By: Micky Lou Boisvert
Leanne Battersby sat in a chair in her empty Italian restaurant. Her face was cupped in her hands and she had her elbows propped up on the mahogany table top. She sighed and dug her fingernails into her chin and jaw, then blew her eyebrow brushing dirty blonde bangs away from her face.
"Leanne?" Paul's voice broke the silence "What's wrong?"
"Nothing…oh who am I kidding, everything, everything's wrong Paul" Leanne exclaimed.
"It's gonna be alright Lee" Paul sighed, pulling up a chair and sitting next to her. She turned to look at him. For the first time she noticed the way his eyes caught the light, the way his red brown hair stuck out in the cute childish way that matched his personality. Although Paul had done some bad con artist type things he still held that naivety. 'This is Paul we're talking about' thought Leanne 'I'm sort of with Dan anyways, but I can't deny the chemistry we've had' "Lee?" Paul asked wearily.
"Hmm..?" Leanne snapped back into the real world.
"You were just staring at me, are you sure you're alright?" Paul breathed.
"I…I" Leanne stammered "I don't know"
Paul could see the tears filling Leanne's clear brown eyes. He acted on both impulse and desire, pressing his lips swiftly to hers. Leanne turned away and stared down at the table top. "Lee I'm sorry…"
"Don't be" she whispered, she turned back to Paul, Paul Duckworth, who had conned his grandparents, the same Paul Duckworth who followed her around like a lovesick puppy, and she did the only thing she could do, she kissed him. Leanne had always wondered how his lips felt, though he'd kissed her once before it had been much too brief. But now she knew how his lips felt, soft and tender and more than anything young. Leanne knew that Paul was twenty one, younger than her, but that didn't stop either of them. Paul let his hands slide around Leanne's waist and Leanne wrapped her arms around his neck. He picked her up and placed her on the table, she wrapped her legs around his waist. Their lips and bodies fit together perfectly, like a puzzle. Leanne gently pulled her mouth away from Paul's and moved her lips to his neck, kissing it. Her hands slid up under his t-shirt and pulled it off. She laughed in her head remembering the time Dan had made Paul walk home in nothing but his boxers. Dan. Leanne stopped for a split second, it was her decision. They could stop right now and she could run back to Dan or she could continue going where she was going with Paul. Paul or Dan, Paul pr Dan. Leanne lifted her gaze from Paul's bare chest to his eyes. And with one look into his sparkling blue eyes her decision was made. She took off her jacket and shirt and let him look at her. His smile was brilliant, because he knew that she'd chosen him. Paul grabbed Leanne in his arms and kissed her hard and long. All of this because he'd acted on impulse.