Fall For The Moment

Please if you decide to use my story, give me credit for it. If you want to tell me what you think (and please do) you can write me at lainey93@hotmail.com

Sheridan was only halfway through her one hundred hours of community service. Why won’t he just take a cheque? she wondered as she pumped air into deflated basketballs. Why make us spend more time together than necessary? God, please let me be able to withstand that insufferable egomaniac for another fifty hours…
“Sheridan!” a gruff voice barked from behind her. Sheridan stopped what she was doing and stared in disbelief at the half-filled ball she held in her hand. Her grip tightened as she imagined it was Luis’s head.
“What?” she snapped back, turning to face him from her position on the floor.
“How long does it take to fill ten balls? You’ve been back here for an hour! I need you out front!”
“Oh, dear, Luis, you mean I’ve kept you waiting? I hope you accept my sincerest apologies. It will never happen again,” she said sarcastically.
He glared at her and she glared back.
“Hurry up,” he ordered and turned to leave.
“Hurry up,” she mimicked under her breath.
Luis stopped. “What?” he asked sharply.
She stared at him. “Shut up,” she snapped finally. They glared at each other again before Luis left. Sheridan looked at the basketball in her hand. It was completely deflated.

Fifteen minutes later she emerged from the back room where she had been filling the balls with air. “I’m done,” she announced unnecessarily, as Luis had already seen and started toward her.
“It’s about time,” he snapped.
“Oh shut up,” she replied. “What were you doing? Reading your special newspaper?”
“My newspaper is my only—
“I don’t want your sad little story Luis—
“I do not—
“I’m going for lunch.”
“We have work to do.”
“I’ve been working all morning!”
“Maybe if you didn’t do everything so slow, you wouldn’t have been!”
“Well maybe if I’d had some help—
“You filled balls with air, Sheridan! How hard is it?!”
“Exactly! You wouldn’t know, since you were out here reading!”
He glared at her angrily. She glared back.
Finally Luis spoke. “We can order some lunch.”
“I’ll do it.”
“No,” he snapped, remembering the last time she had ordered lunch. “I’ll do it.”

Thirty minutes later they were finishing up their sandwiches. Sheridan crumpled her sandwich wrapper in to a ball and threw it into the garbage can ten feet away. She smirked at Luis.
“Remind you of anything?” she asked sweetly.
Luis made a face and finished off his can of pop. “Shut up,” he said standing. “We have work to do.” He started to walk away. “And you cheated.” Sheridan opened her mouth to protest but he was already gone.

Now they were re-painting the basketball headboards. “This part is white, then this part is blue, this here is red…”
“Luis,” Sheridan interrupted. “I can see what colours they are.”
“I just don’t want you to mess them up.”
“Well thanks for your confidence,” she snapped.
He glared at her. She grabbed a paintbrush and dipped it in the white paint. Luis watched for a patronizing minute before finally turning to do his own painting. When he turned back ten minutes later, he was shocked to see that Sheridan had already finished.
“How did you finish that so fast?” he demanded, shocked.
She didn’t answer, just kept on painting her second headboard. There were four in total.
“Oh, I know,” he said. “You must have called in some favors and had some famous artist come in here and teach you how to paint.”
“Oh come on, Luis! Get over it! I worked really hard!”
“You paid someone to win, Sheridan. That’s not work.”
“Oh what would you know?” she snapped.
“About hard work?” he said coldly. “A lot more than any Crane would.”
“Fine! Fine!” she shouted, throwing her paintbrush down. “I’m going home! You are insufferable, inconsiderate, and annoying as hell!” She grabbed her coat from the floor and started to storm out when he was on his feet and gripping her wrist. “What do you— She stopped in mid-sentence. There was paint splattered over the right side of his face.She burst out laughing. “What did you do?!” she exclaimed.
“You did it,” he fumed. “You threw your paintbrush and all the paint flew my way.”
She laughed louder. “I-I’m sorry,” she gasped, still laughing. “I-It was an accident! But you-you… you deserved it!” She covered her mouth with her free hand. That’s when they both noticed his hand still holding her wrist. She looked into his face and saw that he was not laughing, and instantly stopped. “I’m sorry, Luis. It was an accident, I swear.” She noticed it was all over his arm and his black T-shirt as well. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “I- Sorry, Luis. I really didn’t mean to. I’m sorry.”
He looked down at his hand gripping her wrist and dropped her hand. “Just keep painting, Sheridan. I’ll go wash this off.” She watched him leave. He seemed really angry.
“He has no sense of humor,” she muttered to herself as she knelt back down on the floor to continue painting. “Man. What a fun guy.”
Within twenty minutes she had finished painting the remaining headboards and Luis was still not back. “Well, there’s nothing else to do…” she thought aloud, “I guess I’ll just leave.” As she headed out she thought again about Luis. “I’d better go tell him I’m leaving.” She headed in to the back, towards the locker room. She thought back to the day she had walked in on him and carefully knocked on the door. There was no answer. She cracked open the door a peek. “Luis?” she called. No answer. She pushed the door open wider and went inside. “Luis? Are you in here?” Still there was no answer. She could hear no water running. She thought for a moment, but then just decided to leave. She turned to go and bumped right into Luis. “Aghh!” she screamed, surprised. Then she realized it was him. “Luis!” she snapped. “What are you doing? You scared me half to death!”
He smirked. “Good.” That’s when she noticed that he had switched from his T-shirt into a white tank. The paint was still smeared on his arm, and there was a white splotch on his face. His smirk faded. “I couldn’t get this paint off.”
“Well… good,” she muttered, annoyed that he had succeeded in scaring her. He took her arm and led her to the backroom where he had been looking for turpentine to remove the paint.
“Help me look for some turpentine,” he ordered. “…get this stuff off…”
They searched for ten minutes before Sheridan found the can of turpentine. “Here it is,” she announced. “Let’s go.”
They went into the locker room where Luis sat down on a bench as Sheridan got some paper towels and a cup of water. She set her purse down on the floor and slipped off her jacket before sitting across from Luis. She twisted off the lid and poured some turpentine onto the paper towel. “Turn your head,” she murmured, dabbing the paper towel onto the paint on Luis’s face. She wiped at it for a minute.
“Is it coming off?” he asked.”
“Yeah, just a minute… There. The paint on your face is off.” She re-wet the paper towel and cleaned off his arm. “I don’t know what to do about your shirt,” she admitted.
He took the paper towel and turpentine from her hands. “Don’t worry about it,” he said. Then, reluctantly, “Thanks.”
She looked into his face, and realized how close they were sitting. He stared back into her eyes and her breath caught in her throat. She had always known Luis was good-looking, but not so much as now. “I— “ she started to speak but did not know what to say.
Something had happened to Luis as well. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from hers. Sure he despised her family, and even her, for being a Crane, but… she was so beautiful. And they were working so closely… He might be able to come to like her… She was thinking the same thing. They stared at each other speechlessly for a full minute. His eyes dropped to her mouth, and he started to lean towards her. She met him halfway. When their lips met they both froze. They had never felt the kind of electricity they were feeling now. The paper towel fell from Luis’s hands as his hands cupped Sheridan’s jaw and held her face. Her hands slipped into his hair and held him to her. She never wanted this kiss to end. Her arms wrapped around his neck as his went around her waist and for a while, they forgot who they were and fell for the moment.