Just because for the next two weeks they didn't exchange a word, it didn't mean that they were completely ignoring each other. Yes, Toni felt so ashamed of herself that she tried to avoid him; whenever she spotted he was anywhere near, she immediately focused on her work and acted like she didn't see him, but she was just pretending. She couldn't understand her own reaction, it was shocking and frustrating that she wasn't able to control it, yet every time her eyes fell on him, even accidentally, she could feel her heartbeat quicken. For more than a couple of times she found herself watching him, her eyes following him as he was walking through the garden, subconsciously chewing her bottom lip and wishing that she had a little more courage to approach and at least apologize for her comment that day. When he turned and caught her staring, as it couldn't be called anything else, she felt the ground would part and swallow her, blushing deeply and quickly looking away.
Still, when one day she glanced in the direction of the tree, which she used to find him sitting under and he wasn't there, her face fell and she found that she had even bigger difficulties focusing on her tasks than she had with his presence. Her mind was constantly drifting off to wonders, where he was and she wasn't able to prevent it. It was ridiculous; how could she feel a pang of jealousy at the thought that he was somewhere else, when they didn't even know each other?!
What she didn't know was that he was actually in his bedroom. He thought that by staying inside he would be able to study for quickly approaching history test, but there was one huge obstacle. His windows faced the gardens and no matter how hard he tried to focus on the book, he was catching himself reading the same sentence over and over again. The thought that all he needed to do was approach the window to see her kept bugging him, and at one point he finally shut the book close and just did that. Resting his forearms on the windowsill, he smiled when he saw her figure as she worked on pruning his mother's lilacs.
He was a little surprised to see her there just a week earlier. She pretty much admitted to him that she was helping her father ready the representative space of the garden for the social gathering, which they were throwing for their acquaintances and when he spotted her walking next to her father on Monday, he wasn't sure which of his feelings was stronger – happiness to see her or fear, because he knew how difficult it would be to think of anything else knowing she was near. And, as much as he tried to push those thoughts away and ignore it, he couldn't deny it any longer – he had a huge crush on her.
There was nothing he could do about it, though. They were from two completely different leagues. She was stunningly beautiful and he wasn't amongst who was considered the most handsome guys; from what he inquired, she was quite popular and he, well, was not. Not to mention that he was, after all, destined for the Ivy League, while she was just his family gardener's daughter! He couldn't think about relationship with her, and even if the difference between their social standing wasn't so meaningful, she surely wouldn't be interested in anything anyway. Still, he wanted to get to know her better and Myles Leland the third was always getting what he wanted.
She probably wouldn't be aware that he was watching her if it wasn't for a sneeze. It was a warm day, so his window was wide open and he was somewhat surprised that she didn't notice him, especially that he didn't try to hide. All she needed was to look up, but she didn't and probably wouldn't have if it wasn't for some pollen, which made him sneeze, rather loudly. She was obviously alarmed by it, convinced she was alone and he heard her exclaim, and noticed that everything she was holding in her hands was now lying on the ground.
"I apologize." he spoke, making her jump once again but this time instead of looking around, she simply glanced up. "Didn't mean to startle you."
"It's okay." she mumbled, blushing as she realised that she was so bothered about what he was doing while in fact, he was simply inside.
"Wait a second." he said, disappearing from the window and few minutes later she saw him walking in her direction.
"I didn't think you were home." she said, when they stood for a moment in a complete, horribly uncomfortable silence, desperately looking for something to talk about. "It wasn't like I was thinking about you or something… I mean, I was but it's not that I..." she groaned loudly, hiding her flushed face in her hands. "I'm such an idiot." she mumbled, a little louder than she thought, making him chuckle. She jumped, when she felt his hand on her shoulder and shyly raised her eyes, blushing even deeper as she noticed the amused look on his face.
"Don't worry." he said, his lips widening just a little in a small, reassuring smile and she could feel her heart jump, starting to beat faster, and all the butterflies in her stomach come to life. For a moment, she found herself lost in this blue eyes, that he had, and only the way he raised his eyebrows brought her back from this little daze, making her cheeks even redder if it was even possible. "Is there anything I can help you with?" he asked, pointing to the tools and she shook her head.
"I've just finished." she said with a smile and he frowned, realising that no matter how much he tried to suppress this attraction, it still made his heart skip a beat and took his breath away. Her face immediately fell, when she noticed the expression on his and blinked a few times in order to prevent tears from filling her eyes. "Get a grip on yourself, girl, and stop acting like a lovesick idiot." she reproved herself in her mind.
"What would you say about a walk?" he asked, making her eyes light up and her heart jump once again."I mean, if you don't have anything better to do, what you would rather occupy yourself with..."
"Actually, I would love to." she admitted, chewing on her bottom lip nervously as she perceived just how eager she sounded, but he didn't seem to pay that much attention to it.
He surprised her by offering her his arm, but she took it and even though all the conversation they had was limited to a small talk, as they were both distracted with the other and their own reactions to their company and neither was able to truly focus, they didn't mind and agreed that it was a really great afternoon.