gave it away?”

“Um, you’re a human on this Earth?”

I laughed. “Sure, stalker.”

He grabbed the blanket and threw it over top of us. “I am not a stalker, now be quiet, the movie is starting.”

I laughed at him and we started watching. Soon enough, Arthur’s tale came on and we were laughing to the sound of coconuts being clacked together. I got up about halfway through.

“Want me to pause it?”

“No, I’m just going over to the kitchen,” I said.

“For what?”

I snatched his empty glass off the coffee table. “To be a good hostess and get you some more lemonade.” He laughed a little at me.

“I could have gotten it myself.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem.”

I sat back down and handed him his drink. When I sat down, our faces got a little too close and was awkward for a second or two. He laughed.

“Sorry.”

“It’s not a big deal,” I said. “It was just a little weird.”

He threw the covers back over us. One of his feet grazed mine. “I grabbed another cover, if you want your own, or anything.”

Our voices were getting quieter. “I think we’re fine,” he said as we started inching in. I shut my eyes. Our lips connected gently. The kiss deepened and became hungrier. He started planting kisses down my neck.

“Charlie,” I breathed out.

He pulled away. “What?”

“Oh, God. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

“Oh,” he said. “You are right.”

“It’s not you, it’s me. I just kind of am going with this other guy,” I said. What? I am not ‘going with him’. That’s a lie.

He smiled. He smiled? “It’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it. We’ll just pretend it never happened.”

The franticness left the room and then it just got awkward. “I’m gonna go back up to my room,” he said.

“Yeah…”

“I just… left my brother up there…”

“It’s getting late. I need to walk my dog.”

“Right, I’ll see you later. I’ll let myself out.”

“Okay, bye!”

I flopped back on the couch and sighed. I come across no guys that I like for how long? And now I’ve kissed two in the same day.

Way to go, Layla.