Nonverbal - Aria Grace Page 0,6

apart various sized Lego bricks. I didn’t recognize any particular rhyme or reason to his project, but he was wholly focused on his task. Every now and then, I tried to make conversation, idle chit chat, but nothing was working.

Then I decided to try something else.

There was a box with pink and purple bricks on the shelf, so I edged my way over to it and picked up a handful of bricks.

Liam‘s attention briefly wandered to me but he seemed to be trying not to watch as I let the blocks slip between my spread fingers.

“Can I use these?”

His head turned to me and his gaze bounced between my face and my hands. After several long seconds, he relaxed his shoulders and went back to his own project.

I took that as approval and sat down on the floor with the box between my legs. It had been a long time since I’d played with toys like this, so I didn’t really have a particular project in mind. I usually followed an instruction sheet because I wasn’t great at designing things in my head.

Just to familiarize myself with what I had to work with, I dumped the entire box into a pile and started separating by size and color. My creative process was more linear than I liked to admit, and counting bricks made the most sense to me.

Liam put down the pieces he was working on and watched as I categorized his toys into my own system. I tried not to glance at him more than once or twice per minute because I didn’t want to upset him, but I was also desperate for some kind of conversation. “I like making cars. If I can borrow a couple wheels from you, maybe I’ll make a sports car.”

He didn’t respond one way or the other, but he did glance at another box on the shelf that I noticed had moving pieces like wheels and axles.

“Cool, thanks.” I hopped up onto my knees and reached for the box. I could feel Liam’s eyes following the length of my body, so I peeked over my shoulder. I waited for him to make eye contact, but he was focused on the gap of skin between my waist band and where my shirt was riding up just a bit. A chill ran up my spine when I realized he was looking at me with more than casual curiosity. “Um, if I can use a couple of your figures, maybe I’ll put two people inside and make it a convertible.”

His mouth opened briefly as if he were going to speak, but of course, he didn’t. He turned away from me and reached for his previously discarded bricks. Without any real response, Liam started working on his own project again.

It wasn’t great progress, but even that very minimal interaction between us felt like a win. I couldn’t claim that he liked me just yet, but he didn’t seem to hate me. As far as my first shift went, that was all I could hope for.

When noon rolled around, Mrs. Brenner came up to fetch Liam for his lunch, and I said my goodbyes, promising to be back at dinnertime.

As I passed Liam on my way out the door, I instinctively lifted my hand to pat him on the shoulder. I would have done it, but his eyes went wide and Mrs. Brenner subtly shook her head to discourage the contact.

Right.

I lowered my hand and slid it into my pocket. Apparently, we weren’t ready for casual touching yet. Maybe we never would be.

But I didn’t let that bother me. Mr. and Mrs. Brenner warned me it would take some time for him to warm up to people. And that made perfect sense. I didn’t expect him to just accept me after a few hours. It would’ve been nice, but it was an unrealistic hope.

With six hours to kill before I needed to get back, I went home and packed up some toiletries and a few changes of clothes. It was too soon to fully move in to the Brenners’ home, but I wanted to spend the night if things went well. That way, I didn’t have to wake up as early in the morning for my next shift.

Six

Dinner went pretty much the same way it had the night before.

Liam watched me while I tried to make just enough eye contact with everyone at the table to be polite, but I was anxious to hang out with him again.