Arriane’s speechlessness was doing very little to get rid of the nervous, fluttery feeling in her stomach. She felt a need to say something, though she wasn’t sure what. In a perfect world she would have known the exact words to express what she was feeling, but she couldn’t find them anywhere. She nipped at her lower lip as she sometimes did when she was anxious. The silence was growing uncomfortable.
Suddenly, she leaned in and gave Balthazar a kiss on the lips. It was unlike previous kisses she had shared with him - deeper, more lingering - but just as sweet and with the same emotions motivating it as the others. It had seemed right in the moment. Slowly, Arriane pulled away.
“That wasn’t...” She was struggling to find words again. “It wasn’t inappropriate, right?”