Thanks to Sara Frisch for betaing this!

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DING-DONG!!

I jumped so high that my feet actually left the ground. I quickly hastened to the doorway, my cheeks warming up again.

YARGH.

Maybe I should just use a bunch of powdered foundation like 2 inches thick in the small, feeble hope of covering up my blushes.

I wrenched open the door, a bit annoyed at whoever interrupted us, but mostly because I felt entirely… flustered. Yeah, that’s it. Flustered. Well, how would YOU feel if you had just about to kiss a totally hot guy who’s like your soul mate but you’ve only just met for… what… a maximum of 2 or 3 hours? Taking a deep breath, I looked down at the same 15-year old maid, who was cowering slightly. I realized I probably looked pretty angry and quickly replaced the scowl (that was mostly the product of confusion rather than angriness) with a smile.

“Um—I--,” she squeaked, glancing at Dan again, then looking at the floor. “The—uh—the—Mrs. Templeton sent me t-to um… uh…” her eyes wandered the room, as if she’d forgotten what her job was. Her gaze landed on the vase and she gave a jolt of recognization. “The vase!” She cried triumphantly, then lowered her voice, looking a bit embarrassed. “I’m here to clean up the vase, miss,” She gave a half-curtsy, half-bow, then went to sweep up the ceramic fragments.

Dammit!

Hadn’t I told them that I’d take care of the mess myself?

I mean, not that I wanted to kiss a stranger, as harmless as he was. But you know, still. I don’t HAVE those feelings for Dan… I don’t like him in that way, it was just a heat-of-the-moment thing. You know. When you’re caught up in the moment and you just have a complete brain fart. Everyone has those lapses. It’s completely, utterly normal.

Then what explained that dragon-like… thing… in my stomach…?

It’s nothing. It’s NOTHING. I’m not going to dwell on it. Like I said, my brain just froze for a moment. If it was working, I totally wouldn’t have flirted back. ‘Cause I don’t like Dan in that way. I just met him, for God’s sake. Literally. Feeling exasperated at the mental debate, I sat down on the couch but made sure not to make physical contact, while we were carefully avoiding each other’s eyes.

“Thank you, miss,” the maid curtsy-bowed and scurried out of the room before I had a chance to thank her. As soon as the door clicked shut, Dan and I both launched ourselves into speech.

“It’s getting late, maybe you should be—“

“I don’t want to disturb you, I—“ We looked at each other and laughed again. This seemed melt some of the tension a bit, and he just shrugged. “So, I guess I should be going.” I nodded shakily, and we walked to the doorway.

“Anyways… um… it’s been fun,” I said pathetically, staring at the door handle.

“Thanks for everything,” he said, slipping into his shoes. “Anyways, uh, I was wondering…?” He trailed off in that same hopeful tone, and I looked up.

“Yeah?”

“If you wanted to come to one of Harry Potter rehearsals.” He smiled. “You know, if you wanna see how everything works…” My jaw must have been hanging wide open, and I probably went on staring at him for quite some time, not speaking, because he quickly backtracked. “But, y’know, if you don’t, I’ll just—“ He headed hastily out the door and was just about to exit when I finally regained my composure and stopped him.

“No, wait, I’d love to go!” He turned around, beaming.

“Well, excellent then!” He fished around his pocket for a while before pulling out a scrap of paper and a pen. He scribbled something and handed it to me. “Here’s my info…” I looked at it and saw his cell, home phone, and e-mail.

“Oh, okay, um…” I grabbed a random notepad lying near me and borrowed Dan’s pen and wrote out my information. “Here’s mine.” He nodded and pocketed it in his jeans.

“Anyways, the rehearsals should be in a couple days… around lunchtime. I”ll call you to confirm the details, and maybe we can hang out after.” He gave me a small crooked grin, and I smiled back.

“I’m looking forward to it.” I accompanied him to the elevator and just as the doors in the lift were about to close, he suddenly stopped them and stepped out a bit. He leaned close to my ear, so that his breath tickled my sensitive earlobe and sent strange shivers up and down my spine and whispered in a low voice, “And what you said about me not wanting to be with you… not true.” He gave me yet another one of those winks and the doors closed in front of him, leaving me to mull over what had just happened during his visit and replay his last words over and over in my mind a couple thousand times.