As always, I can't thank you enough for the reviews, support and love for this story.

…

Chapter Sixteen. A Step Forward.

"Son of a bitch."

Beth steps from the bathroom, her hair still wet from the shower and wrapped up in a towel, and she's wearing her bathrobe. The bathroom is across the hall from Daryl's bedroom and the door is open. Hearing the swearing, she can't help but curiously take a peek into the room to see what he's doing.

Louis is lying on the bed but his head is up, curiously watching his owner, and Daryl is standing at the dresser, scowling at his reflection and struggling with the tie around his neck. He is grumbling and jerking at it, his fingers fumbling with attempting at knotting it. Beth purses her lips together to make sure she doesn't laugh as she raises her fist and knocks on the open door. Daryl instantly looks at her.

"Need some help?" She offers.

Daryl yanks the tie from around his neck. "Who the fuck invented these things? They're no better than nooses," he all but growls and Beth lets out a puff of laughter before she's able to stop herself.

"I used to help daddy with them all of the time once mom…" she trails off at that and steps forward into the room, taking the tie from him. She stops though before she can tie it around his neck for him and can't help but frown a little. "Are you going to wear a tie with the short sleeve?" She asks.

Daryl frowns, too. "I got that meetin' with the plannin' committee this mornin'," he reminds her. "T said we should dress up this time so we look like somethin' more than contractors."

"But you are contractors and the committee already knows that," Beth points out to him.

"Ain't nothin' wrong with lookin' professional," he mutters. "Are you gonna help or what?"

Beth shakes her head, ignoring his tone. He's angry, but not at her. She knows him well enough to know that. "You can't wear a short sleeve button shirt with a tie. It just doesn't go together that well."

Daryl is still frowning. "It's eight o'clock in the mornin' and already ninety degrees outside and I ain't goin' naked," he snaps.

She rolls her eyes at that. "Wait here."

Beth leaves his room and goes down the hallway to her room. Taking the towel from her head, she rubs her hair with it for a moment before tossing it onto her bed and then going to the window seat, taking a wrapped package she has setting there. She then goes back into his room where he, once again, is making an attempt at the tie. She sets the box down on the dresser and then gently slaps his hands away.

"Stop it," she orders him and then pulls the tie away. "I got you something for today."

He pauses at that and the scowl slowly drops from his face as he looks at the box on the dresser. He looks at it as if he's never seen a present before and then he looks at her.

"Wha' is it?" He asks her.

Beth doesn't answer. She just picks the box up and holds it out for him to take; which he finally does but slowly. And even when it's in his hands, he doesn't make a move to open it. He just stares down at it as if perhaps he can see through the green wrapping paper she has wrapped it in.

"Well, aren't you going to open it?" Beth asks and she's smiling but only to hide her nervousness that perhaps, this wouldn't be appreciated.

It had been something done on impulse a couple days ago – when Daryl had come home after a day's work and had shown her the sketches he had made of his ideas for the gazebo, which he would show to the planning committee at his next meeting with them. She had been so flattered that not only had he listened but that he had taken her advice.

Daryl slowly peels at the paper and Louis jumps down from the bed to come to them. Beth takes the paper from him though before Louis can get a hold of it. The dog is a shredder.

Daryl turns and sets the box down on the dresser and pulls the lid up.

"They're nothing special," Beth is quick to say. "And you don't have to wear them, but there's one for you and the other is for T-Dog. I just thought…" she trails off because she's actually not entirely sure what she thought. If Daryl had wanted tee-shirts for his business, he more than likely probably would have made some already.

Daryl unfolds the dark navy blue tee-shirt and holds it up so he can get a look at it.

On the left breast pocket, there's a little white logo of a stick figure wearing a hard-hat and carrying a plank of wood over his shoulder. And on the back, also in white lettering that is large enough to see from a distance, it says Dixon Construction – Commercial and Residential. And then she has T-Dog's cell number listed since that is the unofficial number of the company.

He doesn't say anything. He just looks at the shirt and she knows she's still getting to know Daryl but she wishes she already had the ability of figuring out what his silences mean. She wishes she knew if he liked or hated the shirts. If he hates them, she can just quickly take the box back to her room and she will be more than happy to pretend that she never had these made for him.

Maybe it's a bit presumptuous of her. Maybe this isn't something that roommates do for one another and she has just totally crossed some invisible line and have horribly embarrassed herself and have made it so awkward between them now. But… even if it's not what roommates do, it's something that friends definitely do for one another. And she considers Daryl one of her friends.

A friend who gives her a whoosh in her stomach every time she sees him though that is something she's doing her best to always ignore. What she had told Paulie is true. She wants to feel that whoosh with someone more than anything and it's just cruel that she feels it with Daryl. She feels like she needs to be specific. She wants to feel that whoosh but she wants to feel it for someone who could possibly feel it for her in return. If Daryl ever feels a whoosh, Beth has a feeling it's for no one other than Amy.

"So, um," she speaks when he still isn't saying anything. "Do you want to try the tie again?"

She doesn't look at him as she sets the wrapping paper on the dresser for the time being and picks up the tie once more. She finally lifts her eyes to Daryl's face and she gives him a small smile. She refuses to be embarrassed. She tells herself there's no reason to be. It's just a tee-shirt. It's not like she just offered him her and he's turning her down. It's just a shirt.

Daryl is staring at her, really staring at her, and her stomach is whooshing and she wishes that he would say anything right now because his silence is almost making her nervous.

"Daryl-" Beth begins to say. But that's all she's able to say.

Daryl steps to her then and his hands glide over her cheeks and his lips press to hers.

And for a second – just a split second – Beth has no idea what's going on. But then, her brain catches up and it registers with her that Daryl is kissing her. He's actually kissing her. His lips are on hers, his facial hair scratching her upper lip and her chin, and his fingers are tangled back in her damp hair. She feels her knees beginning to weaken beneath her and she quickly wraps her arms around his shoulders to keep herself standing and she pushes herself up on the tips of her toes so she can kiss him with a matching pressure.

For a horrible second, she wonders if he really means to be kissing her. She worries that he'll pull away at any second and he'll start ignoring her after this. She worries that he'll pull away and look disappointed that she's not Amy.

But Daryl doesn't do any of those things. He kisses her and he keeps kissing her, hard and hungry, and it surprises her because she admits, she has daydreamed about their first kiss and it had always been soft; maybe even a little hesitant and awkward. Nothing like this. Daryl Dixon is an unbelievable kisser and Beth has never been kissed like this before; like he will pass out if he is to do anything in this moment but kiss her.

She has an image of Daryl un-knotting the belt of her robe from around her waist and taking her to his bed but neither of them have time for that right now. Her first appointment is at eight and he has his meeting with the planning committee that morning and she doesn't want their first time to be quick. She wants to be able to take her time with him and have him take his time with her in return. And she doesn't even know if this kiss will lead to more kisses. They can't just fall into bed with one another. She's never been like that and though she might be with Daryl, she'd much rather see if this kiss will lead somewhere else first. Perhaps a date.

Does Daryl want this kiss to lead somewhere?

They both seem to silently agree at the same time that they need to breathe and slowly, they pull their lips apart, and when Beth's eyes flutter open, she finds Daryl already looking at her. She finds herself looking to his face, her stomach clenching nervously because what is he going to say right now? What is he thinking? That she's not Amy?

"Thanks for the shirt," he then says in that low, near-quiet voice that gives her shivers.

And it seems such a silly thing to say and yet, it's perfectly Daryl, and Beth is able to give him a small smile and nod of her head. She wonders if his heart is racing in his chest, too.

…

"You're late," is the first thing Rosita says as Beth rushes into Sheer Genius that night. As with every other Wednesday, Rosita is the only one in the salon working late that evening. It's why Wednesdays are Rosita's favorite day of the week.

She is sitting in the chair at her station, reading a two-month old copy of US Weekly, but she is smiling as she slaps it shut and stands up. "Thank God you're here. If you didn't show, I would have had no excuse to keep me from going to some dinner with Spencer's coworkers. And, I love Spencer. Obviously. But, I don't love his coworkers. There's always at least two who ask me about the Latina vote. As if I represent all Latina voters."

Beth is breathing heavily as if she had run all the way here from the farm and Rosita's smile slowly fades as she looks at her.

"What's wrong?" She asks. Her cell phone in the top drawer begins to ring – Spencer's ring – but she ignores it as Beth is still breathing rapidly and not answering her. "Beth!" Rosita doesn't mean to snap but Beth is scaring the shit out of her right now.

Beth blinks at her best friend as if she doesn't quite remember how she got here. "Daryl kissed me this morning," she then releases in a rush of words and Rosita gasps and grabs her best friend's hands, pulling her closer, Beth stumbling before catching her feet.

"What the hell, Beth?" Rosita demands. "This morning?! And you're just now telling me?"

"I had patients…" Beth helplessly explains.

"I need to shampoo your hair and you need to tell me everything," Rosita says with no room for argument as she drags Beth over to the shampoo bowls.

And Beth does tell her everything: Daryl struggling with the tie, Beth presently him with the tee-shirts she has made for his company and then Daryl kissing her like the kisses Beth used to read about in those silly cheap paperback novels and imagining herself having one of these days. And then, afterwards, they had just gone about their morning as they usually did. Both got themselves ready and Daryl had come down into the kitchen in the tee-shirt and his nicest pair of jeans and Beth had handed him a thermos of coffee before wishing him luck on his meeting that morning.

"I thought he would kiss me again," Beth then admits as Rosita lathers the shampoo into her hair and then her fingers massage her scalp.

Usually, Rosita shampooing her hair can nearly put her to sleep but tonight, Beth's too wired. She's been wired for the entire day and her lips and knees are still shaking and trembling so many hours later. Ever since Daryl's lips touched her for the first time.

"He probably didn't because he didn't know if you wanted him to," Rosita replies.

Beth frowns at that. "I've been making it pretty obvious what I want."

Rosita laughs a little. "No, you haven't. You've been doing what you always do. You politely keep away when you think you don't have a chance with a guy. Even if you really do, if you think you don't, that's pretty much that. You don't put yourself out there."

Beth keeps frowning, but only because she knows that what Rosita said is the truth.

No, she hasn't made her feelings towards Daryl obvious. But that's because she thought it would be completely pointless. He's been still so hung up on his ex-girlfriend. Hasn't he? When did he get over Amy? Or is he still hung up on her and when he kissed Beth this morning, he was just imagining that it was Amy's lips he was touching instead of hers?

"Up," Rosita says, dropping a towel over Beth's hair and wringing out the access water.

Beth stands up and walks to Rosita's station, plopping down in the chair. The excitement from this morning has finally worn off and she wishes that she and Daryl had talked about it instead of doing what they had done; which was nothing. They hadn't even talked about it. He had given her the most passionate kiss she has ever had in her entire life and she didn't even talk with him about it. And she's a person who wants to talk about everything!

"I messed up," she sighs as Rosita begins combing her hair out.

"No, you haven't. And I'm just not saying that," Rosita is quick to say. "The same length?"

Beth nods, not even looking at her reflection in the mirror in front of her. "Just trim the split ends," she says and Rosita gets to work.

"We never should have kissed," Beth sighs again. "He's still in love with Amy and when he kissed me… I don't know. It was an impulse… or something. He's probably been regretting it all day and is hoping that I'll never mention it to him again."

"What makes you think any of that?" Rosita asks. "Daryl is a great guy, Beth. A little damaged, sure. But what brooding attractive man like him isn't? That doesn't mean he's not great and you two are friends and I don't think he's been in love with Amy for a while now."

"And how could you possibly know that?" Beth asks, finally lifting her eyes to look at Rosita's reflection behind her.

"How could you possibly know that he's still in love with her?" Rosita asks her back.

Beth shrugs sadly. "He told me. His feelings for her just aren't like a light switch. He can't just switch it off one day."

Rosita is quiet for a moment, thinking, as she combs and snips and keeps Beth's hair to her shoulders. "Well," she finally speaks again. "Then if that's the truth, if he really is still in love with her, I can only hope that you two never mention the kiss to one another."

Beth looks at Rosita's reflection, her brow furrowed, and the question clear on her face.

"If he's still in love with Amy, he's clearly an idiot. And I refuse to have my best friend wind up with an idiot like that."

Rosita smiles at her through the mirror and despite the heaviness in her chest, Beth finds herself smiling back. Rosita bends down and kisses Beth on the cheek and Beth exhales a shaky breath, almost wanting to laugh. Leave it to Rosita to put it so simply yet eloquently.

The whole day – through every one of her appointments – Daryl has been in the back of her mind, never fully leaving and giving her a moment's peace. She has replayed this morning over and over again and she had felt the whooshing in her stomach each time she thought of his lips covering hers and his fingers in her hair. She has wondered if he has spent the day, replaying the kiss over and over again his mind, too.

But then, the self-doubt has been nipping at the back of her neck, too, because the kiss had made her weak in the knees but she can't read Daryl's mind so she has no idea what he had been thinking when he had been kissing her.

Amy doesn't taste like this. Amy doesn't kiss like this. Amy's not this short. Amy doesn't do that with her hands. Where's her tongue? Amy would have given me her tongue by now.

And on and on it went for the rest of the afternoon until Beth was done for the day and she was able to come here and unload on Rosita because that's what best friends are for.

She hates having thoughts like that. She hates doubting herself so much. She can be shy, yes, but she's never doubted herself as much as she started doing once meeting Daryl Dixon. And she almost wants to be angry at him for that. But she can't be mad at him. He hasn't done anything up until this morning to show her that he's interested in her the same way she's interested in him. It's not his fault that she has a crush on him and he's emotionally unavailable.

She just wishes she could have all of the answers without having to actually talk with him.

And then she gets angry at herself for that, too, because she's not a little kid. She's a grown woman. She's a doctor. She should be able to handle talking with a man who kissed her and she should be able to handle anything he tells her.

After Beth's hair is cut and dried and Beth has helped Rosita clean up, they leave the salon, Rosita turning off the lights and locking the door, and they head towards Beth's truck. Spencer drives Rosita in the mornings, dropping her off on the way to Town Hall. Rosita says they're saving their money for more important things than two cars. Spencer's family is a well-to-do Southern family. Old money; powerful in certain circles. And when he started dating Rosita in high school, they hadn't minded that much because it was just high school. But as the years went on and the relationship showed no signs of ending, that's when Spencer's family began voicing their disapproval until finally the ultimatum came. Either you stop seeing Rosita or you stop seeing this family.

Since then, Spencer's dad and older brother have come back around but he still doesn't talk to his mom. Rosita has less than savory things to say about her. "She loves making her speeches about how she loves everyone, but, what else would a politician say to a camera?"

Rosita and Spencer live in a small house on one of the town's residential streets right off of the main street and Beth pulls the truck into the driveway. It has been decided without discussing it that tonight would be a night for wine on the couch. Beth had loved her girl's night with Paulie, she loves Paulie, but she obviously can't have a girl's night with Daryl's mom when Beth wants to talk about Daryl.

Inside, when Rosita goes into the kitchen for the glasses and bottle, Beth sits on the couch and reaches for the LIFE board game box that is always beneath the coffee table.

Spencer comes home after a glass of wine each and they are halfway through the first game.

"Hi, honey!" Rosita greets from her spot on the floor, her smile slow like honey. "Guess what? We have two sets of twins and I'm a plumber."

Spencer looks exhausted with his tie hanging loose around his neck. Seeing his tie makes Beth think of Daryl and she nearly groans. Even a stupid necktie reminds her of the man. She tries to remember what life was like when she wasn't pathetic like this.

"Good. Tradesmen make more money than people think," Spencer says as he goes into the kitchen, returning a moment later with his own glass. He eases himself down into the armchair and takes the bottle, helping himself to some. "So, I heard Daryl kissed you today," Spencer then says to Beth without any sort of preamble.

And Beth, who has taken a sip of her wine, proceeds to choke.

"Where the hell did you hear that?" Beth asks, sitting up, staring at him through teary eyes, her throat still burning.

Spencer shrugs as if he doesn't see any big deal to this. "Daryl. He came to see me after his meeting with the planning committee and we were just talking."

Beth stares at him, waiting for him to say more, but Spencer has sank back into his chair and is just sipping his wine as if it's any other night for him. Beth picks up one of the pillows from the couch and throws it at his head.

"Hey!" He frowns.

"You deserved that," Rosita says as she spins the dial in the middle of the board game, concentrating on her turn.

"What did he say?" Beth all but demands.

Spencer takes a sip of his wine, taking his time, and Beth nearly throws the other couch pillow at him but then he looks at her with a smile.

"He wanted to know if the Mexican restaurant in town was a nice enough place to take you to for a date."

…

Thank you very much for reading and please take a moment to review!

I'm very excited to write about Daryl and Beth in date situations.