(Michelle POV)
The strangest part wasn't that I kissed Steven by accident.
(Okay — technically it was an accident. Technically. Accident-ish.)
The strangest part was what happened after.
Or rather…
What didn't happen.
--
(The Week of Softness)
Ever since that Monday morning outside my classroom — the tiny, stupid, adorable kiss on his lips, and the way he hugged me like he was trying not to crush me in front of the whole hallway — something between us had shifted.
Not dramatically.
Not suddenly.
More like…
Like someone turned the dimmer switch of our relationship one notch brighter.
Everything was still warm.
Still gentle.
Still overwhelmingly tender.
But there was a new undercurrent now.
A quiet awareness.
An almost.
Every time I walked with him, I felt it.
Every time he looked at me a fraction too long, I felt it.
Every time he brushed a finger over the back of my hand — accidentally or not — I felt it so vividly I could hear my own pulse.
And Steven…?
God.
