Tabitha and Manuel: Evening in the garage

[x-plosive.livejournal.com]

Tabs finally asks Manny about that thing. Posted late because finals week and work are killing me.



Manuel closed the door to his and Kyle's suite, dressed to go out yet no little girl attached to his thigh. Tonight he would treat himself to a quiet dinner, alone and perhaps a movie afterwards. There was no want for company, but the desire to dine at a fine indian restaurant was very strong and he headed for the garage, keyes in hand to one of the school's faceless cars. Honestly, he was planning to buy himself something, if only because driving around in some suburban lifestyle lowered his class three notches.

"Watch where you are going." Lower it another three for speaking to the blonde who nearly walked into him had he not put out a hand to stop her.

Tabitha backpedaled and nearly fell on her butt. She put a hand to the wall and glared. "If people wouldn't skulk around like sneak-thieves, I wouldn't run into them."

"True to the colour in her hair, I see," Manuel quipped and made his way around her, searching for the car he had selected.

She was about to let loose with another insult when she remembered her conversation with Lil. Any more words just froze in her throat, leaving her gaping a bit like a fish. Finally, she was able to get one word out.

"Wait."

"Waiting is for the dead, Tabitha and I am very much alive and moving," he said over his shoulder, a bit too brightly. The night waited for him and so did his meal.

Taking advantage of her marginally less gimpy condition, she hurried around and in front of him. "A few minutes won't kill you, Manuel. I have to talk to you."

Forced to stop, he regarded her with impatience. "With you, a few minutes may very well kill me. What is it that you want?"

Tabitha fought with her temper for a moment. Losing it would do nothing to further her cause. "I need to talk to you about a proposition." She cringed inwardly at her choice of words.

"Okay," he replied, seemingly bored. Sighing, he gave her a point blank stare. "Are you going to get to the point or am I allowed to leave?"

Fists clenched and eyes closed. "You drive me up a wall," she started. "But that's not all you do. So it's you I'm asking."

"Asking me?"

She really should have gone with the plan to seduce him. This asking shit was bad on her nerves. There was the question of how to phrase it without sounding desperate, which she would NEVER admit to being. Nevermind the fact that she was asking in a GARAGE, of all places.

"Willyouhavesexwithme?"

At first he didn't hear what she said, but slowly, his mind pieced together key words and he eyed her. "Are you drunk?"

She felt the heat start to rise in her cheeks and tried willing it to stop. "No, and I'm not joking either. It was an honest question."

"Me and you?" he asked in disbelief, as though he hadn't completely understood her. "Sex...with you?" The laughter that roared from Manuel was equal to when he had heard Sam and Morgan were together. Infact, it took longer to subside before he was able to speak again, wiping at the corner of his eye.

"What an absurd notion."

For ten long and heavenly seconds, Tabitha pondered kicking his cane out from under him. Instead she gathered what was left of her pride and turned to snatch her keys off the board. The Mustang peeled out of the garage.