Mr. Wallis

Part 6 (Mathew's POV)

Her eyes kept ignoring mine.
It frustrated me even more when she knew I was purposely trying to make eye contact; it was what couples did, it was what humans did! That's why I had taken her out for brunch, just us two, and not her handsy mother.

"Would you just," swiftly I turned her head then tilted it up towards mine. "Just look at my bloody face. Get a grand look at it, Ms. Kett."

"As if there's anything special there, Mr. Wallis." She shot out blandly. Blasted little bird. My hands could feel her cheeks start to heat up by my touch.

I let her go.

"Drop the defense, silly girl."

Her jaw tighten. Well that captured her attention. Managed to make direct eye contact, but her softness went away.

"Stop calling me that."

"All right, but you have to come into terms with me. I am trying to break you open." As I spoke out the last part, her brown eyes flew open.

"Try not making it seem like you're going to kill me, Mathew."

My name, finally. This girl has been calling me nothing but Mr. Wallis, or jerk since I've arrived. I took my coffee and held it near my lips. "In a way, well, you could say I will."

"Oh, really? How so, Mr. Wallis?"

Shit. Back to that now?

"Killing the old you, if you want to think of it like that." I sipped in the drink. The coffee here tasted like dirt, and my expression showed it. She smiles inwardly, then away from me as I try taking the taste off my mouth with a napkin.

"We are never coming here again, this is poison."

"Hmm, too bad it really isn't, maybe I could have put those roses to good use at your funeral." She mumbled.

"What did I say about dropping your defenses?" My eyes shot up towards her small smirk. Is she out doing my wit? How funny.

Lania's smile faded and her face showed the truth. "I'm sorry, okay. It just happens."

"You can't drop them on your own, but," I leaned towards her and placed my hand on her back causing her to jump forward, all leading to us being that much closer. Quickly her body became hot, and her cheek turned into that rosy color from yesterday. With wide eyes, there you could see the little girl she was; the one she was hiding. "If a man simply walks past your comfortable bubble and directly faces you...your defenses fall."

Lania didn't say anything. I expected her to hit me, or push me away. Honestly, I was a tad bit disappointed, I don't know why for, but she stayed frozen; a scared, little doll.

Silly girl.

"Now, once the man backs away, your defenses go back up, and you turn into a rough thing once more," slowly I moved back till I was fully seated.

Still, she didn't say anything.

"Ms. Kett, are you dead? Don't tell me I killed you that easily."

"Mr. Wallis?"

"Yes?"

"Do that again without warning, and I will punch you square on the nose." Her breath seemed shaken, as if she had held it in the entire time I was near her.

Father mentioned she wasn't used to soft touches, that she was indeed a bit of a contradiction. Thinking back at how I agreed to this only makes me see how fitted I am for it. Jack would have came in, and swooped her off her feet with wild romance; with false love. Pete, poor Pete, well, she clearly would destroy his weak little heart; he would even fall for a greeting card if it has lips.

I was taking this as an educational, fair project -for her sake.

Eyeing Lania eat her sandwich in silence, I scoff in my mind, I am being fair. All this was a simulation. I am the simulator. The idea of Jack almost being close to accepting the wish made my stomach groan, I was wondering how she dealt with his kind; the outgoing, wild ones. Did she just freeze with every guy who walked past her personal space, what if they went further, what if they actually tried something more?

"Have others like myself walked away without getting punched also, or no?" My brow rose as she turned pink within seconds, "I take that as a yes, they have."

"Your case is different."

"How, you normally do something to snap out of that little pink daze?"

"I froze, yes, but you didn't see my fists tighten. I was going to hit you." Her honesty surprised me, she didn't mind telling me how she viewed things.

Her eyes shot up. "I do, I usually do run away, or swing on reflex, but, well I knew you weren't going to hurt me. I remembered Kurt wouldn't hurt me."

She became a lot more interesting. This all did. As I took a moment to go through what she said I recalled father saying something about her crush on a certain young man. It was time to change the topic.

"Have you ever swung on that lad, Dale?"

Lania choked on her sandwich, then coughed out a pickle, or lung.

"How do you know about him?!" Her hissing made me see the kind of territory I was getting into.

Good, she has someone who she's interested in.

"I am a sort of mentor here, I must know certain things-"

"How exactly do you know?" Her eyes were searching for a lie. I guessed she wanted me to say that I went snooping around her letters, which I didn't ever. Those were not my property. They were father's.

"My father talked a lot about you. Too much that whenever we stopped for tea, we would barely listen. It sounded as if he were talking about someone we also knew." Through the distance I could still hear my father sigh as he spoke her name. "He'd always say my mother would have fallen in love with you; the daughter she wished for."

There, that took her away. Lania's eyes turned into shimmering glass. As she blinked away those round copper button eyes of hers, I could see it, too. Could see why father said it; this girl was full of many raw emotions. She'd say the truth if you asked for it.

"I'm going to miss him." She blurted out. I raised my brow, and Lania quickly apologized, "I didn't mean to mention him like that."

"Ms. Kett, I know." This all was because of my father, and his need to push others. Made one see why the world will lose something great once he leaves us all behind, "we will all miss him as well."

"...I think we're getting to know one another a lot better now, now that you're not being such a-" Her hand danced about trying to find a word, "such a forthright romance mentor."

"So this month won't be as terrible?"

Because I am not going to spend my first trip to America being in a foul mood.

She gave me a smile, then nodded, "oh, it will be."