More pleasant at least

In just the walk over, Alan’s clothes had taken quite the beating from the torrent of rain that was steadily falling. So it was with his hair flat to his head, damp pants, and damp shoes he stood outside Caroline’s apartment. Even in the relative discomfort, he had been standing there for approximately five minutes, making no move to knock at the door.

“Maybe this is a mistake,” He found himself thinking, “Maybe I should just turn around and head home, I don’t even know this person!”

He scratched his fingers against the palm of his hand nervously. He was very conscious of the fact that a wet man standing just outside a woman’s apartment without doing anything was probably not a good look to outside observers.

“Ugh, here goes nothing..” He reached over and gave three sharp raps to the door.

There was quiet, followed by footsteps behind the door. They paused right outside, but the door didn’t open right away as Caroline likely confirmed who was outside. Then he heard the door unlock and open and Caroline Popped out.

She was wearing clothes clearly meant for relaxing in, a loose thin blouse and what appeared to be yoga pants. Her hair was tied back, and Alan noted that it appeared despite the rest of her outfit being for staying in, Caroline seemed to have done her makeup like she was going out.

“Hey, oh god is it raining hard out? Come on in, let me take your coat.” She reached out, and Alan pulled off the wet raincoat and handed it over.

“It’s honestly not that bad, if I had caught a bus I wouldn't be soaked like this but I figured the exercise would do me some good. That and it’s not that far from my place anyway.” Alan remarked.

It was only a half truth, really he decided not to take the bus because he had felt like the extra time to get there would allow him to compose himself better. Clearly, now a wet mess, it hasn't worked as intended. He reached up with his hands and combed his fingers through his hair, pulling it back and out of his eyes.

He glanced around the apartment. He hadn’t had a good chance to look at it in the dark the other night. Caroline lived in a medium sized studio apartment, what he thought had been a dividing wall to a bed room he could now see was a set of bookshelves placed to divy the room up. She had what appeared to be a small living area where a laptop was set up on a coffee table, she probably ate most of her meals at that table too as Alan saw there was no other flat surface available in the small space.

“You got a nice place here, cozy.” He said as he moved further in.

“Yeah, it’s not much but it fits my budget and has a bed so you won’t catch me complaining.” She hung up his coat on a hanger by the door, “You know it's hard to find a place that’s affordable when you live alone.”

“Oh believe me, I get it, I’m just lucky I got my sister to split the bill with.” As the words left Alan's mouth his expression soured thinking about that morning and he tried to shake it off, “You said you had some books to show off?”

“Straight to business eh?” She grinned at him, “Yeah my collection is on those bookshelves there. Would you like coffee? Tea?”

“Tea would be great.” He walked over to the shelf and began peering over the volumes

“Earl grey fine?” She said from her small kitchen nook

“That’d be great…” He was scanning through titles and smirked, “Ah yes, all the Twilight books, essential to every home library.”

“Hey! Everyone is allowed to make mistakes, besides no knocking unless you tried them.”

“Who said I hadn’t? The side cast is pretty good, I’d read a series about a vampire doctor in the Spanish Inquisition, but alas that's not the focus and its focus is garbage.” He grabbed one of the novels and flipped through its pages before putting it back.

There were a lot of science and medical texts also there, though Alan doubted they were for actual reading. He had a lot of teaching texts from back in college that outside of assignments he hadn't touched, but reselling had been too much of a pain. There were also the part and parcel for every high school reader: pride and prejudice, catcher in the rye, great gatsby…oh what’s this?

He lifted a book and scanned through it.

“Something catch your eye there?” Caroline came over placing the tea on the shelf in front of Alan.

“You’re big into William Gibson?” He closed the cover on the copy of Neuromancer in his hands

“Yeah, had an ex who was big into the whole cyberpunk thing, but really he was just into the aesthetic. But after reading it and living through the advancement of computers and medical science, I just ended up gravitating towards his books. Are you a fan?”

“Never really got a chance to read them, it's always been on the back burner as finding time to read got harder.”

“You can borrow it if you like?” She gestured at the book

“You sure? I don’t know when I could get it back to you.” He looked her over, searching her facial expression.

She turned her head to the side and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, “Yeah it’s no problem, if it becomes a real problem I’ll hunt you down.”

He chuckled at that and let the book hand to his side, “I’ll take you up on that.” As he said it, he sent a wave of happiness to Caroline, he wanted her to feel good about her decision.

Staring at her though, he was once again drawn to her appearance. Her lips upturned in a smile, the way she rocked slightly on her feet in front of him.

“What the hell?” he thought as he put his hand on her shoulder and looked down in her eyes and sent a wave of arousal at her.

He looked at her and smiled, “Thanks for inviting me over today.” He watched as her lip trembled slightly

“I um…yeah you’re welcome” her eyes were locked on his, her lips slightly parted but looking nervous.

“Anything else you wanted to show me while I was here?” He slid his hand down her back and this time sent her a wave of desperation.

“Just..oh fuck, what the hell?” She pushed herself up and locked her lips to his.