Marvellous things

Chapter 5: Don't apply compression gently

She felt kind of weird about doing this, but managed to justify herself by thinking about all the times Crane had enthusiastically regaled her – his archaic language was rubbing off on her, wasn't it? – with tales of the most inane things. This was simply payback. Nothing more and nothing less.

'Last night I dreamed about you,' she said. Crane tilted his head. Abbie suddenly realised how that innocent sentence could be misinterpreted to mean something else entirely.

'Don't give me that look. It was really more of a nightmare. No. Okay, let me rephrase that. I had a dream. You were in it,' she began anew. Crane seemed very interested, though subdued.

'It did not occur to me that the dream might have been erotic in nature until you so blatantly accused me of harbouring such thoughts. However, it might have been a prophetic dream. Tell me more about it.'

'I think it was a regular dream,' Abbie protested. Not that it mattered. She was going to tell him all about it anyway.

'How can you be certain?' Crane inquired.

'Well, for one, you don't have a gaping chest wound...' she started. Crane interrupted her.

'That could still happen.'

'...with laces of red liquorice streaming out of it,' Abbie continued, staring at him pointedly. Sheepishly, he met her gaze.

'Ah, yes, I see what you mean. The silliness of the candy does suggest that it was not in fact a vision,' he admitted.

'You were dying and...'

Abbie started to laugh. The timing couldn't have been more wrong. Crane looked slightly offended, which only made her laugh harder.

'And you said...' she tried again, but she had to pause because she couldn't stop laughing.

'You said, get this, don't apply compression gently.'

It wasn't really funny maybe, but it had been such a welcome dream. No visions of a bleak past or future. Merely ridiculous dream stuff. Tears came to her eyes. When was the last time she'd had this much fun? Or, better question, when was the last time she'd felt comfortable enough with someone to let loose like this?

Crane chuckled. Still laughing, she leaned into him. God, I trust him so much, Abbie thought. He smiled at her with those beautiful eyes of his and before she knew what she was doing she was kissing him. His mouth opened in surprise. She was starting to come to her senses when he stunned her by returning the kiss. Immediately, she pulled away.

'I'm sorry,' she whispered. It had felt so natural, but of course it wasn't. It was dumb. They were just friends. Abbie thought nothing of Crane kissing her back. After all, he was a guy.

'Yes, you're quite right. We cannot do that,' he agreed. He sounded extremely unhappy with the situation. Abbie could relate. Forcing herself to make eye contact, she saw the regret plain on his face. It kicked her right in the teeth.