Re: Hotel Lobby
The sudden flatness in his voice was telling, though she didn't address it quite yet. Instead, she wrinkled her nose as he suggested that he found her attractive in other situations. "That's ridiculous," she clucked. "I am not attractive." Any other woman saying that would be fishing for compliments, hoping to lure the man into heaping praise upon her. Daryl, on the other hand, was utterly serious. Objectively, she was not attractive. She was short, not thin, with rounded features. The traditional beauty was tall, thin, and elegant in the face. Daryl was the opposite of those, and so, she was not attractive. It was scientific.
As he criticized her gloves, she paused, turning to him as well. For just one moment, it was like a window had opened in her. She pulled her clasped hands to her chest, a very subtle gesture. Her fingers were locked together, almost needy, and for a split second she could imagine herself clinging to those gloves for the protection and sanctuary they provided her against the horrible siege the world lay to her senses.
This hesitation lasted for only a blink of an eye. "Don't they?" she asked, glancing down at them, unconcerned. "I suppose they don't. It doesn't matter."