April 17th, 12:22 PM, The parking lot behind Kagome's office building
Kagome's thumb hovered nervously over the 'call' button on her phone. The name on the screen glared up at her, unblinking. Inuyasha Taisho. She swallowed reflexively and pressed her thumb to the screen.
Please don't pick up, please don't pick up, please don't—
It started to ring.
Please don't pick up, please, please—
"Hello, Kagome," a pleasant baritone greeted after the fourth ring.
Damn.
"Uh—h-hey, Inuyasha," Kagome stuttered nervously.
A moment of strained silence.
"I didn't expect to hear from you…" he said.
She could practically taste the discomfort in his voice.
"Um, I know… I haven't exactly ever been… great at… communicating with you, I suppose."
"Heh." His only reply.
"I uh, don't have a ton of time right now— I'm on lunch, but…I—I just wanted to apologize."
Silence.
"For—erm, for the way I, uh, behaved a few weeks ago. When I was drunk."
More silence.
"W-well anyway, if you don't want to talk to me ever again, I—I understand, so—so I can just hang up now— if you want—" Kagome was beyond mortified. And she was, for reasons she didn't want to fathom at the moment, very close to tears. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. "I—I guess I'll just go then—" She started to pull the phone away from her ear.
"Wait!" His voice issued from the device suddenly. Loudly.
"Yes?" She almost whispered.
"Sorry," he said, sounding a little out of sorts. "I just didn't think— well, never mind. Can we meet this Saturday? At the botanical gardens?"
For a moment, Kagome was speechless.
"Kagome?"
"Yeah, sorry. I—I thought you never wanted to see me again," she said softly.
"I—that's not really true," Inuyasha sighed. "And, well… some conversations are better to have in person, you know?"
A pause. "You— you want me to apologize in person?" she asked.
"That's— part of it, yeah," he allowed.
"The other part?" A note of hope entered her voice. But what was she hoping for, really?
Inuyasha sighed. "I think we should have the chance to talk about— about things. When you're, um, sober. It's not really fair otherwise…"
"I— okay," Kagome agreed. "What time on Saturday?"
"Eleven in the morning work for you?"
Kagome thought about her schedule for a moment. "Yeah, that's fine."
"Great, I'll see you then."
"Inuyasha?"
"Yeah?"
"I— I'm really— that is… I'm— lookingforwardtoseeingyou," she finished in a rush. Oh, why did she have to go and admit that now?
All she heard for a moment was his breathing.
"I'm looking forward to seeing you too," he replied quietly. "And I'm glad you called."
A rush of relief swept through her. "Me too. I'll see you on Saturday."
"Yeah."
"'Bye." She hung up before she could hear his farewell.
Kagome allowed herself a moment for a deep breath and to bask in the heady wave of warmth that seemed to suddenly envelop her. He doesn't hate me. The thought nearly made her giddy, and she practically skipped to the office building's back door.
He doesn't hate me!