Lady; Premarital Existence

Hello lovely readers!

A few of us got together and tossed in some lovey-dovey scenes in celebration of Valentines Day next week.   Starting today, and each weekday until the BIG DAY, we'll share one with you. Some we've written, some we've read, some are just plain cute. Presented in no particular order: our love scenes. We hope you enjoy!
- TYPELINGS

*****

This is how my main characters meet and first exchange words. It's my version of a 1940's movie-meet-cute. Now, from my brain, the MS I've been toiling over for years: Premarital Existence.

~Lady

*****

Embarrassed, she turned to see the handyman staring at her, arms folded as he leaned against the door frame, smiling. Quickly she turned back toward the door to avoid his smile. With a better look compared to the last time that she had been nearly knocked over by him walking past, this time she was knocked over for sure, by his impish smile.

“Lock yourself out?” he asked, struggling to keep a laugh from rising to the surface.

“As a matter of fact…yes.” Gwen smiled sheepishly.

Handyman was already fumbling with his fistful of keys when she answered him. As he moved toward the door, she could barely move her feet. When he was just inches away from her body she stumbled to her right, nearly toppling over. Handyman grabbed for her arm and steadied her. He glanced down at his rough hand still on her arm and then back to her eyes. She couldn’t help but notice the deep color of green in his eyes; they looked almost brown they were so saturated.

“You all right?” he asked quietly, swallowing a lump in his throat.

“Fine. Good. Yeah, good. Yep. Fine. Uh huh. Yeah.”

Gwen wished that she could turn off the faucet of babbling words spilling from her mouth. Handyman looked seriously into Gwen’s eyes, steadied her, made sure she was completely firm on her own two feet, reached for his jambalaya of keys hanging off his belt and began to put the right key into the door. Just before key met keyhole, Handyman turned back to look at Gwen’s feet then up to her eyes, as though searching for evidence that she was indeed stable.

“Are you all right?” Handyman asked again. He was teasing her and Gwen was realizing it. Rouge filled the apples of cheeks as she smiled and stared down at her shoes. She was secretly elated and hoped it didn’t read across her face that she liked Handyman flirting with her.

Peeking from the side of her eye, she noticed that Handyman had a wide smile on his face. She took consideration of the creases carefully carved out of his cheeks, the way his windswept chocolatey hair fell over his ears and forehead. She had been so engrossed with studying his face that she didn’t even realize he had opened the door. He just stood there. She wasn’t sure what to do next. Should I invite him in? she wondered, as she sidestepped past him and into her apartment.

“Thank you so much…” Gwen’s voice trailed off.

“Scott. I’m Scott Graham.” He smiled.

~Premarital Existence, WIP by Christi Gray