Escaping Grace

Andys POV

Well that didn't go as planned. Why in the absolute fuck did I tell her I loved her? I knew it would send her running to the hills. She would freak the hell out and probably never speak to me again.
I glanced at her across the small café table. She was reading something on her phone and absently dipping a croissant in butter. At least she wasn't dipping it in her hot chocolate, which is what I figured she would have done.
I frowned back down at the papers I was reading. Ashley had sent them over and the hotel had been nice enough to print them for me. Why the agency decided on a weekend that they needed my signature for this ridiculous stuff was beyond me.
I scribbled my name half-heartedly.
"Did you even read it?" Leah asked, and I glanced up. "Yeah. It's just some minor changes," I waved my hand dismissively. "I don't see why it couldn't wait."
God, why did I have to remember what I'd told her? I'd played stupid earlier, but I damn well did remember. It was rare I didn't. And now I knew I'd probably given her a heart attack.
And why did my drunk self have to spew my feelings when I wasn't even sure about them yet?
"So, do you have any major plans for tonight?"
"What? Oh," I shook my head, forcing myself to stay with the conversation. "No. Olis party was basically the only plan. You have any ideas?"
"Well, I was kind of scoping the city, and they have this really cool comic convention that is totally free to visit this weekend we should totally check out today."
"Okay." Whatever she wanted. "What kind of comics?"
"Um," she looked back down. "It's kind of a mix of all from what I'm reading. You know, like Marvel and DC Comics."
I looked at her blankly.
She sighed. "The creators of Batman."
"Oh, cool, okay." I nodded. "That'll be fun."
She halfway smiled and wiped her fingers on a napkin. "If we leave now we can make it before it gets too late."
I nodded, and rolled the papers up. I folded them and put them in my back pocket, Leah tossing down the cash she'd won from Oli on the table to pay.
She caught my hand as we started outside, and hailed a cab. It was four in the afternoon, so getting a cab wasn't exactly going to be easy for anyone.
Except for Leah. Maybe it was the blonde hair or the fact she was undeniably adorable, but I'd never seen her have a hard time getting a cab.
She got one, and we took off downtown to where the convention was. I glanced at her, seeing a pink stain in her hair that she hadn't noticed. She would murder Oli if it didn't come out of her clothes.
Heh.
He'd already texted me asking to hang out, but considering it was supposed to be just a weekend for me and Leah, I'd rainchecked. She probably would've been fine with it, or at least not said anything, but that wasn't the point.
"So how did CC handle meeting Vales parents?"
"He freaked out, but it was okay in the end. I think they liked him."
"Yeah. Lucky for him. If her parents don't like you, you might as well give up.on the relationship then. I'd seen it happen way too many times."
"They seemed nice. And they love you, too."
She was easy to love, though, so I couldn't see why anyone wouldn't.
"Yeah." Leah glanced up at me. "I lived with them a little while before we moved out here, and I'd been neighbors to them since I was fifteen."
"Vale must have been a blast in school."
"Oh, I dunno. I was homeschooled."
I looked at her in surprise. "You were?"
"Yeah. I've never been to an actual school. We moved around a lot so it was just easier that way. When my dad got sick we settled there, but my ... I kept up my homeschooling." she glanced out the window. "Look! we're almost there."
I followed her glance, seeing some billboards advertising the place.
That was the most I'd heard her talk about her life without me dragging it out of her.
We ducked out of the cab when traffic got too heavy, and Leah pulled me behind her as we walked toward the huge convention center, posters of comics and TV shows everywhere.
"Are you a closet nerd or something?"
Leah sent me a grin. "I was never secrective about my nerdiness."
"I didn't know you were in to all this, though," I glanced around as we stepped under the archway and in the place, costumed people walking around like this was how they normally spent their Saturday afternoon.
"There's a nice cosplay for Arrow," Leah burst, and I glanced around blankly. Who was Arrow?
"And the Flash, and there's a Poison Ivy," she pointed her out to me. "We need to marathon Gotham some time. I watched the first few episodes but I haven't in a while, and you'll probably like it. It's about James Gordan and..."
Leah went full nerd mode on me.
And this was how our Saturday afternoon went.
She talked excitedly about most of the stuff there, even if she wasn't interested in Batman, her only flaw so far.
When we made it back to the hotel that night, I think she'd talked to me more about comics and TV shows (what even was Attack on Titan?) then I think she had anything ever.
But it was nice to see her excited about something.

Notes