The Origin Read Online Free

pounding. Did she know his secret? How? When he had been so careful…
    “What do you see?” he found himself saying, leaning into the table.
    She looked at him with eyes that glittered from the dancing candlelight. “I see someone who is punishing himself for something he didn’t mean to do,” she said. “You’re pretending to be this surly, brooding introvert to keep people at a distance, but deep down, I think you’re just lonely.”
    Daniel should have bolted, should have just run at having been read so easily, but he stayed and, instead, found himself starting to unwind that coil that bound him together. Of all his years trying to melt into the background, of trying to become invisible, someone had finally seen him. And it both exhilarated and scared the crap out of him.
    “Daniel?” Her dark eyebrows furrowed. “I haven’t offended you, have I?”
    He shook his head and tried to smile, though he guessed it appeared more like a grimace. “You saw all that?”
    “And then some.”
    They ate quietly once the food arrived, sneaking glances at each other between bites. He couldn’t help wondering what the hell a classy woman like her was doing with a schlub like him. Finally, after half of his meal had been consumed, curiosity got the best of him and he asked.
    She, at least, had the decency to look surprised. “I’ve had a crush on you since high school,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I’m not passing up the chance to relive my pubescent fantasies.”
    Olivia King, what the hell is it about you? Daniel thought, realizing his developing infatuation much too late.
    “Have you changed much since high school?” he said. “Personality-wise, I mean.”
    His eyes were drawn to her undulating lips as she finished chewing. “I’m not so sure that I have. I’m still chatty, still outgoing, and apparently still crushing on the same guy…”
    He felt the heat creeping up his face and was dismayed to learn he was blushing. He, Daniel Johnson – once the varsity wide receiver of Westmoore High and one of the most popular boys in school – was actually blushing because a girl admitted she liked him.
    He wanted to kick himself.
     
    After dinner, Daniel offered to walk Olivia home, which she accepted without hesitation. She was having too good a time for the date to end now. Around Daniel, she felt like a teenager again, completely infatuated, daydreaming and writing Mrs. Daniel Johnson in the margins of her notebooks. She found it hard to believe that they were actually on a date; she hoped wildly that she could keep seeing him, even if only for a short while. She was no fool – he was not the kind of guy that you could tie down for long – but in the meantime, she hoped to have some fun.
    “My mother and I lived in Oklahoma so I could finish with ballet while my father tried to set up his business here. We finally moved to New York after I was accepted at the New York City Ballet,” she said, blissfully rambling on. She stopped in front of a historic brownstone building and proudly gestured to her little piece of Manhattan. “Come up for coffee,” she said, and was a little surprised when he followed her up the stairs without protest.
    Either Daniel is a lovesick puppy who will do my every bidding or I am just getting really good at this whole feminine wiles thing , she thought with a smile as they took the elevator up to her apartment. Either way, I win.
    “Nice place,” he said as they entered her loft apartment. From the corner of her eyes, she saw him silently appraising her home, from the ornately carved furniture to the red and white shoji screen standing in the corner. He walked over to the mirrored-wall and ran his hands along the barre that ran its length.
    “My mom and I tiled that entire wall with square mirrors and we installed the barre so I could have a place to practice ballet,” she said as she hung her coat on a branch-shaped rack, remembering how they