Carrie and Keith 8

Carrie flopped down into a chair at the kitchen table and covered her eyes.

"Headache?" Kim asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"No. I don't know what's wrong. I'm nervous and excited and scared and I don't know what all else."

Kim sighed. "Is this about Keith?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not real thrilled about watching you do this again, ya know? Especially with Mr. Moody Instability."

"I'm not thrilled about the possibility of getting hurt again either. You'll note that we haven't gone on a date yet. He's just as scared as I am."

"So, stop while you're ahead."

Carrie sighed. "I don't want to and neither does he. But this may be the slowest moving relationship in the history of man."

***

A couple of weeks later, Keith found himself sitting on his front stairs, waiting for Carrie to walk by.

"Hey!" he called out when he saw her. She came over and pulled her scarf away from her face. When she sat next to him on the steps, she hooked her arm through his. Keith felt his heart thud awake.

"How are you?" she asked, smiling.

"Good," he said. "Look, I'm ready for more pages."

Her smile grew larger. "Great! I'll bring them by tomorrow."

Keith took a deep breath. "Actually, could you bring them over today? Maybe we could order a pizza or something."

"OK," she said with a little smile. "Can you give me an hour?"

"Sure." he said. "What do you like on your pizza? I'll order it so it gets here a little after you."

"No olives, mushrooms or little fishies. Otherwise, anything is OK."

Keith let out a little laugh. "OK. I'll see you in an hour," he said and smiled.

Carrie returned his smile. "OK," she walked down the steps and out of his line of vision.